Confirmed: Matterson released from Wests Tigers.

[mike]

If true, hopefully Madge can admit fault, apologise and promise to be better going forward.

Or, if true, Madge can say "that's what we need of you mate, you are one of our best players". Why should the coach be apologising for asking players to extend themselves?

Are Tigers supposed to be a tough team that does whatever it takes to win, or do we go about apologising to players for asking them to exert themselves? Exactly what type of club are we aspiring to be?

There's this persistent criticism of Madge that he "lost the players" at Souths and needs to learn something or other about his expectations and man-management. Yet, by all accounts, he learned this side of coaching from Craig Bellamy, who is the greatest coach of all time. So then we appear to be asking Madge to not try to emulate Craig Bellamy.

Madge has been removed from 1 team total, so it's a sample of 1. Maybe he trained Souths too hard or maybe they got lazy.

Personally, Madge has proven he can take an average side and fashion them into contenders. He got a premiership by doing this. I really don't care which players fall by the wayside if he can achieve this for Wests Tigers. If he can get us 1 premiership and then be let go for being too tough after 5 or 6 seasons, so be it.

This forum is unreal.

"It's up to the coach to get the best out of his players,"

Coach gets best out of player.

"Coach is working players too hard, he needs to apologise."

Schizophrenic at times. A bit like the club actually.

 

[ElleryHanley]

You do not ask a 24 yo to play hurt…not one who clearly gave everything.
>How many forwards played 80 mins almost every week in the NRL? Hardly any, but he almost did.

Clubs ask it all the time. Players are playing hurt all the time. Maybe The Lurker's info is BS, but it's not just the last game, Farah would always play any match he could take the field.

Chris Lawrence had his face smashed to pieces and tried to get back ASAP.

If Matto was seriously annoyed that Maguire pressured him to play in pain, he still did very well, so I don't know what "preventing him from playing his best" means. Matto reckons he can go to another level again? If so, no reason to release him!

But, also, imagine asking the coach for a rest in the last 1-2 months when we clearly need to win every game possible.

How many forwards played 80 mins almost every week in NRL 2019? Oodles and oodles, not even including hookers.

Matto averaged 76.2 minutes in 2019. Others
Jake Turbo - 78.4
Josh Jackson - 72.7
Briton Nikora - 79.7
Kevin Protcor - 79.5
James Fisher-Harris - 76.4
Joel Thompson - 77
Kenny Bromwich - 76.4
Shaun Lane - 77.5
Curtis Siro - 75.5
Elliott Whitehead - 78.9
Tariq Sims - 78.1
Felise Kaufusi - 79.1
Corey H-N - 72.9
Gavin Cooper - 79.4

Basically every club has at least one, which makes sense given the current reduced interchange.

Two things to factor in there....Matterson was playing his first full season as a starter....

And, the big one.............Matto (and our other backrowers) are taking hit ups after our props have basically made no impact. I.e. they are taking dirty / tough hit ups over and over again.

Siro and Jake T, for example, take it up after Tapau and that other beast (125 kilos) have SKITTLED the defense.

Our backrowers take it up after....................................Oliver Clark and Matt Eisenhuth have been bent in half and swamped.

The bottom line here is that Matterson is in absolutely no way a shirker. The bloke worked his guts out all season, carrying the pack behind the worst front row in the comp. It is hardly surprising if it wore him out.

 

[Joel Helmes]

@ElleryHanley agreed, we seriously need more muscle, size and impact up front!

 

[ElleryHanley]

@ElleryHanley agreed, we seriously need more muscle, size and impact up front!

Definitely mate. It is no surprise our back rowers are burnt out / keep breaking down / go right off the ball (like ET for 18 months)

They are constantly taking hit ups into a set line with beasts waiting for them. Honestly, taking it up after EISENHUTH.......................v taking it up after TAPAU.................just consider the difference physically.

 

[Bula]

@ElleryHanley agreed, we seriously need more muscle, size and impact up front!

Definitely mate. It is no surprise our back rowers are burnt out / keep breaking down / go right off the ball (like ET for 18 months)

They are constantly taking hit ups into a set line with beasts waiting for them. Honestly, taking it up after EISENHUTH.......................v taking it up after TAPAU.................just consider the difference physically.

Eisenhuth couldn't bend the morning pill line at a nursing home.

 

[OzLuke]

@ElleryHanley agreed, we seriously need more muscle, size and impact up front!

Definitely mate. It is no surprise our back rowers are burnt out / keep breaking down / go right off the ball (like ET for 18 months)

They are constantly taking hit ups into a set line with beasts waiting for them. Honestly, taking it up after EISENHUTH.......................v taking it up after TAPAU.................just consider the difference physically.

Eisenhuth couldn't bend the morning pill line at a nursing home.

bahahaha

 

[tony soprano]

@ElleryHanley agreed, we seriously need more muscle, size and impact up front!

Definitely mate. It is no surprise our back rowers are burnt out / keep breaking down / go right off the ball (like ET for 18 months)

They are constantly taking hit ups into a set line with beasts waiting for them. Honestly, taking it up after EISENHUTH.......................v taking it up after TAPAU.................just consider the difference physically.

Eisenhuth couldn't bend the morning pill line at a nursing home.

Nicely put

 

[Tiger_Steve]

This story dieing a natural death? Vultures are now picking at the Broncos carcass.
Maybe the big sports breakfast talk is true - he isn’t going anywhere and the vultures were talking rubbish. Tbh - I haven’t a clue but it’s going quiet which is good.

