Mid Year report card

S

Stevec

Well-known member
We are now last and our short term outlook is pretty bleak
1. The Executive CEO and Chairman a big zero and problem is they are unmovable
2.Coaching staff took 7 rounds to get team playing like a team and now team looks very poor again
3 .Team
Fullback - Bula we've found a good one there so I wonder if we can keep him
Wingers - nofo is competent and plays ok most weeks but not as fast as he used to be
- tupou is faster but is error prone lately and defence suffers by not being paired with a quality
center
Centers - Toa shows signs of being a good center lately so they move him to 5/8 ?
- Naden spends as much time off the field as on it due to suspensions or injuries
- Talau had a total of one good game all year and is leaving
- Kepoa total defensive liability should have never been picked there
5/8 - Wakeham can kick but close to slowest half in the Nrl
Half - Brooks took years to get his running game going and now he's going
Props - Stephano and Klemmer both good but no depth because when they come off after 25 mins our
drop in go forward is clearly noticeable
Hooker - good one in Api maybe gone for season and Simpkin is reserve grade standard
2nd row - Papalii good game ,bad game ,good game
- Bateman - unpredictable off the cuff plays which is good if team mates know what he is going
to do next
Lock - Pole -good imo but coaches move him every week .Lock ,front row , Bench
Bench : Generally very weak except Twal . Did have Joffa but forced him out
Depth generally pitiful .just look at our Cup side lost 46-4 to team coming 3rd last
Outlook - We remain a club that finds it difficult to recruit anybody because players are not attracted to a team that's always losing. Players want to play finals if not grand finals .
Our new recruitment manager whos appointment was a surprise to coach has so far kicked no goals
Future ? Not sure the NRL will continue with 17 teams this years draw and byes are a shambles the ladder makes little sense . We had better get our act together or we won't have one
Best place to start is at the top of this list Point 1. Above !
 
Stevec said:
We are now last and our short term outlook is pretty bleak
1. The Executive CEO and Chairman a big zero and problem is they are unmovable
2.Coaching staff took 7 rounds to get team playing like a team and now team looks very poor again
3 .Team
Fullback - Bula we've found a good one there so I wonder if we can keep him
Wingers - nofo is competent and plays ok most weeks but not as fast as he used to be
- tupou is faster but is error prone lately and defence suffers by not being paired with a quality
center
Centers - Toa shows signs of being a good center lately so they move him to 5/8 ?
- Naden spends as much time off the field as on it due to suspensions or injuries
- Talau had a total of one good game all year and is leaving
- Kepoa total defensive liability should have never been picked there
5/8 - Wakeham can kick but close to slowest half in the Nrl
Half - Brooks took years to get his running game going and now he's going
Props - Stephano and Klemmer both good but no depth because when they come off after 25 mins our
drop in go forward is clearly noticeable
Hooker - good one in Api maybe gone for season and Simpkin is reserve grade standard
2nd row - Papalii good game ,bad game ,good game
- Bateman - unpredictable off the cuff plays which is good if team mates know what he is going
to do next
Lock - Pole -good imo but coaches move him every week .Lock ,front row , Bench
Bench : Generally very weak except Twal . Did have Joffa but forced him out
Depth generally pitiful .just look at our Cup side lost 46-4 to team coming 3rd last
Outlook - We remain a club that finds it difficult to recruit anybody because players are not attracted to a team that's always losing. Players want to play finals if not grand finals .
Our new recruitment manager whos appointment was a surprise to coach has so far kicked no goals
Future ? Not sure the NRL will continue with 17 teams this years draw and byes are a shambles the ladder makes little sense . We had better get our act together or we won't have one
Best place to start is at the top of this list Point 1. Above !
Click to expand...
you make far to much sense Stevec!!! well said fully agree with you
 
A complete and total shambles but not a shock,we have a bunch of muppets making the decisions and a coach whose "use buy date" was more than a decade ago.If a restaurant served up food as the same quality as WT serve up results the owners would be in jail for mass poisoning
 
Just a little comment I picked up from James Hooper giving player ratings for origin . He said Utoikimano 5 - " bizarre selection picking a WESTS TIGERS frontrow " !
I find Hooper's comment offensive but it underlines the theme of our club being a laughing stock .
Anyway to hell with you Hooper
 
I crunched some numbers for a bit of perspective to those claiming we have turned the corner. It must be acknowledged that a lot of these numbers have been skewed a bit by the outlier of the performance in the Cowboys game, but interesting all the same.

