LIVE GAME Round 9 versus Sharks

Live Game Discussion
TigerNeddyK said:
Jared Heywood would handle the attack side with ease .. his service from dummy half and his attack is first rate ,, I do worry about his defence still , he is not known for his line speed or hitting strength in the tackle just yet .. but if they can somehow protect him he would definitely help our go toward and getting the forwards running onto the ball
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I do not think he is ready for grade yet - he will replace Api - but in good time. Let's not ruch his development and cruel him.
 
WesternSuburbsBoy said:
I think yesterday showed that Api is probably the most important player on our team... he really is the heart & soul of the club. Everything we noticed about the forwards being off, not attacking with our defence, poor line speed etc is all the thing that Api leads us in. Gonna be a tough next 2 games without him.
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Disagree.
Our forwards were gassed because they were forced by the backs to perform far too many tackles….170 more than Cronulla did.
One over 60, 2 more over 50 and another 4 over 30.
For comparison, only 1 Sharks forward cracked 30.
Play with more discipline and this problem largely goes away.
 
Jolls said:
I clearly recall Dylan Edwards having one of those games early in his career. Hooked part way through the game - he needs to go and get some more reps and come back in with a solid centre inside him. Toa is cooked and probably needs to be medically retired.
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I recall Manu Vatuvai having a shocker under the high ball... i think against Parra years back...just went from bad to worse.
He got over that one
 
Tucker said:
Disagree.
Our forwards were gassed because they were forced by the backs to perform far too many tackles….170 more than Cronulla did.
One over 60, 2 more over 50 and another 4 over 30.
For comparison, only 1 Sharks forward cracked 30.
Play with more discipline and this problem largely goes away.
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Being an old tackle machine back in the day yep a few bad backs can destroy a side. The backs have never understood how much work and worth goes into a forwards effort just like a politician thinks that money can come out of thin air.
 
Twodogs said:
Benji is slow to hook and when he does it's sometimes the wrong player. Still learning though.
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I think Benji believes that it’s better to let the player try and pull through it on their own, rather than gutting them by hooking them.
I guess we’ll only know if that works in future games.
I think we all want to see the kid learn from that and come out the other side a better player. Only time will tell.
And one more thing, I know the game didn’t really suit but I was very disappointed in Hunt. He had one or two runs then disappeared , finally being replaced by Seyfarth. I was just expecting more against his old club.
 
I think the loss of Doueihi early killed any chance we had of putting in a good show yesterday. Might not have won, but I’m sure we would’ve scored more points if he stayed on. He has been an integral part of our attack all season. It was already a big task without API, but losing Doueihi tipped us over the edge, imo.
 
Flippedy said:
I think the loss of Doueihi early killed any chance we had of putting in a good show yesterday. Might not have won, but I’m sure we would’ve scored more points if he stayed on. He has been an integral part of our attack all season. It was already a big task without API, but losing Doueihi tipped us over the edge, imo.
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Throw in KKP. Probably not Sam, cos the game was gone by that point. Those didn’t help, but you can’t use them as a crutch. The way they have performed this year, you expect them to still put in under adversity. They don’t have to win, but if the effort is there and they make the opposition work hard, you can cop that. They didn’t do that in the second half. They just capitulated. And the worse thing is it can easily snowball in the next couple weeks against a desperate and due Storm, and Manly who speak for themselves. All of the early season results can easily come undone over the next fortnight. And the mounting injuries won’t do us any favours.
 
Tucker said:
Disagree.
Our forwards were gassed because they were forced by the backs to perform far too many tackles….170 more than Cronulla did.
One over 60, 2 more over 50 and another 4 over 30.
For comparison, only 1 Sharks forward cracked 30.
Play with more discipline and this problem largely goes away.
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Completely agree with your evaluation of our forwards work rate...the discipline that this team has at times is absolutely daunting..they are NRL players that are paid very well to perform at this level...
The one thing that really irks me at the moment is that Toa is a fg centre,and I can't for the life of me understand why Benji persists with him,his position is one that highly depends on defense,sorry to say his is shocking ...I played a lot of centre and wing in my day and my coach would have absolutely kicked my butt if I performed like Toa did on Sunday,and I was just a country kid playing for my home team..
Let's all look ahead to next week and see if things can get better for us...love your input Tucker..
 
I've tried telling people on here that Tavana just isn't ready for first grade yet. Yes he's great attacking in the air and at finishing opportunities.
But that's it at this stage. No pace, no power, struggles to make metres, weak in defence. He's only young and just needs time to develop the rest of his game in the anonymity of NSW cup.

Skelton must play this week, but who could come in for toa and Sukkar who were atrocious. We have zero depth at hooker, centre or second row. Seyfarth cannot start there. Geyer? But he's been playing prop in cup
 
Jolls said:
Not sure what he was going to do there.

