LIVE GAME Round 7 versus Brisbane

[Fish88]

11 errors from our back 5 is not good enough. Poor Maka was 6 of those! Our forwards, as they always do did their job.

 

[Yossarian]

We playing gridiron now?

All true but we need to remember we are flattered by the scoreline a wee bit. They scored 2 deadset tries only for them to be called forward. Really we should have lost by more.

I couldn’t comment on the last one. If that went forward they blew a try. First one was forward. Even Brandy who never takes our side and was complaining about the call changed his mind after seeing the replay. Clearly forward.

 

[bigsiro]

Re the halves problem. We saw tonight the difference a proper halfback makes.

And I don’t think it’s controversial to suggest that as good as Douehi has been this year, it has never been as your classic, controlling halfback. He runs first. He doesn’t look to pass first or set-up first, as a halfback should.
Tonight, our team lacked that stability and reliability of a more traditional 7.
We need that. It would free up Luai and give us the balance we had for the last three weeks.
And we absolutely must beat Canberra next week. After such a great start, back to back losses would be demoralising.

So, it’s an easy solve for me, AD at centre, Luai 6, Madden 7.

 

[Yossarian]

11 errors from our back 5 is not good enough. Poor Maka was 6 of those! Our forwards, as they always do did their job.

One of them was possibly the captain’s challenge they called as a knock on. Another was possibly him contesting an attacking bomb. Obviously the two crucial drops and going over the sideline were obvious errors.

 

[EllisFan]

Re the halves problem. We saw tonight the difference a proper halfback makes.

And I don’t think it’s controversial to suggest that as good as Douehi has been this year, it has never been as your classic, controlling halfback. He runs first. He doesn’t look to pass first or set-up first, as a halfback should.
Tonight, our team lacked that stability and reliability of a more traditional 7.
We need that. It would free up Luai and give us the balance we had for the last three weeks.
And we absolutely must beat Canberra next week. After such a great start, back to back losses would be demoralising.

So, it’s an easy solve for me, AD at centre, Luai 6, Madden 7.

AD’s processing speed simply isn’t quick enough as a ball player. By the time he decides not to run the defense is up in everyone outside him’s face.

All he really has is a long cut out pass that is very hit and miss.

 

[Funnel Webb]

AD’s processing speed simply isn’t quick enough as a ball player. By the time he decides not to run the defense is up in everyone outside him’s face.

All he really has is a long cut out pass that is very hit and miss.

He doesn't have to worry about any of that with Madden when he's in the zone going hard. Maybe with Luai he feels like he has to force something.

 

[SeanT]

Re the halves problem. We saw tonight the difference a proper halfback makes.

And I don’t think it’s controversial to suggest that as good as Douehi has been this year, it has never been as your classic, controlling halfback. He runs first. He doesn’t look to pass first or set-up first, as a halfback should.
Tonight, our team lacked that stability and reliability of a more traditional 7.
We need that. It would free up Luai and give us the balance we had for the last three weeks.
And we absolutely must beat Canberra next week. After such a great start, back to back losses would be demoralising.

So, it’s an easy solve for me, AD at centre, Luai 6, Madden 7.

It's a no brainer. Doueihi has been a good player but not as a 7. He tried and had some moments but so much of what he does is grab the ball and run. With Doueihi and Luai we will win games against the lower teams but won't have the attack to trouble the top 8 teams.

Tbh if Luai wasn't on so much money I'd drop him. Madden and Douhie. But since he is then Madden and Luai halves with Doueihi taking Herbert's spot and Makasini dropping out for either Tavana or Laulilli.

 

[EllisFan]

It's a no brainer. Doueihi has been a good player but not as a 7. He tried and had some moments but so much of what he does is grab the ball and run. With Doueihi and Luai we will win games against the lower teams but won't have the attack to trouble the top 8 teams.

Tbh if Luai wasn't on so much money I'd drop him. Madden and Douhie. But since he is then Madden and Luai halves with Doueihi taking Herbert's spot and Makasini dropping out for either Tavana or Laulilli.

I think Jock & Luai halves and AD as a bit of a Swiss Army knife playing as a 14. Bring him on to roam when opposition is tiring. Maka & May centres, Tino & Tito wings.

 

[SeanT]

I think Jock & Luai halves and AD as a bit of a Swiss Army knife playing as a 14. Bring him on to roam when opposition is tiring. Maka & May centres, Tino & Tito wings.

Yeah not bad but I think aMaraksini needs 2 games away. He struggled abit at centre as well.

 

[EllisFan]

Yeah not bad but I think aMaraksini needs 2 games away. He struggled abit at centre as well.

I’d keep him there. Confidence issue tonight and if he’s not injured then dropping him probably doesn’t help.

Despite some defensive lapses early in games I thought he handled centre.

 

[jirskyr]

The people posting right now make me sick . If that’s how we play when we lose , we are going to be there at the pointy end . Shit happens . Masi dropped both those balls , and the game flips . We had that game .

Agree, some mad weird takes that surely must be heat-of-moment stuff, possibly regretted with a calmer head.

Of course it was a weakened Broncos side but they still had their halves in place and complete defensive edges. Same Broncos that won the comp 6 months ago, displaying top-tier defence. I wonder if some people got too far ahead of themselves because Walsh was out.

Tigers cut out a few rookie errors and we probably win that one.

As it was, 1 point loss to a pretty good side that didn't make a lot of errors. If people cannot handle those kind of results, I get it - we are not used to being a regularly competitive side - but if we are going to play regular finals footy we are going to lose our 50% share of these close competitive games.

What is really really super important is that this Thursday we turn up at home against Raiders, with a really good performance. The most important part of becoming a better side is responding to the losses, like we did after Souths, not falling apart or slitting wrists.

