LIVE GAME Round 27 v Titans

Live Game Discussion
If it makes anyone feel any better St George had an even worse finish to their season, with poor performances over the last month including a 40-0 flogging by Souths, remembering that they were above us on the ladder for much of the season.
 
Typical finish to the season for our boys. A better year without the spoon and arguably a pass mark for the season but it seems regardless of who we have in our team, that last game doesn’t seem to inspire an all in effort to end with a win. We might has well have been playing Melbourne for us to lose 24 nil in the second. Disappointed. And Parra finish ahead of us! At least I don’t feel ashamed enough to go and peel off the 2025 membership sticker off my back windscreen like I have the last 7 years 🤪
 
There's a pattern. If the Tigers win, they lose the next game. If they get in the lead, they fall away.

It seems to me that they're so used to losing that, as soon as they do something right, they get big heads and start dropping off tackles, doing hail Mary passes, dropping the ball, giving away penalties. They can't balance confidence and humility. It's either one or the other.

On the plus side, the Kennel is pretty entertaining ATM.
 
I flew up for the game. (spur of the moment thing).
While the Tigers should never have lost that game, you kind of have to give the Titans some credit. It really defies logic how the Titans were spoon contenders. They have great attacking weapons in Campbell, Brimson and Kini as well as decent forward pack led by Tino. They showed urgency with ball and can make something out of nothing.

Thoughts on the game:
~ Terrell is not an 80 minute player. He often stands behind the opposition defensive line for 4 tackles before gets back onside. His hit ups do not bend the line.
~ Taylan is all class. He saved our back a few times with this last line defence
~ Sione is only a fill in edge as his lateral movement isn’t good enough.KPP will be better there.
~ When Latu went off, Jerome became quite frantic and tried too hard to make the magic play. Early ball to Taylan would have seen points in the second half. We often had them stripped for numbers.
~ Seyfarth was good in his first stint. Played a link role that saw points but his hit ups were average.
~ Api was energetic but isn’t a 80 minute player. He gets tired with the defensive workload.
~ Latu looked great. Took the line on and was strong is all areas. Defensively as good as any half. Game changed when he went off.
~ Heath Mason (yeesh). Sorry but I just don’t see it. His passing game is slow and awkward. Defence is questionable. His only attribute is his speed from standing start but that seems to be easily read. I think he is a KOE type fill in.
~ To’a is an enigma, brilliant but frustrating in about 2 seconds of each other.
~ Roycey was awesome. Even the Titans fans were impressed. That’s the standard every week for him.
- Bula is a keeper. He just gets better and better. Will be a top echelon fullback very soon.
~ Impressive debut from Makasini. Strong carries and solid defensively. Nice try to remember

Overall a very disappointing loss. We don’t seem to be able to cope with adversity well. In this case when Latu went off the wheels fell off and we lost our structure.
 
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Well that was disappointing waking up to this, especially given we were leading 28-12, very similar to the Cowboys game and the Titans scored 3 tries fairly close to the times that the Cowboys scored their 3 tries.

Still, a way better season for a long time, the most wins since 2019. Lost 7 games by 8 points or less. We have Taylan starting the season, the spine (barring injuries) seems more settled for next year.
 
bbobb said:
I flew up for the game. (spur of the moment thing).
While the Tigers should never have lost that game, you kind of have to give the Titans some credit. It really defies logic how the Titans were spoon contenders. They have great attacking weapons in Campbell, Brimson and Kini as well as decent forward pack led by Tino. They showed urgency with ball and can make something out of nothing.

