Season Review

[SweetandSoward]

Might as well start this now.

Well people say last year we had injuries and we were better. But last year we didn't have the following injured Soward, Moylan, Segyaro and Mansour.

We had a spine last year.

This year pretty much injuries across the ballpark.

Soward wasn't playing at his best.
Wallace was past his best.
At one point we had both Soward and Wallace missing.
Besides the Titans which other nrl team can say they had their halves missing.
Imagine if Gareth Widdop and Benji were both out or if Ben Hunt and Milford were both out.

We did our best and tried. We could have at least bought a different winger before the july transfer. Such as Daniel Vidot or Charly Runciman.
That way we would won a few more games because Waqa Blake wrecked out season.

 

[billypilgrimnz]

because Waqa Blake wrecked out season.

This is absolute nonsense.

 

[mxlegend99]

Waqa Blake was disappointing but didn't ruin our season. No single player did. We simply didn't have enough experienced players to cover so many injuries for such a long period of the season.

We had injuries last year in positions we could more easily cover with experienced players. Had Soward or Moylan gone down last year. We don't go anywhere near as far as we did.

 

[Panther Pete]

Quite clearly injuries had a major impact on where we will finish but I still believe there were a number of games we could have won if we just held on to the ball. Injuries forced us to have 3rd choice players at certain times but even those players should still be able to catch a football at that level.

 

[BxTom]

Whilst I acknowledge that injuries have wrecked our season, I wonder if there is a way to add up the number of weeks that our top 25 NRL squad have been missing throughout the year. It's all very well saying that club has 7 players missing from their roster, but when club X has only been missing these player for a total of ten weeks between the 7 injured players, it pails into insignifigance to club Y that has only two players injured, but they have been out for a total of 40 weeks between them. Is there anyway that this could be worked out for the season?

I think it would be interesting to see how many weeks that penrith players have accumulated over 2015 and compare this to other clubs.


Tom.

 

[betcats]

Waqa ruined our season lol wtf. He struggled no doubt, so did Rennings. Both immensely talented kids I think they are both somewhat victims of the teams form. We were forced to play them due to injuries when the team was struggling and they both struggled as well. Not saying the both don't have plenty to work on but I think they both showed flashes of their class. Waqa played mostly with someone else out of position ofter paired Yeo etc its not ideal.

If you remember some of our other players we brought threw going back to Moylan the club tried very hard to debut them at home when the team was doing well etc. If we could of got Waqa in like that it would of been a different story imo.

 

[umina panther]

Blake was out of his depth but what a ridiculous call. The medical and training staff are the ones who should be shown the door

 

[Rhyno]

e Waqa Blake wrecked out season.

But,but,but penrith fans said blake was a future immortal

 

[soc123_au]

But,but,but penrith fans said blake was a future immortal

Plenty of time for Blake to make you eat your words.

 

[GongPanther]

Plenty of time for Blake to make you eat your words.

Among other things.

 

[forby]

This business of blaming the medical and training staff is ridiculous. Anybody would think that they went and twisted Moylan's ankle, Idris's knee, broke Whare's thumb and Taylors arm.
Impact and twist injuries are unavoidable.
Did the Roosters trainers tear Mitchell's hamstring or JWH's ACL?
Get real and stop blaming Palmer and his crew for injuries totally beyond their control or influence!

 

[murraymob]

while injuries played a big part in not making the semi finals. It is also fair to say there where a number of games that should have been won. And a lot of that comes down to the experienced players not taking control and throwing passes that ended up in the grandstand rather than hold the ball and attack next play.

Its unfair to point to a kid like Blake and blame him solo.

Rather than dwell on the negatives lets look at the positive both reserves and u20 could win the lot. Cartwright Moylan have both gone to a new level .Latu is guy that's hungry and been given a shot is going well
Shortly I will also review if the renew my memberships as I do every year

 

[forby]