Madden had already been committed to the game as had Hunt an Sione. At half time we were still in it and the big clangers from Tavana were yet to come. His confidence at that stage was not in bits. A bit of a pep talk at half time - telling him that he had earnt the spot and that the team had confidence in him was expected to encourage his confidence.

The problem really didn't raise its ugly head until the second half where we had no possession and were constantly defending in our own half. Benji had a decison to hook Tavana and have no middle or perservere and try to shore up the middle with Seyfarth. As it was we then lost Sam F and the fatigue cycle really set in - more errors, poor decsions, poor reads etc.

Benji had to make a call on hooking Tavana or keeping up the middle rotation. He made that choice and will have to live with it - but if he made it the other way I doubt result would have been much different. Completely gassed middles creating the errors instead of Tavana.

Our second half was simply poor, and Tavana/Toa were a big part of that. Once the momentum went the Sharks way we simply couldn't compete with the fatigue factor. Flush this game and move on - the kid goes back to Cup and gets some time to rebuild his confidence while Benji identifies a way to deal with restructuring around the injuries.
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I really have to ask

Why Tino and Toa and not Latu Fainu?

I can't tell if this is smarts or a dumb decision from Benji. As it seems Latu is kept for Halves roles, yet he has been on the bench so many games and could defend better then Toa.

Flip it, getting people used to playing 1-2 positions should build their skills in those positions. I have little to no doubt Latu would have defended better then Toa at Center.
 
The main reason we did so well before the Shark Park Disaster was
- one of the great dummy halfs directing the play
- a truly great performing halfback making line breaks and tries
- 2 Second Rowers ( edge forwards ) great in offence and defence
- hard running rest of pack
- competent wingers and a great fullback


Now we lose nearly all of the above
Benjis game day move to bench Skelton and play Tavana turned out to be one of the worst calls in memory
He is obsessed with " kids who may have special talent "
Turuva is a great winger and not a center or fullback
Benji is stubborn and reluctant to admit error .
For next week he MUST NOT select players who are just not up to it !
That is Tavana , Toa , Sukkar
Picking Skelton and Herbert is ok
Rather than move Turuva out of position is the Cup squad able to come up with a fullback till Bula is back .
We are a club with a 1ST div run on side with a
and a 3RD div back up Squad
IE NO DEPTH
FIX IT !
 
Tucker said:
Disagree.
Our forwards were gassed because they were forced by the backs to perform far too many tackles….170 more than Cronulla did.
One over 60, 2 more over 50 and another 4 over 30.
For comparison, only 1 Sharks forward cracked 30.
Play with more discipline and this problem largely goes away.
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You’re right, too much drop ball the forwards had to work extra hard in defence.
 
balmain boy said:
I've tried telling people on here that Tavana just isn't ready for first grade yet. Yes he's great attacking in the air and at finishing opportunities.
But that's it at this stage. No pace, no power, struggles to make metres, weak in defence. He's only young and just needs time to develop the rest of his game in the anonymity of NSW cup.

Skelton must play this week, but who could come in for toa and Sukkar who were atrocious. We have zero depth at hooker, centre or second row. Seyfarth cannot start there. Geyer? But he's been playing prop in cup
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Balmain Boy, your better then that. Call it how it is. Toa should not have been on that field. It should have been Herbert. If you watch the game and focus in on Turuvas facial expressions of Toa not committing to tackles you will get your answer. Tavana had a shocker and Skelton should have been there. Watching Sukkar’s game he actually held his own and had to cover for all the extra tackles needed to be made due to poor errors. His stats were actually similar as Samuela. His post contact metres were one of the highest in his team. I guess he will be the scapegoat this week as the coach has no choice but to show he made changes. It Toa is in the team, there will be a lot of question marks. Hopefully they rebound and get a good win over in Melbourne.
 
Tiger in boots 🐅 said:
Balmain Boy, your better then that. Call it how it is. Toa should not have been on that field. It should have been Herbert. If you watch the game and focus in on Turuvas facial expressions of Toa not committing to tackles you will get your answer. Tavana had a shocker and Skelton should have been there. Watching Sukkar’s game he actually held his own and had to cover for all the extra tackles needed to be made due to poor errors. His stats were actually similar as Samuela. His post contact metres were one of the highest in his team. I guess he will be the scapegoat this week as the coach has no choice but to show he made changes. It Toa is in the team, there will be a lot of question marks. Hopefully they rebound and get a good win over in Melbourne.
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We will get absolutely pumped by Melbourne. Nothing anyone can do about it with those injuries unfortunately
 
The nature of the game is if you can't get a share of possession you will get throttled - that was our second half.
There are increased risks in defending in the game that players have never had to deal with that puts their team and themselves at risk of being binned and on report, and fatigue in these situations will regularly result in errors - that's what fatigue does.
Losing another key player didn't help along with Tino's yips - set the tone for a team that was already significantly weakened. Poor performance all round.
Perfect opportunity to dump it on any player in the team you don't rate because they pretty much all were outplayed by the opposition.
 
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