 

[newtiger]

This story dieing a natural death? Vultures are now picking at the Broncos carcass.
Maybe the big sports breakfast talk is true - he isn’t going anywhere and the vultures were talking rubbish. Tbh - I haven’t a clue but it’s going quiet which is good.

I love the sight of the Broncos ripping into each other.
If they are short of a 5/8 they can have Josh R or Mbye.

 

[WT2K]

This story dieing a natural death? Vultures are now picking at the Broncos carcass.
Maybe the big sports breakfast talk is true - he isn’t going anywhere and the vultures were talking rubbish. Tbh - I haven’t a clue but it’s going quiet which is good.

Seems that way. Broncos and Sammy B taking up the air time at the moment.

 

[jirskyr]

The bottom line here is that Matterson is in absolutely no way a shirker. The bloke worked his guts out all season, carrying the pack behind the worst front row in the comp. It is hardly surprising if it wore him out.

I'm not saying he is a shirker and I was in no way displeased with his 2019 season, in fact rather the opposite.

My point is that if the Lurker comments were true, that Matto had some issue with being asked to play, then I wouldn't accept that - you do what the team needs. You said hardly any forwards play 80 mins every week, but on the contrary, many do.

In terms of whether or not Matto is being asked to take hitups on the back of weak first efforts, that's a complicated idea and potentially impossible to measure. Obviously, no stats are kept publicly on who takes hitup 1, hitup 2 etc. Matto spent a lot of his season on the edge and not the middle, so there's an argument to be made that in fact his workload was independent of the props because he was receiving the ball on shift plays.

I actually believe however there is data to refute your assumption that our other forwards are useless. Tigers are #1 in comp in average post-contact metres (you can no longer take totals because the finals teams all have an extra match played), #1 in average all runs and #5 in average all-run metres gained. I am certain that Matto is integral to those figures (he is #16 in the comp for average post-contact m) , but as a whole, the team took more runs than any other, made more metres in contact and were top 5 in overall yardage. That simply cannot be the hallmark of the worst front row in the comp.

 

[krayola]

@jirskyr 100%. It was he, Crowe, Burgess and Inglis that made Souths relevant. He is hugely responsible for their current success. Where are all the players who got upset with him now? Aside from Reynolds, none are playing or playing better than they did.

 

[jirskyr]

Eisenhuth couldn’t bend the morning pill line at a nursing home.

You all laugh, but I thought Eisenhuth answered the coach's challenge this year and did some good work.

Ryan Matto, the star of the forwards, averaged per match (brackets average per minute)
49.88 post-contact metres (0.65)
1.46 tackle breaks (0.019)
130.75 run metres (1.72)
36.4 tackles (0.48)
1.58 missed tackles (0.02)
76.2 minutes

Huth averages (bracket is av per min)
33.29 PCM (0.64)
0.57 tackle breaks (0.011)
93.14 run metres (1.78)
34.9 tackles (0.67)
1.76 missed tackles (0.03)
52.3 min

So actually, whilst Huth is out there, he makes the same post-contact metres as Matto, slightly more metres and more tackles. Certainly, he averages less minutes than Matto so is able to spend more energy and get rests, but also you can only play the minutes the coach gives you, esp off the interchange. Bit hard to say unequivocally. Aaron Woods used to make lots of metres per match, but everyone just complained because he made 90% of those metres going backwards.

Obviously I wouldn't suggest that Matto and Huth have the same impact, but I don't think Huth is as bad as people joke. Nor do I think, as per above, that the Tigers pack 2019 is as powder-puff as people suggest. The stats say we made metres well across the season.

 

[Sart0ri]

I think we have some good solid Props but are missing someone really top level. When Taumalolo or JWH run they make a lot of meters but also when the opposition has to put 4 guys on the main threat, it leaves a weaker line for the other forwards.

Huth never seems to run fast, but is very tall so he takes less steps to make the same distance as a shorter player.

 

[Bones]

I think we have some good solid Props but are missing someone really top level. When Taumalolo or JWH run they make a lot of meters but also when the opposition has to put 4 guys on the main threat, it leaves a weaker line for the other forwards.

Huth never seems to run fast, but is very tall so he takes less steps to make the same distance as a shorter player.

So you’re saying it’s harder for him to get to 10,000 steps on his vivo fit?

 

[earl]

@Sart0ri Matterson, Eisenhuth,Taylor, Aloiai, Miakele and Clarke are a decent set of middle forwards. I'd love one more gun forward but I'd probably prefer an edge forward rather than a middle forward.

We were rolled by Cronulla but Aloiai being out was a big hit to us. Aloiai belts it up hard all the time. Aloiai and Mikaele are the guys that get us those tough metres.

 

[cqtiger]

Silly me thought that the medical staff had the final say on injured players playing.

Sounds like Matto may have had a few niggles through the season but the medical staff said he was still right to play.

Good thing Matto wasn’t picked for SOO, he may not have played for the rest of the season.

 

[Geo]

Silly me thought that the medical staff had the final say on injured players playing.

Sounds like Matto may have had a few niggles through the season but the medical staff said he was still right to play.

Good thing Matto wasn’t picked for SOO, he may not have played for the rest of the season.

lol..so says the Lurker..

 

[earl]

lol…so says the Lurker…

How much do these guys get right ?

 

[Geo]

lol…so says the Lurker…

How much do these guys get right ?

Throw enough darts you hit the board eventually...they have all had a shot at this but the Lurker .... revealed..The real reason Matterson wants to leave the Tigers