LIVE GAME Round 16 v Raiders

[GNR4LIFE]

They turn up at leichardt when we are losing

Au contraire

Games last year at LO

Round 3 vs Sharks - 15, 990
Round 15 vs Titans - 8,147
Round 18 vs Storm - 10, 311
Round 22 vs Cowboys - 7,231
Round 25 vs Manly - 11, 520

 

[Vicious]

De Silva was living in the grubbz world. Let him go and join that world. No more i'm important. More TEAM FIRST. I still hope he is not a GAL/GRUB. I hope he hangs around and learns the art. More better hookers out of our team then any other.

What let him go and win competitions at another club while we continue to finish bottom 4 ?
Yeah that makes sense.

 

[gregjm87]

Yeah, too bad he doesn’t count. Rookies who have only played 20 odd games don’t count.

Id agree if he was a kid adapting to the pace of the game and learning his role (like his brothers) but given he spent years languishing in ressies before debuting I'm happy to count him.

 

[Droppy05]

Anyone else thinking TDS doesn't suit / fit into the culture we are building?

For better or worse, we're pushing a real brotherhood, of sorts.

Galvin reportably didn't like the relationship Luai & Benji had formed.... by all reports there has always been a real desire from Luai to play with Latu in the halves.

Let's just say.... if the lads are having a BBQ, perhaps TDS wouldn't get an invite.

I think TDS is liked by the squad. Not a dick head like Galvin is.

 

[Alex Seyfarth's #1 Fan]

With Benji, I have put this question out there a few times and have not gotten one taker, so I’ll try again. Is there one player, just one, who has improved under him?

• Doueihi has gotten better at tackling and defending in general
• Terrel May and Starford To'a are both in career best form
• Alex Twal learned how to pass
• Sione Fainu was barely reserve grade level a few years ago, now held his own against one of the best packs in the league
• And finally, Alex Seyfarth is now the best second rower in the world and the only reason he isn't already an immortal is that you have to be retired for 5+ years before you can be eligible

 

[Tom Shines]

Samuela played well, but someone like David Fifita would have scored 2 or 3 tries with the same opportunities.
Samuela’s extra leg speed would make him very valuable in the middle and still capable of shifting to the edge when required.
Api is one of our games great competitors, he’s been a great player for us, but he’s running on old legs and our coach is too blind to see it.
Talyn is just about the quickest number 9 in the NRL, giving him no game time when we were on the front foot as much as we were tonight was a massive mistake.

Fafita hasn’t scored 2 or 3 tries in 2 or 3 years 😀..

Sam’s leg speed works on the edges too… it’s much harder to find good edges than middles in my opinion …we have trouble finding either…

I do agree with you about Api and Tallyn …scary that we are in the minority here though …

 

[GNR4LIFE]

Predictable.
Youre moving the goalposts.

You asked "is there one player, just one"

You've been given several

None of them have, bar maybe To’a. People are naming Turuva, who won premierships, May who was already a beast and rookies who have played less then 20 games, with nothing to gauge improvement on. You know the player I’m talking about. A dude who was a plodder, didn’t do much, then suddenly looks like a different player. You cannot measure rookies on that scale because they are virtually unknown quantities.

 

[mtd#2]

What let him go and win competitions at another club while we continue to finish bottom 4 ?
Yeah that makes sense.

All of a sudden TDS is a player that's going to win premierships... Based on what exactly?

 

[Tucker]

Anyone else thinking TDS doesn't suit / fit into the culture we are building?

For better or worse, we're pushing a real brotherhood, of sorts.

Galvin reportably didn't like the relationship Luai & Benji had formed.... by all reports there has always been a real desire from Luai to play with Latu in the halves.

Let's just say.... if the lads are having a BBQ, perhaps TDS wouldn't get an invite.

Yes and I said it a few months ago.
Galvin, TDS and likely others live outside the brash “look at me” big chain, diamond earring loud hip hop or rap type culture that many in the team embrace. You can see it in Mays vlogs.. Most of the team talk like illiterate street trash yet quite a few shun the spotlight.
It’s all good, but if you are going to create a culture, it has to be inclusive.

 

[Wa_Mag_Tig]

Anyone else thinking TDS doesn't suit / fit into the culture we are building?

For better or worse, we're pushing a real brotherhood, of sorts.

Galvin reportably didn't like the relationship Luai & Benji had formed.... by all reports there has always been a real desire from Luai to play with Latu in the halves.

Let's just say.... if the lads are having a BBQ, perhaps TDS wouldn't get an invite.