Thoughts on the game:
~ Terrell is not an 80 minute player. He often stands behind the opposition defensive line for 4 tackles before gets back onside. His hit ups do not bend the line.
~ Taylan is all class. He saved our back a few times with this last line defence
~ Sione is only a fill in edge as his lateral movement isn’t good enough.KPP will be better there.
~ When Latu went off, Jerome became quite frantic and tried too hard to make the magic play. Early ball to Taylan would have seen points in the second half. We often had them stripped for numbers.
~ Seyfarth was good in his first stint. Played a link role that saw points but his hit ups were average.
~ Api was energetic but isn’t a 80 minute player. He gets tired with the defensive workload.
~ Latu looked great. Took the line on and was strong is all areas. Defensively as good as any half. Game changed when he went off.
~ Heath Mason (yeesh). Sorry but I just don’t see it. His passing game is slow and awkward. Defence is questionable. His only attribute is his speed from standing start but that seems to be easily read. I think he is a KOE type fill in.
~ To’a is an enigma, brilliant but frustrating in about 2 seconds of each other.
~ Roycey was awesome. Even the Titans fans were impressed. That’s the standard every week for him.
- Bula is a keeper. He just gets better and better. Will be a top echelon fullback very soon.
~ Impressive debut from Makasini. Strong carries and solid defensively. Nice try to remember

Overall a very disappointing loss. We don’t seem to be able to cope with adversity well. In this case when Latu went off the wheels fell off and we lost our structure.
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It’s clear see that Terrell May and Korisau struggle playing the full 80mins and it’s costing us by continually doing it.
In one of the early tries we conceded, May was defending inside of Latu and made no attempt to number up due to fatigue. This meant Latu had to take the player inside of the man he was marking which led to a 3 v 2 against us and an easy try to the Titans.
Not only is playing Terrell for the full 80mins costing us as a team, it’s making him look soft and effecting his chances of playing for NSW which he says is a big ambition.
Api has been and still is a champion player, but he’s getting older and is clearly fatigued in various stages of the game which leads to the high number of missed tackles from him each week and effects his running game which is one of his real strengths when he is not fatigued.
I believe Benji is improving as a coach, but sone of his team selections and poor use of the interchange is still a major concern.
 
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Merlot said:
wish they were
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Even if it was just as cannon fodder this yea, it would have been nice and marked a real turn around.
Not a great end to the year but I'm not joining the doomsayers and wrist slitters over last night. We had more wins, had some close losses including games we shouldn't have lost, and have upgraded cattle. A good forward, a good back and cut some lesser-performing players - xmas wish list.
 
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bbobb said:
I flew up for the game. (spur of the moment thing).
While the Tigers should never have lost that game, you kind of have to give the Titans some credit. It really defies logic how the Titans were spoon contenders. They have great attacking weapons in Campbell, Brimson and Kini as well as decent forward pack led by Tino. They showed urgency with ball and can make something out of nothing.

Thoughts on the game:
~ Terrell is not an 80 minute player. He often stands behind the opposition defensive line for 4 tackles before gets back onside. His hit ups do not bend the line.
~ Taylan is all class. He saved our back a few times with this last line defence
~ Sione is only a fill in edge as his lateral movement isn’t good enough.KPP will be better there.
~ When Latu went off, Jerome became quite frantic and tried too hard to make the magic play. Early ball to Taylan would have seen points in the second half. We often had them stripped for numbers.
~ Seyfarth was good in his first stint. Played a link role that saw points but his hit ups were average.
~ Api was energetic but isn’t a 80 minute player. He gets tired with the defensive workload.
~ Latu looked great. Took the line on and was strong is all areas. Defensively as good as any half. Game changed when he went off.
~ Heath Mason (yeesh). Sorry but I just don’t see it. His passing game is slow and awkward. Defence is questionable. His only attribute is his speed from standing start but that seems to be easily read. I think he is a KOE type fill in.
~ To’a is an enigma, brilliant but frustrating in about 2 seconds of each other.
~ Roycey was awesome. Even the Titans fans were impressed. That’s the standard every week for him.
- Bula is a keeper. He just gets better and better. Will be a top echelon fullback very soon.
~ Impressive debut from Makasini. Strong carries and solid defensively. Nice try to remember

Overall a very disappointing loss. We don’t seem to be able to cope with adversity well. In this case when Latu went off the wheels fell off and we lost our structure.
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It’s not the loss so much as the way we lost it. I was fully prepared to possibly lose to the Titans, who really haven’t been playing too bad of late, but have been a tad unlucky. They very nearly beat the Dolphins last weekend. They also had a hell of a lot to play for, Hasler and Forans’ final game and a big chance to avoid the spoon after looking likely, being stuck on the bottom all season.

