Vs Raiders rd 20

[Matua]

Well that's a bummer. Hard on CHT, his confidence was shot after that first kick.

 

[Philip_Smith007]

20-18, Raiders. Final.

Phil, Dr Death?

I called season over after Dragons game round 7.

 

[nswarrior]

I called season over after Dragons game round 7.

I lost hope after the 66-6 thrashing by Gold Coast. Team is a bit too old, definitely too slow and inconsistent halves.

 

[nswarrior]

Btw - I thought we played better with RTS at fullback

 

[Philip_Smith007]

I lost hope after the 66-6 thrashing by Gold Coast. Team is a bit too old, definitely too slow and inconsistent halves.

I do go dark easily on season.
Dragons game showed me a team that couldn't win the comp, so felt season over.
Titans game showed a team that wouldn't make the top 8.

 

[Philip_Smith007]

Btw - I thought we played better with RTS at fullback

He did give away the winning try!
Albeit that Niukore high shot gives them the field position.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Through some crazy adversity with injuries this year we’ve been the better team in most games….we just haven’t won.

You can either write that off as pure luck, or you can try to rationalise it. I’m honestly not sure which is the right way to look at it. I just maintain what I’ve said before, which is Webster seemingly coaches process but not winning. The difference between where we are and the top 4 this season has been a few mental skills sessions and a bit of planning for how to play the last 5 minutes of a close game.

 

[Philip_Smith007]

Webster post match:
Cant start like that.
Goal kicking didn't define us tonight.
Errors reason for bad start. Not tackling hard enough.
Things don't go our way at the moment.
Pompey knee no good.
Barnett: lost hurts, night off didn't cross his mind as leader in the club, won't be there without the boys. Hurting ourselves with errors and poor last plays. Wants to win every week.

Very short.

 

[sup42]

It’s more than the gods. The team lacks finesse and the ability to create opportunities. Lack of speed and halves have been up and down all season

Yeah and that is because fate has not allowed us to field anything like a consistent spine for any decent run of games.
Even tonight we lost our starting fullback and were running a configuration that had not prepped in training right off the bat.

Mate Warriors fans need to learn to enjoy hard fought losses like tonight, they mean something, they mean a club has character which is a starting point to becoming a winning side.

It all starts with being hard to beat in the NRL even if that means lots of hard to bear losses that ultimately mean you do not make the eight.

Being hard to beat is where every club in this comp who ever did anything started from in this comp. This year we are not top eight by the looks, but at least we have had a lot of games where we fought down to the wire.

So yeah I am bloody thrilled with tonight's game.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Webster post match:
Cant start like that.
Goal kicking didn't define us tonight.
Errors reason for bad start. Not tackling hard enough.
Things don't go our way at the moment.
Pompey knee no good

So…he’s right, we started poorly, and I thought we were a bit soft physically. But we came back, and despite having a badly compromised backline we ended up well and truly outplaying them and out scoring them 4 tries to 1 over the last 45 minutes.

We didn’t lose because of generally poor football, we lost because CHT didn’t kick goals.

The problem with the ‘trust the process’ stuff is it only truly works if you’re planning on winning by 20 every week. In reality, you can try to nail process as much as you like but you’re still going to have to nail big moments and come up with clutch plays, because it’s the NRL and close games are going to happen. The moments which don’t define us have literally defined this year.

 

[Philip_Smith007]

Yeah and that is because fate has not allowed us to field anything like a consistent spine for any decent run of games.
Even tonight we lost our starting fullback and were running a configuration that had not prepped in training right off the bat.

Mate Warriors fans need to learn to enjoy hard fought losses like tonight, they mean something, they mean a club has character which is a starting point to becoming a winning side.

It all starts with being hard to beat in the NRL even if that means lots of hard to bear losses that ultimately mean you do not make the eight.

Being hard to beat is where every club in this comp who ever did anything started from in this comp. This year we are not top eight by the looks, but at least we have had a lot of games where we fought down to the wire.

So yeah I am bloody thrilled with tonight's game.

I need what ever you are on.

Tough to beat don't let 2 soft tries in early.
Tough to beat teams turn teams away after multiple repeat sets, pin teams in their halves, don't give away dumb penalties, don't try stupid offloads in their half.

I'm dejected by tonight game.

TMM looked like a shell of a player he had been with SJ on sideline.

