LIVE GAME Team v Roosters trial..LIVE game discussion

Live Game Discussion
That was fun.

I was very worried after the first 20 or so minutes - understand it's far from full strength, but all of these guys have participated in the preseason so should have looked a little better than that. They did that after the first 20 minutes and more.

Some thoughts:

  • Never really been a Jock fan - but that was a very tidy performance. He keeps that up he's pressing for the #7 for sure. Loved his kicking game.
  • Really hope Kit doesn't follow Luke out the door.
  • #18 had some silky, silky touches.
  • Pretty much all the young guns we're putting our hopes in performed well
  • Tino's try was special, no other word for it
  • Our depth is very nice
  • Charlie Murray was very good
 
king_sirro said:
Gotta be happy with that.

Madden the stand-out for me. Controlled, sharp, straightened the attack beautifully and kicked fantastic.

Kit is better than we think. So young for a front rower

Mason in the middle was good. He worked hard and provided good spark and leg speed. I like that experiment.

Haywood looked at ease and had time. Thats a great sign.

Big Mak is just another level IMO. Class and power.

Attard elusive


A lot of positives.
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I'm still to be convinced Mason will ever be good enough for NRL. But if he's going to make it, I believe it's got to be as that bench utility/small middle that he played today
 
Betterdays22 said:
only a trial but obviously prefer to be winning them. Good to see young guys stepping up, playing nice fast footy with a smile on their face. Looking like there may be a bit more depth across the park this year
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Really like how they went against the starting roosters .
Especially considering we have Junior Tapau- Moors and Phoenix Godinet in the starting team . They’re both barely 18 and played SG ball last week .
Chuck in Attard, Andruws and Obviously Makasini , and that was an extremely young starting 13 .
Compare that to the rooster who 2-5 had the tigers backline from 3 yewrs ago .
 
king_sirro said:
Gotta be happy with that.

Madden the stand-out for me. Controlled, sharp, straightened the attack beautifully and kicked fantastic.

Kit is better than we think. So young for a front rower

Mason in the middle was good. He worked hard and provided good spark and leg speed. I like that experiment.

Haywood looked at ease and had time. Thats a great sign.

Big Mak is just another level IMO. Class and power.

Attard elusive


A lot of positives.
Click to expand...
Yep - agree with all your points apart from Mason. Felt he tried hard but was mostly ineffective. Held the ball often but never beat a player. Seemed to smother the attack a lot for me.
Thought Saukuru ran well and most of our middles played solidly- ran hard and tackled hard. Unfortunately as a group we are a little on the small side which worries
me.
 
Observations: Makasini fantastic, Attard very Daine Laurie maybe a higher ceiling, Murray surprisingly good and should find a role, Kit and Jock very solid. Hayward looks slick. Pheonix held his own and Javon with some subtle nice moments.

The big takeaway from the game is Mason. Geez Mason is shit and such a ball hog. Park footballer.
Tristan Hope the same.
 
I enjoyed that more than I was expecting to

On reflection it was really the number of questions we asked with the ball, and the fact it looked less adlib, that got me most excited. For too long we either dont pressure the defence of we just play hail mary style, I really hope that was indicative of our 2026 style but this early its close to meaningless unfortunately.
 
old_man_tiger said:
I enjoyed that more than I was expecting to

On reflection it was really the number of questions we asked with the ball, and the fact it looked less adlib, that got me most excited. For too long we either dont pressure the defence of we just play hail mary style, I really hope that was indicative of our 2026 style but this early its close to meaningless unfortunately.
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Good bit of confidence for some depth players and youngsters. Hopefully uncle Nick wasn’t there.

Mak needs a round two FG jersey. Madden will put pressure on AD.
 
It was a Jock Madden and Makasini masterclass.
Very impressed with Luke Jack and Logan Brookes.
Jack is a pocket battleship, I think he could go to another level if he gets an NRL opportunity.
Attard was very good, but I’m even more impressed with Brookes, he’s tough and breaks tackles with ease.
I thought Tristan Hope defended very well in the opening 20mins when we were under the pump and the attacking quality of young Haywood was there for all to see.
Solo Saukuru is a beast, he has the potential to be a genuine star if he applies himself.
He’s a match winner and I would definitely include him on our 6 man bench.
 
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Vicious said:
It was a Jock Madden and Makasini masterclass.
Very impressed with Luke Jack and Logan Brookes.
Jack is a pocket battleship, I think he could go to another level if he gets an NRL opportunity.
Attard was very good, but I’m even more impressed with Brookes, he’s tough and breaks tackles with ease.
I thought Tristan Hope defended very well in the opening 20mins when we were under the pump and the attacking quality of young Haywood was there for all to see.
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I think Jock Madden is a more complete halfback than AD. Have to think that’s an early conversation if we don’t start the season great.
 
One of the main points I took from this game is that we need to get our contracts, particularly our top 30 right.

Madden, Makasini, Sione Fainu, Javon Andrews and Kit all looked like and played like top 30 players and were in our top 5 or 6 performers (as they should be).

The concern is that we had guys like Hope, Mason and Will Craig who are on top 30 contracts and not only didn't look like top 30 players, they got outplayed by young guys who are not even on development contracts....

(Solo Saukuru also on a top 30 and while not in the top performers, gets a pass given the lack of minutes and did enough to earn some leeway)
 
EllisFan said:
I think Jock Madden is a more complete halfback than AD. Have to think that’s an early conversation if we don’t start the season great.
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They are players with 2 different game styles.

AD is a big body, big boot. Threatens the line with size. Attacking threat. X-factor.

Jock seems to have really focused on being a game manager and doing that job really well. The accuracy of his kicking game was outstanding. Everything was done with purpose and a plan. We will absolutely need that during the season and it compliments a guy like Luai really well.

It's one game, but it opens up the possibility of Douihi at 13 and Jock in the 7 with Latu off the bench. We really have some choice in the halves, form permitting.
 
It says a lot that Brookes for 30 mins at fullback in the 2nd half. Laulilii, Tavana and Mason obviously all play fullback and not only did Benji play Attard for 50 but he obviously rates Brookes and you can see why. Both Attard and Brookes are super impressive and very equal in terms of ability.

I thought Tino was good even outside scoring one of the best tries I've ever seen. I am betting he plays first grade at least once this year.

I think Makasini was the most talented player on the field by lengths and is already too good not to be in first grade every week. Saukuru and Mitch Taotua were both really impressive. Taotua was the centre who played on the right in the 2nd half and ended with 90 metres, 4 tackle breaks and 2 line break assists. Herbert is solid but I don't think he is better than either of them tbh.

Will Craig actually played well aside from the goal kick. Made a nice run and though he was manic in defense his defensive decision making did cause several errors. I expected much worse.

Javon and Jock were both awesome. Javon's passing is so smooth and with the size to threaten with the feet he is gonna play a lot of first grade. Jock was so good. Echoing what everyone else has said there.

Echoing the sentiments about Kit, CTM and Jack. Murray was pick of the forwards though. Had a superb game. Broederlow was sneaky good. He has really good hands. Had two touches in the leadup to the Tavana try and both were quality. Sukkar and Godinet were kind of dominated which is okay for Godinet... not so much for Tony. Sione didn't get many minutes but changed the game with a couple of shots.

Haywood was amazing. Maybe 2nd best overall. And finally I wanna shout out Josese who had some great runs and seems near impossible to pull down. He is like a Havili clone.
 
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