LIVE GAME Round 1 vs Knights

Live Game Discussion
Demps said:
I think Terrell & Hunt were immense.

Jack Bird plays with a strange arrogance and confidence, like he has a chip on his shoulder. He's in for a big year.

Galvin, seemed to try hard but nothing worked out his way. Disappointing.

Romey was solid... hoping the team gels more in coming weeks.
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Terrell and Hunt were good but Hunt needs to get some of the dumb shit out of his game.

Expecting a lot more from Sam Fainu, played better and looked nastier when he had no hair.

Jack Bird may be a chance to have a big year if he learns how to play the ball properly.

Galvin's kicking game was putrid.

Romey's kick that gave away a 7 tackle set resulted in a try for Newcastle but we probably had at least half a dozen missed tackles on that play alone, so not all Romey's fault.

55 missed tackles, two thirds of which were in the second half was disgusting and it was only Newcastle errors and some 50/50 calls going our way that kept the scoreline close.

We still look clueless in the oppositions 20.

Was always nervous for this game and really didn't expect us to win, but on the positive side, half our spine was missing and they haven't even played together yet so if we are going to get better, I don't really expect it to happen over night.

Bring on round 2.
 
What the hell have we been doing all off season? No plan on attack, just one out rubbish. Atrocious defence. Perhaps the most putrid kicking game we've seen in years. Luai passing the buck to a kid who was having a shocker. A team that can still only play for 50 minutes before they run out of gas. Unforgivable lack of fitness. Unthinkable to have no gameplan in attack.

It would be understandable if execution was off, little playing time together, new combinations, but yet they didn't try a single attacking move all game after the first try. Nothing. Just one out runs. Absolutely pitiful.

Our coaching staff may not last till June if this continues. I liked Romeys commitment and competitive spirit, made some great defensive plays, but he was playing like a backup player all game, not taking ownership of the team like he says he wanted to.

Absolute disaster of a Match, if not for Newcastle's own crap play they could have put on 40+. Only positives were May and Skelton.
Hopefully they're back at training on Sunday after church. I don't know how they can regain fitness at this late stage though
 
king_sirro said:
What? We were utterly disgraceful in every aspect of the game. If we can't beat Newcastle at home when Newcastle were terrible themselves then we have no hope. That performance was embarrassing. We looked uncoached in attack and defence, we looked unfit, and we were our typical brain dead selves. Challenge up our sleeve and we don't use it with 2 minutes to go when we would have got the ball back attacking Newcastle's line. There is zero football IQ in this group. The hype is all fluff and once we blow this easy draw we have to start the season, we will all crawl back into our holes and start talking about rebuilds again.
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I find this a weird take, I didn't think Tigers were all that bad. Especially the close scoreline.

For me there were basically a few sets where we got really tired and grabby and the Knights were able to sort of fumble their way to the try line.

Our try line defence was actually alright and we made good ground on our sets. Most of the bombs were decently placed and the kick chase was good.

Knights worked the ruck very heavily and ref didn't do much about it, I don't recall any 6-agains. Credit to Knights they were hard to crack and our major issue was same as last year - could not make the most of our attacking opportunities, though Knights were equally wasteful / impotent.

I thought there was a clear difference, easily enough to account for 2 point deficit - Ponga. Those few plays where he got out of the in-goal and then hot-stepped midfield which disrupted our defensive line. He put Lucas into the gap that lead to their first try and he was very good at predicting where we would kick, because he was never caught out of position.
 
happy_tiger said:
Mason has a lot of relatives that post on the Forum .......rate him against the other 16 fullbacks in the NRL and see where finishes
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It's as good as I've ever seen him play, I think mostly safe except for one dropped bomb and willing in the carry. Just doesn't quite have the power or speed to get to that next level.
 
Obviously disappointing game and I agree we looked poor for big parts of the match. But really, round 1 and we were missing arguably our best player and fullback plus our first choice right centre (not that To’a is going to change much but he is better than Faatape).

