OFFICIAL Pathways - KOE General Discussion

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Embarrassing! A game we should have been competitive in was lost early by some absolute horrid defensive efforts by Kurt Falls and friends such as Luke Jack. Things just snowballed and whether it was poor discipline or unconscious ref bias or both, it was a terrible watch.

Yep as @TV Ted Ellery said it was probably a career worst game by Falls in both defence and some of his attacking kicks.

Things looked likely early with some venomous charges by Peter Taateo against his former team and he was probably our best in his 2 stints along with Kit Laulilii & Tristan Hope.

As many of us wanted, Heath Mason played at 5/8 and I thought did some good things, just let down by a poor missed tackle for a Raiders try & shocking pass late in the game. But I think we need to persist with him there for the rest of the Cup season since he'll be top 30 next season.

Ref was a disgrace and missed 2 blatant forward passes for Raiders tries amongst other things.

Tui'tupou, Luke Laulilii & Mapapalangi were strong with their carries but Luke L had a very bad miss on Mooney late in the lead up to a Raiders try. Mapapalangi looked a bit passive in D too at times but hopefully gets to build some continuity at right centre in Cup over the coming weeks to see if he is a viable top 30 depth option.

We made the Martin brothers look like superstars too thanks mainly to our poor edge defence.

Staines should never play centre again. He just gets caught out with poor decisions in defence every time he plays there. El Zakhem whilst decent in attack this season, this game really highlighted to me his deficiency in defence and contact.

Charlie Murray & Jaxson Rahme tried hard. Nothing else to say except how valuable Brent Naden is to our NSW Cup side and bring on Jock Madden for next season, at least he can tackle.
 
BlackWhiteGold said:
Embarrassing! A game we should have been competitive in was lost early by some absolute horrid defensive efforts by Kurt Falls and friends such as Luke Jack. Things just snowballed and whether it was poor discipline or unconscious ref bias or both, it was a terrible watch.

Yep as @TV Ted Ellery said it was probably a career worst game by Falls in both defence and some of his attacking kicks.

Things looked likely early with some venomous charges by Peter Taateo against his former team and he was probably our best in his 2 stints along with Kit Laulilii & Tristan Hope.

As many of us wanted, Heath Mason played at 5/8 and I thought did some good things, just let down by a poor missed tackle for a Raiders try & shocking pass late in the game. But I think we need to persist with him there for the rest of the Cup season since he'll be top 30 next season.

Ref was a disgrace and missed 2 blatant forward passes for Raiders tries amongst other things.

Tui'tupou, Luke Laulilii & Mapapalangi were strong with their carries but Luke L had a very bad miss on Mooney late in the lead up to a Raiders try. Mapapalangi looked a bit passive in D too at times but hopefully gets to build some continuity at right centre in Cup over the coming weeks to see if he is a viable top 30 depth option.

We made the Martin brothers look like superstars too thanks mainly to our poor edge defence.

Staines should never play centre again. He just gets caught out with poor decisions in defence every time he plays there. El Zakhem whilst decent in attack this season, this game really highlighted to me his deficiency in defence and contact.

Charlie Murray & Jaxson Rahme tried hard. Nothing else to say except how valuable Brent Naden is to our NSW Cup side and bring on Jock Madden for next season, at least he can tackle.
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Falls played like a guy who has noticed the club has signed 2 players in his position for next year...
 
BlackWhiteGold said:
Embarrassing! A game we should have been competitive in was lost early by some absolute horrid defensive efforts by Kurt Falls and friends such as Luke Jack. Things just snowballed and whether it was poor discipline or unconscious ref bias or both, it was a terrible watch.

Yep as @TV Ted Ellery said it was probably a career worst game by Falls in both defence and some of his attacking kicks.

Things looked likely early with some venomous charges by Peter Taateo against his former team and he was probably our best in his 2 stints along with Kit Laulilii & Tristan Hope.

As many of us wanted, Heath Mason played at 5/8 and I thought did some good things, just let down by a poor missed tackle for a Raiders try & shocking pass late in the game. But I think we need to persist with him there for the rest of the Cup season since he'll be top 30 next season.

Ref was a disgrace and missed 2 blatant forward passes for Raiders tries amongst other things.

Tui'tupou, Luke Laulilii & Mapapalangi were strong with their carries but Luke L had a very bad miss on Mooney late in the lead up to a Raiders try. Mapapalangi looked a bit passive in D too at times but hopefully gets to build some continuity at right centre in Cup over the coming weeks to see if he is a viable top 30 depth option.

We made the Martin brothers look like superstars too thanks mainly to our poor edge defence.

Staines should never play centre again. He just gets caught out with poor decisions in defence every time he plays there. El Zakhem whilst decent in attack this season, this game really highlighted to me his deficiency in defence and contact.

Charlie Murray & Jaxson Rahme tried hard. Nothing else to say except how valuable Brent Naden is to our NSW Cup side and bring on Jock Madden for next season, at least he can tackle.
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i can’t help but think moving their positions every damn week isn’t beneficial to form combinations or defending off the back of that. why they persist in doing that is beyond me
 
IronFist said:
This game was simply a reflection of where the club is still at with regard to quality of players and the way it develops players.

