LIVE GAME Round 21 vs. Warriors

[bptiger 0]

Only backline player that belongs is Bula, just not sold if it's at fullback yet. In D he is good at reading the game but his A is atrocious, has no idea when to shift or hold the ball. He set up the try in the corner yesterday for Staines but there were another 2 - 3 times in the game if he shifts the ball we have numbers but he holds it. Maybe needs some mentoring.

I thought inglis was helping him , guess that’s not working out , just like all the other coaches we have

 

[Vicious]

I thought inglis was helping him , guess that’s not working out , just like all the other coaches we have

He doesn’t seem to be able to get in the right places or get his hands on the ball enough in attacking positions.
To really bring him into the game we need a lot more offloads as the second phase attack looks to be the best way of getting him involved.

 

[tiger_one]

This is how it's done:

 

[king_sirro]

This is how it's done:



View attachment 14042

He really overplayed that finish and ran the risk of stuffing it up. No one was near him. On the positive side though, it may indicate he has been working on these types of finishers at training, which he should be doing.

 

[king_sirro]

He doesn’t seem to be able to get in the right places or get his hands on the ball enough in attacking positions.
To really bring him into the game we need a lot more offloads as the second phase attack looks to be the best way of getting him involved.

Heard he is struggling mentally with anxiety and lack of confidence. Hope the club manages that appropriately. It may well be in his best interest to play centre and take that heat off him. While I think he adds most value at fullback, I have no doubt he would be great at centre. I reckon his defence would be a highlight.

 

[Vicious]

Heard he is struggling mentally with anxiety and lack of confidence. Hope the club manages that appropriately. It may well be in his best interest to play centre and take that heat off him. While I think he adds most value at fullback, I have no doubt he would be great at centre. I reckon his defence would be a highlight.

I agree 💯
Plenty on this forum such as yourself seem to think I love criticising Bula, believe me I don’t.
He is a freakish athlete, but clearly lacks confidence and as you have stated, fullback is probably the most high pressure position on the field.
Give him a crack playing as a centre to take the pressure off and who knows we could possibly unlock his undeniable talent.
Staines is a much better fullback than he is as a winger, so he’d be the obvious replacement, but also consider Heath Mason who is a very on the ball type of fullback which could potentially create so much more attacking opportunity because if it. I will say Mason needs improvement under the high ball and has not shown much confidence defending at the back, so we would lose plenty defensively with him, but would all he adds in attack outweigh what would be lost in defence ?

 

[balmain boy]

Your statement was that the Laulilii's and Mason are 'highly unlikely' to make it as first graders.

A completely baseless and take.

Based on averages. Most tiny players don't make it. If they do they need time to grow and develop. And to have some exceptional traits. Throwing them into first grade before they're ready is a guaranteed way to make them fail

 

[AmericanHistoryX]

This is how it's done:



View attachment 14042

Great photo.

 

[AmericanHistoryX]

Heard he is struggling mentally with anxiety and lack of confidence. Hope the club manages that appropriately. It may well be in his best interest to play centre and take that heat off him. While I think he adds most value at fullback, I have no doubt he would be great at centre. I reckon his defence would be a highlight.

Like getting someone in their to guide these young guys.

 

[BlackWhiteGold]

Heard he is struggling mentally with anxiety and lack of confidence. Hope the club manages that appropriately. It may well be in his best interest to play centre and take that heat off him. While I think he adds most value at fullback, I have no doubt he would be great at centre. I reckon his defence would be a highlight.

I am starting to come around to this idea too. Could give Turuva an opportunity to fight for FB or we go hard to bring Papz home after he wins this year’s premiership.

 

[balmain boy]

I agree 💯
Plenty on this forum such as yourself seem to think I love criticising Bula, believe me I don’t.
He is a freakish athlete, but clearly lacks confidence and as you have stated, fullback is probably the most high pressure position on the field.
Give him a crack playing as a centre to take the pressure off and who knows we could possibly unlock his undeniable talent.
Staines is a much better fullback than he is as a winger, so he’d be the obvious replacement, but also consider Heath Mason who is a very on the ball type of fullback which could potentially create so much more attacking opportunity because if it. I will say Mason needs improvement under the high ball and has not shown much confidence defending at the back, so we would lose plenty defensively with him, but would all he adds in attack outweigh what would be lost in defence ?

