LIVE game discussion. Tigers Team Vs Penrith - Trial#2

watersider said:
Madden v Doueihi:

Totally understand the support for Madden, but you don't make decisions off of trial form. Madden was against reserve graders in both appearances and it is hard to judge his performance. No doubt his kicking and game management looks the best at the club, but the speed is more intense and there's much less space in 1st grade. It's really hard for a player that lacks speed and elusiveness to open space for players outside him, hence Madden usually looks bog average and slow when in the top grade.

Doueihi can frustrate play by holding the ball too much and cramping players but he's a big and threatening runner, has an excellent long kicking game and bomb and proved his ability by winning the halfback spot when seemingly no one wanted him there at the club.

Madden is also a weaker defender.

Madden's form is nonetheless really promising. If only as a reserve grade half, he should provide leadership and organisation to the side. He'll get a chance at one stage this season, but you mess everything up by making that switch now off of good form in the trials. Doueihi deserves the chance to wear the 7.
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Very good summary.
I’m a big fan of them both, but I think Doueihi’s running threat is too important to be left out.
I appreciate what Luai brings to us in way of his leadership and competitiveness, but do we really lose that much if he misses a game and we have a halves combination of Jock at at 7 and Doueihi at 6, or Doueihi at 7 and Latu Fainu at 6 ?
 
watersider said:
Madden v Doueihi:

Totally understand the support for Madden, but you don't make decisions off of trial form. Madden was against reserve graders in both appearances and it is hard to judge his performance. No doubt his kicking and game management looks the best at the club, but the speed is more intense and there's much less space in 1st grade. It's really hard for a player that lacks speed and elusiveness to open space for players outside him, hence Madden usually looks bog average and slow when in the top grade.

Doueihi can frustrate play by holding the ball too much and cramping players but he's a big and threatening runner, has an excellent long kicking game and bomb and proved his ability by winning the halfback spot when seemingly no one wanted him there at the club.

Madden is also a weaker defender.

Madden's form is nonetheless really promising. If only as a reserve grade half, he should provide leadership and organisation to the side. He'll get a chance at one stage this season, but you mess everything up by making that switch now off of good form in the trials. Doueihi deserves the chance to wear the 7.
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I think AD has obviously won the job for round 2 through his efforts last year and his pre-season. Fair play to him and I think he deserves the jersey for the Cowboys game.

The concern I have and I assume it would be shared by Benji is that we looked very similar to 2025 when attacking the line. How long can we leave things the same if that doesn’t improve?

Madden I believe would provide better opportunities for his outside men and more cohesive play in attack.

I agree with most that AD deserves the jersey, but I think it’s going to remain a debate unless we improve our red zone attack early in the season.

Hopefully we are 5-0 or 4-1 and the debate can be put to bed.
 
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The concern I have and I assume it would be shared by Benji is that we looked very similar to 2025 when attacking the line. How long can we leave things the same if that doesn’t improve?

Madden I believe would provide better opportunities for his outside men and more cohesive play in attack. Thanks Ellisfan. My sentiments exactly!

When in the red zone [Luai and Doueihi] they stand so shallow they become easy pickings for the D.
This needs to be addressed.
Need to be positioned deeper allowing more space and time for the outside men to get moving and confuse the D. And we have seen the results of what deft kicking to the in-goal can achieve.
Standing flat and hoping someone misses a tackle rarely gets points.
Madden makes the backline stand deeper, and it works!

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​

 
Tiger Stripes said:
The concern I have and I assume it would be shared by Benji is that we looked very similar to 2025 when attacking the line. How long can we leave things the same if that doesn’t improve?

Madden I believe would provide better opportunities for his outside men and more cohesive play in attack. Thanks Ellisfan. My sentiments exactly!

When in the red zone [Luai and Doueihi] they stand so shallow they become easy pickings for the D.
This needs to be addressed.
Need to be positioned deeper allowing more space and time for the outside men to get moving and confuse the D. And we have seen the results of what deft kicking to the in-goal can achieve.
Standing flat and hoping someone misses a tackle rarely gets points.
Madden makes the backline stand deeper, and it works!

​

​

Click to expand...
I noticed that too , we don’t have players in motion and in syn who are running decoys to confuse the oppposition .
 
Tiger Stripes said:
The concern I have and I assume it would be shared by Benji is that we looked very similar to 2025 when attacking the line. How long can we leave things the same if that doesn’t improve?

