LIVE GAME Round 8 v Sharks

[stephen]

What a glorious Monday.

Yep. The sun shines a little brighter, the birds singing a little more sweetly. Life's good!!

 

[weststigers]

Officials definitely need to have a thorough review
Abdo clearly states in the article that “The sin bin is for serious acts of foul play and he thinks that there have been instances where it hasn’t met that threshold".

So during the Parra game,
Tuilagi shoulder charge - only on report
Moses swinging forearm on Laulilii only on report

Of course the fans are frustrated.
It's the obvious decisions that are wrong

Don't know if this is the answer, but surely the NRL can incentivise ex-players to follow a career after football as a referee after some training? Make the pay good enough and you'll get enough takers.

 

[Jolls]

How's the Darling looking, Jolls? Decent flow?

Trip was excellent; Menindee weir was open, water about 4m below the bank at Tilpa, minor flooding up around Bourke, water was just below the second level of the pier with about 1m to rise this week. The Darling looks good when it is full of water.

 

[stephen]

Trip was excellent; Menindee weir was open, water about 4m below the bank at Tilpa, minor flooding up around Bourke, water was just below the second level of the pier with about 1m to rise this week. The Darling looks good when it is full of water.

Certainly does. Great country out there.

 

[Needaname]

Hi Team, just got back from doing the Darling River run over the Easter/ANZAC period. Got back in time to catch the game and like you all was impressed with our resolve. There is still much to work on but Benji has got us in the right frame. I'm not going to go into depth of what I took from the game as most of the key points have already been covered.

I do want to touch on the attacking side of the game though. We are still clunky but as many have already pointed out Sam F is starting to hit his straps and our edge plays are getting better; however, we seem to be too much ad lib and not enough structure.

I am going to go into depth on our attack in the deep dive but what I think we are expereincing is the evolution of our attacking structues. I have raised it on several occasions but for ad lib footy to be enabled it needs to be conducted within a structure. We are starting to see our edges understading when and where to run. It is easy to do this at training - but until you have game intensity that timing tends to be off. Sam F, and to a lesser extent our Baby Giraffe are starting to provide targets, in the right place and at the right time for our halves to hit.

In addtion Benji does not appear to be content with following what other teams are doing in attack. Which is a great thing as doing so means that we will forever be behind them in this regard. This is not for the feint hearted and we are going to make errors that may be costly at times; but, there is potential that once we have the mechanics right for us we will be playing a brand of football that the others teams will only come up against a few times a year whereas we will be facing the same type of attack, for the most part, week in week out. That is a distinct advantage.

Hi Jolls,
I’ve noticed our backline is on both edges is set very flat, with not a lot of depth or players set behind players in shifts. (Comparatively in the same game, Cronulla had wide angles in there set at 45 degrees and even deeper.)
Also Bulla is a right side player not a sweeping fullback but he follows up the middle pretty well.
I don’t know if it’s fitness with Bula but he’s not the sort of fullback where he just pops up in all the key places like Gutherson does.
What are your thoughts on this?

 

[Needaname]

Agreed. But is it evenly humanly possible for him to keep doing this over a whole season? Logic would dictate it’s not, but he does seem to be a bit inhuman. A true freak in the greatest sense of the word.

Is it similar to some of the efforts of Issah Yeo across the recent seasons at Penrith?
I know May is named at Prop and definitely takes the prop Carry’s but does he play a bit more of a lock for us with Twal playing as our prop?

 

[SeanT]

Agreed, though he is probably the only player in our current side that can address some of the kicking deficiencies that you brought up.

How good was the kickoff in golden point that Talyn dropped? Used the wind and dropped perfectly.

 

[Jolls]

Hi Jolls,
I’ve noticed our backline is on both edges is set very flat, with not a lot of depth or players set behind players in shifts. (Comparatively in the same game, Cronulla had wide angles in there set at 45 degrees and even deeper.)
Also Bulla is a right side player not a sweeping fullback but he follows up the middle pretty well.
I don’t know if it’s fitness with Bula but he’s not the sort of fullback where he just pops up in all the key places like Gutherson does.
What are your thoughts on this?

I think the reason is that we play a more eyes up game as opposed to trying to shape other teams using set plays. Having a flat 4 means that we are better set up to run sweep plays where we can target specific players or areas. We haven't got the coordintation quite right yet - especially on Galvin's flank - but the Luai/Sam F combination is starting to come along.

I did a deep dive on this today here and it covers off where I think we are headed in a bit more detail.

 

[hodgo]

I agree he does give 110% but unfortunately along with that comes his weekly 1 penalty, 1 six again and 1 error. In the past the timing of his errors has proved very costly. We got away with it yesterday.

Can't agree sorry the dude has absolutely improved in that area. He was a liability the last fee years but the back end of last year and this year he has been very controlled

 

[jirskyr]

Royce Hunt had 28 minutes and even though he missed tackles, he made 127m from 13 hit ups with 66 post contact metres. 66 pcm is crazy for 28 minutes. He's a unit.