Biggest concern is our edges which we all knew before the game. Real lack of athleticism in our second row, halves and centres. Need to get some proper athletes in those positions. Middles I thought were decent and better yardage from our wings which is also promising.

Do really think we will be playing through the middle a lot this year and so API will be crucial.
 
Firstly- we didn't get drubbed. It wasn't a pretty game, but we didn't see Newcastle lap us- small positive.

Newcastle were, however, their own worst enemy & looked very disjointed.

Thought our middles looked ok in attack- May obviously, but Twal did his bit too. Hunt, Pole & Sione Fainu were ok. Pole needs to become more rounded- his defence is ugly- filling his gap is a huge issue, particularly around the ruck. Bird looked strong in defence, surprisingly.

Galvin stifled the attack. Hardly looked to bring another player into the game. The very complaint many have about Doueihi's passing- was exactly what Galvin was doing. His kicking was poor. It was a bad hitout for Galvin. Luai was involved, but once we lost any momentum, he faded in effectiveness.

I thought Turuva helped the defence out wide, making some good decisions. Doueihi & Faataape didn't lose the game with their defence. Skelton was one of our best.

I'd look at Mason to play a centre position on Bula's return.

In the second half the wheels fell off. I'm no guru, but I have to wonder if the message was to not give penalties away- after last year with all the sin bins, I actually felt like we were overly cautious & we released the tackled player WAY too quickly. This gave the Knights some insane momentum throughout the last 40 minutes.

No point getting too upset yet. I expect that there will be players coming into the top squad over the course of the next few weeks once all the grades have played- the centre & second row spots are still not set & expect that what we see week 1 isn't what we finish with.

We need to be more direct in attack, before we shift wide to let Galvin....well, run, because he's not fond of passing. We need Sam Fainu & Doueihi to run lines off Luai or Galvin passes- changing the angle & catching defenders in 2 minds.
 
I thought Benji’s use of the interchange was really poor. May was gassed and struggling yet hadn’t had a spell, and I think the fatigue in the middle could have been avoided.

Just shows how far we’re behind other clubs. We’re either unfit or poorly coached (or both).
 
We were pedestrian in attack, looked just like a round one attacking side with multiple new combinations that haven’t had the whole preseason to train positionally together.
We did see the unity of the team. Up until about the 50min mark all that scramble took effect on the fatigue.
Newcastle it’s been mentioned have been a similar side for the past 4 years now. Also played finals 3 out of 4 of the past 4. It showed. Would have been a different result had not taken the two and prehaps jagged another try when we had the momentum.
But an 8-0 score line was always going to be chased down.
Takeaways.
Ponga’s class! Positionally excellent and dragged Galvin into a bit of game by offering up space and options that he quickly covered.
Obstructions for both of Newcastle’s line breaks that led to tries? The first being Croker who ran the unders line for Ponga to play out the back of, stops dead in from of Seyfarth to allow a clean passage for Lucas to cut through.
Second Shiller off the offload just nonchalantly runs behind Cogger making Jarome and Douehi chase him from a distance and enabled him to make the line break at speed. In my opinion this was an unfair advantage and should have been penalised.
Ruck tactics. Both Packs had probably similar effectiveness with the ball but it was without the ball that Newcastles forwards were more effective. Getting 3 in tackles and really slowing down our time from tackle to play the ball. Allowed Newcastle to have a fixed line present pretty much all game.
Our young ‘stars’. Enough said about Galvin, he is finding his feet on the right. Would love him to stay on his edge more often and play more right side, left side.
Mason was a touch out of position at times, which affected the attacking shape and options. TDS rose to the challenge, missed some tackles and got a bit grabby in defence in the back end of the game but wasn’t alone with just about all our side including our million dollar man missing crucial tackles in the middle of the field.
 
jirskyr said:
I find this a weird take, I didn't think Tigers were all that bad. Especially the close scoreline.

For me there were basically a few sets where we got really tired and grabby and the Knights were able to sort of fumble their way to the try line.

Our try line defence was actually alright and we made good ground on our sets. Most of the bombs were decently placed and the kick chase was good.

