Today showed me one thing - We're starting to mature

[southerntiger]

Yep all Taylors fault. He was shouting in Nofa's earbehen droppsed that sitter.

He made Moses miss that tackle on Nofo that caused the first break. He also made Moses stand in no mans land for the Storm's first try.

He also caused the refs miss the obvious forward pass and Lawrence to attempt an intercept instead of tackling his man.

Taylors influence in making immortals look like A-graders is impressive.

 

[jadtiger]

All I can say is the Tigers have the second worst defence in the league to be honest this makes a mockery of Taylor's defensive statements…Whether this is a sign of a mature team ?

Have to agree taylor came to the club saying that he would "fix" the defence,this has clearly not happened.to be honest i have less confidence in our defence now than i had under sheens or potter.It is not working.the 2nd half comeback was good but it was like a half cooked meal it should have been so much better.

 

[Snake]

All I can say is the Tigers have the second worst defence in the league to be honest this makes a mockery of Taylor's defensive statements…Whether this is a sign of a mature team ?

Have to agree taylor came to the club saying that he would "fix" the defence,this has clearly not happened.to be honest i have less confidence in our defence now than i had under sheens or potter.It is not working.the 2nd half comeback was good but it was like a half cooked meal it should have been so much better.

This alone should see Taylor shown the door at seasons end ,he has had nearly 2 years to rectify this defensive problem and if anything it is worse.

 

[stevetiger]

Yep all Taylors fault.

It's not all his fault but it's obvious that he is a dud coach. He has improved this year compared to last year but it's also obvious our team is not a dud team and we can win games like today.

 

[Masterton]

I agree 100%, our ladder position does not reflect our talent, the comp especially around the bottom of the 8 is very poor, and we are 4 points off that, something is not right.

When people talk about our "talent", they are mostly referring to out ability to occasionally do some freakish things in attack. Unfortunately, there are other equally important skills, like winning the wrestle and playing consistently, in which we are untalented.

 

[stevetiger]

I agree 100%, our ladder position does not reflect our talent, the comp especially around the bottom of the 8 is very poor, and we are 4 points off that, something is not right.

When people talk about our "talent", they are mostly referring to out ability to occasionally do some freakish things in attack. Unfortunately, there are other equally important skills, like winning the wrestle and playing consistently, in which we are untalented.

I don't see that. I see a team that can play good footy in attack and defence. We have some weaknesses but so do most teams.

I think we have a pretty good team.

 

[innsaneink]

Talent as in the pretty, flashy stuff.
We are still not there in the tough, grinding arm wrestle stuff.

Today I was about to post at about the 10 minute mark of the game that we looked like we had some attitude in defence today, it went missing big time for half an hour, we switched off bigtime.

Mentally we still are miles off the top teams

 

[TYGA]

Talent as in the pretty, flashy stuff.
We are still not there in the tough, grinding arm wrestle stuff.

Today I was about to post at about the 10 minute mark of the game that we looked like we had some attitude in defence today, it went missing big time for half an hour, we switched off bigtime.

Mentally we still are miles off the top teams

We are weak minded and for mine its the coach where that stems from.
Its like Taylor went into the Storm sheds at halftime and Bellamy went into the Tigers room.

In all seriousness it seems we need to be embarrassed before we concentrate on the game.

 

[Masterton]

I agree 100%, our ladder position does not reflect our talent, the comp especially around the bottom of the 8 is very poor, and we are 4 points off that, something is not right.

When people talk about our "talent", they are mostly referring to out ability to occasionally do some freakish things in attack. Unfortunately, there are other equally important skills, like winning the wrestle and playing consistently, in which we are untalented.

I don't see that. I see a team that can play good footy in attack and defence. We have some weaknesses but so do most teams.

I think we have a pretty good team.

Just MHO, but we have more faults than any other team bar Newcastle. They've all been discussed here before. Weak in the wrestle, lacking aggression, poor right edge defensive communication, unforced errors. Sometimes we can overcome those deficiencies with attacking brilliance, but not always.

Personally, I love supporting a team that can do anything on their day, but it doesn't win many grand finals.

 

[supercoach]

We are leaking points not because our defence is crap,it's because we are not completing our sets and gifting teams possession. What were the first half possession stats,something like 63% to 37%. That is why you miss tackles and make dumb plays,it's all based on fatigue.

Till this team can play like the Storm do most weeks and play with control they will always struggle. I loved the flashy second half, but I am not sure the Storm were ever really concerned they were going to loose

 

[old_man_tiger]

Predictably this thread shows our own supporters were frothing at the prospect of us getting smashed so they could come on here and demand Taylor's sacking.

I agree with gnr, supercoach and southern etc…

To the others, congratulations on the loss. You clearly invested a lot in to this and it paid off. Even though the margin wasn't what you were hoping for, there's still a lot for you to take from the fact you didn't get the two points. Enjoy this feeling of being a miserable sod, you've earned it.

 

[diedpretty]

If we had a hooker in the team we probably would have won, with ET playing 13.

We have had a hooker in the team for most of the year and lost - just give it a rest.

 

[diedpretty]

If we had a hooker in the team we probably would have won, with ET playing 13.

