Tino Tavana #305

[tig_prmz]

Benji needed to take some care for the kid and hook him at half time and accept one less forward for the rotation. That was a hard watch and toa gave him no support. The knights did it to protect de courcey and make sure his confidence and career weren’t tanked. Will be hard for Tavana not to get in his head next time he drops a catch, but hope he can get it sorted as he clearly is an athletic and talented guy.

We need to learn to "shield" our catchers better. Even Taylan May and Luai on the other side are too late to obtain the position where the attackers can get a clean shot at the ball. Luai ends up giving escort penalties and Toa just stays too passive at the risk of one.

Tavana should've done better for sure, but this is an area the whole team has to improve.

Refs know who's going for the ball and who's not. All we can do is to get within 2m of the man catching the ball before the attackers do. Whoever gets to that position first wins.

Reynolds and Trindall killed us with their kicking game.

 

[Tucker]

All three of our losses have now been heavily influenced by poor play from one of our wingers and not doing the bare minimum expected of a professional rugby league winger.

Skelton with the air swing against Souths, Makasini with the uncontested dropped balls/passes and positioning against Broncos and now Tavana with 6+ errors and piss poor defense (featuring Starford as well). LL also almost cost us the game against Eels with some braindead actions but has come back strong since being dropped.

I hope Benji is laying into them this week because just about everyone else on the field has been doing their jobs every week only to be let down by basic errors from that one side of the field.

Yes this is true.
People who are coming up with excuses trying to blame the forward pack are idiots.
Those men put in every single game.

 

[Rock Hopper Steve]

All three of our losses have now been heavily influenced by poor play from one of our wingers and not doing the bare minimum expected of a professional rugby league winger.

Skelton with the air swing against Souths, Makasini with the uncontested dropped balls/passes and positioning against Broncos and now Tavana with 6+ errors and piss poor defense (featuring Starford as well). LL also almost cost us the game against Eels with some braindead actions but has come back strong since being dropped.

I hope Benji is laying into them this week because just about everyone else on the field has been doing their jobs every week only to be let down by basic errors from that one side of the field.

Some in the media/pods suggested picking Tavana again next week, I wouldn't, his confidence looked shot at times.

There was talk of Coates returning next game so he would be up against him or Warbrick, he will cop even more heat against them.

 

[weststigers]

Some in the media/pods suggested picking Tavana again next week, I wouldn't, his confidence looked shot at times.

There was talk of Coates returning next game so he would be up against him or Warbrick, he will cop even more heat against them.

We will get peppered if Makasini or Tavana play.

Neither are ready for full-time exposure.

Skelton is the best choice at this point.

We have a lot of players out, so may get special dispensation for Attard. Out of the box we could play Latu at Fullback, but I'm clutching at this point.

 

[Rock Hopper Steve]

We will get peppered if Makasini or Tavana play.

Neither are ready for full-time exposure.

Skelton is the best choice at this point.

We have a lot of players out, so may get special dispensation for Attard. Out of the box we could play Latu at Fullback, but I'm clutching at this point.

I don't know about you mate but with the key injuries we have the next few weeks look ugly I'm afraid.

Think Skelton needs to come back in for sure, just said in another thread my feelings about Toa, can't be there next game, was just pathetic, either Herbert or Makasini to play at centre, the kid did his job there without standing out previously.

Fullback yeah, it's just a lucky dip isn't it, lol good luck with that Benji.

 

[Adam Doobie]

Yes this is true.
People who are coming up with excuses trying to blame the forward pack are idiots.
Those men put in every single game.

Even though we did get dominated physically, the middle never really leaked. Usually when the forwards are the issue there are overlaps on the edges. Most of the tries came down to bad decisions and errors from edge players, or a lack of physicality.

It's such a shame to be let down by the outside backs.

 

[weststigers]

I don't know about you mate but with the key injuries we have the next few weeks look ugly I'm afraid.

