LIVE GAME Round 1 vs Knights

[Demps]

But he missed 3 tackles and made 0?

Yep

A player not known for his defence, despite being a big body

 

[weststigers]

Yep

A player not known for his defence, despite being a big body

Ahhhh sorry, but he is known for smashing people, but in the same breath, no winger is "known" for their defence. Name me one winger that built their career on their impenetrable defence. They don't exist.

Honestly, we need to cut these nonsense narratives. He had a great game. Better than any Wests Tigers winger in recent memory, what is the point being made anyway? Bringing up some negative stats that made no difference tonthe outcome or is there something constructive to say?

 

[innsaneink]

Thanks. And Leichhardt?

Other side of the canal... 15 min walk but you're out immediately

 

[Demps]

Ahhhh sorry, but he is known for smashing people, but in the same breath, no winger is "known" for their defence. Name me one winger that built their career on their impenetrable defence. They don't exist.

Honestly, we need to cut these nonsense narratives. He had a great game. Better than any Wests Tigers winger in recent memory, what is the point being made anyway? Bringing up some negative stats that made no difference tonthe outcome or is there something constructive to say?

Stats are stats.

I agree though, he had a great game and I'm keen to see more.

 

[jadtiger]

Further review:

Our defence in the middle is exposed between the A defender & the second marker (I think I have the terminology right). Pole, in particular, is guilty in & around this area. The amount of breaks & half breaks made due to the inside defender being slow to come across is remarkable. Twal is also guilty here (and I like Twal).

First contact...even third & 4th contact...in defence is just not strong enough. We lack physically strong footballers. My man, Jack Hetherington, showed us up yesterday. No matter how talented the team might be- if we need 4 tacklers in to bring a guy down- we are in trouble. Jack Bird was surprisingly effective one on one though.

Doesn't matter who our centres & second rowers are if the guys inside them won't pass to them.

Seyfarth is a limited player. BUT- so long as he holds his own & doesn't give away penalties or contribute with missed tackles & errors- that is what we need out there. A guy that holds the side strong. Sukkar could do this too. Or Porter. Whoever is the hot hand. Seyfarth is a favourite with management & gets first run. I didn't think he was too bad last night. Sam Fainu was fine. Again- if the guys inside him don't bring him into the game out wide, he's going to have limited impact.

That said- Seyfarth & Fainu (and whoever else) need to take some of the carries off May, who will burn out with that kind of workrate.

Twal holds his own & was pretty good in attack, promoting passes & even being there in support.

Pole frustrates me. You can see the talent is there. But his defence is VERY close to making him a liability. He is a lazy inside defender- as is Sione Fainu. Klemmer, anyone?

Mason is a genuine utility. BUT. Realistically, Doueihi is a better option at fullback. Mason could fit into centre & not be worse than Faataape (who is still learning & doesn't deserve all the crtisicism). My original idea of Latu into the centres would be just as effective. However- all these options are just holding patterns until Makasini is ready & maybe when/if Taylan May comes in.

Mason is too unreliable under kicks to be a 1st grade fullback.

Not going to get stuck into Galvin. I thought it was a very ordinary effort, but it's not all up to him. I will say- what he does at 5/8, he could do at #13 just as effectively. His defence is a little concerning though.

I fear that Tristan Hope was upgraded too quickly. Don't get me wrong- I was as chuffed as anyone seeing the video the other day. But Tallyn is vastly superior. And Hope got on the field in place of Latu, who would have done more.

I still feel Latu Fainu is the organising player needed for this team. He brings other players into the game, runs sweep type plays similar to the way Ponga does. We have the individual talents. We lack the guy that orchestrates the game. Luai could still be that guy. But that is what I see in Latu.

Good summary

 

[Bellend]

If we had a decent kicker who could have put balls deep into Newcastle corners we should have won that game. Oh that's right we have 3 and still could not get it right.

 

[balmain boy]

I find this a weird take, I didn't think Tigers were all that bad. Especially the close scoreline.

For me there were basically a few sets where we got really tired and grabby and the Knights were able to sort of fumble their way to the try line.

Our try line defence was actually alright and we made good ground on our sets. Most of the bombs were decently placed and the kick chase was good.

Knights worked the ruck very heavily and ref didn't do much about it, I don't recall any 6-agains. Credit to Knights they were hard to crack and our major issue was same as last year - could not make the most of our attacking opportunities, though Knights were equally wasteful / impotent.

I thought there was a clear difference, easily enough to account for 2 point deficit - Ponga. Those few plays where he got out of the in-goal and then hot-stepped midfield which disrupted our defensive line. He put Lucas into the gap that lead to their first try and he was very good at predicting where we would kick, because he was never caught out of position.