Agree 100%, I remember Taylor saying something along the line that you replace a player for a player who plays the same position when he first came to our club. We needed a real no9 out there and we need ET playing 1st receiver. The Storm targeted Moses all arvo and if he was second receiver he would have had more time and space to deal with the pressure.

Anyway from where I sit we did not loose any friends out there today, that was nearly as good as a win

You baffled me supercoach - I used to think you knew something about the game - if you want him at 1st recievr why not play him in the halves. I like the idea of playing him at lock where he can chime in and take the first pass - but not every time. Moses and Brooks aren't there yet but they getting there. I hate to say it because I want Robbie gone but we need a really experienced distributor who picks between Moses, Taylor and Brooks and very occasionally runs himself. Robbie is the player to do it but I don't think he wants to - he wants to run the plays he sees and over calls what the game plan is .

 

[sideline_eye]

We were just appalling in the first half, looking like a schoolboy team. That was all about attitude and it's down to the players, who need to take a good hard look at themselves. In the second half, the attitude changed and then they started to play the way they have been coached…. possession and defence first and foremost. It speaks volumes that, for the whole second half, when we started to actually get some sort of order into our defence, on the back of a high completion rate, Melbourne couldn't score a try against us.

I just hope that our team has learned something from this game because it was a game we could and should have won.

 

[stryker]

I agree 100%, our ladder position does not reflect our talent, the comp especially around the bottom of the 8 is very poor, and we are 4 points off that, something is not right.

When people talk about our "talent", they are mostly referring to out ability to occasionally do some freakish things in attack. Unfortunately, there are other equally important skills, like winning the wrestle and playing consistently, in which we are untalented.

Well said.
We have a really talented OzTag side.

 

[Eddie]

I agree 100%, our ladder position does not reflect our talent, the comp especially around the bottom of the 8 is very poor, and we are 4 points off that, something is not right.

When people talk about our "talent", they are mostly referring to out ability to occasionally do some freakish things in attack. Unfortunately, there are other equally important skills, like winning the wrestle and playing consistently, in which we are untalented.

Well said.
We have a really talented OzTag side.

It's a very fair point and probably a big frustration for the coach. Whilst we have some great strike players, fundamentals like making your tackles, finishing a set or winning the wrestle are not done well here.

However,

I would have some more sympathy, however Taylor came in all bravado saying it was simple to fix the defence and it was all about structure not players. He bagged previous coaches and our previous style.

He put his foot in his mouth there. So I have little sympathy really.

 

[cktiger]

Predictably this thread shows our own supporters were frothing at the prospect of us getting smashed so they could come on here and demand Taylor's sacking.

I agree with gnr, supercoach and southern etc…

To the others, congratulations on the loss. You clearly invested a lot in to this and it paid off. Even though the margin wasn't what you were hoping for, there's still a lot for you to take from the fact you didn't get the two points. Enjoy this feeling of being a miserable sod, you've earned it.

I think most people would prefer we win.
Taylor has made some ridiculous selections and deserves to get bagged if they don't work - and praise if they do.
Unfortunately they are not working as well as he might like.

 

[ricksen]

Zero maturity on show in the first half. We competed well for 10 mins and then fell in a ridiculous heap for the rest of the half. 10-30 min mark was every bit as bad as the Canberra game, if not worse.

Of course they deserve credit for the second half effort, and the way they went about it, but it was a wasted effort really.

 

[stevied]

I actually think we are maturing steadily but not much more than steadily! If you took out that terrible 20 minutes in the first half, we were actually quite mistake free in attack and defense. However, that flat patch decided the game and we need to learn to avoid the string of mistakes that hand possession to the opposition and make it easy for them to get the jump on us. Where we are gradually maturing is in the halves. I thought Brooks had a great game and looked he actually looked as though he wanted the ball and to run the show. That's a sure sign of maturity.

 

[Needaname]

I cannot believe some of the bull.. sprouted here,
By all means yes we can attack it is / was good to see, there is and never was an issue in our attack, The issue is our composure and consistancy.
You talk about defence, how much better was it in the second half when we completed 11/11 sets and had even share of possession by the end of the match. We missed 23 tackles in the whole match I'm not sure about the halftime misses but i would say we were pretty close to perfect in defence in the second half.
As far as maturing we are getting closer, but until the team plays composed we are not going to win these matches.
Had we scored one more try after that field goal then yes i'd say we're are staring to maturing but as soon as the game was in reach we dropped our bundle, but to fair to the guys, they got that close by playing add lib and hail Mary plays, they just needed to start to compose their plays in the end and build pressure to force Melbourne into a mistake instead they went for the trick play. But hard to do against Melbourne.
So close really but so far also, as soon as Melbourne knew that the game was getting out of hand they got the control back. A sign of a mature team is one that doesn't panick.
Yes moses rushed out and made a bad read twice in that game that lead to trys, but did you also see how many one on one tackles he made effectively by doing exactly that?
The team has confidence in itself which is great to see for such a young team.
They need more time together, I would of loved them to win that game, but I never expected it, the halftime score was pretty close to the full time score I predicted. And before you say I'm a bad fan for having such low expectations for my team. It's fricken Melbourne in Melbourne. Im just a realist. The team is building for something, the balance is there, the coaching is fine, the senior players are fine, everything is just right, they just need more football in them for before we start to see them compete on a consistent basis, be patient it will come!