If it had been a game where both teams played well but they got us in the end I wouldn’t have been too disappointed. Coming 11th or 13th, neither are playing finals footy, but to get to such a big lead and then completely capitulate in the second half is just unacceptable. For the second time in 3 weeks this team has given its supporters such false hope of better things only to disappoint us yet again with such an insipid end to the game. How can you lead a team by 16 points and not finish them off?

Interestingly, both times it was when Latu went off and we lost our structure, as you mentioned above, that this capitulation occurred. The kid must be doing something right, if only he could stay on the field!
 
At 28 // 12 we should have gone on with it and put 40 on them plenty time to do it but again we just fell off the edge and let in some easy points , some points come from very dodgy passes etc but we can’t stop shit refs we need to beat the opposition and the ref by smashing the other team , some of the tackle misses in tries the titans scored we under 16 quality and we also looked like we run out of gas with 25 to go , at this point of the season this should not happen at all , other issue our back up / bench is week after about 14 players the rest are not great ,
 
upthetigers said:
Momentum changed when we were on the attack in the red zone, Luai kicked behind the line, it was blocked by a titan's player foot they gathered the ball and score a length of field try. We score in that set, we win the game.
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I missed a chunk of the second half

Came back and what an anti climax.

Thats a real crappy way to end the best season for us in ages.
 
Merlot said:
If Toa can harden up there is talent , 3 years of sooking , suprised he was resigned
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Yeah. I still believe he is one of our most talented outside backs. He has had a rep as a kid of unwilling to put the work in to improve his game.
He has undoubtedly been terrible the past 6 weeks. How much of that is due to alleged injuries and how much is attitude and effort, I don't know.
If he has turned a corner with his desire (big IF) and if his performance has been injury affected then I am glad the club is persisting with him.
My concern however is in most cases attitude is like many other skills, you either have it or you don't. Rarely do you develop a skill you never had aptitude for.
I'm additionally concerned that part of him being perennially injures is lack of commitment to rehab/prehab, given the rep he came to the club with.
 
gregjm87 said:
Yeah. I still believe he is one of our most talented outside backs. He has had a rep as a kid of unwilling to put the work in to improve his game.
He has undoubtedly been terrible the past 6 weeks. How much of that is due to alleged injuries and how much is attitude and effort, I don't know.
If he has turned a corner with his desire (big IF) and if his performance has been injury affected then I am glad the club is persisting with him.
My concern however is in most cases attitude is like many other skills, you either have it or you don't. Rarely do you develop a skill you never had aptitude for.
I'm additionally concerned that part of him being perennially injures is lack of commitment to rehab/prehab, given the rep he came to the club with.
Click to expand...

Yes, Toa started the year with sparkling form in attack and quickly developed a great relationship his outside man, Turuva.
I'm sure injury has played its part.
 
Vicious said:
It’s clear see that Terrell May and Korisau struggle playing the full 80mins and it’s costing us by continually doing it.
In one of the early tries we conceded, May was defending inside of Latu and made no attempt to number up due to fatigue. This meant Latu had to take the player inside of the man he was marking which led to a 3 v 2 against us and an easy try to the Titans.
Not only is playing Terrell for the full 80mins costing us as a team, it’s making him look soft and effecting his chances of playing for NSW which he says is a big ambition.
Api has been and still is a champion player, but he’s getting older and is clearly fatigued in various stages of the game which leads to the high number of missed tackles from him each week and effects his running game which is one of his real strengths when he is not fatigued.
I believe Benji is improving as a coach, but sone of his team selections and poor use of the interchange is still a major concern.
Click to expand...
Whilst I agree with everything you said I thought Terrell was poor the entire game yesterday. Perhaps it was workload throughout the season catching up to him but yesterday he was ineffective and lazy long before he started to look gassed.
 
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