LIVE GAME *SPOILERS* Round 2 vs Raiders

[twentyforty]

Agree, he doesn’t seem to have to confidence to believe he owns the game.
Look at Reece Walsh”s game from Thursday, perfect example of how Bula should be involved

Isn’t that the coach’s job, to put a fire under these players , to give them confidence?

 

[Telltails]

Ah Benji, and Madge before him, their desire to effect change at the club so supported by fans - until - the weak well paid squad fails and then they become the targets.
Players set standards on the field and off and if the coaches ability is questioned instead of player accountability the cycle will continue. It is the reverse at successful clubs.
The good ones will leave for better systems and we will be paying out another coach while trying to sell the sleeping giant tag to another sucker.

 

[tonza]

I cant believe nobodys mentioned hoe bad Batemen was hes just trash.Gives away free kicks cant make a break cant tackle should be in reserve grade

I agree, but on the plus side, at least he shows aggression. Something sadly lacking from a lot of the other players. I am happy Toa was injured as it might of saved him the indignation of being hooked.

 

[Spacecub]

That would be close to my team when fitness allows. Olam and Naden not back for round 3.

Api needs a bench hooker, we can't expect him to carry the side for the whole 80. Simpkin to replace S Fainu.

I don't know who the answer at 13 is. Sam Fainu is probably worth trying. Or Matamua again.

I think we're in deep poo if we are pining our hopes on Naden

 

[cktiger]

Sorry mate, I made a mistake.

Lucky not to lose by 60.

If you want it to not sting as bad when we collect our 3rd consecutive wooden spoon, then might I suggest you wager your hard earned each weekend on whoever the tigers face. Thank me at the end of the year 🤑

I am well aware we didn't play well...but if you think the ref did us any favours out there you're about as clueless as your namesake.

 

[Spartan117]

need another 2 or 3 games to assess the level of improvement under the new coaching team, but at this stage their fitness and discipline needs massive attention.
Still not convinced that Benji can coach.

Let's see.

I'm convinced he can be a head coach like Bennett or Bellamy.

I want to see if the players will respond to their assistant coaches.

Lots of improvement in these young guys

 

[Tigerstigerstigers]

I agree, but on the plus side, at least he shows aggression. Something sadly lacking from a lot of the other players. I am happy Toa was injured as it might of saved him the indignation of being hooked.

I thought Bateman was one of our best yesterday.

 

[Tiger Karen]

I am well aware we didn't play well...but if you think the ref did us any favours out there you're about as clueless as your namesake.

No offence to @shiftysheens and I’m not usually a ref monster but the officials should be dropped next week.

Players were frustrated, and I for one, I’m backing Stef.

There was comment earlier about Tim having to lift his hand to visit the bathroom.

I’m afraid that most of the squad we are displeased with, they bear the smudgy stamp of Tim approval. Barely legible I might add.

Benji has spoken highly of Tim and all that he stands for, which is very disconcerting.

If anyone can tell me who was actually coaching us at the end of last year, let me know.

And at the moment, Benji appears to be recruitment manager.

But early days.

From memory, Tim waited to commence his more controversial scientific selection experiments a few rounds in.

Whereas Benji is busy with his test tubes and periodic table from the get go.

 

[Tcat]

I'm sick of hearing the same old line our coaches spit out every year. The whole "If you train hard you'll get picked" rubbish. I understand that training gives you a good gauge on attitude but when will this club realise that most our squad can't play for shit.

 

[Tiger-ferret]

I'm sick of hearing the same old line our coaches spit out every year. The whole "If you train hard you'll get picked" rubbish. I understand that training gives you a good gauge on attitude but when will this club realise that most our squad can't play for shit.

Training hard should be a given at this level.

 

[Vicious]

Huge difference in aggression and energy in D between the 2 teams. Until we improve our D we won’t win games. Some lazy attempts at times that allow them to keep the play alive and gain momentum that should never be allowed. They scored 2-3 tries that really should never have been tries.
Sullivan, Klemmer, Staines, Toa all very disappointing.

💯 I keep seeing posts about lack of size, that’s not the big issue, we could potentially pick a bigger team but that will not help if as a team they do not collectively do something about line speed and aggression when defending.