 

[Blair]

I don't want Chanel beating himself up tonight, as this wasn't a final.

We're in this hopeless position because of our poor form, over far too many games, along with bad luck in other games we almost won.

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Btw - I thought we played better with RTS at fullback

Not saying he played poorly, but it probably vindicated Webster a bit for me seeing him play nearly a full game there

Maybe another off season will help, but to me he is looking slow and heavy, and has no spark left in that position anymore. There were a few balls that he wasn’t keen to get under and took the gamble of letting them bounce as well

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Yeah, I'm not seeing the love for RTS. I feel like it has to be partly to do with reputation. It's really not even close with him and CNK at full fitness. Yes he has moments but he's slowed down significantly

 

[Penrose Warrior]

And I feel awful for CHT. He starts the game as the third choice goal kicker behind Pompey and Tuaupiki, and all of a sudden the role is on him.

We have shown a lot of resolve at times, the injury toll has gone from a dream run in 2023 to a nightmare in 2024. That's not to say we haven't done a lot of poor stuff, which we have, but it's really been brutal stuff with in-game injuries and running guys in different positions

 

[Penrose Warrior]

@Manu Vatuvei @Meth you'd be proud of my 9 year old - when Ford came on early, she said (unprompted) 'oh no, that guy is on' and I asked what she meant...'he's too slow and always drops the ball'

Then felt so proud of herself when he dropped that easy ball in the first half

 

[Big Marn]

@Manu Vatuvei @Meth you'd be proud of my 9 year old - when Ford came on early, she said (unprompted) 'oh no, that guy is on' and I asked what she meant...'he's too slow and always drops the ball'

Then felt so proud of herself when he dropped that easy ball in the first half

thats gold. didnt he give away a penalty about a minute after joining the field? when they put the camera on Webby i was trying to read his lips and im sure he said "f**king dummy". I could be wrong tho.

 

[sup42]

I need what ever you are on.

Tough to beat don't let 2 soft tries in early.
Tough to beat teams turn teams away after multiple repeat sets, pin teams in their halves, don't give away dumb penalties, don't try stupid offloads in their half.

I'm dejected by tonight game.

TMM looked like a shell of a player he had been with SJ on sideline.

Yeah I know it is frustrating. But you have to expect that the constant player reshuffles is going to show in the defensive positioning.

One of those soft Try's was too many guys on the wrong side of the play the ball on our line, an over read and lack of communication, it only looks soft because we were beaten before they even to a step towards us. In those situations the Fullback is supposed to marshal the guys and or go to weak side, having Roger barely thrown back in there was a rough scenario.

As for the offload in our own half, a trap for new kids, how many times did we used to see guys come from NSW cup and try too hard? most of those guys got dropped in the old system and were never seen again in the NRL.

One blemish from Leka in an otherwise very good game, he is still looking the more threatening of our forwards with his speed.
If that offload sticks everyone is happy. Bottom line, the reason we bring these guys like Leka, Laban, MGT, Ali in so slowly is that they hurt pretty badly when they make mistakes that cost the team. He is eighteen.

I spose when we roll out these Frankenstein line ups I give them a lot of leeway and set my expectations to what I think is realistic, I don't see us as on par with the opposition when our team is having such a disrupted season. From there I am just looking for us to fight. We did that. We got it together and fought back hard.

The Raiders should have belted us with all the ball they had in the first half.

I don't think our defensive efforts in the end reflected softness at all, I think we proved we wanted to fight, It is too simplistic to see players left standing or clutching at thin air and put it down to lack of heart. I believe we proved in the end the will was there to win. Another reason I was happy is Ali had and Leka both look like they belong out there.

 

[Beavers Headgear]

I don’t really watch much reserve grade, is Ali always that size ? For some reason I had him pictured a bit smaller and more agile, he may fill out into a forwards frame

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

I don’t really get the criticism of either our defence or our halves. After a soft start we restricted them to a bit of an arsey try off a kick for the last 60 minutes. In the same time we scored 4. All that with a patched together backline.

The problem is genuinely just an inability to win. We have no problems being the better team even at half strength. What we can’t seem to do is make a play, even a play we should be executing 90% of the time, when the game’s on the line. When you can execute throughout a match but lose the last 5 minutes of every close one, that’s a mental thing.