He was very effective in his first stint because Sharks were turning the screws defensively and big Royce got them on the backfoot again. Most of our other forwards can't bend the line like that when the opposition has momentum and put 3 into each tackle.

 

[jirskyr]

an incredible, uncharacteristic Wests Tigers win.

it's as simple as this: if you work hard, you'll create your own luck.

Agree; also if you compete every week you'll probably win half of the close matches... winning half your total matches (12/24) gets you into finals footy.

The past decade unfortunately Tigers have only competed maybe 50% of the matches and win half of those, i.e. ~6 matches.

 

[ATown]

Is it similar to some of the efforts of Issah Yeo across the recent seasons at Penrith?
I know May is named at Prop and definitely takes the prop Carry’s but does he play a bit more of a lock for us with Twal playing as our prop?

Potentially. May is carrying a bigger frame though and doing more grunt work. Anyway seems as though he loves it. The mental side of it is 3/4 of the battle. I imagine if we’re winning enough games and in the hunt for finals it would keep him motivated.

I would also be upgrading and extending his contract. He deserves it.

 

[Needaname]

Completely off topic, but I noticed when seeing close up on camera of a players jerseys that there is a tiger head emblazoned around the chest on our current jerseys.

 

[Suzie-Q]

Hi Jolls,
I’ve noticed our backline is on both edges is set very flat, with not a lot of depth or players set behind players in shifts. (Comparatively in the same game, Cronulla had wide angles in there set at 45 degrees and even deeper.)
Also Bulla is a right side player not a sweeping fullback but he follows up the middle pretty well.
I don’t know if it’s fitness with Bula but he’s not the sort of fullback where he just pops up in all the key places like Gutherson does.
What are your thoughts on this?

I haven't watched the replay, but at the game, I thought on the kick-off, Bula would get the ball and Royce or Samuela, who were running off the back fence on his left, but he kept looking right and then spinning around to pass to the right, but by then, the big guys had lost all momentum.

 

[tigerslad]

Just realised that Liam Kennedy was in the bunker and was responsible for that Pole sinbinning... So, after he missed the Tuilagi tackle the week before that had him suspended for 3 rounds, he decides that the Pole tackle warranted a sin binning? This bloke should not have a job and there is nothing/no-one that can convince me he doesn't have an agenda against the Tigers. Absolute idiot

 

[Red88_Tiger]

Just realised that Liam Kennedy was in the bunker and was responsible for that Pole sinbinning... So, after he missed the Tuilagi tackle the week before that had him suspended for 3 rounds, he decides that the Pole tackle warranted a sin binning? This bloke should not have a job and there is nothing/no-one that can convince me he doesn't have an agenda against the Tigers. Absolute idiot

Surprised he let the mutitalo one go

 

[BrissieTiger67]

So...just checking. Has anyone else rewatched the last 15 minutes maybe 5 or 10 times or just me? 🤔

 

[Tigers_Wests]

So...just checking. Has anyone else rewatched the last 15 minutes maybe 5 or 10 times or just me? 🤔

Rewatched my foxtel recording yesterday. Because it ran long, it cuts out at the start of the 2nd golden point half. I had a good feeling about how it was going to end too! Haha

 

[lathami]

You would have to wonder how Pole was sin binned for that. Check out Talagi's shoulder charge in the Parramatta game and compare the two. What an absolute joke. Pole merely walked up to him to stop his forward movement.

Well he did try a little hit on him but was soft and not deserving of a sin bin, no way. But a trigger happy ref in a box jumping at shadows. I agree though, we really should of lost the game due to that poor decision.

 

[AmericanHistoryX]

The Sharks have been told that they were denied a blatant penalty in the early stages of extra time in their golden-point loss to Wests Tigers.

A Nicho Hynes field goal in the 82nd minute with the scores locked at 18-18 was charged down by Tigers forward Alex Seyfarth, who was clearly offside.

He was neither at marker or on the goal line, standing to the side of the ruck and in front of his teammates and referee Grant Atkins.

Seyfarth then rushed out of the line with Jahream Bula to charge Hynes’ kick down, which looked headed for the posts from close range.

The Tigers regained possession after the ricochet, via a captain’s challenge, and eventually went on to record a 20-18 win when Sharks prop Tom Hazelton was penalised for stripping in the 89th minute.

According to a NewsCorp report, the NRL has informed Cronulla officials that they should have received a penalty, which would have resulted in an un-missable kick at goal 10 metres out right in front.

Liam Kennedy was the Bunker official who had the opportunity to penalise Seyfarth as he reviewed the play after the Tigers challenged Atkins’ decision on who should retain possession after the scramble to pounce on the ball following the chargedown.

But while Kennedy has lost his Bunker role this weekend for Magic Round, he will be the on-field ref for Saturday’s South Sydney vs Newcastle fixture.