I am starting to think we have the dumbest supporters on here .... watched they way we manouvre and undermine any failures.
The relentless criticism and then the undermining of the coach, front office etc indicates some people cannot just understand the current problems.
Players were pretty pathetic today and I honestly think with the injuries and dislocation of being maimed that we will be lucky to win another game this season......Can we fix it, I doubt it, it is not an actual lack of effort it is more a lack of ability.
We have two backs with any pace and real class, both obviously carried injuries, you all being such determined critics out there realising Moses could not run, or place kick. JAC's ribs are so heavily strapped he had problems breathing. Joash Pappilli tried hard, never dropped a high ball but had no support, Penisini has come back early from injury, Kelly is just a pathetic mess from a once competent player, Volkman was honest and the debut winger also honest. Realistically both Volkman and the new kid are not first graders. You can use players like that in one off's but not as regular first graders. It really was a non existent backline and the length of field tries that were put on us reflects that.
Our forwards I cannot defend them, but I do know that you only need one or two key defensive players out and you are buggered. If your backs cannot carry out defence, then the forwards will always be run ragged.....tell me you understand this?
See I can defend my team, why cannot you at least attempt to understand our situation. Last year Souths had similar problems, their supporters stuck with them, we don't have the talent that they have, it will be interesting to see if we keep our new St George players after he watches and see's this result but no we will blame MON for losing him and anyone else that wants to come.
NB Anyone that wants to sack the coach is a non thinking moron, he can only work with what he has and I am sure he is trying as hard as he can to come up with a side to play canterbury next week.....good luck with that one Jason. I don't envy your attempting to make something out of a club like Parra, but we stalwarts will support you.
Final point rather than being perenial pessitmists laced with disloyalty, try coming up with some solution's and commitments to support the coaching staff through this period of "seeming disaster" without coming with your fantasy solutions.
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Nightmare Off-Season hi Mate, no criticism and the giving up scenario is well put.
My rationale is what I wrote in the undefendable blog and that entailed a lack of ability.
I have a theory about defence and it entail's that defence, has to be led by someone owning it. We do not have a discernable forward leader in any shape or cause, our edge forwards are proving hit and miss, Riley has hit a wall, Junior seems like he is trying, but also struggling....the likely defensive leader was Hopgood and he had plenty of ctitics as well, before we lost him.
This leaves our backs and this is where I think all the problems start. We have had JAC carrying injuries both before and during the season....wipe a legitmate world class player of our play list (no ones fault)......Kelly has proven a disaster, I thought he would be ok in our system but he is actually worse than Morgan Harper. Now Russell has been our best defensive back and we lost him in this game. Penisini, regardless of his critics is a legitimate First Grader (faults accepted). Moses by his standards is not going well. I have seen no lack of effort, early in the piece trying too hard trying to cover for the guy who indirectly has caused this, yes my man Pezet!.....I would have been very comfortable playing Joash there, we would not have become exposed as we did become. Nothing personal about him btw, just a horrible read on a player and unfortunately the buck stops with Ryles there, if he perseveres with him, it may cost him his job.
Now sorry for this long winded repeat but I would like you to think about our forwards in relation to the extra work they have had to do, to cover the deplorable defence of our backs, specifically Pezet and Moses trying to clean up......on last Sunday we has no moses, russell, jac, we had Volkman and Nanvra (sp) and a hopeless Kelly. I thought Joash did a pretty good job defensively as a stand alone, one out last line, just effective as Ilongi, arguably better under the high ball.
Dis you notice we had no storming cover coming across other than Moses and a lessor extent Joash, no other cover at all.
Our Edge forwards are the main ones to help the backs and maybe a lock and I would have kept Walker away but he did a lot of clean up work, Kelma is lazy and not lateral, can be effective, but no work ethic, Kautoga is now officially stopped being promissing, he doen't seem to read the game and does not seem to know what he can offer.
