Juniors - Pathways General Discussion

Merlot said:
don t think your alone.Across a few sites from many clubs people aren't happy .Plenty stated the service was crap and other carries just keep jacking up the prices. If this was the great deal NSWRL spouted about earlier in the year,its an epic fafailure.
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If this is an epic failure, what would you call Kayo?
 
rihannafan1 said:
If this is an epic failure, what would you call Kayo?
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With Kayo I get the NFL, tons of cricket, the AFL, every NRL game, the ESL, the NBA. I get it that not everyone is interested in some or all of those but for me even $40 a month is tolerable for all that. Compared to the NSWRL offering (juniors and lower grades, some without commentary I hear) it’s a much better offering.

Now if the NSWRL folded that offering into a dedicated rugby league app that had all the RL currently on Kayo, I’d consider jettisoning the latter for the former.
 
Yossarian said:
With Kayo I get the NFL, tons of cricket, the AFL, every NRL game, the ESL, the NBA. I get it that not everyone is interested in some or all of those but for me even $40 a month is tolerable for all that. Compared to the NSWRL offering (juniors and lower grades, some without commentary I hear) it’s a much better offering.

Now if the NSWRL folded that offering into a dedicated rugby league app that had all the RL currently on Kayo, I’d consider jettisoning the latter for the former.
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The service on Kayo is patchy for some people too. The price is higher. The demand for juniors and what BarTV covers is niche but is much better than what NSWRL offered for a similar price last year. No doubt it is expensive but there is no other way to watch juniors so they have the market there.
 
Anyone have thoughts on round 3 of matches?

I thought amongst our games this was the most exciting round by far.

Balmain continue to impress. Harold Matt's got their first win of the season and it was hilarious. They are a scrappy, fairly unathletic team who give away too many penalties and drop the ball a bit too much. Of all our teams they epitomise 'development' and I think we'll see a lot of it from them over the season. They were down all game to the Dogs, who were down to 12 players for 20 minutes out of the 60 because of sinbins. But two converted tries in the final 10 minutes, including a conversion from the sideline in the final minute, sealed the game for the Tigers. 2 points earnt through spirit and fitness. As an aside, the Dogs #12 had the longest hair I've ever seen on a male player. Fair player though.

Balmain Ball are brilliant. Tough and uncompromising, got a comeback win without Tannous, Haywood and the early loss of superfreak Logan Brooks. Manly skipped out to a lead but hardly had the ball in the second half and conceded a lot of points as the Tigers beat them up and went straight through them. I'm so impressed by their centres, who do a stack of dirty carries and hit the ball hard. Onitoni Large showed flashes for Manly and is an unbelievable athlete but didn't get much help. Balmain are now 3-0 and their toughest comp was Wests so far.

Speaking of Wests Ball, they have played some excellent teams so far: Balmain, Dogs, Souths. They are due a win soon. Their game against Souths was full of skill from both teams and played at a crazy fast speed. The cameraman and the ref clearly struggled to keep up at times, with the ref making some questionable calls both ways. Wests had two players binned in the match and along with their lack of focus, gave themselves no chance, conceding 30 points in the second half. My cat has a longer attention span than this lot, it seems, because after nearly every penalty, error or stoppage in the second half they were scored against. I'm critical of their halves. The kicking game barely threatened Souths and Makasini could have gotten more ball. It was a telling difference. He was a beast in this game and in a badly beaten side he shone. Tapau-Moors through the middle was also excellent.

Finally, Wests Matts had their first loss. They had all the ball in the first half and had two tries disallowed for forward passes, whereas when the possession evened out for Souths they got over the line. Over the course of the game their forwards won the battle and it led to some rushed kicks and mistakes from Wests.

I also watched the KOE Cup trial. All I can say is that there appear to be no Bula-like 'diamonds in the rough' among that bunch. A competitive hit out against the Dogs, who seem to be a couple years ahead in terms of their pathways development compared to us, although we are making up ground.
 
rihannafan1 said:
Anyone have thoughts on round 3 of matches?

I thought amongst our games this was the most exciting round by far.

Balmain continue to impress. Harold Matt's got their first win of the season and it was hilarious. They are a scrappy, fairly unathletic team who give away too many penalties and drop the ball a bit too much. Of all our teams they epitomise 'development' and I think we'll see a lot of it from them over the season. They were down all game to the Dogs, who were down to 12 players for 20 minutes out of the 60 because of sinbins. But two converted tries in the final 10 minutes, including a conversion from the sideline in the final minute, sealed the game for the Tigers. 2 points earnt through spirit and fitness. As an aside, the Dogs #12 had the longest hair I've ever seen on a male player. Fair player though.

Balmain Ball are brilliant. Tough and uncompromising, got a comeback win without Tannous, Haywood and the early loss of superfreak Logan Brooks. Manly skipped out to a lead but hardly had the ball in the second half and conceded a lot of points as the Tigers beat them up and went straight through them. I'm so impressed by their centres, who do a stack of dirty carries and hit the ball hard. Onitoni Large showed flashes for Manly and is an unbelievable athlete but didn't get much help. Balmain are now 3-0 and their toughest comp was Wests so far.

