3-2-1 3 2 1 vs Knights

Pretty tough one as there were like 5-6 guys that I reckon could be here. Also was slightly distracted trying to watch National athletics champs at same time, but from what I saw.
3. Pole - He’s becoming an absolute machine this year. Playing big minutes and making big impact with his running, however, some of his defensive work particularly being able to force a few turnovers with loose carries was brilliant and earned him top honours for me.
2 - To’a - Very solid. Great try, good hands to Turuva. Did a lot of work overall, although a few very slow play-the-balls for no reason is my only issue.
1 - Sione Fainu - Only on for 25 minutes but in those 25 I swear he was everywhere making a tonne of tackles and some brilliant runs. 8 runs for 90m. Would love to see him consistently have at least 25 minutes each week.

To be honest I should be giving points to May but he does this every week so I just think “yeah nah May had an average game only 190m and 31 tackles with no misses, nothing special”.
 
All the Starford doubters again licking their wounds!!
Fair. He was mentally in it all game. It’s his brain fades that got me in the past. It was like he wasn’t ’all in’.

Today he was all in.

The individual brilliance and tackle breaking hasn’t been in question for me. It’s his 60 minutes of effort and 20 min sleeps on the field that get me.
 
3. May
2. Pole
1. To'a

Man what's happened with To'a and AD? I mean have they started eating wheatbix in 2025?
In fairness to AD, every so often he would have an absolute gun game and ace it. But it would be 1 game in 5. Sure his kicking sucked tonight, but he is developing a consistency that we really need in a center.

I never thought I would say "lock in AD and To'a at Center". I am saying it now.

Everyone's positioning and decision making is much better. When you're an outside back you can be made to look rubbish by a lack of effort from other positions. Look at Staines' and Naden's Panthers stats compared to now. Our defence is coming out and reading plays really well and that doesn't isolate our outside backs as much as what was happening before.

Full credit to Bomber. He's like Royce Simmons mk2, we have the luxury of having a first grade coach fully dedicated to defence. Our defence this year has been some of the best I've seen from a Tigers side.
 
3 - Pole (This guy doesn't get the same compliments that May gets, but man he is developing as a prop. Gets better every week).
2- Bula (Another player who is clearly developing his game. The more he strikes up combinations with his 6,7 and 9, the better he will get).
1- May (The motor on him his huge. Never seems to tire. Week in, week out, we know what to expect from him and he keeps delivering).

HM - Sione Fainu, Hunt and Bird (all 3 brought impact, energy and quality minutes off the bench). The key is the quality that they provide no matter how long they are on the field. Sione has been so impressive this year!
 
3. Toa, - best game in a Tigers jersey. He's over over 50 games now and he's becoming a proper established first grader. Maybe the sin bin should count against him, but he still played great.

2. Bula. - He's back. His best game of the season. Really clever play to catch Ponga out of position and we need more of that from him to ice games this season. I could do with some tackle busting line breaks out of defence tho.

1. May. - Our best forward signing since Gareth Ellis. He is unreal.

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Honorable mentions,

Jack Bird has to be one of the most versatile footy players we've ever had. What a great player to have around while not having to be the main man. Comes off the bench catching suss off-loads one handed, solid in defence, runs a good line, seems happy and looks fit as a flea.

Galvin seems a bit spoilt in his free role and he seems awfully similar to Luai in playing style. He overplays and over kicks at times but having said that he was still involved with most of our points today, and runs for massive numbers. Not perfect but it deserves acknowledgment. I feel like we have a very creative and progressive hooker that plays with 2 x Five Eighths and also not a lot of space for Bula to chime in. It's pretty good but if they get the options right, it could be devastating.
 
Everyone's positioning and decision making is much better. When you're an outside back you can be made to look rubbish by a lack of effort from other positions. Look at Staines' and Naden's Panthers stats compared to now. Our defence is coming out and reading plays really well and that doesn't isolate our outside backs as much as what was happening before.

Full credit to Bomber. He's like Royce Simmons mk2, we have the luxury of having a first grade coach fully dedicated to defence. Our defence this year has been some of the best I've seen from a Tigers side.
im fully with your last sentence
 
And worth mentioning that according to stats on NRL.com; Terrell May currently leads all NRL forwards in number of average runs, total runs, average run metres and total metres.
He is 3rd in total offloads and 10th in tackles made, with a 98% tackle success: 199 tackles for 203 attempts.

Wow 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
 
Everyone's positioning and decision making is much better. When you're an outside back you can be made to look rubbish by a lack of effort from other positions. Look at Staines' and Naden's Panthers stats compared to now. Our defence is coming out and reading plays really well and that doesn't isolate our outside backs as much as what was happening before.

Full credit to Bomber. He's like Royce Simmons mk2, we have the luxury of having a first grade coach fully dedicated to defence. Our defence this year has been some of the best I've seen from a Tigers side.
Our defense has been so much better then last year. I wonder if Luai is behind this?
Really we lost a lot of high tackle forwards, we have replaced our wing with 2x solid wingers who defend. But we notice that WT is able to "hold our ground" against other teams now and Penrith isn't... I can only think that Morris is coaching people into the right positions and Luai is directing them.

Yet, the only coaching change is Hodgson..

We see how Hodgo has improved our attack, ruck speed and team in general.
Were playing fast footy, the difference is Benji is actually getting what he wants from the team.
 
3. Pole
2. Bula
1. May

Still angry that once again we have a player back from injury that is not able to finish the game.

Would prefer to select another player to start if there is any doubt whatsoever to avoid the reshuffle and disruption mid game and aggravating an injury that puts a player out of action even longer.

Loving our bench but hate to see the loss of impact when we need to do a mid game reshuffle due to a pre-existing injuries preventing players from finishing games, this was not as bad this week as it has been previously but still not good when it could have been avoided.

Negative points for Galvin, he needs to learn to pick his moments and Benji and Jarome need to pull him into line or are we allowing him to do this as a lesson for him to learn from.

If that is the case it is a terrible ploy because it is stifling our attack and costing us points that will be the cause of us losing games.
 
3 team
2 team
1 team
I looked at this game as a danger game , we came we played we won , I could not split a few players today as May , Pole , Bulla , Twal all deserved 3 so I went as a team effort , Toa , Turuva , AD , API , all solid as , thought Galvin may have tried to hard and was a bit down but still solid with a try set up , Skelton should not have played that was dumb , he was ginger from first carry and I knew he would not last , Bird solid again off the bench with TDS. Again crafty off the bench , Hunt made some good runs and tackles that won us possession twice or 3 times golfing it loose on impact , a great team effort , now back it up next week as this is the only way we become a real force for the finals.
I nearly forgot Sam F was 100% better in this game that previous , massive hit on Newcastle player sending him sideways was a delight to see , big fella will strike last season form over next few weeks , that hit will start it all off
 
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