I find this a very weird take.

We missed almost 60 tackles. We went one out on almost every single time we had the ball. We were pinned in our half due to our terrible kicking game. When Cogger blows our halves out of the park you know you've got a problem. The Knights started almost every set on their 30. That's embarrassing.
We didn't receive a single outcome from any of our kicks. We didn't even contest 99% of our kicks.
Our players were exhausted after 55 mins, which shows that the preseason didn't do it's job.
Ponga, Schiller and Sharpe tore us to shreds. We don't have a single centre or back rower who can break the line. No one with pace and only one winger with power.
Our goal line defence was solid. But if the Knights played remotely well they win by 30, if they played well they'd have won 40+. They were shocking, we got ALL the questionable calls and still lost. That's how much worse we were.

If we were trying things and the combos and execution just wasn't quite there yet, that'd be ok. But we tried nothing, and that is unacceptable.

For me the biggest issue is the fitness. Defence Congress form to attitude and fitness, and then technique. Our defence fell to pieces once our boys couldn't compete any longer and started farting off tackles . Given our struggles with fitness in the last few years fitness needed to be our top priority this off season, but seemingly it wasn't. If we can't play 80 mins then we will probably get another spoon

 

[NT_Tiger]

I didnt see the game but listened on the radio. I didnt catch it all but the bits I did catch left me concerned that Luai couldnt close out the game. It didnt sound like an organised attack. Just my impression.

 

[Coastie_Tiger]

Just watched the highlights again, what a different game it could have been if Galvin didnt run it on the 5th with 13 to go. We had Jerome calling it left definite try scoring play, i wouldn't say it was bombed as such but it was such a promising chance. Put it through the hands i'd back skelton to have barged over.
Luai gave him too much rope i thought he needs to be stronger and take more of the plays, he's Batman now not Robin.

 

[Year_of_the_Tiger]

On a positive no Judicial charges out of our first game of the season.

Yep. someone alluded to this - in seemed we defended a bit too much to avoid a binning or charge

Samuela Fainu has had 2 poor games in a row now… not involved enough for me

What is it? Conditioning, injury or 2nd yr syndrome? He’s been average in the trials and last night

 

[Bk210]

New year, same old tigers mistakes (missed tackles, going for 2 instead of a 6 pointer early on in the game, giving away silly penalties)

 

[Year_of_the_Tiger]

Close game, early days and both sides quite rusty. I don’t rate Newcastle at all so I’m disappointed we couldn’t beat them, especially at home! If it was a 2 point loss to a better team I’d probably be ok with it.

I think we are win full strength but agree

 

[BZN]

This is a very obvious area that needs urgent attention

And it's not the only area that needs urgent attention if you are fair dinkum 🤔

 

[Year_of_the_Tiger]

Probably because Galvin spent too much time on the left side, his enthusiasm is great but he needs to be put in his place.

I thought Luai would sort that out if Benji didn't.

He also needs to pass the ball. Wants to break the line and pass and it worked once with TDS otherwise he was a hog last night. Laui will be on him this week I guess and will be on the ball more - I can only hope

 

[TV Ted Ellery]

Further review:

Our defence in the middle is exposed between the A defender & the second marker (I think I have the terminology right). Pole, in particular, is guilty in & around this area. The amount of breaks & half breaks made due to the inside defender being slow to come across is remarkable. Twal is also guilty here (and I like Twal).

First contact...even third & 4th contact...in defence is just not strong enough. We lack physically strong footballers. My man, Jack Hetherington, showed us up yesterday. No matter how talented the team might be- if we need 4 tacklers in to bring a guy down- we are in trouble. Jack Bird was surprisingly effective one on one though.

Doesn't matter who our centres & second rowers are if the guys inside them won't pass to them.

Seyfarth is a limited player. BUT- so long as he holds his own & doesn't give away penalties or contribute with missed tackles & errors- that is what we need out there. A guy that holds the side strong. Sukkar could do this too. Or Porter. Whoever is the hot hand. Seyfarth is a favourite with management & gets first run. I didn't think he was too bad last night. Sam Fainu was fine. Again- if the guys inside him don't bring him into the game out wide, he's going to have limited impact.

That said- Seyfarth & Fainu (and whoever else) need to take some of the carries off May, who will burn out with that kind of workrate.

Twal holds his own & was pretty good in attack, promoting passes & even being there in support.

Pole frustrates me. You can see the talent is there. But his defence is VERY close to making him a liability. He is a lazy inside defender- as is Sione Fainu. Klemmer, anyone?