 

[Tiger Karen]

We might have draw breath and put our coaching caps on for a sec.

If I was coaching the side, the worst team in the comp two years running, a bunch of new mostly factory players and juniors pressing for selection, I wouldn’t stick to the same old.

I’d be mixing it up a bit to see who is capable, who has potential and who can’t cut it.

As for working hard, that’s a given isn’t it. The refrain never helped Tim, Noddy or Madge.

And maybe ring JL to try to secretly approach other dissatisfied panthers as they approach their inevitable decline.

Tough times call for sneaky measures. A bit of the old cloak and dagger.

 

[twentyforty]

Ah Benji, and Madge before him, their desire to effect change at the club so supported by fans - until - the weak well paid squad fails and then they become the targets.
Players set standards on the field and off and if the coaches ability is questioned instead of player accountability the cycle will continue. It is the reverse at successful clubs.
The good ones will leave for better systems and we will be paying out another coach while trying to sell the sleeping giant tag to another sucker.

Yes it’s ironic that Sheens is now gone and the Marshall Farah combo get to experience a kind of reverse deja vu.

 

[Telltails]

Yes it’s ironic that Sheens is now gone and the Marshall Farah combo get to experience a kind of reverse deja vu.

Id say Benji and Farah served Sheens well - added to his premiership winning record with a squad that no one much rated and stuck by him and the club for the best part of their careers.
Cant see that anything like that happening with this current lot..

 

[Vicious]

I think you're all focusing on errors and attacking threat which means that Staines and Bateman are being criticised. I'm not saying they were great, but I don't think they're the issue at the moment.

The key focus MUST be physicality and ability in defense. We're not doing anything if we can't control ruck speed and tackle properly. I think both Bateman and Staines are good defensively and you don't replace defensively sound players in our team at the moment.

Raiders ruck speed was ridiculous in the first 15 minutes, we couldn't control it and as a consequence we couldn't get the ball. There's just no point in focusing on anything else until that's fixed. I believe the big problems are as follows:

Seyfarth: simply a poor defender and understrength as well. Canberra targeted him and in the first try he had a poor effort in the preceding tackle and couldn't get into position at marker and then went on to miss Strange as he charged through as a consequence of the speed of the play the ball. He is so poor defensively that he is unplayable. This was obvious before this game, maybe he's a decent link man, but what the hell were they thinking? Obviously they made a mistake because they hooked him after 15 minutes and it cost us any chance of winning the match in playing him. Big big mistake. And an obvious one.

Papalii: I thought he was okay defensively last year. He looks weaker this year. He gets pushed back a lot in defense and has become one of those players who is falling off the tackle and having to scramble back to get into the defensive line after attackers have run through him. He's not a strong 1 on 1 tackler. I'm not sure what you do here. He's obviously one of our better players and physically capable, he just seems really down on confidence, like so many of the players.

Sullivan: One of those defenders who flails around helplessly. Just a weak tackler and doesn't seem to like getting his shoulder in. He's erratic in attack, but my concern is his defense, and I would play Sezer, despite his age and limitations, because he is much tougher.

To'a: Unacceptable lack of physicality out wide. He is always pushed back and sloppy in his technique. It's always hard for centres when they're on the back foot but he often contributes to this momentum early in the set by getting driven back. Terrible effort.

When Pole replaced Seyfarth that made a huge difference to our defense. They didn't look dominant again until Seyfarth came back on in the last 5 minutes and we again started to struggle with the physicality of Canberra. I get Canberra drifted mentally after going up so easily played a part in all that, but it was actually impressive how well the Tigers recouped after they hooked Seyfarth, given the momentum Canberra had. I think Olam will be a better defender than To'a, at least in physicality, and Sezer is a much better defender than Sullivan. And I liked both the Fainu brothers defensively in the trial and Samuela here, so I think there are easy replacements for Seyfarth either starting or on the bench. Samuela was pushed back on a few ocassions but was mostly excellent. We have to stick with Papalii, I just hope he can lift because we need him hitting players.