Speaking of Wests Ball, they have played some excellent teams so far: Balmain, Dogs, Souths. They are due a win soon. Their game against Souths was full of skill from both teams and played at a crazy fast speed. The cameraman and the ref clearly struggled to keep up at times, with the ref making some questionable calls both ways. Wests had two players binned in the match and along with their lack of focus, gave themselves no chance, conceding 30 points in the second half. My cat has a longer attention span than this lot, it seems, because after nearly every penalty, error or stoppage in the second half they were scored against. I'm critical of their halves. The kicking game barely threatened Souths and Makasini could have gotten more ball. It was a telling difference. He was a beast in this game and in a badly beaten side he shone. Tapau-Moors through the middle was also excellent.

Finally, Wests Matts had their first loss. They had all the ball in the first half and had two tries disallowed for forward passes, whereas when the possession evened out for Souths they got over the line. Over the course of the game their forwards won the battle and it led to some rushed kicks and mistakes from Wests.

I also watched the KOE Cup trial. All I can say is that there appear to be no Bula-like 'diamonds in the rough' among that bunch. A competitive hit out against the Dogs, who seem to be a couple years ahead in terms of their pathways development compared to us, although we are making up ground.
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Keep an eye on Mitch Taotua who played mainly back row for us last season, but played centre last week.
He is big enough, athletic enough and highly aggressive.
I believe he is similar, but looks quicker and has more upside than Broederlow and could be an NRL prospect if he keeps progressing with the right attitude.
 
Vicious said:
Keep an eye on Mitch Taotua who played mainly back row for us last season, but played centre last week.
He is big enough, athletic enough and highly aggressive.
I believe he is similar, but looks quicker and has more upside than Broederlow and could be an NRL prospect if he keeps progressing with the right attitude.
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I was disappointed in his effort on the weekend. The brothers didn't get involved much. Defence was solid but barely took a dozen hitups between the two of them. Hopefully they're more involved this weekend in whatever grade they're playing
 
balmain boy said:
I was disappointed in his effort on the weekend. The brothers didn't get involved much. Defence was solid but barely took a dozen hitups between the two of them. Hopefully they're more involved this weekend in whatever grade they're playing
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He seems like a young player who needs a lot of coaching and convincing of how good a player he can be IF he puts in the hard work. There is definately a bit of x-factor about him if he wants it enough.
Not as sure about his brother, but he’s not without a chance either.
Solomone Saukuru gave me a lot of hope of him fulfilling his potential based on what he showed in our NRL trial last week.
I had virtually given up on him based on watching him play very lazily far too often.
He still looks to be carrying a bit of excess weight, but if if he can continue to build on the effort he demonstrated last week, there is definitely an NRL player in waiting.
 
Any thoughts on Round 4 of Matts and Ball?

Balmain Matts finally met a side of their quality and in a thriller, held on to win 16-14. Aside from their first game, their defense has been very good for a side in this age group and it showed again in a scoreless second half where they continually repelled Norths. For the first time this season it felt like their attack clicked, at least for the first 40 minutes.

Balmain Ball were outstanding in a high quality match against Penrith, eventually winning 5 tries to 2, 26-12. Having Jared Hayward and Marc Tannous in the 9 and 7 has been a cheat code so far. Both had another superb game and Blake van Dries continued his strong form in the forwards, having his best game of the season. He was unputdownable. Balmain came home with a wet sail like in 3 of their 4 wins so far, winning the second half 18-0. The commentator, an eager young thing, had done his research but was a little excitable for mine and may need to check his mic levels before his next call.

Wests Matts have fallen back to the pack, their second week in a row where the forward pack has gotten steamrolled. They were handily beaten by Central Coast Roosters. Too many dropped balls meant they struggled to get into the game. I'd like to see the half, Lele, run the ball a little more.

Wests Ball finally got a win against a winless Dragons team, winning about 1000 points to 4. Dragons took an early lead but started turning the ball over around the 15 minute mark and genuinely, I do not know if they finished a set for the rest of the game. I really liked the hard running of Tapau-Moors, Ranson and Duncombe, one after the other punching holes in the Dragons line and giving the Wests backs so much to work with. Makasini is a crazy athlete in the centres but anyone thinking he's NRL or KOE ready may be getting ahead of themselves. He's simply not that physically strong atm. Kudos to the commentator here, making a tough job look easy all game long. My favourite call of the season so far.

I've now seen a few teams in both comps and my take...Balmain Ball are a contender, Wests are pretenders in both comps and Balmain Matts are a competitive bottom-half team. Plenty to be happy about with the Ball players coming through.
 
Good luck to our juniors this weekend.

6 games today:
Lisa Fiaola on now v Dragons and the girls are crushing them.
SG Ball Balmain @ 12pm v Rabbits
Tarsha Gale @ 12pm v Dragons
Harold Matt’s Balmain @ 1pm v Roosters
Harold Matt’s Wests @ 2.30pm v Steelers
SG Ball Wests @ 4pm v Steelers

2 games tomorrow:
AJ Cup @ 10am v Rams
LD Cup @ 11.20am v Rams

Have a great weekend!
 
My god. Luck is not on Balmain's side today. First set after ht, Tigers march downfield and put up a bomb. Souths winger has absolutely no idea and it hits his foot bouncing towards Tigers. Van Drie picks it up 2 on 1, just gets his arm hit causing the ball to hit the ground. Bunnies pick it up and race the length of field to score. Down 22 to 4.
 
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