Mason is a genuine utility. BUT. Realistically, Doueihi is a better option at fullback. Mason could fit into centre & not be worse than Faataape (who is still learning & doesn't deserve all the crtisicism). My original idea of Latu into the centres would be just as effective. However- all these options are just holding patterns until Makasini is ready & maybe when/if Taylan May comes in.

Mason is too unreliable under kicks to be a 1st grade fullback.

Not going to get stuck into Galvin. I thought it was a very ordinary effort, but it's not all up to him. I will say- what he does at 5/8, he could do at #13 just as effectively. His defence is a little concerning though.

I fear that Tristan Hope was upgraded too quickly. Don't get me wrong- I was as chuffed as anyone seeing the video the other day. But Tallyn is vastly superior. And Hope got on the field in place of Latu, who would have done more.

I still feel Latu Fainu is the organising player needed for this team. He brings other players into the game, runs sweep type plays similar to the way Ponga does. We have the individual talents. We lack the guy that orchestrates the game. Luai could still be that guy. But that is what I see in Latu.

I agree with most of your post but have to disagree on Sukkar replacing Seyfarth. Sukkar is 1996 metropolitan cup standard. He's absolute gash. Porter is only marginally better. We have a critical lack of quality in the backrow and while we have some young talent coming through in the form of Godinet and Duncombe, we need to throw money at some high quality recruits.

On Latu Fainu, even though I reckon he would be a better complement to Luai than Galvin, his fitness and passivity worry me.

 

[BlackWhiteGold]

It’s Round 1 I know but extremely disappointing 24 hours for the club losing NRL, NSW Cup & Jersey Flegg.

The 2nd halfs in all 3 games were putrid after being in each game at halftime. Only 1 try scored in each of Cup & Flegg in 2nd half.

Honestly across all 3 grades, I struggle to find one player who played better than his opposite number. Maybe Terrell May, with honourable mentions to Tino Tavana, Tim Johannssen, Kit Laulilii & Jaxson Rahme in Cup. So disappointed in round 1 … I expect a big bounce-back next week in all grades 😡

 

[tigerballs]

I find this a very weird take.

We missed almost 60 tackles. We went one out on almost every single time we had the ball. We were pinned in our half due to our terrible kicking game. When Cogger blows our halves out of the park you know you've got a problem. The Knights started almost every set on their 30. That's embarrassing.
We didn't receive a single outcome from any of our kicks. We didn't even contest 99% of our kicks.
Our players were exhausted after 55 mins, which shows that the preseason didn't do it's job.
Ponga, Schiller and Sharpe tore us to shreds. We don't have a single centre or back rower who can break the line. No one with pace and only one winger with power.
Our goal line defence was solid. But if the Knights played remotely well they win by 30, if they played well they'd have won 40+. They were shocking, we got ALL the questionable calls and still lost. That's how much worse we were.

If we were trying things and the combos and execution just wasn't quite there yet, that'd be ok. But we tried nothing, and that is unacceptable.

For me the biggest issue is the fitness. Defence Congress form to attitude and fitness, and then technique. Our defence fell to pieces once our boys couldn't compete any longer and started farting off tackles . Given our struggles with fitness in the last few years fitness needed to be our top priority this off season, but seemingly it wasn't. If we can't play 80 mins then we will probably get another spoon

Mate, they scored 10 points. None in the first half. Melbourne would be happy with that.
The dogs missed more tackles than anyone last season and people worshipped their defence. Don't worry about the missed tackles stats, worry about the score on the board.
I know everyone is saying Newcastle were terrible but they were sensational last week. Maybe our scrambling defence made them look terrible.
Our biggest issue is not being able to score points and to improve that, Galvin has to go. It's a team game and he stifles the attack. Good halves attack the line, he goes sideways and takes everyone with him. As soon as Benji has the balls to drop him we become a winning team.

 

[eyewondertoo]

10-36 versus newy in KOE cup- thats not good either considering it was 4-6 at half time.

 

[clontarfkid]

What bothers me most is that despite the significant player turnover during the off season...
NOTHING MUCH HAS CHANGED!!
Same old,same old
Knights were awful..we were worse...and Im just aint seeing a way forward atm.
Sure,Api and Bula will help,but our legacy core problems remain exactly the same as last year...and the year before that ..and...
Apart from the increased effort,I found it very disappointing tbh

 

[weststigers]

It was the 2nd time I’ve seen Ponga play live and he was easily best on ground both times. Man is everywhere, when we were camped on our line I recall him making 3 cover tackles plus getting back behind the line to take Lachie’s grubber kick.. it’s not just the stuff he does with the ball but off the ball he’s very good too

That's what a million + player looks like on the field.