So we come across a team who have had huge question marks over their defence....but hey that's not a problem, we have huge question marks over our attack with Moses/JAC out .......well what do Titans have that we do not have in spades....yes pace, the reality is that the fullback is as quick as they get, Campbell at 7 is as quick as any half in the comp, Brimstone is quicker than most 5/8's playing the game and Jo jo Fugita is strong and quick and then they have Sami on the wing and a new kid who also happen's to be quick........Forget about there forwards, they had no one to beat them up, our forwards were to busy chasing the backs for the length of the field tries being scored, or trying to make up for all the holes out there......Its NO SURPRISE....the disappoinment was the effort but if you can't run as fast as the opposition, you are going to get very tired chasing.....that's why we looked unfit.
This was like a sevens and nines type of game, we were just lapped everywhere, as I said if we play like that against the Dolphins they will put 80 on us, the Dogs are not as fast as the Titans but there will have to be a tremendous change for us to be competitive and again I cannot see it with the "cattle" we will have going in. Ryles will have to guilt manipulate the players to get an effort so that we are not further embarrassed.
What we do now is something that the CEO, Coach and his Staff need to come up with....Forget MON, he has no say anyway, but everyone will feel better if he becomes the first to go. It will make the whingers happy. Jim Saratinos is probably the one with the most indirect pressure, in that he has a responsibility but cannot really do much about it unless they recruit a miracle.
Slightly amused by MON's statement that the NRL giving some cap leeway would be good.....surely that only matters if you have players available to come on board now.....
So Nos I don't have the answers, other than get some players with athletic ability, Coryn has been calling for it for a couple of years, we knew we had no depth in the backs going in this year and the reality is we don't know what or how bad our forwards are because our backs are so bad and the forwards are sick and tired of doing their work!
A question out there to EA, is there any fast moving defensive players we could bring into play either edge or lock.
Pops, really great reply, and apologies, I was venting this more in general than specifically at your blog.
'We do not have a discernable forward leader in any shape or cause'- Pops, I believe this to be a huge issue for years now, nailed it.
You've made some really great points around the defensive workload, and I do agree, where we may differ slightly is in the fact our 1%ers - kick chase, markers, line speed, contact etc - were non-existant from the first set of the game imo.
Thats where I struggle with the injury / fitness angle, BUT, of course that becomes part of it also as the game goes on.
Hopefully yesterday was an outlier in the lack of spirit & effort Ryles spoke about, but, with our injury crisis & recruitment ability, this could get a whole lot darker, Pops.
Meanwhile, the Titans look promosing, as do the Knights, the Tigers look great, the Warriors even better, Dogs could contend, they've all overtaken the Eels in roster over 2-3 seasons.
Thank God for the Dragons.
Sorry to hijack your blog with my intial vent.
Probaly should read it again mate, I just corrected a stack of grammar and spelling and added a plea to EA as well.
The 1% Is for me bread and butter and that's what the game is about....the criticism is warranted of course but the coach should take that up with them regardless if they are first graders or Z graders, is as elementary as catching and passing and boy did we do that badly as well. Catching cost us the Tigers game, our passing was terrible and I noted the same in the Reserve Grade game on Easter Monday.....where do these guys practice this stuff? They should be doing it in every drill?.
PS You didn't hi jack the blog, it is there to be discussed and its the only reason i blog. Especially someone like you who always adds value to anything I say.
Just an aside, looked at the ladder and we are equal on points with last year's minor premiers and last year's grand finalists, who by the way, have a world class spine, who are all playing as well. Maybe life is not too bad, at the moment. Maybe by round 12 I will have changed my thoughts lol
Just saying, we not the only ones sucking at the moment, and we have a third of our top 30 out injured.
Those other teams have an upside...we don't
Those other teams have Hope & belief...we don't
correct
Valid Parra all the way!
We were already thin with Lomax and Dylan Brown leaving, then our incredibly lacklustre recruitment drive during the off season.
Lets be honest our roster was never great to begin the season and throw in all the injuries to our best performing players we were always going to be fucked.
This all comes down to the lack of recruitment. Players like Kai Paul Pierce going to the Tigers, did we even have a crack at him? Surely we would have been a better proposition to him then the Tigers?
What about Leo Thompson, did we put an offer in for him? At what point does MON get blamed for our roster, he's been in charge for way too long.
Taylan May a couple of years ago when he was being shopped by the Roosters, did we have a go???
We have to be so far under the cap and we still can't get players to come play with arguably the best half in the comp?? There needs to be an investigation
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