  • We have had our fair share of possession enjoying 49.14% of the ball completing our sets at 77% across all 14 games. This is pretty good and isnt too far removed from our opponents returns.
  • In attack, we have made 10 more line breaks, 128 more tackle breaks and 91 more off loads than our opponents over the 14 games. As a team, we have also ran for 117m/game more than our opponents and have scored 41 tries which is almost 3/game.
  • In relation to our general kicking, we have made 101m less per game than our opponents but have returned kicks at a rate of 12m more per game. Our kick defusal though is putrid, at 59% across all 14 games.
  • In defence, having averaged 326 tackles per game, we have recorded 9 less missed tackles as well as 9 less ineffective tackles per game than our opponents across all 14 games. This returns an effective tackle rating of 89% per game. We have let in 55 tries @ 4/game.
  • Our discipline has been good with the team receiving 33 more penalties/infringements than our opponents, representing 2.4 more/game. That said, we have produced 8 more errors across the 14 games than our opponents.
In summary our:
  1. Possession rates are good
  2. Completion rates are reasonably good
  3. Our attack is working for the most part
  4. Our defence is working until we get in our 20m zone
  5. Our discipline is good.
Our only true weakness is pretty much everything involved with kicking - either in execution of or in defence of.

If you took these stats in isolation, you would be forgiven for thinking we have won at least 50% of our games this year, if not more. Returning only 3 wins out of 14 games is totally unsatisfactory given the good stats the team is producing and the individual performances of several members within it. We have to stop the narrative that we are rebuilding and growing. This squad are creating enough opportunities and actually playing well enough to win games of football.

It will be interesting to compare our final 10 games to these opening 14 games at the seasons completion. I suspect we will see substantial drops in all categories due to a combination of player unavailablity, injuries, drops in moral and the positive stats from the Cowboys game being eaten away through an influx of increasingly heavy losses.

Whether we get the spoon or not, this season has been more dissappointing than last year because we are doing enough to win, bar scoring tries. We are playing well enough, but just arent finishing off.
 
Last edited:
Eternal Tiger said:
Sacked Maguire, recruited Papali'i,Koroisau,Staines,
Klemmer and Bateman and are now 17th as opposed to 16th.
Also note the CEO and Chairman both said at the end of 2022. "These results are unacceptable and we hold ourselves to a higher account"
What do they say at the end of 2023?
Click to expand...
Bole, Tupou, Pole, Matamua, Da Silva and re-energised To'a, the players that were not even considered by our ex-coach, he proffered Matulino, Packer, Tamou, Roberts etc.
This and the fact that he lost the lock room, IMHO, were enough to wave him bye, my only issue is that we waited for too long.
 
Dumb take. Matulino and Packer were here before MaGuire. Tamou and Roberts were obviously failures but the coach was hamstrung by an out of whack cap.
He preferred those ageing players over those you've mentioned because (with the possible exception of Pole) they are all kids who weren't ready for first grade. [This word has been automatically removed] Da Silva was not even old enough to be allowed to play first grade whilst MaGuire was here and Matamua still hasn't debuted.
And by not even considered by MaGuire every one of those you listed were signed/re-signed when MaGuire was here. He must have given them some consideration for that to be the case.
Maybe he lost the locker room in the end, but he would have lost it a lot sooner had he played our flegg team in first grade as you seem to be wanting.
 
🤬👎
Season =Epic Fail
Season Expectation = More to follow
Recruitment = release = A
Recruitment = gains. = Z
Dollars In Bank = A
Ability to spend on quality = Z
2024 = Same again
 
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426Tlgerland said:
🤬👎
Season =Epic Fail
Season Expectation = More to follow
Recruitment = release = A
Recruitment = gains. = Z
Dollars In Bank = A
Ability to spend on quality = Z
2024 = Same again
Click to expand...
Yep pretty much.
It is very possible that Api and co will leave this club without playing finals.
 
Tucker said:
Our kick defusal though is putrid, at 59% across all 14 games.
Click to expand...

Seeing that the vast majority of those 41% not defused would be within our danger zone, this would be costly and probably very much so.

Hopefully this area has somewhat improved since Bula came in.
 
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