Finals hopes on the line for Jersey Flegg side

[MothMan]

@TheDaBoss More future first graders here than in nsw cup. Unfortunately they didn't put some of the u/20 eligible players back in flegg for this game. Reserves was a dead rubber for us. Dylan Smith, Felix Smith, Alex Syefarth, Max Burey, Scholari, Tommy Talau all would have made a difference. Canberra beat Dragons too. Would have given these young players invaluable finals experience.

 

[Thaiger]

@MothMan I agree having our full squad most likely would have made a difference. Some errors early in defence didn't help but our boys showed a lot of fight to almost steal it. I think our kicking game all season was a little bit below par (on the ground excluded generally) and we rarely gave ourselves a chance in the air near the line and reflecting that was a grubber towards the sideline last tackle at the death on Saturday when with 50 seconds to go the high ball option seemed much better to me but anyway congrats to the whole side on the season and on Saturday's performance.

Haven't heard yet how our JF's that were in Cup went but apparently we only had 35% possession which was always going to make it difficult. Apparently Felix Smith went very in previous games - definitely a find for us. Any number of JF would have gone well in Cup including Dillon and Wilson who I thought had a very good game on Saturday. Fenn, Rua and Sykes looked good as did Main and Henry who when he is on, is a definite handful. We missed Stevanovic and his goal kicking - a couple of goals would have seen us sneak through with a draw.

 

[balmain boy]

What a disappointing performance. You can't concede 18 points in the first 13 mins and hope to win a game.

Warriors were by far the better team. We fought right to the end and losing your halfback during the week and fullback after 5 mins makes it very difficult. So credit for not giving up.
But on the day it was like men v boys. The combined weight of the squads would have the warriors 200kgs bigger than our boys. Man for man this is a tiny squad, which will make things very difficult to progress through the ranks.
Not many 180cm, 85kg players play first grade these days. Another game where the opponents are bigger than our forwards.

Our halves were poor. Our kicking game appalling. And we just couldn't tackle them. They were making 60-70m a set which meant we were constantly on the back foot. The warriors would have had 65% possession after 50 mins too. Far too many mistakes and penalties conceded.

Again we did come back well at the death and kept trying but I really don't like when a team's greatest attribute is that they tried. That's a weak mentality, as trying hard should be a given.

In the end the backs rarely touched the ball. Wilson was solid but is a bit too small. Dillon likewise is just small. Not many Corey Thompson types make it to the top these days. Bradley looked like a player who's confidence has been ripped apart of late. That would come from never touching the ball. For the life if ne i don't know why we haven't sent a bomb his away in the entire second half of the season. Not one bomb to a 2m tall winger in either Cc or flegg? It's just plain dumb.

Ngati was good at hooker. Seufale was a handful but another small nuggety type, like Felix Smith age Henry. It's not always about size but you just can't compare our forward prospects with anyone from the warriors side. None of our forwards would make their flegg side. We need more props with Mikaeles build.
Tom Ale is a top talent. Althetic and powerful with a good work rate. I'd target him though the warriors won't want to lose him od course.

 

[fibrodreaming]

What a disappointing performance. You can’t concede 18 points in the first 13 mins amd hope to win a game.

You've summarised it well BB. I've heard some good things about the Flegg side, but this is the first time I have seen them play. The were very disappointing.

 

[Thaiger]

@balmain-boy Can't say I totally agree but I do about our kicking game which hasn't been good all season. It was always going to be a tough assignment travelling away and in the end we nearly stole it so I don't think size really matters that much or we should have got flogged. Certainly size wasn't a factor when we beat Newcastle, Souths, Penrith and 3 others on the trot!

Our backs haven't seen much ball all season including the wingers and I could never understand why because when we did we looked really dangerous.

To lose the halfback and the fullback was critical to the end result in my opinion and we did have others called up to Cup at the last minute so none of that helped.

Yes 'trying' is not good enough but with so little ball, apart from the bad start I thought they did quite well.

 

[fred]

@Thaiger I agree, congrats to the boys on still being in it up to last game of the year. Much better than previous few years at this level. I’ve seen enough over the year to know blokes like Dillon and Cini have way more promise than Dylan smith and co in the cc backline, and guys like Felix smith, Fenn and jankovic will only get better. Don’t worry about size to much, just remember top 30 and dev players train full time , weights twice a day, access daily to dietitians, access daily to physios, club doctor, daily massages, chef on site at concord to prepare there meals, sleeping quarters at concord ...etc. once some of the boys from 20”s get access to this there physical side will improve immensly and rapidly. It is a massive advantage physically to be training full time. Also congrats to Dave Warwick and Wayne Lambkin and barnsey who have done an acceptable job with the 20”s side this year. I hope Lambkin is given a go at cc next year.