Canberra won this game with their players running hard, quick play the balls and constantly keeping Wests on the back foot. And their players are big. In contrast, the Wests forward pack were a bunch of sub 6ft midgets apart from El- Zakhem, and Porter (who came off injured).

Falls, who would blame him. I think he’s done well steering this team around the park for the most part this season. This week, he’s found out both Madden and Andrew have been signed for 2026 and likely to take his spot.

Mason and Luke Laulilii are examples of the shit approach to developing players at this club. Thrusting them into NRL way too soon, had few confidence sapping games in first grade, and it looks like he’s struggling to progress. Is he a fullback? Is he a half? Who the [This word has been automatically removed] knows. The club is giving him a shit serve, and I’d be looking around at something better if I were in his shoes. I don’t have any confidence in how they progress Makasini.

There is no easy pass next season. If there is no improvement from Richo and Benji in their third season with their recruitment and depth, then I’d be calling both busts. Ciraldo and Gould did it in two seasons. And there’s a lot to admire about how Stuart and Carbone have worked their recruitment in Canberra.
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In his first 3 seasons at Bulldogs Gus took them to 16th, 15th, 12th
 
A disappointing result today- gave away too many early penalties and couldn’t find any answers against a strong Raiders outfit who continued to have some luck with the ball. Totally baffled with constant positional changes….. not sure the coach is to blame there, I think it comes from above. Magpies have had a great last few weeks and shown some real guts at times. Today just wasn’t our day! 🥲
 
Alive and Kicking said:
A disappointing result today- gave away too many early penalties and couldn’t find any answers against a strong Raiders outfit who continued to have some luck with the ball. Totally baffled with constant positional changes….. not sure the coach is to blame there, I think it comes from above. Magpies have had a great last few weeks and shown some real guts at times. Today just wasn’t our day! 🥲
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BlackWhiteGold said:
Not sure why Payne/Benji are so reluctant to play Mason at 5/8 ... it's one of the great mysteries of the world atm.
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Mason has played 12 games of NSW cup this year and their record when he plays is 3 wins 9 losses. 2 of those wins he played fullback.

Their record without him entirely is 5 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses.

Mason has started 5 games of NRL this year and in those games his record is 0 wins 5 losses.

I am sorry but this is unacceptable. He should be playing Flegg. He is keeping better players out of the NSW cup side much less NRL side.
 
poopy_diaper said:
Mason has played 12 games of NSW cup this year and their record when he plays is 3 wins 9 losses. 2 of those wins he played fullback.

Their record without him entirely is 5 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses.

Mason has started 5 games of NRL this year and in those games his record is 0 wins 5 losses.

I am sorry but this is unacceptable. He should be playing Flegg. He is keeping better players out of the NSW cup side much less NRL side.
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Not good for the young lad poopy.

IMO Mason atm should be a 5/8 & his development in the front line has been stunted by this project to transform him into a fullback.

Personally I'd like him to stay at 5/8 in NSW Cup for the rest of the season and focus on his game management, positioning & communication in this role. Then in the pre-season start to include him in dummy half work.

I don't think he will be a first choice NRL starter in any position for some time so his best chance is as an impactful, elusive utility and he's got 1 year to prove it especially defensively.
 
coivtny said:
The halftime score is a total embarrassment. They’ve been better in the past few weeks but surely this is Payne’s death warrant.
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Maybe the players? The forwards get dominated. And Falls 'n Mason were mehhh.
I thought the WT Jersey Flegg side had a bigger pack of forwards.
Haven't been a fan of the Payne and his selections/coaching in the past. Nothing much has changed.
 
Tiger Stripes said:
Maybe the players? The forwards get dominated. And Falls 'n Mason were mehhh.
I thought the WT Jersey Flegg side had a bigger pack of forwards.
Haven't been a fan of the Payne and his selections/coaching in the past. Nothing much has changed.
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Agree that few of the players would get a pass mark. I just think Payne has had his chances and hasn't been able to get at least fair results. We definitely need better players too.
 
coivtny said:
Agree that few of the players would get a pass mark. I just think Payne has had his chances and hasn't been able to get at least fair results. We definitely need better players too.
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Not too dissimilar to our NRL team, they have a very boring attack which generally relies on individual brilliance to make something out of nothing and they don’t really have any hard hitting defenders which is required to stand up and make a difference when getting dominated in the yardage game.
Kit is a worry as he does not always run the ball at his kamikaze style best and he doesn’t seem to hurt anyone when defending.
I would be strongly advising him to focus on regularly running the ball off the back fence with his kamikaze style ball running as often as possible and a big focus on hitting hard in defence as he used to do when coming through the junior grades.
He is a similar style of player to Taateo and Rahme and there is only really enough room in a top 30 roster for one of them which Kit has for 2026, however I think it’s fair to say the other 2 have out performed him in 2025.
 
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