Knights worked the ruck very heavily and ref didn't do much about it, I don't recall any 6-agains. Credit to Knights they were hard to crack and our major issue was same as last year - could not make the most of our attacking opportunities, though Knights were equally wasteful / impotent.

I thought there was a clear difference, easily enough to account for 2 point deficit - Ponga. Those few plays where he got out of the in-goal and then hot-stepped midfield which disrupted our defensive line. He put Lucas into the gap that lead to their first try and he was very good at predicting where we would kick, because he was never caught out of position.
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This caught my attention as well. Imo speed was the real difference, they had it we didn’t.
 
Yossarian said:
50 minutes it took. Missed the all you can eat Pizza Hut!

And people complain about Leichhardt.
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Like anywhere, don’t park in car parks at sporting events. The key is getting there early and knowing the best spots, research!
I’ve parked in the same areas at both Campbelltown and Leichhardt for over 20 years, and have no problem getting out fast. Campbelltown last nite out in 2 minutes, u park across the road from the hill side, then your virtually on the freeway home.
 
jirskyr said:
I find this a weird take, I didn't think Tigers were all that bad. Especially the close scoreline.

For me there were basically a few sets where we got really tired and grabby and the Knights were able to sort of fumble their way to the try line.

Our try line defence was actually alright and we made good ground on our sets. Most of the bombs were decently placed and the kick chase was good.

Knights worked the ruck very heavily and ref didn't do much about it, I don't recall any 6-agains. Credit to Knights they were hard to crack and our major issue was same as last year - could not make the most of our attacking opportunities, though Knights were equally wasteful / impotent.

I thought there was a clear difference, easily enough to account for 2 point deficit - Ponga. Those few plays where he got out of the in-goal and then hot-stepped midfield which disrupted our defensive line. He put Lucas into the gap that lead to their first try and he was very good at predicting where we would kick, because he was never caught out of position.
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Mate we showed no improvement in our attack or defence from last year. Knights blew so many chances, if they played half decent we get beat by 30 on our home ground by a team that has no halves. I can't see how anyone sees positives out of that game.
 
2041 said:
May's average PTB speed was 3.81 seconds, the quickest of all our forwards but almost the slowest of theirs. He is literally the opposite of the worst offender.

Here all all non-hooker forwards in the game in order of PTB speed:
Hetherington: 3.42 seconds
Frizell: 3.44 seconds
Jones: 3.58 seconds
Saifiti: 3.59 seconds
Thompson: 3.59 seconds
Croker: 3.62 seconds
Pearce-Paul: 3.65 seconds
May: 3.81 seconds
Lucas: 3.84 seconds
Hunt: 3.9 seconds
Twal: 3.92 seconds
Pole: 4 seconds
Samuela Fainu: 4.25 seconds
Seyfarth: 4.33 seconds
Bird: 4.6 seconds
Sione Fainu: 5.1 seconds
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I found myself urging him to play it quicker nearly every hit up. I can't argue against the numbers u provide, but It goes against the impression I had. Maybe it was because May made more inroads into the defence I expect quicker play the balls on those types of carries compared to what I expect when I player gets dominated. Could be that. If he shows more urgency on those good carries we could get a real roll on
 
Watched the game in an airport lounge in Berlin…. Tough loss. Knights looked totally undercooked compared to us early on. Our recruits are terrific.

Lack of experience changed the game. Galvin got too kick happy in the 2nd half, also Mason looked really uncomfortable as the game went on. Seyfarth is still a liability.

We had 3 teenagers in our spine, and like 5 debutants. It’s was sort of match where experience beats raw talent.
 
Most disappointing thing about our attack wasn't a lack of execution, but what looked like a complete lack of a plan. Every other team has been running plays and knowing their jobs - our plan was slowly shift it sideways and hope

Galvins worst game in first grade. Would've liked to see Luai step up more.

The boys worked hard on defence to their credit but like every single game the last 5 years, they looked completely gassed 50-60 minutes in. I don't get it!
 
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