The Pack..

I sincerely we hope another good quality second rower in our sights. Papali'i is a great replacement for Luciano, but we need a good alternative for Kelma as well.

We're going to need a prop or two next year with Tamou likely retiring and Mikaele probably going back north.
 
SeanT said:
Yeah true. He still played well don't get me wrong. Just with Stefano out we don't have a post contact metres gainer apart from Musgrove but he isn't fit enough to be going hard for a.long time.

Forwards done really well just feel th bench is definately not right. We need another front rowers with power and speed.
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Our depth is really being tested. Had two absolute feather weights riding the pine
 
BAGNF05 said:
Our depth is really being tested. Had two absolute feather weights riding the pine
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Absolutely. The media won't care about our injuries though because we aren't a big club

Garner in the centres and carrying a half and centre on the bench. The boys really dug deep
 
Our defensive sets when opposition are coming out of their own half are our biggst weakness.

We've been competitive in most games despite a lack of ability to slow teams down. I still think this is something that needs to be addressed. Melbourne and Penrith are able to suffocate teams by limiting their metres trying to run it from their goalline. Even now when we are making good clearing kicks, we're giving up too many metres and momentum on the 1st and 2nd tackle. This needs to be addressed urgently.

In both games against Souths and Parra they had a very high error count, that's a big reason why we won these games and we can't rely on the opposition tripping over themselves in games.

In other aspects of the game our forwards seem to hold their own. Our edge defense has been the biggest improvement so far.
 
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watersider said:
Our edge defense has been the biggest improvement so far.
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I agree but Campbell Graham and that 2nd rower who is a gun killed us on the edge.

The comment above about other teams getting too many metres even when we put in a good kick and chase is an issue.
 
Needaname said:
Could say Tamou has stepped up, you could say the forwards around him have also which makes Tamou more effective.
I think collectively the forwards have stepped up as a result of the loss of Steffano. Potentially due to his rise into the starting side some of the forwards around him may of taken a step back.
The other player is Musgrove. Hampered with a Lisfranc injury last year which I believe is similar to what Russell Packer had the last few years, it’s a form of fracture in the foot and I can imagine it’s hard to get going and to know how well you recover from it with or without surgery, he along with Joffa have been good for us as presence in the middle and it’s enabled Twal to not be reduced to just the clean up man.
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Some could also say that a contract year could have something to do with it as well.

Having said that he has been pretty good this year, if he's still going strong at the back end of the season I would probably give him another year at the same sort of rate that he is currently on if he wants to go again.

Also probably one of our best media guys as he speaks very well and can waffle on about anything and make it sound fairly positive, I think he could probably put a high gloss finish on a turd if he wanted to. Please no more media conferences with big Ken.
 
The 2 things that I thought was different against the bunnies over the eels was faster play the balls and moving up faster in defence, I noticed less retreating which was pleasing. Our kicking game is where I would like to see an improvement.
 
Cultured_Bogan said:
I sincerely we hope another good quality second rower in our sights. Papali'i is a great replacement for Luciano, but we need a good alternative for Kelma as well.

We're going to need a prop or two next year with Tamou likely retiring and Mikaele probably going back north.
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One from left field, but should we test the waters for John Bateman? I understand his reasons for going home previously, but sometimes there are other factors that become mitigated over time. Admittedly i haven't seen him play of recent times but at 28 should certainly have plenty left in the tank.
 
Cultured_Bogan said:
I sincerely we hope another good quality second rower in our sights. Papali'i is a great replacement for Luciano, but we need a good alternative for Kelma as well.

We're going to need a prop or two next year with Tamou likely retiring and Mikaele probably going back north.
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Thompson & Schuster. Both their clubs ripe for the picking
 
getagrip said:
If Dias is having a go in NSW Cup, then he deserves a spot in front of Mikaele.
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Coaches like predictability. We don't know Dias' strengths or weaknesses in NRL. With Mikaele we know he can have a loose carry in him and can get stepped laterally. The other forwards can cover him but bringing on a rookie, you need to focus on their development a bit more.
 
We need to sign two old tigers , lodge , he doesn’t want to go to NZ , will need to take a pay cut , forget his past , he makes great meters and is a solid defender.
Matterson , the eels have told him he won’t be re- signed , also forget his past , he played his best football with us , is a big body who runs great lines and is a good defender.
Both of them would make us a much better team
 
bptiger 0 said:
We need to sign two old tigers , lodge , he doesn’t want to go to NZ , will need to take a pay cut , forget his past , he makes great meters and is a solid defender.
Matterson , the eels have told him he won’t be re- signed , also forget his past , he played his best football with us , is a big body who runs great lines and is a good defender.
Both of them would make us a much better team
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Matterson has had so many head knocks that he probably can't remember ever having been here.
 
bptiger 0 said:
We need to sign two old tigers , lodge , he doesn’t want to go to NZ , will need to take a pay cut , forget his past , he makes great meters and is a solid defender.
Matterson , the eels have told him he won’t be re- signed , also forget his past , he played his best football with us , is a big body who runs great lines and is a good defender.
Both of them would make us a much better team
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Ill pass
 
Needaname said:
As Balmain boy mentioned, we are probably last in the league for % of metres conceded to those gained. In saying that though we are also least in the league for missed tackles.
What we are lacking is kick return meters, we are well last in the league in this stat and it shows when we really struggle to get over the advantage line when starting our sets. Kenny is the go to metre man off a kick as he beats or carry’s the first man and that is hugely important for us. But following that we just seem to get manhandled way to much.
The pack of South Sydney has become a strong factor for them with forward leaders Arrow, Kalomatungi, Murray and Tatola are massive for them in this space but obviously the big factor is NSW hooker cook, we may have done a great job shutting him down individually but he still delivers a great platform for his forwards to get on the front foot each play, you can’t really do much to shut that down. Maybe nullifing Cooks running game opened up more space for his forwards. Potentially.
I don’t want to go against the praise for Liddle and be highly critical he works his but off and has a huge game but it’s evident that from dummy half we struggle to get our forwards over the advantage line. Jacko actually moved into dummy half a couple of times even with Liddle standing beside him, you could sense he felt the set was going nowhere and he needed that one forward to hit the ball flat and fast at this stage Liddle is lacking that understanding of the game.
Api is a huge signing for us in this regard. But that’s next year.
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But the back 3 cant get kick return metres unless the front line stop conceding running metres. Our opposition is constantly kicking from 40m out, their chasers in our backs face as soon as they catch the ball. Compare that to the top teams who are forcing clearing kicks from inside their opponents 40 and their back 3 catch the ball on the run with 20+m between them and the defence.
Agree with all you have said regarding the hookers.
 
lodge is the best of a bad bunch ,on the free market,soz.lets do it,he has/is paid his peninnce according to law
 
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