LIVE GAME *SPOILERS* Round 2 vs Raiders

Live Game Discussion
There’s a lot of speculation about already about next week.

Does he offer the chance of redemption or get back to the laboratory?

I get the impression,he’s going to don the white coat and make some brave changes.

And isn’t Api supposed to command the players to stick to task?

Always more questions than answers with us, will never change, so be it.
 
I was at the game today. As soon as I walked in and saw the teams warming up it was obvious they were taller, broader, and thicker than us (plus their squad had more fast twitch than ours). It’s been like this for 15 years now. We just don’t have the athletes to compete with the other teams. Almost all of our players have a physical deficiency compared to a prototypical player in the corresponding position across the league. For example:

Bateman is a 92kg second rower. That is lighter than most three quarters. His is a terrible contract with two more years after this one.
Papalii is less than 6 foot tall.
Seyfarth, Klemmer and Twal are string beans. They are all tall and lanky so the distribution of their weight means they have no power and are easy to tackle and can’t hit hard.
Staines is too light.
Faatapue is too short.
Toa is too slow.
I could name more.

This is before you consider endurance, heart and brains, which clearly our squad lacks.

You can carry a couple of players in your 30 man squad that have physical deficiencies. But our starting team is full of them.

We will only win one or two games this year and will get the spoon. No matter how hard our players try they are at a massive disadvantage physically.

Our squad is so poor and we have so many ordinary players tied up in multi year deals (Staines, Sullivan, Twal, Seyfarth) that we will probably get the spoon next year as well.
Great post mate. You hit the nail on the head.
 
There’s a lot of speculation about already about next week.

Does he offer the chance of redemption or get back to the laboratory?

I get the impression,he’s going to don the white coat and make some brave changes.

And isn’t Api supposed to command the players to stick to task?

Always more questions than answers with us, will never change, so be it.
If he makes changes it’s a panicked move.
He played the team he played on purpose with a clear plan in mind.
He has to stick by his convictions for at least another week.
 
In hindsight, and despite the fuzzy media of our off season, it looks to me that our coaching staff have a HUGE job in front of them.
Positional changes might happen, players might be changed etc, game plans tweeked etc BUT facing facts, we're a team on the back of 2 wooden spoons and as much as I personally want change for the better NOW and immediately, it looks like it's a bit more involved.
We appear to be locked in a mindset of "losing."
And that is a terribly hard thing to change ata whim.
No surprise then, in my mind, that Galvin and Fainu were 2 of our best yesterday - they have not suffered our losing culture over past seasons.
So, with the best of wanting, patience might be my only friend as a fan in the short to medium term.
 
If he makes changes it’s a panicked move.
He played the team he played on purpose with a clear plan in mind.
He has to stick by his convictions for at least another week.
You are full of surprises!

He said he’d chop and change depending on the team we are playing and related circumstances.

I’ve been on Benjis back since he was crowned grand master coach without a nano seconds experience in coaching u7 tiddlywinks.

A coaching certificate cut out of the back of Franklins nutrigrain, kissed by Tim, Justin and Lee in a holy trinity of gross incompetence.

But I fear… he’s making sense.
 
You are full of surprises!

He said he’d chop and change depending on the team we are playing and related circumstances.

I’ve been on Benjis back since he was crowned grand master coach without a nano seconds experience in coaching u7 tiddlywinks.

A coaching certificate cut out of the back of Franklins nutrigrain, kissed by Tim, Justin and Lee in a holy trinity of gross incompetence.

But I fear… he’s making sense.
He’s made his bed for now. It’s unkept and with mismatching sheets….but he’s got to give it more time to get comfy.
 
You are right in saying our ruck speed is atrocious and nothing will get better unless that is fixed.
It’s amazing Galvin made the impact he did when we were on the back foot for most of the game. That indicates he’ll be pretty good if we can get on the front foot and give him time and space to play with.
I see the points you raise in relation to Seyfarth, but he certainly wasn’t on his own.
Once we got back to 14-12 down the Raiders again lifted their intensity and again our forwards didn’t stand up to it.

Once we got back 14-12 we gave away easy field position through 2 dumb chip kicks which was what costed us. Their forwards didn’t actually lift they were struggling,

Rapana even said at halftime when we clicked into gear they couldn’t keep up and were lucky we turned the ball over like we did.
 
An interesting comment he made in the presser when asked if he would persist with the young fellas is that he would pick the team each week based on the game plan which I took to mean depending on who we were playing.

That would indicate they had a game plan to start with. He was open Sezer on the bench had no game plan. Right now we are seeing signs of a rookie.

I hope he learns quick and things change.
If the kids play with intent then we will get some results but we can’t keep chasing 12+ points every single week.
 
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