Rumours and Stuff

[Tooooks]

Too slow and old. Injuries are catching up with him now.

What about the fijian winger semi valemi. Got a bit speed about him from what i saw last year. Looks a bit skinny though. Not sure what he is like defensively either

Looks can be deceiving. Semi is 103kg at 186cm tall.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

No I think we still blamed Blake but George has good defenders inside him now and probably makes very few tackles now. Case in point, Remis Smith, an average player with speed at Dogs, is now a good centre. Their systems allow average players to become good players but their common ingredient at Storm is speed.

You're fixating on one factor, and ignoring the fact that Waqa Blake is our fastest outside back. The Storm's defence is great for a bunch of reasons, including controlling the ball and winning the ruck. This puts less pressure on their edge defence. Like Arthur's said when journos tried to scapegoat Waqa Blake at the presser, we need to play better as a team.

Melbourne also have strong defensive halves. When they bring a backup half into the side they don't pick an attacking player, they choose one who makes his tackles.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

How do you know he doesn't coach it and the players don't follow the game plan ? I'd say most players who played in the game went off the reservation on Sunday.

They definitely played differently to their usual style. Normally they're happy to grind it out and win it in the final 20 minutes of the game. On Sunday they got the shits when they couldn't score against 12 men.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Amazing that Pou and our fearless leader are the only two people who think Blake’s defence is not a problem, speaks volumes.

I'm backing myself and Arthur's to know more about footy than the rest of you.

 

[TheRam]

Looks a natural footballer with a step. What we lack is steppers in our team that can break open tight defences.

What needs to change is BAs mindset. He needs to look at what changes are needed for the good of the team and make them. He was Ballamy's assistant and he is ruthless with his changes to make his team better, BA is the polar opposite. As I thought he has left Blake in the team against a team that has a deadly left edge. What is he thinking doing that?! Would Bellamy do that, no. Blake would have been shipped to a different team over a year ago.

As stated earlier we need speed and just minor tweeking will achieve that, but that might need Gutho moving to a different position. Will he do that for the good of the team? Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen.

I agree with everything but moving Gutho. I don't think we should change one of our greatest strengths at this stage to inject speed, when it is obvious that we could do that with a couple of astute signings like the one I suggested on the wing or a fast up and comer in the centres. Gagai isn't the answer either. He can be very ordinary and would he be worth the risk considering he wouldn't be all that cheap? I don't think BA is keen on him for that reason also.

I would be looking at someone like Sebastian Kris from the Raiders that is also off contract at the end of 2021. Wouldn't cost the world, has speed, decent defender and in a good system and club, could really hit his straps. Hell give Canberra the option of a swap with Waqa and hit two birds with one stone.

If we had both Sebastian Kris and Xavier Savage in our backline, we would be a much more potent and quicker team out wide. Probably better defensively and cheaper backline too. Win, win. But shoot, what would I know?

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Yes but Bellamy has clearly told Gennings that he will be caned on his bum if drops a ball. Gennings would drop the ball every week at least once.

Well they've just signed Xavier Coates who's dropping it 1.7 times a game this year.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I agree with everything but moving Gutho. I don't think we should change one of our greatest strengths at this stage to inject speed, when it is obvious that we could do that with a couple of astute signings like the one I suggested on the wing or a fast up and comer in the centres. Gagai isn't the answer either. He can be very ordinary and would he be worth the risk considering he wouldn't be all that cheap? I don't think BA is keen on him for that reason also.

I would be looking at someone like Sebastian Kris from the Raiders that is also off contract at the end of 2021. Wouldn't cost the world, has speed, decent defender and in a good system and club, could really hit his straps. Hell give Canberra the option of a swap with Waqa and hit two birds with one stone.

If we had both Sebastian Kris and Xavier Savage in our backline, we would be a much more potent and quicker team out wide. Probably better defensively and cheaper backline too. Win, win. But shoot, what would I know?

Sebastian Kris is missing almost as many tackles as Blake this year, while playing outside a better defender.

 

[King-Gutho94]

They definitely played differently to their usual style. Normally they're happy to grind it out and win it in the final 20 minutes of the game. On Sunday they got the shits when they couldn't score against 12 men.

Same thing happened in 2nd half in st george game.

Sims went to the sinbin and we lost the plot with all the momentum we had.

We should have ran them down in that 2nd half

 

[IFR33K]

How do you know he doesn't coach it and the players don't follow the game plan ? I'd say most players who played in the game went off the reservation on Sunday.

Waqas been off the game plan for 18 months

 

[IFR33K]

Amazing that Pou and our fearless leader are the only two people who think Blake’s defence is not a problem, speaks volumes.

What problem?

 

[TheRam]

We have to compress because Paulo plays long minutes and isn't as mobile as merkins would like to believe. If we don't compress we get carved up through the middle. You would've seen it last year.