 

[jirskyr]

Yeah better but face it we played the 2nd grade Broncos side. Embarrassing really.

Luai and Douihie can not be the halves. Sideways running all game

Silly comments, it was a fairly high strength Broncos side and Broncos are the reigning premiers.

Or put it another way: how many current State of Origin players in the Tigers team tonight, and how many in Broncos? I'll give you a guess: it's zero for Tigers and considerably more than zero for Broncos.

 

[jirskyr]

The ref stopped penalising it in the second half.

Weird he called some 12 6-agains in the first 20 minutes then parked his whistle second half, except to penalise Api for no valid reason.

 

[jirskyr]

Yeah, Broncos still a good side. Everyone is banging on about their missing players but they’re still fairly star studded and were always going to be a decent chance tonight.

100% It's like some folks read the newspaper and think Broncos without Walsh are no good. I know Carrigan was out too, but people are extending it to Cory Paix, as if he makes a difference.

Haas was quiet before he got hurt, but we had the forwards covered all game. The 1-point difference was in the halves and backs, where Brisbane were almost at full compliment.

They did win the comp last year. Do people think if you take out Dylan Edwards and Yeo that Tigers should suddenly start favourites?

 

[jirskyr]

My concern was making the attack clunky. Exactly what happened. Iv got no doubt Madden and Douhi in the first half get us a lead of at least 12 points with all the quality ball we had on their line. Our attack toinght went straight back to where it was at Souths, side to side and predictable.

I agree that Madden/Doueihi were doing a better job of straightening the attack recently, however you can't go overboard and predict Tigers get a 12-pt lead just because they've had a few good matches. There's just nothing to support that.

Firstly Broncos have premiership-quality defence. Tigers have been on a good roll but we've beaten Cowboys, Warriors, Eels and Knights. These are probably not the main contenders for the title and not the top-tier defensive sides.

Jock Madden has played 37 total NRL games, maybe 6 of them have been good and 3 of those just happened in 2026. People getting WAY too far ahead of themselves because he had a few good weeks. I'm not even saying I prefer Luai in the halves, I'm just saying Madden has a lot more to prove before I declare him the DEFINITE better attacking link.

 

[Garrry]

It was a terrible call. Penalty against Api was just as bad, if not worse. Their young guy took a few steps away from the ruck. Then add Makasini being ruled to have played at the ball on their challenge but when the same thing happens to us it’s just a guy making a tackle. Didn’t help that we blew our challenge on a stupid thing that would got us another tackle 5 even if it was upheld.

Thought the no try was fair enough but in saying that I have doubts Reynolds stops Bula.

Tiger's wasted their Captains challenge, when Api was penalised incorrectly for knocking the ball from the dummy halves hands when he never touched the ball, easy 2 point conversion to level the score

 

[jirskyr]

I hate losing more than most … but this thread is [This word has been automatically removed]ing embarrassing to read .
The first half was yuck to read , and the carry on right now … mam and Reynolds executed at key points in the game . So did our guys . We had a winger drop the ball , then get in his head , drop it again , lose focus in defence which leads to a line break and give away a crazy penalty . That was the difference . Our 18yo winger couldn’t shrug off his mistake . We dominated field position, and often the final pass went to ground . I thought we looked real dangerous when AD went to centre and madden came on . But I also thought the same when Latu came on . Shit happens . We play like that we kill the raiders .

I don't know if people noticed, we almost scored 3 or 4 times at the back end of the match, it's not as if we went nowhere near scoring.

 

[jirskyr]

One thing to beat ourselves compared to being completely outplayed. We are going to lose games but that loss is very different to the types of losses in previous meetings. Got to ice those games if we are to be contenders.

That's actually not true. Being within 1 point of the Broncos, close to winning for most of the game, already is on the path to contender status.

But the real trick is being able to do it every week, not just 1 month. If we fight every team as hard as we fight the Broncos tonight, we play finals footy. Then the best teams taper their runs so their form improves and they (hopefully) win the tight matches at the end of season.

The reality is even the best teams only win about half their really close matches. Instead, they get quite good at not having too many close ones. So for the Tigers example, we got done tonight but we jagged the W in similar circumstances against the Snakes. We got done by just 4 points against Souths and no doubt there's a 4-point win on the horizon.

I think Tigers fans forget what it might be like to have a competitive team again, to play pretty decent and still get beat.

 

[jirskyr]

It can change by doing exactly what Benji did today. AD to Herbert's centre spot. Simple.

We have lost 2 games where we had enough ball to win 10 games. Its easy to say Luai is the factor there, but thats not the case. Its all about having a genuine 7 that creates space to allow us to put our shape on and strip the opposition and Luai looks immediately better when Latu comes on. Luai will go great with Madden at 7 and Latu at lock off the nech. The world is getting caught up in Adam Doueihi doing some fantastic indivual things and applauding him as a great 7. All the while all his team mates have no clue what line to run off the back of him because he cant ball play for his life. He props and jinks and take all momentum out of our attack. He is a runner and a runner only. When he runs he is great. He does zero for cohesion, zero for fluently, zero for creating space for outside men.

You might be right, I am not entirely sure.

 

[jirskyr]

One of the most overrated players in the game. He was protected by the great team the Panthers had.

Sorry but you can't win 4 premierships in a row, make another GF, and be "protected".

Luai was great in the Panthers set up. He is less effective without that Panthers general capability around him.

BUT, and it's a big BUT, sometimes you need that circuit breaker player to come to your team. Not even just to get great performances from him, but to change the standards and the culture from within the team.

Tigers were better in 2025 and they are better again in 2026. We've signed other million-dollar players and not gotten better, so something is happening around Luai. It's just we aren't currently getting the million-dollar match-winners from Jerome, and he really wasn't ever that kind of player, that was Cleary's job.