I dont think I have seen a season where more 50/50 calls went against Penrith, and I have been following them since 1968.
The injuries they have had this season have left them having to play players in first grade for extended periods when they weren't ready for it. Phil Gould said years ago, and it still holds true, that youngsters can come up and perform for 2 or 3 games and then need to go back and learn to perform at that level in the lower grades consistently. Blake and company did not get that opportunity and it shows.
The club needs halves desperately. Having watched the lower grade halves and some of the new youngsters they have contracted, the future looks promising, but it may not be enough for next year. I think a lot of the team's problems stem from the halves. Soward definitely looks better at 7 than Wallace, but needs somebody at 6 to help. Maybe Moylan could be the answer.
The forwards have reasonable depth, but lack of experience could be telling. Merrin could make a lot of difference.
The backs have some good depth but again inexperience is the issue. With Idris and Whare fit and on the field together Mansour and DWZ got great service last year. Their absence for extended periods has forced Yeo to become a decent centre, but still looks to be a back rower.
Coaching wise the club is in a good position as long as Garth Brennan stays. Ciraldo has done wonders with the 20's, and the NSW Cup team being equal leaders is testament to Brennan's abilities. I believe that he will be our next NRL Coach perhaps as early as 2017 with Cleary becoming coaching and Development Director.
Fan wise we need more! Numbers and loudness. The number of times that 50/50 calls go to the home team because of the noise of the crowd shows that ref's can be influenced. We need that intimidation factor like other clubs fans. There is plenty of passion and desire in the crowd, maybe just not enough noise.

 

[umina panther]

We have had more injuries than any other side and its been this way for a long time. Yes it was an issue before Palmer but he sure as hell isn't the solution.

 

[mxlegend99]

This business of blaming the medical and training staff is ridiculous. Anybody would think that they went and twisted Moylan's ankle, Idris's knee, broke Whare's thumb and Taylors arm.
Impact and twist injuries are unavoidable.
Did the Roosters trainers tear Mitchell's hamstring or JWH's ACL?
Get real and stop blaming Palmer and his crew for injuries totally beyond their control or influence!

Thinking they have nothing to do with us CONSISTENTLY picking up long term injuries to large numbers of players at the same time is ridiculous.

It isn't a one off run of bad luck with injuries. It happens regularly and it's simply not possible that we would always be among the most injury effected clubs if we didn't somehow contribute to the chances ourselves.

You cant seriously think it's simply bad luck. It's not poorly timed injuries to one or two players like the Roosters. It's new injuries nearly every single week. Some injuries are unavoidable. Plenty can be be prevented though.

 

[forby]

And which of our long term injuries could have the trainers prevented?
Ligament tears from wrenching, dislocations and broken bones certainly weren't!

 

[TheFrog]

Fittler was on the box a couple of weeks ago suggesting that it was not just luck that the Roosters had (at that time) no injuries whatsoever, while other sides had three quarters of their squads sidelined. He reckoned it was because the Roosters were super-fit.

Since then Moa, JWH and Pearce have gone down. It's about a quarter of what we've been dealing with all year, but I'm expecting it to knock them about against the good sides.

I think it is 100% luck personally, EVERY team is super-fit. Freddy has always been a goose.

 

[mxlegend99]

And which of our long term injuries could have the trainers prevented?
Ligament tears from wrenching, dislocations and broken bones certainly weren't!

Our players are less durable than other teams players. Players get hit hard and twisted in nearly every tackle. Other teams are better at conditioning their players for those scenarios.

Obviously you can't prevent every injury. But you sure as hell can decrease your chances at injury. Guys like Michael Gordon and Michael Jennings are a great example of this. These guys were as prone to injury as you will ever see with us. They goto new clubs and look much fitter. Jennings doesn't get up in pain after every tackle and Gordon has played nearly twice as many games on average for Sharks then he did for us.

But yeah our medical and training staff have NOTHING to do with it. It's simply a massive coincidence that we get longterm injuries to large groups of players at the same time every year. It's also a coincidence that players leave us and slowly get better at not being injured. Coote is another.. he was injured every year for us. Was injured in his first appearance for Cowboys but after another year with them is looking fitter than ever.

 

[Big Mick]

Whilst I acknowledge that injuries have wrecked our season, I wonder if there is a way to add up the number of weeks that our top 25 NRL squad have been missing throughout the year. It's all very well saying that club has 7 players missing from their roster, but when club X has only been missing these player for a total of ten weeks between the 7 injured players, it pails into insignifigance to club Y that has only two players injured, but they have been out for a total of 40 weeks between them. Is there anyway that this could be worked out for the season?

I think it would be interesting to see how many weeks that penrith players have accumulated over 2015 and compare this to other clubs.


Tom.

Stew Moses did something like this and it was something like we were that far in front as far as number of games missed...the closest to us was like 10 back on games missed by top 17.

 

[Big Mick]

The most telling stat for mine is that only 2-3 times this season have we kept the same 17 on the park.

Consistency is everything in Rugby League. Knowing you can trust the person next to you. When you have so many changes constantly you can really not build that trust.

That and our spine played a total of like 150 minutes together throughout the season.