This is the reason why I'm not looking at Bateman and Staines. I'm also a fan of Twal and Klemmer, two players who seem in the firing line here, because I think they're good defenders who, while not always dominant, do enough to tackle well and ensure at least a regular play the ball speed. They're good defensive players who are willing. This is exactly what we lack at the moment.

Until we fix the physicality and defense our attack is pointless. At least there are signs yesterday that when team selection is okay we can at least avoid embarrassment. I guess that's what we have to look forward to this year.

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.

 

[Tiger Karen]

Yes it’s ironic that Sheens is now gone and the Marshall Farah combo get to experience a kind of reverse deja vu.

As Benji threw the players under the bus in his first official press conference, Im interested to see how they respond.

I appreciated his honesty,but it’s a risky play with some of the egos out there.

He might shock us all and give everyone another go.

Api seems to be settling into these losing press conferences like a veteran.
No criticism too harsh.

 

[tigermate]

I just watched the replay

Sullivan responsible for the first two try’s because he got into marker with weak defense and then doesn’t chase back when line breaks are made

He then doesn’t organize a proper kick on the 5th after we get back in the game with two tries (chip kick inside pass for Bula)

The raiders then score after that.

And then he lets in that try from the penalty down his side.

Honestly he has no heart in defence - super lazy - which cost us 3 tries

And his terrible kicking in the 5th tackle cost us two tries.

If we had sezer on at the start we would have been so much better

We just need to get a proper 5th kick in to the corners and defend

I’m telling you - if the coaches realize this and drop him to #14 or bring in TDS or Fainu when fit we will be a much much better team

In the modern game momentum is so big.

With just kick pressure you can turn a game from 18 points down to a win.

 

[Needaname]

I'm sick of hearing the same old line our coaches spit out every year. The whole "If you train hard you'll get picked" rubbish. I understand that training gives you a good gauge on attitude but when will this club realise that most our squad can't play for shit.

Every team ‘trains the house down’, ‘has the best preseason ever’. Etc.
Something that stuck with me was in one of the Manly Pre Season documentaries where basically the S&C coach said similar to above, but added but we also put an emphasis on training for specific needs and with purpose of game situations and outcomes.
Sticky said something similar this preseason as well.

I’ll ask again who is our S&C team and what is their experience?
If it’s Heino. I’ll see myself out.

 

[The-moP]

i was at the game yesterday and we were dealt the wrong end of a pointy stick .. !! Yes we didnt play well but by crikey that ref wa shocking with his handling of that game .. he constantly had us at 12 to 14m back in defence then held the Raiders around the 8 to 9m .. have no idea what was going on there .. ?? The Raiders lose the ball in a tackle and the ref calls ruck infringement .. wtf .. ?? To'a was injured in a hip drop tackle .. no penalty .. we got done several times for a leg lift tackle .. were the Raiders were doing it as well if not more and didnt get done .. on a 5th and last we put a chip kick in and chased hard and the Raiders fullback dropped it cold ..but the ref then penalised us for in front of the kicker in the chase .. BUT the replay should there was no one in front of the kicker .. WTF .. ?? and when Staines was going for the corner score the Raiders player tackled him around the neck and head with both arms .. penalty awarded but why not a penalty try .. ?? I was sitting amongst a whole bunch of Raiders fans .. and they even said the game was a lot closer if hadnt been for the stupid ref .. one of the Raiders fan said with were given a "raw prawn" by the ref .. well there you go what the hell does that mean .. ?? .. lol no wonder Stef lost his cool he had a raw prawn .. lol

 

[GNR4LIFE]

Every team ‘trains the house down’, ‘has the best preseason ever’. Etc.
Something that stuck with me was in one of the Manly Pre Season documentaries where basically the S&C coach said similar to above, but added but we also put an emphasis on training for specific needs and with purpose of game situations and outcomes.
Sticky said something similar this preseason as well.

I’ll ask again who is our S&C team and what is their experience?
If it’s Heino. I’ll see myself out.

It’s easy to look like a million bucks in the off season when you run drills. As professional athletes, it’s a concern if they don’t. The litmus test is when the season rolls around. People forget every club is doing the same thing over the summer.