 

[balmain boy]

@Thaiger I agree, congrats to the boys on still being in it up to last game of the year. Much better than previous few years at this level. I’ve seen enough over the year to know blokes like Dillon and Cini have way more promise than Dylan smith and co in the cc backline, and guys like Felix smith, Fenn and jankovic will only get better. Don’t worry about size to much, just remember top 30 and dev players train full time , weights twice a day, access daily to dietitians, access daily to physios, club doctor, daily massages, chef on site at concord to prepare there meals, sleeping quarters at concord ...etc. once some of the boys from 20”s get access to this there physical side will improve immensly and rapidly. It is a massive advantage physically to be training full time. Also congrats to Dave Warwick and Wayne Lambkin and barnsey who have done an acceptable job with the 20”s side this year. I hope Lambkin is given a go at cc next year.

I certainly agree that we will have much greater quality and depth in CC next year as more of these Flegg boys get promoted and get a full off season under their belt. There's been a big improvement on previous year's efforts and well done to Lambkin and co.

@Thaiger My comments on size are more about recruiting for first grade from a young age. If you look at the top 8 sides and look at the average size of their backs they don't have many 180cm, 85-90kgs players these days. When you look at the Panthers, Mounties, Roosters, Sharks etc in the lower grades their players are all mostly big, strong and fast types. The Panthers lose Waqa Blake and promote Naden. The Sharks promote Mulitalo. Many of our young players have done well in Flegg/NYC and then haven't kicked on to NRL due to a lack of size/speed. It's more important to build players for the NRL than to win a premiership in the lower grades - but of course both is preferable

At one point we recruited the Fifitas, Woods, Koro, Mr T, Dwyer etc. Players with prototype physical attributes then we've gone for a number of year recruiting very small teams across all grades.

Same in the forwards - they're often not the small nuggety types that break into the NRL the most. When you look at the Klemmers, Taumololo, NAS, Fifita, Haas, Arrow, etc they're big athletic boys. There are a few nuggety forwards like Gallen and Frizzel that are just hard to tackle but in the modern game many nuggety props struggle to wrap up larger forwards with long arms in defence. It's been a massive problem for us for many years - not being able to dominate the ruck or stop offloads and backs being able to compete with taller players with long arms in the air.

From this side it looks like HLP, Smith and Seufale are all of the Sauaso Sue/Ava mold. Players that had inconsistent success in the NRL due to a lack of size/aggression. Of course a strong off season and a coach that fires them up can still get them to the top of the game, but statistically the chances are lower in the modern game than larger more athletic types.

On this game, you can't win without the ball and we gave the Warriors far too much ball through ill-discipline. Not having a cohesive backline hurt us badly, and not having forwards to lay a regular platform for our backs

 

[Thaiger]

@balmain-boy Fair comment.

 

[KeepitReal]

@balmain-boy maybe we were watching different games. Most of the flegg forwards are over 6 foot tall and weigh at least 100kgs. Size isn't an issue. Apart from 12 minutes where they conceded 18 points our boys were on top. Our team looked half asleep possibly because it was 8am AEST. The first Warriors try came from a kick. The second Warriors try was off the back of a 50/50 penalty for holding down on about their 4th tackle. BS penalty imo. Then ordinary goal line defence from us led to a soft try. The third try was caused by bad left edge defence. They were chasing the game from there and their kicking game was really bad throughout and they didn't look organised. This is because they didn't have their regular half, goal kicker and organiser plus losing their fb early in the first half didn't help. They had to reshuffle their backline and only had 3 on the bench for the bulk of the game. So with all that going against them most sides have all the excuses to get belted by the Warriors at home. Yeah they lost the game but they scored the same amount of tries and almost won the game on the last play. These kids have heart and don't give up. Would love to see the bulk of them developed instead of going to other clubs or on the scrap heap at 20. I believe if the Wests Tigers put some time and energy into this group we could produce a big number of NRL players. The talent is there but is the development and the coaching?

 

[Cool_Cat]

@balmain-boy This kid looks handy. Have we got him signed?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaeKPcukl2U&t=55s

 

[balmain boy]

@balmain-boy This kid looks handy. Have we got him signed?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaeKPcukl2U&t=55s

Think he signed on a two year flegg deal after joining us from Joeys. Kids got some talent

 

[TheDaBoss]

@balmain-boy This kid looks handy. Have we got him signed?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaeKPcukl2U&t=55s

Think he signed on a two year flegg deal after joining us from Joeys. Kids got some talent

backs himself close to the line

 

[Madge]

Tough as nails. Liam scholari.