Maybe we are not as good as we think we are ??

H

happy_tiger

Well-known member
Throwing it out there . Maybe because we look at the Tigers each week with Black , Gold and White sunglasses we are not seeing our indeficencies and seeing we are no where as good as we think we are . Good fullback with injury issues , One winger who has high ball and defensive issues , Halfback who is struggling big time with his defence and attack .
Forwards who lack consistant grunt go forward and are a touch underweight . Hooker who is struggling with osteo pubis and seems to worry more at times about getting picked for Origin than the teams performance . Compare that to the Storm , Warriors, Saints and Manly . Are we really possibly grand finallist as was touted at the start of the season ??
At times we have looked great , but more often than not we haven't . The other sides mentioned are completely the opposite .they look good most weeks and occasionally have the bad performance .
ARE WE THE REAL DEAL OR ARE WE A PRETENDER ???
 
We have the cattle and ability, I think we suffer from a poor mental attitude.

Last night it was again on display. We should have destroyed the Knights with the players we had on the field, but loose carries, some poor defensive reads and lack of imagination when the Knights were standing on their own goal line hurt us. They are basic mistakes which good teams rarely make.
 
Who said they were good? Right now they are light years away from being on the same level as the top four teams. Stupid mistakes, lack of killer instinct, defensive lapses. They tick all those boxes, and are lucky to be 6-6 instead of 4-8.
 
Our 1 and 7 are letting us down.

The back 3 of newcastle showed real venom ours looked like dancing cats.

Saying that, if we can hang around the bottom of the 8 until around round 20 we will see how the boys fire up then.
 
I thought we were premiership contenders and were just waiting to click. After last night, I doubt it. Doesnt seem to be happening for the boys.
 
The place is stale and has been for years. I get the feeling last year was the exertion of the last bit of heart the place has. Need a serious shakeup. Sheens should have moved on and a player cleanout should have ensued. Complacency is the big issue.

The Storm get by year after year by retaining their spine and rotating the rest of the positions as players become too expensive due to improvement. We should have adopted the same pattern years ago.

1\. Hodgson
6\. Marshall
7\. Prince
9\. Farah

Once we had this in place, they should have been given contracts for life and paid whatever they want. A few other personnel such as Lawrence also on lengthy contracts. The rest of the players all on max salaries and once their market value goes past the max, they are moved on and replaced with up and comers. Instead Sheens gives massive contracts to the likes of Gibbs, Fulton, Ayshford et al who, while possibly being (or becoming) great players, don't offer enough to be mainstay players and would never be so at the big clubs. If we were run by decent administration, right now our side would be something like.

1\. Brett Hodgson
2\. Rhys Pritchard
3\. Chris Lawrence
4\. Josh Davis
5\. Beau Ryan
6\. Benji Marshall
7\. Scott Prince
8\. Keith Galloway
9\. Robbie Farah
10\. Aaron Woods
11\. Gareth Ellis
12\. Simon Dwyer
13\. Chris Heighington

14\. Andrew Fifita
15\. Andrew Pearn
16\. David Gower
17\. Blake Ayshford

And while it looks no better than what we have, the spine would have been intact for the last 7 years and the other players would be better for it. The forwards would be given the directive to merely run forward and hit the line, nothing fancy. Run holes and hit the defense. Do everything in your power to make 10 metres a run. Centres are a combination of size, speed and value. Wingers are workers and not 350k a year like the wasteful cash that has been Lote Tuqiri. The backs would be there as targets for Prince, Farah and Marshall and Hodgson has clearly been our best fullback option in our history and is still carving up ESL to the point where he has proven he should never have been let go. Just my thoughts anyway.
 
Its only early in the season and where playing pretty crap and still in the 8 so the signs are good.

Senior players letting us down farahs 1 point at the end saved him from people saying he a bad game.

I thougt beau ryan did really good and cant blame him for that try. its good sheens always picks a utilty back on the bench to cover any injuries.
 
@Cultured Bogan said:
We have the cattle and ability, I think we suffer from a poor mental attitude.

Last night it was again on display. We should have destroyed the Knights with the players we had on the field, but loose carries, some poor defensive reads and lack of imagination when the Knights were standing on their own goal line hurt us. They are basic mistakes which good teams rarely make.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with your comments Cultured Bogan.
 
The players always say in interviews how Sheens emphasises preperation. Physically the team is well prepared, put that down to folkes or whoever but the tigers are at least not physically drained by the last 80 minutes.
The last few weeks the dropped balls and silly school boy errors can be put down to a lack of focus, which means a lack of mental preperation.
The tigers have no self belief at the moment. Whether it's because players have been asked to move on and it's tearing the team apart or at the very least playing on their minds, it needs to be sorted out soon.

