Hey Ya'll.
First up, blame game aside, last week was a loss we were all expecting along with the one before. Realistically our best hopes this year are to make the 8, and we are still alive. We all counted the upcoming Roosters game as another we will most likely lose, so the remaining 5 games are must wins to get to 28 points and a possible finals push. Is anyone out there as optimistic as me and backing this one in?
This week is our first of many “grand finals” for this year to come. Titans are coming off a big loss and will be hard to beat at home regardless of previous form. Unfortunately they have a solid halves combination for a second straight week in Elgy and Seizer, that will cause us problems. Not to mention one of the quickest backlines in the competition with Hoffman, Gordon, Mead and Roberts. We seem to struggle against sides with quick backlines. I read today that 4 of Titans 6 biggest margins has been against us.
Last week the long range breaks from our flanks were eradicated. Im not sure if this is something to be proud of as the Cowboys took a much more direct route, right through the middle. Our ruck defence was terrible. For a hooker to make 169m against you, there has to be something going terribly wrong. And he didn’t play the full 80min! His replacement followed suit with a try right through the ruck. We need to tighten this up.
In attack we looked disjointed obviously through our inexperienced halves pairing. We seemed to try moving the ball right more than in the past with no luck. Our left side raids without the assistance of Sandow were not as streamline. Hopefully we will be better for the run and can fully utilise the potential of Taka and Radrandra. A stat came out today that Radradra has scored 28% of our tries this year. This is mind boggling as he has only played in 12 of 18 games. He also has an astonishing 5 try assists for a winger.
As much as I like “the pass to Radradra” game plan, we need to be more than one trick ponies. Hoppa and Morgan need some good ball and also to work on their combination. Time and time again Hoppa runs sideways on an attacking raid reducing the amount of room Morgan has to work in which forces him to either over the sideline of back infield. He needs to run more direct and work on drawing in his opponents.
Against the Titans we need to dominate in the forwards from the whistle. Myles and James are under an injury cloud. Falloon is a good player but no Granville. I feel we will fix up our issues from the last game and dominate up front. If we can at least limit the space their backs have to move I see us winning this game.
With the Warriors to lose to the Sharks I see us only 2 points outside the 8. And we will move from the doom and gloom of this week to embracing that little bit of hope for the run to the finals. Hopefully Norman will be back for the following week.
End of my uneducated rant.
Replies
I thought the unicorns were extinct.
If Ryan Morgan remembers how to defend, then I reckon we'll do well.
I have said this on a few occasions. Unless Hoppa is playing seriously busted (in which case I don't think he would have been picked for origin) he hasn't got the speed to play in the backline - plain and simple.
But if he has an offseason of intensive weight training he clearly has the right sort of frame to come back over 100 kilos and move into the backrow. He is a good footballer with a good footy brain but he simply doesn't have the wheels.
We will win 1 more game if we are lucky. We will challenge the Tigers and Knights for the spoon.
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