A few observations

[Harvey]

Looked like we decided we were going to win no matter what. Less penalties, better ball handling, nearly no one in the backline started and finished in the same position. Moses out, teddy played half a game, seriously, effort can't be praised enough.

Defence still iffy, but scramble ok.

I don't care how bad souffs were, boohoo, Newcastle beat us for heavens sake! The quality of the opposition is truly irrelevant when we play. Our own decision making loses us more games than any other factor, and that was the difference tonight.

17 blokes wearing the same jersey, pulling in the same direction is all that matters.

I honestly don't know what to make of JT, when we appear shot we seem to respond better under him with a weaker squad than we did between 2006 and yy2012 with a reasonable roster. But so much of what he says and does I disagree with. The main thing is the players aren't trying to throw him under the bus, they are having a dig most of the time and showed they at least have some ticker tonight.

Lawrence is a great leader.

Brooks will be fine if he just focuses on underplaying his hand, which is the opposite of what he does by instinct. The ball is in his court.

The hugs at the end were great.

that old fool rabid warren called Felise aloiai twice in two rucks, one of which involved an offload from the real aloiai. Isn't he embarrassed?

Rankin is a solid player, I liked his enthusiasm and he is head and shoulders the next best fullback we have.

Not sure fox was much better. At one stage Fine was Felise, and Aloiai was chee kam, who was also Fine etc. The commentators may well have just referred to all of them as islanders off the bench

 

[Harvey]

Although Rankin was one if our best tonight , his goal kicking is poor .
His lead up before striking the ball is too short IMO
He needs to go back 3 strides and 2 strides to the left . At the moment he's stabbing at the ball.
Just my observation

I think he needs to shuffle back and forwards and jump up a couple of times before running in

 

[newtiger]

JT was one of the best goal kickers of all time, he should be helping Rankin with his kicking. We need to be better at converting 4 points to 6 every time, then we would have been in better position to win more games.

 

[stevied]

Lots of courage and commitment tonight. I'm not a Robbie lover but he not only played well his post game comments on JT seemed genuine and were good to hear. two points- we're better off without Moses. He can't tackle and has an awful kicking game. Look how much better Brooks was with Lawrence outside him.Secondly our right side defensive positioning ( Kevvie and Nofa ) was embarrassingly poor. Both can tackle but can't read a game defensively. Anyway, well done boys!

Interesting observation about Moses. I like Mitch but I was wondering the same thing about Brooks. Did he have more freedom to play his game? I thought Luke had his best game for a long time His passing and kicking were much better and he actually made several effective, front on tackles.

Our overall defense still needs a lot of work but I thought there was more commitment at the goal line. The main thing is that we showed enormous heart against the odds, following a massive loss and, in that way, it was, maybe The Wests Tigers best ever win.

 

[Tigermama]

Looked like we decided we were going to win no matter what. Less penalties, better ball handling, nearly no one in the backline started and finished in the same position. Moses out, teddy played half a game, seriously, effort can't be praised enough.

Defence still iffy, but scramble ok.

I don't care how bad souffs were, boohoo, Newcastle beat us for heavens sake! The quality of the opposition is truly irrelevant when we play. Our own decision making loses us more games than any other factor, and that was the difference tonight.

17 blokes wearing the same jersey, pulling in the same direction is all that matters.

I honestly don't know what to make of JT, when we appear shot we seem to respond better under him with a weaker squad than we did between 2006 and 2012 with a reasonable roster. But so much of what he says and does I disagree with. The main thing is the players aren't trying to throw him under the bus, they are having a dig most of the time and showed they at least have some ticker tonight.

Lawrence is a great leader.

Brooks will be fine if he just focuses on underplaying his hand, which is the opposite of what he does by instinct. The ball is in his court.

The hugs at the end were great.

that old fool rabid warren called Felise aloiai twice in two rucks, one of which involved an offload from the real aloiai. Isn't he embarrassed?

Rankin is a solid player, I liked his enthusiasm and he is head and shoulders the next best fullback we have.

The hugs were great at the end. Full of emotion, pride and relief. Wonderful to see. :slight_smile:

 

[Gary_Bakerloo]

On a related note, I remember when Souths were coming back at us and we had a couple of sets to defend our own line. CL was there, in the middle, making tackles that broses might not have made. It is for for thought.

Defensively, that is the other bonus. You only need to protect one halfback defensively, not two.

 

[NT_Tiger]

Quote goldcoasttiger: " In a game when there should have been a fair bit of confusion early, surprisingly, there wasn't any."
Yes! It speaks volumes about the high quality of our coaching that the team can take fairly major changes, at short notice, in their stride and play as a team.
It looks like JTs long term structural and attitude plans are working.