Retrospective..

Tiger_heart

Tiger_heart

Well-known member
Looking back at 2005 (sigh!) - what made us win the comp then? It's not like we had a squad that was "particularly" strong, albeit did have a few standouts..Hence, is the quality of the team directly related to the type of play they employ, if we are to agree that the two came together, but only once for us? A sort of planets aligning, so to speak.
The other is what DIDN'T happen after 2005, that led to where we are today?
 
Tiger_heart said:
Looking back at 2005 (sigh!) - what made us win the comp then? It's not like we had a squad that was "particularly" strong, albeit did have a few standouts..Hence, is the quality of the team directly related to the type of play they employ, if we are to agree that the two came together, but only once for us? A sort of planets aligning, so to speak.
The other is what DIDN'T happen after 2005, that led to where we are today?
Click to expand...
Two things I think

(1) the refereeing style moved towards support for the attacking side, and Sheens had been focusing for several seasons on an attack- and ball-movement-focused gameplan. Sheens gambled and the form of the game shifted in his favour

(2) there was a core group of quality juniors who all came of age and "clicked" at the same time, combined with some smart older purchases (Hodgo, Prince, Whatuira, Elford) who came into career-best form all at once.

#2 is exactly what the Panthers are experiencing now - a group of kids and some experienced leaders all finding form at the same time, which allows them all to thrive and gain confidence as a collective team. Same thing happened with Sharks in 2016 and it's happening with Broncos and Cowboys right now, where a team that was recently average has found a winning formula, without necessarily changing too much

It fell away in 2006 due to injury and player losses. Benji only played 11 times in 2006 and 13 in 2007. Prince/Laffranchi sort of checked out when they signed with Gold Coast, which for Tigers was critical because we could not afford to lose key players like that. Pat Richards went to Wigan in 2006 and his kicking and meterage were key for us. Skando retired in 2006. Bucket retired 2005. Those are fairly large key roster impacts in 2 seasons.
 
A lot of people say that 2005 was a fluke, but we had a very good side with really high levels of individual skill and young guys who were on the way up.

Our spine and backline could all score tries and were all dangerous with ball in hand.

They were also smart. You'd regularly see a guy like Brett Hodgson read the play really well and score a crucial try.

Tim Sheens haters will disagree, but he was able to assemble a fast, skilful side that exposed the weakness in other sides at the time (most teams relied on big boppers without much speed).
 
Papacito said:
A lot of people say that 2005 was a fluke, but we had a very good side with really high levels of individual skill and young guys who were on the way up.

Our spine and backline could all score tries and were all dangerous with ball in hand.

They were also smart. You'd regularly see a guy like Brett Hodgson read the play really well and score a crucial try.

Tim Sheens haters will disagree, but he was able to assemble a fast, skilful side that exposed the weakness in other sides at the time (most teams relied on big boppers without much speed).
Click to expand...

He was ahead of the game in 2005. Then the game changed, and Sheens vision became redundant, and he refused to adapt. Similar to the complaints we had about Madge.
 
We weren’t a great side in 2005. We copped some good touch ups, finishing 10th for points conceded. We had a reasonably average roster as well…certainly no superstar lineup such as our competitors Saints, Parra, Brissie and Melbourne possessed. Having said that, we did play some awesomely entertaining and effective football, especially towards the back half with the likes of Prince, Farah and Hodgson running riot…..and of course we had Benji.

We won because we went for broke in the finals. We still hold the record for most points scored - 134 in 4 games.
The mismanagement of the roster began immediately. Losing Prince, Richards and Laffranchi was ball busting. Believing our own hype and not recruiting to strengthen the roster was idiodic. Emotion took over and instead of realising the squad overachieved in 2005, we declared a dynasty had begun ala Penriths current one. Instead of using the momentum to upgrade the roster, we upgraded the contracts of guys who had hit their ceiling. By the time this mistake was discovered and acknowledged, it was too late. We had a resurgence in 2010 but by then the damage was done.
 
Papacito said:
He did rebuild and had an arguably better team in 2010 that finished 3rd and could have won another title.
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Unfortunately, Farah and Marshall rolled the dice too often in the finals, particularly in 2011 against the Warriors.
Heighno's ball gazing cost us in 2010 - I was there for the highs and lows.
 
mikey said:
Unfortunately, Farah and Marshall rolled the dice too often in the finals, particularly in 2011 against the Warriors.
Heighno's ball gazing cost us in 2010 - I was there for the highs and lows.
Click to expand...
The 2010/11 teams deserved a crack at the premiership. Sliding doors moments against Easts and Saints in 2010 as well as Warriors 2011 were costly.
Farah and Marshal were forced to become our heavily dependant creators as they never had rep quality players put beside them when they were developing. When Prince left we never replaced what he brought to the squad. When some of those forwards left, we didn’t replace them with quality. The roster stuff ups post the premiership cost us in those later years just as much as mistakes did. Continued roster incompetence has been evident ever since.
 
Tiger_heart said:
Looking back at 2005 (sigh!) - what made us win the comp then? It's not like we had a squad that was "particularly" strong, albeit did have a few standouts..Hence, is the quality of the team directly related to the type of play they employ, if we are to agree that the two came together, but only once for us? A sort of planets aligning, so to speak.
The other is what DIDN'T happen after 2005, that led to where we are today?
Click to expand...
Tim Sheens identified that touch football might beat these big teams, and led by Benji, Hodgo, Prince and a mobile pack they got away with it....but not for long especially when players went to other clubs.
 
Cobarcats said:
Tim Sheens identified that touch football might beat these big teams, and led by Benji, Hodgo, Prince and a mobile pack they got away with it....but not for long especially when players went to other clubs.
Click to expand...
…and the ruck speeds changed.
We we’re still playing touch whilst the rest were learning the art of the wrestle.
 
It was the speed we were allowed to play with, the play the ball and ruck were dramatically slowed in 2006 with that year's rule changes, correct me if I'm wrong wasn't 2006 the year the grubs at the storm began all their wrestling. I'm getting on and my memory isn't that good anymore.
 
Papacito said:
A lot of people say that 2005 was a fluke, but we had a very good side with really high levels of individual skill and young guys who were on the way up.

Our spine and backline could all score tries and were all dangerous with ball in hand.

They were also smart. You'd regularly see a guy like Brett Hodgson read the play really well and score a crucial try.

Tim Sheens haters will disagree, but he was able to assemble a fast, skilful side that exposed the weakness in other sides at the time (most teams relied on big boppers without much speed).
Click to expand...
No premiership in the NRL is ever a fluke IMO. You can't be a dud team and win the comp.
Self-belief was the overriding emotion that swept us to the title and no injuries certainly always helps. Those blokes would of been confident of being 20 points down and coming back to snatch the win in any game in those last couple of months of the season. Magical time, will always remember it like it was yesterday. Had a few superstitions going in those last few months😂
 
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