Think Skelton needs to come back in for sure, just said in another thread my feelings about Toa, can't be there next game, was just pathetic, either Herbert or Makasini to play at centre, the kid did his job there without standing out previously.

Fullback yeah, it's just a lucky dip isn't it, lol good luck with that Benji.

I think Fullback is a position that has less downside defensively, whereas your wingers need to know what they're doing and also their carries are important. Turuva was immense against Canberra and we lost all that spark with him at Fullback.

In attack

1. Latu
2. Luke L
3. May
4. Skelton/Turuva
5. Turuva/Skelton

In defence
1. Turuva
2. Luke L
3. May
4. Latu
5. Skelton

It could be a bit hard to manage across 80 minutes, but I think Melbourne rack up their first win in a while this week unless we fix ourselves defensively.

 

[Vicious]

I think Fullback is a position that has less downside defensively, whereas your wingers need to know what they're doing and also their carries are important. Turuva was immense against Canberra and we lost all that spark with him at Fullback.

In attack

1. Latu
2. Luke L
3. May
4. Skelton/Turuva
5. Turuva/Skelton

In defence
1. Turuva
2. Luke L
3. May
4. Latu
5. Skelton

It could be a bit hard to manage across 80 minutes, but I think Melbourne rack up their first win in a while this week unless we fix ourselves defensively.

That would be brilliant, but for some reason NRL coaches are very rarely that adventurous.

 

[Fine Wines]

That would be brilliant, but for some reason NRL coaches are very rarely that adventurous.

Just chiming in on the fullback spot and the talk around Jack Attard. Where he is definitely a potential talent, i have seen most of the Wests KOE games and outside a couple of slick tries in one of those games i haven't seen anything that makes me think he is close to ready for FG. It was interesting watching Wests good win over Newtown on Saturday and i was quite impressed with Logan Brookes, He spilled a ball early but was nothing but good after that, i love his drive and willingness to be involved always around the ball in play. If anything ,i thought he was more impressive than anything i have seen from Jack so far this year. Please don't get me wrong , as i think they are both great prospects and it will be interesting to see who is in front say in 12months time or so. On Luke .L , he is working his backside off. In a badly beaten team yesterday i couldn't fault him, just kept giving. He has played a few games at Fullback in KOE and given that Sunni is best at wing for us i think Benji could do worse than to try Luke.

 

[Rock Hopper Steve]

That would be brilliant, but for some reason NRL coaches are very rarely that adventurous.

I think it doesn't matter what the line-up is, there will be a weakness somewhere, with all these key injuries it's difficult to plug all the holes.

One can only hope we can get a win out of the next 2 matches to keep up with the top eight.

 

[happy_tiger]

People regularly blame wingers for coming in and not staying out on their man. In the Roosters game Marky Mark turned towards the sideline to face his opponent and the Knights centre Hunt ran straight around Toia for an easy try.

If it was easy to defend we could all do it.

If you come out of the line you have to take the ball carrier in a dominate tackle ...it's that simple .....if you don't your part of the problem

 

[king_sirro]

I think Fullback is a position that has less downside defensively, whereas your wingers need to know what they're doing and also their carries are important. Turuva was immense against Canberra and we lost all that spark with him at Fullback.

In attack

1. Latu
2. Luke L
3. May
4. Skelton/Turuva
5. Turuva/Skelton

In defence
1. Turuva
2. Luke L
3. May
4. Latu
5. Skelton

It could be a bit hard to manage across 80 minutes, but I think Melbourne rack up their first win in a while this week unless we fix ourselves defensively.

Not many are fans of this type of stuff, but ive always thought its a good way to manufacture something when injuries hit. Short term it can be a spark for the team, obviously long term it would be stupid.

 

[weststigers]

Not many are fans of this type of stuff, but ive always thought its a good way to manufacture something when injuries hit. Short term it can be a spark for the team, obviously long term it would be stupid.

Can't say I'm a big fan either, but we are running out of options.

I'll be interested to see which way Benji goes on the team sheet in any case.