LIVE GAME Round 15 vs. Titans

[Tucker]

Dont know if it was just me, but we just seemed to keep passing the ball from sideline to sideline without setting things up with some direct running first. Also our 2nd phase was virtually non existent. We really need to learn how to promote the ball after initial contact.

There was no plan tonight. Just headless chooks running around looking for a hole in the fence.

 

[Halbrowne61]

Yeah, everything that could go wrong did.

And a lot of fringe players like Talau and Wakeham went back miles.

Add in we just lost most of our spine for months.

A disaster.

We are looking at things like

6 ToA
7 Laurie
9 Jake

from here.

i.e. we won't win another game.

Tallyn will be a star...but he is 18.

And only just 18.

Can't expect much yet.

And we, literally, have no 6-7 of first grade standard left to pick.

Let’s hope that through this adversity we may
just unearth some new talent, or positive positional changes.

 

[The-moP]

Probably one or worst games of the season .. shocking .. !!

 

[Tucker]

Earlier front on one. No arm involved, straight shoulder.

Maybe…the one where he folded Bateman in half should be used to promote the game. You don’t see that in any of the other contact sports.

 

[Tucker]

Yeah, everything that could go wrong did.

And a lot of fringe players like Talau and Wakeham went back miles.

Add in we just lost most of our spine for months.

A disaster.

We are looking at things like

6 ToA
7 Laurie
9 Jake

from here.

i.e. we won't win another game.

Tallyn will be a star...but he is 18.

And only just 18.

Can't expect much yet.

And we, literally, have no 6-7 of first grade standard left to pick.

This is of our own making.
We on the forum highlighted these risks back in January.
It was always coming.
Do you think the brains trust have made contingent arrangements for this event? Not on your life!

 

[rah53]

The biggest upside to Wakeham is his conversion kicks, other than that, a very slow, less than ordinary player. Tommy Talau, the worst game he's played & not worthy of a 1st grade spot. Should've went with Pole over Blore.

 

[Benjipez]

Dont know if it was just me, but we just seemed to keep passing the ball from sideline to sideline without setting things up with some direct running first. Also our 2nd phase was virtually non existent. We really need to learn how to promote the ball after initial contact.

Same as last week mate . Wait till we are 18 behind before being direct

 

[Sco77y]

Geez, Api’s jaw broken in two places. Sounds brutal. Wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see him back for the rest of the year.

 

[liltiger]

There was no plan tonight. Just headless chooks running around looking for a hole in the fence.

Spot on and its been like this for the season so far, at some point something needs to give. All year we've struggled in the opp 20. What do they do at training.

 

[Tom Shines]

This is of our own making.
We on the forum highlighted these risks back in January.
It was always coming.
Do you think the brains trust have made contingent arrangements for this event? Not on your life!

It boggles the mind…

 

[Jolls]

I think our errors cost us a lot of gas and we struggled to get back into the game from there. Some costly defensive errors from Brooks, Talau and Simpkin let in easy soft tries. Wakeham and Talau with the ball couldn't have played worse. OK so we lost - nothing we can do but look to next week. Blore was below average.

What can we build on with Api and Brooks out.

Bula, Tupou and Toa (event though he didn't have a great game) are the first backs picked. Toa showed he could fill in at 6 - thought he showed something.
Simpkin will be much better for the run. Apart from his defensive barin fart I though he was OK in a poor team effort.
Our forwards had to do so much early work in defence we didn't get the roll on we usually get. I am happy not to stuff with the pack. Can Simpkin go 80? If not Tallyn gets a run.
Naden has to come back into the team.

That leaves us with a halves dilemma.

Options:
Wakeham remains as 7 - surely he can't paly that badly again.
Toa to 6 gives us Talau or Reilly in the centres.
Laurie or Reilly at 6 could work.

Whatever the solution is we need to make a decision early and get to work on their defensive combination because we all know Melbourne will pick that new combination as their point of attack next week.

Character building for our side. I posted earlier today that what we need is leadership to turn the corner. I trust a couple of backline leaders are born out of this adversity. Bula is showing signs of it but it is too early in his career.

Can this be the turning point for Naden or will Toa step up?

 

[jadtiger]

Geez, Api’s jaw broken in two places. Sounds brutal. Wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see him back for the rest of the year.

If it is broken in 2 places it would be very unlikely he will play again this year.

 

[ElleryHanley]

This is of our own making.
We on the forum highlighted these risks back in January.
It was always coming.
Do you think the brains trust have made contingent arrangements for this event? Not on your life!

True.

I think everyone looked at the depth chart in Jan and thought "geez Brooks and AD basically have no one challenging for their spots............and imagine if both got hurt".

It was foreseeable when you have no halves depth.

2024 looks just as bad in the halves...we literally HAVE to nail a big signing at 6 or 7.

 

[Tucker]

Spot on and its been like this for the season so far, at some point something needs to give. All year we've struggled in the opp 20. What do they do at training.

I really don’t know.
They seem pretty fit. Lots of cardio?

 

[Tucker]

True.

I think everyone looked at the depth chart in Jan and thought "geez Brooks and AD basically have no one challenging for their spots............and imagine if both got hurt".

It was foreseeable when you have no halves depth.

2024 looks just as bad in the halves...we literally HAVE to nail a big signing at 6 or 7.

100% mate if we don’t land some more guys, we will be in the mix for bottom of the table again.

 

[weststigers]

We’ll do well to avoid the spoon

 

[Tucker]

Geez, Api’s jaw broken in two places. Sounds brutal. Wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see him back for the rest of the year.

If he needs surgical wiring, forget about it.

 

[Tucker]

We’ll do well to avoid the spoon

That is now our goal.

 

[Halbrowne61]

The biggest upside to Wakeham is his conversion kicks, other than that, a very slow, less than ordinary player. Tommy Talau, the worst game he's played & not worthy of a 1st grade spot. Should've went with Pole over Blore.

Blare was very disappointing for mine. Had a huge chance in the run on team but after he dropped that early ball he disappeared.
Not what I wanted to see from a big wrap player, maybe Sheens has seen that in his training etc and why there is some talk about getting rid of him.
Should have put a target on Tino or somebody and driven them back over the border !!! Continuously .

 

[Mighty_Tiger]

Guess Jake will finally get some long game time be interesting how he handles it. He had a mixed bag tonight. 44 tackles and 60mtrs not a bad effort from the kid who has hardly had gametime. The pass to Klemmer was Api style pass as well.