Well done boys

[southerntiger]

A lot has changed since this "rabble" almost made the finals last year.

A starting centre left the club amidst claims of illegal betting and possible match fixing. He also raised concerns that players at the club enjoy a drug culture. His impact was very destructive on the seasons start.

The coach who slogged it out with the squad over the long hot summer was knifed only a couple of games into the season. This impacted the boys mental attitude far more than they let on at the time.

Our three highest profile players refused to commit to the club even anecdotely for 6 months and then when pressured to make a decision decided to leave. This broke a lot of spirits as all three slammed their peers publically.

Has Ivan achieved less with this squad than Taylor did? Yes.
Is the playing field even for a fair comparison? No.
Is Ivan a better coach than Taylor? Maybe. Time will tell.

Dont disagree with this mate. Its not a fair comparison and never is when you are comparing year against year. But there is simply no basis for the assertion that was made, which was that under Taylor we would be losing 84-6 or the like. Don't forget that Taylor also had to get a team motivated with the white ant still in the squad and turning up to training. Further, in some areas our squad has clearly improved. We have better depth in outside backs and back rowers this year. We are better placed in the hooking department with MM and JL as opposed to Halatau.

I suspect IC's early changes worked because teas were prepared against JT's structure - up and in defence - whereas when IC deployed a slide, their tactic of simply shifting to the edge no longer worked. However, the flaws with a slide defence - the attacking side can simply overwhelm the edges on the line - was a clear for all to see last night.

Next year will be the test for IC. He has made it clear he doesn't want to overhaul the structure mid-season and is only tinkering this year. Hopefully next season we finally see a defensive structure that can withhold sustained pressure.

 

[Spud_Murphy]

A lot has changed since this "rabble" almost made the finals last year.

A starting centre left the club amidst claims of illegal betting and possible match fixing. He also raised concerns that players at the club enjoy a drug culture. His impact was very destructive on the seasons start.

The coach who slogged it out with the squad over the long hot summer was knifed only a couple of games into the season. This impacted the boys mental attitude far more than they let on at the time.

Our three highest profile players refused to commit to the club even anecdotely for 6 months and then when pressured to make a decision decided to leave. This broke a lot of spirits as all three slammed their peers publically.

Has Ivan achieved less with this squad than Taylor did? Yes.
Is the playing field even for a fair comparison? No.
Is Ivan a better coach than Taylor? Maybe. Time will tell.

Yeah good post!

 

[MacDougall]

They tried. In fact they scored enough points to win and nearly defended enough to win also. Just got beaten in moments. Really tough loss to take those because there's not much else you could have done except for the individual players who fell off tackles or threw poor passes in the clutch. Sue should be dropped.

 

[cktiger]

Well done boys? :crazy
I can think of plenty who don't deserve any pats on the back (although, to be honest, a few did).
Well done as a team … forget it.
Looked to me like every time the Sharks passed the ball out they looked likely to score ... where is our defensive pattern?
Forwards can't seem to do any damage... no structured attack , the list goes on.
Thank God half their team was out or we we have got beaten by a 100.
As for 'well done, boys' - it's not the under 7's, you are out there (and being paid) to win.
Well done when you do.

 

[king_sirro]

We look horrible in so many ways. Every team looks like they can score whenever the just throw the ball around a little. This is easily the worst we have looked in the past couple of years. Not one back can tackle. No forward hits and sticks. We are embarrassing.

You are embarrassing with stupid comments like that

Its embarrassing to be happy with stupidity and mediocrity by professional footballers. So happy you shall remain

 

[Tim Sheens]

We were similarly weakened to the Sharks with many first seventeen missing and lost at the death. Disappointed we didn't get the win, but am pleased there was good effort by most.

 

[innsaneink]

Well done boys? :crazy
I can think of plenty who don't deserve any pats on the back (although, to be honest, a few did).
Well done as a team … forget it.
Looked to me like every time the Sharks passed the ball out they looked likely to score ... where is our defensive pattern?
Forwards can't seem to do any damage... no structured attack , the list goes on.
Thank God half their team was out or we we have got beaten by a 100.
As for 'well done, boys' - it's not the under 7's, you are out there (and being paid) to win.
Well done when you do.