Teams like st george and melbourne are a well coached side, physically they are all fit and able, but mentally they also know that they will keep turning up for each other, that they have a game plan and that the man inside and outside of him will do their job to the best of their ability.

The Tigers players have the ability to win games, but the mental preperation and focus is just not there.
 
tigers have to tone down on trying to be so fancy and start playing the basics of the game alot better.More respect for he footy
 
Scott Prince sucks & if he was still a part of the team he would be bringing us down even more.
 
I think we should be specific.

Lui is no where near as good as he was at the back-end of last year. Farah has not reached the level he did when he came into the team. We do not have an established fullback. We have slow wingers and we do not play the best pack of forwards that we can put on the park.

That sounds pretty significant however if Farah regains his form he can be a gun. Moltzen can fill in at either 7 or 1 and he will be a weapon in time in either role. When Lawrence and Lote are in the team our outside backs are not that bad. If Gibbs starts in the second row I think our pack looks really good.

So yes we are not as good as we think we are but we can turn this around reasonably easily. The real problem is that Sheens eventually figures things out but he moves slowly. For instance he is probably trying to get rid of Fulton and get another prop/second rower in Blair but it might take until next year. He is also probably going to give Lui a lot more time to get it together. The problem is that another year might slip by unless Sheens decides to make changes earlier rather than later.
 
Where a little above average football team with a few stars that play good every 2 to 3 weeks.

Nothing to do with admin or the coach.
 
i agree somewhat it would be good to have some speedy outside backs and at least one real mongrel in the forward pack but still i reckon we are playing much like we did last year. it wasnt till me made the finals every1 really stood up
 
**Yes we are severely overated.**
Last year we finished the season 3rd, but were we honestly any better than teams finishing 8th? I think not…it was that sort of competition. Yes we fired up for the semis,but as you should.

Does anyone want to be honest about that Dragons semi? We played with all heart, but despite getting within 1, the difference of class between the two sides was evident. Noone will admit it, but it was. We were hanging on for the last 40 minutes of that game. The Dragons forwards were rolling on and there little men were making 15m a scoot while we could hardly get out of our half. Same with the Roosters semis.

Lets break it down. We have the worst fullback in the competition. Thats not an attack on Moltzen, or even Brown and McKinnon if you wanna put there names, but find me a WORSE fullback in the comp than any one of those three. Maybe Wesser, thats it.

We have the worst kicking game in the competition. This is huge. Like huge. Its the difference between scoring a try or defending.

Some of our players are severely overated. Ayshford isnt bad, but people were talking at the end of last year like he was going to play origin (like seriously come off it), and while Lui has potential does anyone realise all the good things he does arent regular plays of a halfback (I.E - strong hitups etc).

Not to mention lack of pace in the outside backs and real go forward. Honestly how many times do we make 1-2-3-4 good hitups and weve gone 40-50 metres?

Finally whats peoples idea that "we can score tries from anywhere" or if "theres one team that can pull this off its the tigers" , when have we ever recently scored tries from anywhere? The odd try here and there, but no more than any other side.

We are around a 6th-8th side and on our day we can beat anyone, but i think thats just the NRL. come finals if you are there, you are a chance.
 
With Saint Benny due to be pontificated at Newcastle under the auspices of Cardinal Tinkler the Knights have advised several players that they are no longer part of the Crusade, one of them in Wes Naiquama was very good for them last night and could possibly be the No. 1 we so desperately need.
All the Knights players are going to play out of their skins to try and remain a player under St. Wayne but it always amazes me how a player can lift around rep selection time or their contract is up!.
 
I'm seeing Robert Lui stifling everything and defending like an under 8 player. This guy is breaking the chain with everything and getting in the way. At least at the moment he is anyway…....
 
Consistency in producing good performances is the Tigers biggest issue. You look at the Dragons, Storm, Manly, they're pretty consistent in the performance they give each week. Not so the Tigers. The kicking game for starters is WAY too inconsistent on a weekly basis and rarely do the Tigers pepper sides with kicks to the corners and force them to work it deep out of their own half.

The other critical aspect of the Tigers game which is letting them down is their ball control. The completion rate has not been up to standard and it has really derailed the Tigers attacking potency. There are times when they look like breaking teams open, but then someone drops the ball and the pressure is relieved.

Hopefully the team click into gear soon, otherwise I fear this season will slip by the Tigers and they won't be there come finals time.
 
On a positive note no other team can disrupt the opposition with sideline to sideline passing like the Wests Tigers.

On the replay I watched of last nights game Brandy made the point that the Tigers do with their long passes what other teams do with their big forwards do – lay a platform for tries.

If only we didn't drop the ball. Imagine how good the Tigers would be if they didn't drop the ball?
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