Not against this tactic and is a smart one, but it is also then imperative that the coach recognise that we need speed out wide that can then defend the wide ball or shift. Not have two wingers that can struggle in defense and are not the quickest off the mark. He has had a while to find the right players to inject out wide. How many times does he need to see our outside players get burnt for speed or get corralled back in like Saab did on Sivo on the weekend?

Speed is vital out wide at the best of times, but when you play a compressed game plan in the middle it is suicide not to have it in spades and total folly to continue with it without doing something about it. If we can see it, so can he. So that tells me he is happy and content to keep the status quo and believes that hard work can overcome our lapses if everybody is working together. Right? We hear him always tell the world, effort is the key. Well effort is also the key for teams like Penrith, Melbourne and now Manly. But they also have something else....BEEP BEEP....SPEED.

I know that the loss on the weekend against the Sea Eagles had more to do with all 4 of our spine players having moments during that game that they would rather forget, but, sometimes all it takes is for a genuine speedster(like Semi used to) to do something out of the box and all of a sudden you break the trance and the game turns in the blink of an eye. The opposition freak and start to buckle. That was never going to happen with our current backline.

I like Fergo and think at the right price would be a decent player, but since we have a major issue with speed and we have already committed to Sivo, he needs to be sacrificed and so does Waqa for his defensive issues. Whoever we bring in though to replace them, the first thing we should be looking for besides their competency in defense is SPEED.

I as nothing but a RL fan have identified 2 players from the Raiders that wouldn't cost a fortune and have a bit of toe about them. What have his his team of recruiters done or planning? Of course I am not saying that they have to sign these 2 particular 2 players, mind you Savage would be an awesome pick up and I don't think that we could do any better really for potential and speed, but they need to do something. Keeping this same backline as is is madness. We will find it very hard to beat the better teams if they aim up and match/nullify our forward roll. Speed and footwork so often can be the difference in a stalemate.

No excuses.

 

[Delboy]

Talking to people much more experienced in tactics than me, suggest that the real issue is that we play a compressed defence wherever we are on the field.

The compressed defence played in their half works as it makes the opposition have to try and go wide to get distance. Then the tactic is to fan out wider as you move back into your own half, if you continue to play compressed then quick shifts wide can get the defence caught in an overlap problem. Seems to me it’s probably not that simple, but if your defence coach preaches compressed wherever you are, then it makes sense that you can get caught out wide more often than you should.

No doubt there are other opinions, but I tend to trust the coaches that have pointed it out.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Not against this tactic and is a smart one, but it is also then imperative that the coach recognise that we need speed out wide that can then defend the wide ball or shift. Not have two wingers that can struggle in defense and are not the quickest off the mark. He has had a while to find the right players to inject out wide. How many times does he need to see our outside players get burnt for speed or get corralled back in like Saab did on Sivo on the weekend?

Speed is vital out wide at the best of times, but when you play a compressed game plan in the middle it is suicide not to have it in spades and total folly to continue with it without doing something about it. If we can see it, so can he. So that tells me he is happy and content to keep the status quo and believes that hard work can overcome our lapses if everybody is working together. Right? We hear him always tell the world, effort is the key. Well effort is also the key for teams like Penrith, Melbourne and now Manly. But they also have something else....BEEP BEEP....SPEED.

I know that the loss on the weekend against the Sea Eagles had more to do with all 4 of our spine players having moments during that game that they would rather forget, but, sometimes all it takes is for a genuine speedster(like Semi used to) to do something out of the box and all of a sudden you break the trance and the game turns in the blink of an eye. The opposition freak and start to buckle. That was never going to happen with our current backline.

I like Fergo and think at the right price would be a decent player, but since we have a major issue with speed and we have already committed to Sivo, he needs to be sacrificed and so does Waqa for his defensive issues. Whoever we bring in though to replace them, the first thing we should be looking for besides their competency in defense is SPEED.

I as nothing but a RL fan have identified 2 players from the Raiders that wouldn't cost a fortune and have a bit of toe about them. What have his his team of recruiters done or planning? Of course I am not saying that they have to sign these 2 particular 2 players, mind you Savage would be an awesome pick up and I don't think that we could do any better really for potential and speed, but they need to do something. Keeping this same backline as is is madness. We will find it very hard to beat the better teams if they aim up and match/nullify our forward roll. Speed and footwork so often can be the difference in a stalemate.

No excuses.

If you're complaining because we don't have the best team in the comp with zero weaknesses you should apply for a job with all of the clubs who also don't have such a team. I'm sure they'd love some easy solutions, which is all you offer.

 

[I'm a loser baby...]

Matterson to recommit as Eels kick off Cartwright talks

https://www.nrl.com/news/2021/05/25/matterson-to-recommit-as-eels-kick-off-cartwright-talks/amp/

 

[TheRam]

They definitely played differently to their usual style. Normally they're happy to grind it out and win it in the final 20 minutes of the game. On Sunday they got the shits when they couldn't score against 12 men.

