jirskyr
Well-known member
Lots of posts this weekend about the coaching / board innuendo, not so much about the actual footy. Luckily I've been offline a few days, I've managed to dodge the speculation.
Happy
1\. Blake Austin again shows he is one to fire up the team. Gus got it right, he's got a few errors in him, but by and large he does a good job and is making a fist of consistent selection.
2\. Farah scoring and firing up. Unfortunately it did not result in more points, but it was good to see the whole team enthused like that, perhaps venting frustration over the rollercoaster week the club has had. Farah really tried to lift the team, lots of good probing runs. Marty Taupau also charged forward on some occasions to lift us.
3\. Dominated first 20, we had a lot of good sets today up until tackle 4 or so, really rolled forward well at times.
4\. Blair was busy, lots of good defence and looked for the footy in attack. I think he can improve his hitups by not slowing at the defence - he keeps jiggling like he's gonna offload but it never happens, better to just crash into the defenders than lose momentum.
5\. I thought video ref got it right today when given the chance. I don't believe the crap by Gould that "players would understand, refs don't". Brooks was obstructed because although he took a step into Ah Mau's line, he was prevented a chance to adjust once the ball went to Quinlan. It's the same with getting stepped, just because you were fooled by the defence doesn't mean they can make contact with you and prevent your recovery. I feel Brooks certainly would have had a shot on Quinlan had Ah Mau not steamrolled him. But I also think Simona lost control of the footy, so it was cancelled out.
6\. Big game from Woods, haven't see the stats, but he carried defenders all day and looked like a man playing with boys, almost crossed 2-3 times as well. It's a shame we have to sub him, the guy is almost never put on his arse.
Sad.
1\. We dodged a bullet with the Quilan try, fudged out hitback and then let Drags in again. Typical Tigers to allow 38th minute tries.
2\. Are we impotent in attack from 20m out? I start to fear when we get too close to our try line sometimes, we are really bad at constructing sets when the opposition no longer has to retreat 10m.
3\. Errors - last week we didn't make them, our opposition did, we cantered home. Today we made errors and Saints didn't; reversed result. Until we respect possession and reduce # penalties every week, we are going to be a 50/50 team, cop a few hidings and have an ordinary for/against.
4\. Lost the game in the first 20 mins. We had the Drags on toast early, rolling up field and forcing penalties. But continuously turning the ball over early in attack just invited them back into it. When Drags chanced their hand out wide, they executed and got ahead by 18\. Execution was a shadow of last week.
5\. Brooks - not one of his better games today. He got rolled by Ah Mau early and defended nervously the rest of the game, causing Sirro to over-commit to Ah Mau for rest of the game. He was lucky to get away with the Quinlan no-try, he should not be crossing in front of his own defenders like that. I don't know why he tried to shoulder-charge Nightingale instead of going for a proper tackle, that killed us on the stroke of halftime. I feel Brooks is starting to shrink away from the tough plays, he needs to step up more when we are behind, not just when we are in front.
6\. Did that twit Dugan get up every single tackle and complain about something? He is such a mug.
7\. Just "watching" in defence. Sirro guilty for the Rein break and Bodene caught watching a number of times - the Beale try, the Austin chip that lead to a Saints break downfield. Bodene especially, he has to realise centres need to chase all game, you can't put your head down when they get in behind. If he chases on the Widdop chip, maybe he forces a play on Beale instead of an essentially free run to the line.
8\. Benji catching the ball over the line. For all the things refs step in and penalise, stupid ruck penalties and such, how some other blatant errors are just let go. It seems to be pot luck whether the vid ref can step in on a clearly wrong call; we've copped a few in recent weeks.
9\. Widdop. I can't stand the guy, he's becoming our new Gasnier or Pritchard, made to look like an immortal whenever he plays us. The Nightingale try, I can't stand when we get flat-footed against these jinking runs and some how let a 2-on-1 develop.
10\. Gavet - I love the enthusiasm but he needs to work on his focus, a really bad dropped ball and some screwy tackling. He has a very inconsistent technique in defence, almost never uses his shoulder. He needs to spend his first 5 mins on the field a little more calmly, get into the game with some solid runs before opening up the can of lunatic.
11\. Thompson - hard to play out of position, but he is found wanting for speed when beaten on the outside. Getting out-run by Morris is nothing to be ashamed of, but Saints targeted that side all day and it undid us 3/5 tries, a few other breaks and half-breaks.
12\. Did we run at Benji with anything other than Tim Simona? Why oh why did we not have Taupau or Jesse Sue hitting the ball at speed around Benji's edge. The guy hardly had to do anything except throw a few passes and knock-on from the kickoff.
13\. We are still failing to use hard-running forwards out wide. We made great in-roads around the ruck today, but nothing doing out wide except face balls for poor Tim Simona to cop some solid beltings. The play right consisted of passes behind Lulia's back.
