Rumours and Stuff

[RazorRam0n]

I reckon it's more to do with retention rather than identification - clubs know how good these kids are. The problem is that every other club knows it too. The absolute best junior players (aged 18+) would all probably be contracted within the top 25 somewhere. So retaining them comes down to how your NRL squad is structured.

not the recent ones, suli says he wasn't wanted, uncle benny says osborne had other priorities. tupou wasn't good enough,

 

[Forty20]

not the recent ones, suli says he wasn't wanted, uncle benny says osborne had other priorities. tupou wasn't good enough,

Osborne? You are stretching how many administrations back now? No one is denying that Parramatta made stupid decisions in the juniors for a long time but I doubt Suli was one of them. He left us for an opportunity to play now in Matts rather than wait one year before going on to play just 2 NYC games before signing a 3-year 1.3 million dollar deal with the Tigers. That sort of deal completely negates the cap benefit of bringing a young talent through. Maybe he becomes a good player or even a star for the Tigers at some point but they will always be paying market value at best for the life of his contract there. Right now they are only paying monstrous overs in a period where they are meant to be rebuilding.

*Edit* Sorry if I came across a bit harsh. Evidently I am bit fired up these days.

 

[Happy MEel]

It isn't that Lichaa is necessarily better (though I think he is) but that he fills a role we don't have with De Gois out - a solid worker capable of long minutes.

It's obvious Kaysa Pritchard is not an 80 minute hooker. He is a dynamic, explosive player but he is being forced by injuries to average 40 tackles in 70 minutes, similar to slower, hard working hookers like McCullough (55 tackles in 80 minutes), Lichaa (40 tackles in 80), McInnes (45 tackles in 80), Wallace (40 tackles in 80), Friend (45 in 70, though also an explosive player) and Smith (45 in 80).

Ideally a player like Pritchard would be playing fewer minutes, like Granville (60 minutes), Levi (65), Cook (50), Farah (45), Koroisau (65), Brailey (60), Segeyaro (25) and all the nuffies at the Titans and Tigers.

Or he could play long minutes and just bludge in defence like Issac Luke and Josh Hodgson (both making 30 tackles in 70 minutes). But since Pritchard isn't a key player in our attack, just like most hookers aren't, there's no need to hide him in defence. He just needs someone to share his minutes with. I can see the sense in giving the role to Brown, but of course those are wasted minutes where he is getting fatigued in defence without using his strength, which is his running game.

If we get a Lichaa type player though, isn't Pritchard's role redundant as the worker generally plays 70-80 minutes.

 

[amitropo]

Our Achilles heel, 10 minutes before halftime and fulltime. How do we fix it? Is it because our smaller forwards have worked their guts out against bigger forwards? Other than that I have nfi.

Our Achilles heel Is the crucial 40 minutes before and after half time

 

[Poupou Escobar]

not the recent ones, suli says he wasn't wanted, uncle benny says osborne had other priorities. tupou wasn't good enough,

Players say they weren't wanted when their club won't match a better offer. They're all full of shit.

Before those sensational articles I remember Stagger sharing that the Tigers had poached our Harold Matthews halfback (Benny Elias' nephew) with a big offer and that we made Tupou a second tier offer when he graduated from the NYC but the Roosters offered him a spot in their top 25.

I don't remember hearing anything about Suli.

 

[Glenneel]

Is a forward only worth money if they offload?

Seems to be a common refrain that forwards must be offloaders...
Moeroa has a great workrate for a young forward, is a more than capable defender, and can make meterage in attack. There is a reason he is well regarded in many circles.

Don't get me wrong, I want him making 200m and 50 spine tingling tackles every game as well - but to judge him harshly because he does what he does seems facile.

Don't get me wrong, I want Moeroa to succeed but he is better than a bash and barge player who tackles alright. His junior football proved that. Unfortunately Parra is full of b & b forwards, particularly last few games and for several years prior. Where did that get us? Bottom 8 and a couple wooden spoons. The game has evolved and we haven't.

Lets compare Dragons game against Moanly on Saturday and our game against Warriors. What was the more attractive to watch and led to a win? Certainly not b & b football. The Dragon's forwards ran with purpose, offloaded before and at the line, supported well and gave their backline plenty of room to operate. And scored 5 trys I think.
When was the last time we scored 5 trys or more? Oh that's right, against the Dragons a lifetime ago. How did we do that, forwards offloading and making metres giving our backs room to move. Every forward doesn't have to offload but a fair few do have to. No offloads means no wins I'm afraid! And that is what we have reverted to. Moeroa doesn't bend the D line, why, because defences know he won't offload. So they get a few in to dominate him. Because of his size, if he offloaded, there would be gaps for support runners to run thru. So Moeroa has to evolve to move his game from barely average to better than average.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

If we get a Lichaa type player though, isn't Pritchard's role redundant as the worker generally plays 70-80 minutes.