And so did I. We lost the game right there. All 4 spine players had moments that they would rather forget. Moses and Gutho to a slightly lesser extent should have iced that moment and prised open the Manly defense with tactical shifts and counting numbers when in good ball. Instead they played like strangers and failed woefully and by doing so emboldened the Many players.

We didn't get rolled up the middle and had large chunks of that game under our control. But we failed to do much with the ball we had. Old habits die hard I suppose. How do we fix that? Who will put his hand up and wear the blame of failing AGAIN during a big game against a quality opposition? What are our coaching staff doing that will change the outcome come finals time?

This seems to be a common theme that can't be excused as it once was with inexperience or injuries or out muscled, not having the players or the conditions didn't suit us and so on. This is a team that should have won that game or gone very close at least if they performed as expected. So why didn't they? They seemed absolutely lost at times. If it was a training session, the seconds team would have kept them out. Why so, so bad? Genuine question. They were terrible when they should have ripped Manly apart. Manly only looked that good in defense because we were so bad with the ball in hand in good ball territory.

Where do we go from here? I don't know. We are stuck with Moses, but what can we do to help him? I suppose Speed outside will be a major improvement, but will it be enough? If he can't perform in the big games consistently, we'll probably still not jag a premiership. Maybe if Mahoney can improve another 5-10% as a player it maybe enough to give Moses and others that extra space and opportunity to do their thing.

I scratch my head.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Talking to people much more experienced in tactics than me, suggest that the real issue is that we play a compressed defence wherever we are on the field.

The compressed defence played in their half works as it makes the opposition have to try and go wide to get distance. Then the tactic is to fan out wider as you move back into your own half, if you continue to play compressed then quick shifts wide can get the defence caught in an overlap problem. Seems to me it’s probably not that simple, but if your defence coach preaches compressed wherever you are, then it makes sense that you can get caught out wide more often than you should.

No doubt there are other opinions, but I tend to trust the coaches that have pointed it out.

And for all our supposed coaching failures we still have the third best defence in the NRL, just as we did last year.

We need to improve our squad to be the best chance of winning the comp, but we aren't going to buy our way there. We need to develop first graders to make room in the salary cap for the ones we need. Neither Melbourne nor Penrith got there overnight.

 

[Gronk]

And for all our supposed coaching failures we still have the third best defence in the NRL, just as we did last year.

True, but Waqa only played in Round 1, 10 & 11.

 

[TheRam]

Sebastian Kris is missing almost as many tackles as Blake this year, while playing outside a better defender.

What have I told you about picking on outside backs, in particular in defense, when they are playing in a bad team?

You should know better. Is he a good defender. No idea. He isn't in a good enough team at the moment for me to give you a definitive answer on that.

But if I had to make a guess at this stage, I would say he is average for a centre, but not bad and at least he isn't prone to make absolute meals of assessing the situation or repeated hit but not stick attempts.

He is just a suggestion if we could get him at the right price. He is just coming into his best years, has a bit of toe and with a better team around him who knows he could end up a quality centre. The point though is we need change out wide and speed is the missing magic ingredient. Savage though is the one I would really like us to have a shot at. He could be anything.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

And so did I. We lost the game right there. All 4 spine players had moments that they would rather forget. Moses and Gutho to a slightly lesser extent should have iced that moment and prised open the Manly defense with tactical shifts and counting numbers when in good ball. Instead they played like strangers and failed woefully and by doing so emboldened the Many players.

We didn't get rolled up the middle and had large chunks of that game under our control. But we failed to do much with the ball we had. Old habits die hard I suppose. How do we fix that? Who will put his hand up and wear the blame of failing AGAIN during a big game against a quality opposition? What are our coaching staff doing that will change the outcome come finals time?

This seems to be a common theme that can't be excused as it once was with inexperience or injuries or out muscled, not having the players or the conditions didn't suit us and so on. This is a team that should have won that game or gone very close at least if they performed as expected. So why didn't they? They seemed absolutely lost at times. If it was a training session, the seconds team would have kept them out. Why so, so bad? Genuine question. They were terrible when they should have ripped Manly apart. Manly only looked that good in defense because we were so bad with the ball in hand in good ball territory.

Where do we go from here? I don't know. We are stuck with Moses, but what can we do to help him? I suppose Speed outside will be a major improvement, but will it be enough? If he can't perform in the big games consistently, we'll probably still not jag a premiership. Maybe if Mahoney can improve another 5-10% as a player it maybe enough to give Moses and others that extra space and opportunity to do their thing.

I scratch my head.

No no no merkin! Trying to "rip Manly apart" is what they did wrong during the game! Manly's energy was up and we weren't patient enough to wait them out. Instead we tried to score on every set and made too many errors. We should've just dragged them into the grind, let them wear themselves out in defence and won it in the 70th minute.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

True, but Waqa only played in Round 1, 10 & 11.

He played every game last year, and our defence was top three.