Happy
1\. Blake Austin again shows he is one to fire up the team. Gus got it right, he's got a few errors in him, but by and large he does a good job and is making a fist of consistent selection.
2\. Farah scoring and firing up. Unfortunately it did not result in more points, but it was good to see the whole team enthused like that, perhaps venting frustration over the rollercoaster week the club has had. Farah really tried to lift the team, lots of good probing runs. Marty Taupau also charged forward on some occasions to lift us.
3\. Dominated first 20, we had a lot of good sets today up until tackle 4 or so, really rolled forward well at times.
4\. Blair was busy, lots of good defence and looked for the footy in attack. I think he can improve his hitups by not slowing at the defence - he keeps jiggling like he's gonna offload but it never happens, better to just crash into the defenders than lose momentum.
5\. I thought video ref got it right today when given the chance. I don't believe the crap by Gould that "players would understand, refs don't". Brooks was obstructed because although he took a step into Ah Mau's line, he was prevented a chance to adjust once the ball went to Quinlan. It's the same with getting stepped, just because you were fooled by the defence doesn't mean they can make contact with you and prevent your recovery. I feel Brooks certainly would have had a shot on Quinlan had Ah Mau not steamrolled him. But I also think Simona lost control of the footy, so it was cancelled out.
6\. Big game from Woods, haven't see the stats, but he carried defenders all day and looked like a man playing with boys, almost crossed 2-3 times as well. It's a shame we have to sub him, the guy is almost never put on his arse.
Sad.
1\. We dodged a bullet with the Quilan try, fudged out hitback and then let Drags in again. Typical Tigers to allow 38th minute tries.
2\. Are we impotent in attack from 20m out? I start to fear when we get too close to our try line sometimes, we are really bad at constructing sets when the opposition no longer has to retreat 10m.
3\. Errors - last week we didn't make them, our opposition did, we cantered home. Today we made errors and Saints didn't; reversed result. Until we respect possession and reduce # penalties every week, we are going to be a 50/50 team, cop a few hidings and have an ordinary for/against.
4\. Lost the game in the first 20 mins. We had the Drags on toast early, rolling up field and forcing penalties. But continuously turning the ball over early in attack just invited them back into it. When Drags chanced their hand out wide, they executed and got ahead by 18\. Execution was a shadow of last week.
5\. Brooks - not one of his better games today. He got rolled by Ah Mau early and defended nervously the rest of the game, causing Sirro to over-commit to Ah Mau for rest of the game. He was lucky to get away with the Quinlan no-try, he should not be crossing in front of his own defenders like that. I don't know why he tried to shoulder-charge Nightingale instead of going for a proper tackle, that killed us on the stroke of halftime. I feel Brooks is starting to shrink away from the tough plays, he needs to step up more when we are behind, not just when we are in front.
6\. Did that twit Dugan get up every single tackle and complain about something? He is such a mug.
7\. Just "watching" in defence. Sirro guilty for the Rein break and Bodene caught watching a number of times - the Beale try, the Austin chip that lead to a Saints break downfield. Bodene especially, he has to realise centres need to chase all game, you can't put your head down when they get in behind. If he chases on the Widdop chip, maybe he forces a play on Beale instead of an essentially free run to the line.
8\. Benji catching the ball over the line. For all the things refs step in and penalise, stupid ruck penalties and such, how some other blatant errors are just let go. It seems to be pot luck whether the vid ref can step in on a clearly wrong call; we've copped a few in recent weeks.
9\. Widdop. I can't stand the guy, he's becoming our new Gasnier or Pritchard, made to look like an immortal whenever he plays us. The Nightingale try, I can't stand when we get flat-footed against these jinking runs and some how let a 2-on-1 develop.
10\. Gavet - I love the enthusiasm but he needs to work on his focus, a really bad dropped ball and some screwy tackling. He has a very inconsistent technique in defence, almost never uses his shoulder. He needs to spend his first 5 mins on the field a little more calmly, get into the game with some solid runs before opening up the can of lunatic.
11\. Thompson - hard to play out of position, but he is found wanting for speed when beaten on the outside. Getting out-run by Morris is nothing to be ashamed of, but Saints targeted that side all day and it undid us 3/5 tries, a few other breaks and half-breaks.
12\. Did we run at Benji with anything other than Tim Simona? Why oh why did we not have Taupau or Jesse Sue hitting the ball at speed around Benji's edge. The guy hardly had to do anything except throw a few passes and knock-on from the kickoff.
13\. We are still failing to use hard-running forwards out wide. We made great in-roads around the ruck today, but nothing doing out wide except face balls for poor Tim Simona to cop some solid beltings. The play right consisted of passes behind Lulia's back.