Madden I believe would provide better opportunities for his outside men and more cohesive play in attack. Thanks Ellisfan. My sentiments exactly!

When in the red zone [Luai and Doueihi] they stand so shallow they become easy pickings for the D.
This needs to be addressed.
Need to be positioned deeper allowing more space and time for the outside men to get moving and confuse the D. And we have seen the results of what deft kicking to the in-goal can achieve.
Standing flat and hoping someone misses a tackle rarely gets points.
Madden makes the backline stand deeper, and it works!

​

​

Click to expand...

If Benji sticks with Doueihi at 7 and no Latu on the field, get used to plenty of frustrating sets attacking the opposition line for no result.

Im starting to warm to Latu at 13 and Jock at 7. Those two condensing the opposition middle will allow Luai, May, Bula and Makasini to destroy teams on the edges because of the work they do in the middle. Currently having no one able to play straight is suicide.

Will we win a comp with Jock at 7? No, but we can start being a consistent top 8 team with him doing his job. Remember, Madden is only 25. He still has upside.
 
Jedi_Tiger said:
Most improved pays on the team with the most nrl points for 2026 after deducting 2025 ladder points

looks like a bit of a trap play to be honest, newcastle at $6 or souths who finished 24 same as us 24 points might be good bets.It might turn out who.finishes higher us or souths
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I don't think the knights will improve at all. Souths definitely are the danger unless Latrell falls over again. $11 though in what is probably a 3 or 4 horse race.
 
Jolls said:
It is well documented that I was not a fan of AD to 7. No need to highlight my reasoning again.

It is hard to compare apples with apples when one half contender is demonstrating his skills playing agaisnt FG and the other against reggies/fringies. This was a trial game so the obvious move for me was to run Jock and Luia for 20 minutes against the same Penrith FG side in the first half to get a good feel for the strenghts and weaknesses in a like for like situation. I don't care what they did with AD - sit him on the pine or shuffled him to 13 - but it was a missed opportunity by the dude with the clipboard.

The fact that Benji chose to get reps into AD with one set of players and Jock with the other is a clear indication that his mind is already made up on the starting 7, 6 combination.

Jock will get his chance on the big stage, he has shown that he has the game management skills and kicking game to be successful for us in FG so he is not going to let us down. The biggest difference will be how unsettling this is on the rest of the team - Jock does not pose the same running threat - he is all about providing time and space for his outside backs. Given he will be predominanatly on the right edge this would be the perfect foil for Toa as AD tends to cramp him in attack.

I agree that we should temper our enthusiasm for Jock (and several others based on reading the posts here); but, he is FG ready and I think his style is probably a better fit to start the season. Shame we didn't get to see the apples and apples comparison to put the discussion to bed.
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Adam Reynolds isn't the running threat he used to be either, so I'm not too fussed about Jock's perceived lack of run threat. Every player outside him appears to be a genuine threat this season, even the depth of Skeleton, Lualii and Herbert. They need to be used to maximum benefit. His game management and pin point kicking is more important, I think.
I have no qualms about AD playing 13. He seems to be defending well enough around the middle. He's a lot to handle running wide. Even if we start Twal at 13, bring AD on after 20 and move Twal to prop.
Anyway, future stars Latu and Javon will be in the mix sooner or later. Great to have these problems, eh?
 
Tiger Stripes said:
The concern I have and I assume it would be shared by Benji is that we looked very similar to 2025 when attacking the line. How long can we leave things the same if that doesn’t improve?

Madden I believe would provide better opportunities for his outside men and more cohesive play in attack. Thanks Ellisfan. My sentiments exactly!

When in the red zone [Luai and Doueihi] they stand so shallow they become easy pickings for the D.
This needs to be addressed.
Need to be positioned deeper allowing more space and time for the outside men to get moving and confuse the D. And we have seen the results of what deft kicking to the in-goal can achieve.
Standing flat and hoping someone misses a tackle rarely gets points.
Madden makes the backline stand deeper, and it works!

​

​

Click to expand...
Playing flat cuts down the defenses thinking time to adjust.
Probably better for teams with less speed...teams with flyers everywhere can afford to play deep
 
Just watching the replay .at 1/2 time .Seems our tackling style has changed
We were quickly dropping them to the ground ,didnt see 1 offload.
We were atrocious last year doing the 2 hold them up while the 3rd slowly comes in and folds them to the ground
 
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