Demps. I Think the Galvin thing has got to him and i wouldn't be surprisded if Gus has had a hand in it. Maloney out??? It sucks but we still got Api.

 

[Tom Shines]

Anyone else thinking TDS doesn't suit / fit into the culture we are building?

For better or worse, we're pushing a real brotherhood, of sorts.

Galvin reportably didn't like the relationship Luai & Benji had formed.... by all reports there has always been a real desire from Luai to play with Latu in the halves.

Let's just say.... if the lads are having a BBQ, perhaps TDS wouldn't get an invite.

I don’t think they need to all be besties … also, the best thing to bring the players closer would be winning more games

 

[innsaneink]

Surprised by some of the negativity here..

We played really well in the 2nd half and are doing well with what we have...

We are always competing..

4 points within the inform competition leading raiders? Pretty good considering what we are working with.

Sorry mate this narrative is getting tedious and quite worn out by round 14
Yes yiure are correct but we were garbage in the first half...woulda shoulda coulda aint cuttin it any more.
Id prefer ugly wins playing crap than losses playing well

 

[tiger_one]

Crowd reaction to the bunker:

 

[Moh]

I think many of us would be OK with that loss if it wasn't the fifth straight one.

Raiders are a very strong team, and we had our chances to win that.

 

[GNR4LIFE]

I think many of us would be OK with that loss if it wasn't the fifth straight one.

Raiders are a very strong team, and we had our chances to win that.

It didn’t feel like we were ever going to win it, at least to me. We just don’t know how to finish games off. Mystifying really when you look at our spine, but somehow it’s where we are at. That falls back on the coaching. Or lack thereof.

 

[WesternSuburbsBoy]

Only so many times I can leave a game and think we didn’t win but we’re improving… starting to become deflating

 

[Demps]

Yes and I said it a few months ago.
Galvin, TDS and likely others live outside the brash “look at me” big chain, diamond earring loud hip hop or rap type culture that many in the team embrace. You can see it in Mays vlogs.. Most of the team talk like illiterate street trash yet quite a few shun the spotlight.
It’s all good, but if you are going to create a culture, it has to be inclusive.

What you describe reminds me of a young Benji.

 

[Droppy05]

It didn’t feel like we were ever going to win it, at least to me. We just don’t know how to finish games off. Mystifying really when you look at our spine, but somehow it’s where we are at. That falls back on the coaching. Or lack thereof.

They can't play structured football. Love the ad lib style, which is exciting when it comes off but does not win games consistently. ConsIstency is what is need to win in NRL. Coached by a person who never played with structure. What do we expect?

 

[mtd#2]

Sorry mate this narrative is getting tedious and quite worn out by round 14
Yes yiure are correct but we were garbage in the first half...woulda shoulda coulda aint cuttin it any more.
Id prefer ugly wins playing crap than losses playing well

Depends on expectations..

My expectations for the rest of this season
- Compete in every game
- Develop a style of play
- Lock down the spine
- Recruit a few more players for 26

I have Canberra as favourites for the comp.. storm aren't the same this year and we know the bulldogs will crumble..

5 in a row isn't a great stat, but it doesn't paint the full picture.

It doesnt factor in how big a problem the Galvin situation was within the playing group or the fact our first choice halves combination changed mid season..

We played <40 minutes tonight with our #1 halves combination and it was one of the best halves of of footy we played all year (including when we had Galvin).

Ive been saying it for a while Latu needs to be 7 and Luai 6... And they played that way tonight.. Latu straightened the attack and Luai was getting the ball wider - where he can do more damage... Samuela showed glimpses of his best self again tonight too..

I actually see why Galvin left..there was no way he was going to keep playing in the halves when we had Latu.. and he's grown up playing with him, so he knows how good he is .

ENd of rant
But I am happy with the progress

 

[Vicious]

Yes and I said it a few months ago.
Galvin, TDS and likely others live outside the brash “look at me” big chain, diamond earring loud hip hop or rap type culture that many in the team embrace. You can see it in Mays vlogs.. Most of the team talk like illiterate street trash yet quite a few shun the spotlight.
It’s all good, but if you are going to create a culture, it has to be inclusive.

That’s how it looks, but I don’t think that’s the problem.
To give an example Terrell went out of his way to have a good chat with Talyn while he was off the field tonight and you could see they were getting along just fine.
I’m convinced it’s Benji’s arrogance that is the problem, I don’t think his ego allows him to have proper conversations with any players that are unhappy or disillusioned with his decisions and anyone who’s coached teams in any sport at any level or managed teams or people in a workplace would know this is a big problem.