We've got to stop asking players to learn their craft in first grade. Mason is a long way off first grade. He's only 18 though so that's to be expected.
Bula is still barely a first grader at the moment. He's got some talent, no doubt. But he still doesn't know how to play fullback, which is understandable when he'd never played there until 18 months ago. He also does have the right attitude to play fullback currently, and this rubs off on the rest of the squad. He's too casual, he plays with zero intensity, the fullback needs to be leading the team in defence and by kickstarting our sets, instead he just walks. He needs to get the basics right, and start playing at 80% full steam at all times

 

[The Chad]

I agree 💯
Plenty on this forum such as yourself seem to think I love criticising Bula, believe me I don’t.
He is a freakish athlete, but clearly lacks confidence and as you have stated, fullback is probably the most high pressure position on the field.
Give him a crack playing as a centre to take the pressure off and who knows we could possibly unlock his undeniable talent.
Staines is a much better fullback than he is as a winger, so he’d be the obvious replacement, but also consider Heath Mason who is a very on the ball type of fullback which could potentially create so much more attacking opportunity because if it. I will say Mason needs improvement under the high ball and has not shown much confidence defending at the back, so we would lose plenty defensively with him, but would all he adds in attack outweigh what would be lost in defence ?

If anything, Mason should be the 5/8 doing Terry Lamb type things.

 

[The Chad]

Bula is a fullback.

He's so similar to David Peachey in his running style. He's a second year player, in a team that gains zero momentum, with halves that are either too young or just not creative enough.

However, he's unflappable, doesn't wave his arms around in exasperation like some other 18-19 year olds in the team, very secure in defence, & covers so many line breaks with nearly no recognition for his one on one defence at all.

With Luai & a forward or two that can offload- you have a potential elite level fullback.

Whenever there is a significant linebreak- who are the two players almost always involved in support?

 

[Vicious]

Bula is a fullback.

He's so similar to David Peachey in his running style. He's a second year player, in a team that gains zero momentum, with halves that are either too young or just not creative enough.

However, he's unflappable, doesn't wave his arms around in exasperation like some other 18-19 year olds in the team, very secure in defence, & covers so many line breaks with nearly no recognition for his one on one defence at all.

With Luai & a forward or two that can offload- you have a potential elite level fullback.

Whenever there is a significant linebreak- who are the two players almost always involved in support?

Mostly nobody and that is another problem.
Ideally Mason needs to keep working on being rock solid under the high ball and improving his overall defence and I think he will as he’s still very young and learning quickly.
In saying that the highlights from yesterday’s NSW Cup win showed glimpses of what Mason adds to a team with him being there when a break or half break is made and his added value as a playmaker who can chime into the backline and create for his centre or winger.
I still think we should be developing Onitoni Large as a fullback as his lightning pace, exceptional ball running, combined with his ability to play in the halves means he has all the attributes to be a potential superstar.

 

[watersider]

I think Bula is terrific as a fullback. We are a well beaten side every week and he still comes up with stuff and makes plays. I'm surprised he's criticised for effort. I'd say it's more inexperience that does him sometimes but look at him tackling in the defensive line on our goalline and his desperation around that. Just really harsh to criticise his play when he so often makes the big catch under pressure. He is capable of getting down field whenever we stop tripping over ourselves and shift the ball wide, we just do it so rarely that it's hard for him to have much impact. His pass last night to staines was one of the classiest plays of the season.