Yep.
These sort of sentiments are for kids… Not overpaid 'pros'

 

[shane2801]

We look horrible in so many ways. Every team looks like they can score whenever the just throw the ball around a little. This is easily the worst we have looked in the past couple of years. Not one back can tackle. No forward hits and sticks. We are embarrassing.

You are embarrassing with stupid comments like that

I agree with King Siro. They are a disgrace. Bring on 2018.

 

[maxxy86]

We look horrible in so many ways. Every team looks like they can score whenever the just throw the ball around a little. This is easily the worst we have looked in the past couple of years. Not one back can tackle. No forward hits and sticks. We are embarrassing.

You are embarrassing with stupid comments like that

Its embarrassing to be happy with stupidity and mediocrity by professional footballers. So happy you shall remain

Spot on there king sirro….some people just dont get it do they.

 

[yeti]

A lot has changed since this "rabble" almost made the finals last year.

A starting centre left the club amidst claims of illegal betting and possible match fixing. He also raised concerns that players at the club enjoy a drug culture. His impact was very destructive on the seasons start.

The coach who slogged it out with the squad over the long hot summer was knifed only a couple of games into the season. This impacted the boys mental attitude far more than they let on at the time.

Our three highest profile players refused to commit to the club even anecdotely for 6 months and then when pressured to make a decision decided to leave. This broke a lot of spirits as all three slammed their peers publically.

Has Ivan achieved less with this squad than Taylor did? Yes.
Is the playing field even for a fair comparison? No.
Is Ivan a better coach than Taylor? Maybe. Time will tell.

The other thing to remember is that with all of the new recruits coming next year, a lot of these guys know they quite possibly won't be around for 2018\. This in itself is no doubt unsettling as well.

 

[Tigerdon]

A lot has changed since this "rabble" almost made the finals last year.

A starting centre left the club amidst claims of illegal betting and possible match fixing. He also raised concerns that players at the club enjoy a drug culture. His impact was very destructive on the seasons start.

The coach who slogged it out with the squad over the long hot summer was knifed only a couple of games into the season. This impacted the boys mental attitude far more than they let on at the time.

Our three highest profile players refused to commit to the club even anecdotely for 6 months and then when pressured to make a decision decided to leave. This broke a lot of spirits as all three slammed their peers publically.

Has Ivan achieved less with this squad than Taylor did? Yes.
Is the playing field even for a fair comparison? No.
Is Ivan a better coach than Taylor? Maybe. Time will tell.

The other thing to remember is that with all of the new recruits coming next year, a lot of these guys know they quite possibly won't be around for 2018\. This in itself is no doubt unsettling as well.

We still have about 8 spots in the Top 30 to fill, they should be giving it their all to pick up one of those spots. Or maybe they are and just aren't cutting it.

 

[southerntiger]

They are also being paid good money to play. They shouldnt need much motivation to do their jobs.

 

[ricksen]

We have better depth in outside backs and back rowers this year.

Don't agree with that at all.
We had two u20 centres playing yesterday with about 20 games between them. We lost Simona before the season and Idris a few weeks in. Also lost JAC from last year, Rankin replaced by MWZ. Even missing Justin Hunt at the moment due to injury.
Lovett and Sue playing edge fwd - Lawrence and Aloiai out injured, missing Sironen from last year.
We even lost a bunch from the ISP stocks - guys like Peni and Griffin having moved on.

Our depth is worse than it's ever been, and it's affecting all 3 teams. Too many ISP level guys playing FG, too many kids playing ISP, and too many toddlers playing Holden Cup.

 

[tiger_one]

A lot has changed since this "rabble" almost made the finals last year.

A starting centre left the club amidst claims of illegal betting and possible match fixing. He also raised concerns that players at the club enjoy a drug culture. His impact was very destructive on the seasons start.

The coach who slogged it out with the squad over the long hot summer was knifed only a couple of games into the season. This impacted the boys mental attitude far more than they let on at the time.