If a bloke knows he is going to play limited minutes he can work harder while he's on the field. So if Lichaa was only going to play 60 minutes (like Peats did last year with Kritchard coming off the bench) then he could probably get close to his current 40 tackles in that time.

Or as you say, he could play the full 80 and f**k Kritchard off like so many want. But keep in mind that Kritchard was in our round one top 17 last year with Peats. I'm not the only f**ken idiot who rates him.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Don't get me wrong, I want Moeroa to succeed but he is better than a bash and barge player who tackles alright. His junior football proved that. Unfortunately Parra is full of b & b forwards, particularly last few games and for several years prior. Where did that get us? Bottom 8 and a couple wooden spoons. The game has evolved and we haven't.

Lets compare Dragons game against Moanly on Saturday and our game against Warriors. What was the more attractive to watch and led to a win? Certainly not b & b football. The Dragon's forwards ran with purpose, offloaded before and at the line, supported well and gave their backline plenty of room to operate. And scored 5 trys I think.
When was the last time we scored 5 trys or more? Oh that's right, against the Dragons a lifetime ago. How did we do that, forwards offloading and making metres giving our backs room to move. Every forward doesn't have to offload but a fair few do have to. No offloads means no wins I'm afraid! And that is what we have reverted to. Moeroa doesn't bend the D line, why, because defences know he won't offload. So they get a few in to dominate him. Because of his size, if he offloaded, there would be gaps for support runners to run thru. So Moeroa has to evolve to move his game from barely average to better than average.

I think you're failing to see that the offloads come after the right has been earnt. We threw plenty of offloads against the Sharks before we'd earnt the right and our possession suffered for it.

 

[84 Baby]

I think you're failing to see that the offloads come after the right has been earnt. We threw plenty of offloads against the Sharks before we'd earnt the right and our possession suffered for it.

Yeah it's pretty simple to defend if you know the guy running at you is more likely going pass it to the next man rather than try and bust through you. Rather than having to throw 3/4 defenders at him, 1 or 2 guys can wrap up the initial runner and the adjacent guys can put pressure on whoever is also running. Equals chance of more errors plus easier for defenders to get back onside.
It's a simple adjustment, and just need to look back at Matagi vs Taupau to see how we should be doing it. I question Mannah's leadership here because he should be the forwards director

 

[The Engineers Room]

What we did well in the first two rounds was the intensity in attack and defence and using ball movement and options to get a roll on.

 

[parra-matters]

Line speed was great first 2 weeks as well, where did that go?
Line speed is a about attitude.
Where is the attitude we had the first 2 weeks??

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Line speed was great first 2 weeks as well, where did that go?
Line speed is a about attitude.
Where is the attitude we had the first 2 weeks??

Line speed is easier to maintain when you're not doing all the tackling. It's the first thing to go when fatigue sets in.

 

[strider]

I think bert just got confused ... someone told him Moses is getting his old job for $700k and bert thought they meant the leagusie gardening job

 

[Stevie]

Another thing I have noticed. Is it just me or do teams seem to get more offloads away when they are playing the Eels? It drives me nuts the amount of offloads teams seem to get against us.

 

[eel01s]

I agree Stevie, is is very frustrating. We can't wrap the ball up without getting penalised.

 

[strider]

One thing that irked me massiveky on sunday was the Warriors crawled off the mark over and over - taking the markers out of play ... ref never made em go back and play it on the mark ... i know it happens a bit, but this was much more than usual

But i started thinking, maybe it was as much about us not wrestling well enough on the ground to stop em???

 

[Noise]

One thing that irked me massiveky on sunday was the Warriors crawled off the mark over and over - taking the markers out of play ... ref never made em go back and play it on the mark ... i know it happens a bit, but this was much more than usual

But i started thinking, maybe it was as much about us not wrestling well enough on the ground to stop em???

Yea we need to put them on their back (not elbows and knees) which makes it harder to crawl forward off the mark

 

[RazorRam0n]

it would be the mother of all clusterf**ks if one of our dumb forwards takes out moses for the rest of the season

 

[oldmancraigy]

it would be the mother of all clusterf**ks if one of our dumb forwards takes out moses for the rest of the season

Moeroa will trample over him, run 30m to score and wipe Moses out for the year.

Rammy will proceed to tell us Moeroa is soft and never made a linebreak in his life and that he now knows Moses is a softie faker.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

It would serve the Tigers right for not letting him go beforehand. We wouldn't be taking him injured, and then they wouldn't get their cap space back.