We on here do not properly appreciate how difficult it is to play on the back foot without momentum all the time, to have every opposition kick be met by a wall of defenders with no space to move. Because our forwards get smashed he is always returning the ball into a well set defensive line, if he even has time to return it rather than getting smashed straight away. Compare that to just about every other quality fullback who often get up to 20 metres of room when they start to return. Then couple that with a whole season of this relentless grind of getting nothing but bashed and you can appreciate how difficult it is to look good in attack. And yet Bula does, and he also tackles well as a fullback and has been probably as consistent as any player on our team. And yet there's people talking about his effort. I just don't see that at all, and I don't think it's right that in such a rubbish team we should knock a player who has such consistency and promise.

As for the suggestion of him playing centre, I think he'd go well there, and if you had an elite fullback you'd happily move him. However, left isolated at centre on our team I'd guess he's going to go missing because the issue with our team is not the quality of our outside backs (though they are bad) it is our complete lack of go forward which means we get no momentum in our sets which means we only see our backs feature in defensive misreads and carting it up in brutal hit ups where they get belted.

Keeping Bula at fullback is better than wasting him at centre.

 

[BlackWhiteGold]

Fine for Seyfarth

NRL Judiciary Report: Kiwi games counted in NAS ban

Storm prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona will only miss one game at the start of the 2025 season after it was ruled that three of New Zealand's Pac Champs game would count as part of his ban.

www.nrl.com

 

[Vicious]

I think Bula is terrific as a fullback. We are a well beaten side every week and he still comes up with stuff and makes plays. I'm surprised he's criticised for effort. I'd say it's more inexperience that does him sometimes but look at him tackling in the defensive line on our goalline and his desperation around that. Just really harsh to criticise his play when he so often makes the big catch under pressure. He is capable of getting down field whenever we stop tripping over ourselves and shift the ball wide, we just do it so rarely that it's hard for him to have much impact. His pass last night to staines was one of the classiest plays of the season.

We on here do not properly appreciate how difficult it is to play on the back foot without momentum all the time, to have every opposition kick be met by a wall of defenders with no space to move. Because our forwards get smashed he is always returning the ball into a well set defensive line, if he even has time to return it rather than getting smashed straight away. Compare that to just about every other quality fullback who often get up to 20 metres of room when they start to return. Then couple that with a whole season of this relentless grind of getting nothing but bashed and you can appreciate how difficult it is to look good in attack. And yet Bula does, and he also tackles well as a fullback and has been probably as consistent as any player on our team. And yet there's people talking about his effort. I just don't see that at all, and I don't think it's right that in such a rubbish team we should knock a player who has such consistency and promise.

As for the suggestion of him playing centre, I think he'd go well there, and if you had an elite fullback you'd happily move him. However, left isolated at centre on our team I'd guess he's going to go missing because the issue with our team is not the quality of our outside backs (though they are bad) it is our complete lack of go forward which means we get no momentum in our sets which means we only see our backs feature in defensive misreads and carting it up in brutal hit ups where they get belted.

Keeping Bula at fullback is better than wasting him at centre.

Personally I can’t see a problem with his effort, it’s his confidence and involvement in attack tgat is the concern.
If we get a better team balance around him it’s likely his involvement and effectiveness will be much better, no doubt about that.
You could also say the same about Charlie Staines who also gets heavily criticised by our fans.

 

[bptiger 0]

U know if we had won that winable game with the slimmmy eels getting done and us having a bye up our sleeves, we could avoid that wooden spoon , but the ceo and coach have killed any hope we my have had , letting players walk and players going to England to win a championship is really bad for the rest of the team . RICHO are u helping us or u working for some other club

 

[AmericanHistoryX]

Parramatta are a class above. Well, half a class...

 

[Twodogs]

Good post and I agree... I'd just add Benji cannot teach these kids anything.

He'd probably go OK coaching a team full of 5 year + NRL veterans but he's not the guy to be coaching kids debuting at 18 & 20 years of age

Benji's talents are attracting players and player management. He needs support to cover all of his shortcomings, but it can be done.

In modern football teams, coaches are figureheads and leaders. And that means delegating. Technical guidance is the domain of specialist coaches such as for backs and forwards. I have doubts WT have a comprehensive structure in place. This is where a club needs more than footy heads.