Our three highest profile players refused to commit to the club even anecdotely for 6 months and then when pressured to make a decision decided to leave. This broke a lot of spirits as all three slammed their peers publically.

Has Ivan achieved less with this squad than Taylor did? Yes.
Is the playing field even for a fair comparison? No.
Is Ivan a better coach than Taylor? Maybe. Time will tell.

But I reckon the landscape has changed since Taylor.
The so-called big 4 saga is over, Moses' whinging and traiterish behaviour is gone, and the question remains about the attitude of Woods and Tedesco as part of the "team."
Hard to compare apples with oranges!
I'd always prefer a team of 100% triers than a team of selfish individuals.

 

[rialto]

We look horrible in so many ways. Every team looks like they can score whenever the just throw the ball around a little. This is easily the worst we have looked in the past couple of years. Not one back can tackle. No forward hits and sticks. We are embarrassing.

Yes and No.
But congratulations are in order to the team and the Coaching staff.
If JT was coaching and 3 primadonas playing ….. we would have been down at our lower grades standards.

Yet with pretty much the same squad last year we missed out of the 8 by one win. This year I will be surprised if we win another game.

You guys can pat yourselves on the back about being competitive against a side missing their two best forwards, their five eighth and two best outside backs, I will see that performance for what it was. Terrible. We are defending worse on the edges than we ever have. The Sharks' second last try was embarrassingly easy.

Im a supporter of Cleary and like the changes he is making for next year but to suggest that he somehow done better this year than Taylor did last year is ridiculous.

Glad I am not the only one that does not wear rose coloured glasses ,the same plodders last season were certainly a better outfit ..I suppose all of us can make our own assumptions why!

X2

 

[Muffstar]

We look horrible in so many ways. Every team looks like they can score whenever the just throw the ball around a little. This is easily the worst we have looked in the past couple of years. Not one back can tackle. No forward hits and sticks. We are embarrassing.

I kinda agree with you. We really had no attacking structure, a lot of one up plays and mediocre kicks on the 4th or 5th tackle.

Defence was ok, but as soon as Cronulla went wide we were pretty vulnerable. I think we were lucky that they had 5 players out for SOO.

They tried hard but we just don't have the players to threaten too many teams.

 

[tig_prmz]

All these players need to forget the excuses: forget the big 4, forget the coaching changes, forget what someone else said, forget the TimSim incident and just move on and do their jobs.

Idk how you can possibly say that it was a good effort when they're doing one out hits. Sue, Lovett, Ava, Grant, the centres they all need to support the ball carrier.

Every forward touches the ball maybe 20 times in the game, a lot of the work is done off the ball like running decoys, tackling, cover tackles, kick pressure, kick chase, protecting your half when he kicks etc. and that's not happening

You dont need rep players to do that. You just need a heart and a brain.

 

[Poppa]

We had them but just couldn't hold off the charge in the last 7 minutes. Still a lot of positive stuff can come out of this. Yes well done WT..

:sign: :supporter:

 

[innsaneink]

All these players need to forget the excuses: forget the big 4, forget the coaching changes, forget what someone else said, forget the TimSim incident and just move on and do their jobs.

**Idk how you can possibly say that it was a good effort when they're doing one out hits. Sue, Lovett, Ava, Grant, the centres they all need to support the ball carrier.\
\
Every forward touches the ball maybe 20 times in the game, a lot of the work is done off the ball like running decoys, tackling, cover tackles, kick pressure, kick chase, protecting your half when he kicks etc. and that's not happening**
You dont need rep players to do that. You just need a heart and a brain.

It was mind numbingly boring, one out one out no offloads no support no decoys, no questions to the defence…it wasnt NRL standard...it wasnt reserve standard :deadhorse:

 

[1_4_chicken_chips]

A lot will change next year because most of the squad will be nrl standard ..truth be known the sharks made 11 line breaks and should won easily .but we were in it with 5 to go but could t close the game .two pitiful miracles balls on early tackles …and please get rid of Kev m and Lovett ...Lovett was put through the hole many times but isn't good enough to make the best of it .we are now running last and people think they did well ...