Last week I headed a blog implying/saying, we made mistake's lets move on.....I was a pessimist to an extent, but not suicidal. Just very critical of Pezet and the knock on effect in losing balance.
Yesterdays game against Penrith has a lot of physcological aspects to it/us.
I need to ask some questions, last year (second half) we had a defence that was testing every side including Penrith.
Interestingly the beginning of last year was not disimilar to this year, the question is what is the difference?
The common denominators were that Dyllan Brown was not really there in any dominant form at the end of the year, he was injured and being eased out.....so lets discount that.
Hopgood after moving to prop had a great year after a shaky start.....this is a factor defensively....he is the most tenancious and error free forward we have....This is a significant loss, that is not appreciated by the unwashed on here.
Now add on that Junior is by the standards he can play to, is not in that form, although not as bad as some make out. Finally this last one will upset some, but losing Lomax in the way we did had a detrimental effect on the confidence of this team. He did things in a competitive way that inspired, both players and supporters. A big error in letting him go the way we did (spilt milk now) but pertinent IMO.
Pezet has been well recorded by me and I don't want to sound like a broken record. I really didn't notice him much yesterday so I am loathe to be critical but you cannot mention last year without bringing him into the picture, that said I am interested to see everyone has him in next week's team as the experts on here rearrange the deck chairs. Kelly was OK yesterday and if you think about it, most Penrith tries came from within the 25 and it is was through our forwards. The rediculous tries came about from the super confidence that their forwards had created in that first 15/20 minutes.
That dominance was enhanced by our poor handling, which in turn came from us going into a catch up mode before we needed to! That's where we failed! Our tackling technique was not in sync and had a real desperation rather than a hunting pack. This come's back to balance, we cannot afford Kelma (lateral defence wise) in this pack as he is a common to the holes our opponents make. Williams needs to come onto that edge to provide lateral defence. We also have to look at the technical approach our full backs have/utilise in catching up and unders, they are skilful and there is no fullback in the comp that is foolproof, we just need to get it better.
The commentators on Fox before the game yesterday made the point that Moses needed to stop nurse maiding Pezet and play his own game....he was better yesterday but is also rushing most things he is doing. There is no sign of Moses thinking 2/3 plays ahead.... some people do not realise, that this lack of vision is the real reason that Moses is not a great player, just a good one! Overated by many on this site.....could you imagine Cleary leading us around the park and losing his cool.....well put him in this Parra side and you just might. BUT realise he would at the end of the game going to the coach and working out the faults. NB In criticising Moses, I am being beligerent as I have always regarded him as one of my favourite players, but I have to be honest with what I see.
In business terms I used to hate it in corporate planning sessions when people talked about "we are no worse than anyone else", "yes we are" and we need to be better than others, Full Stop" that analogy comes over as I am writing this as a title for the blog, because our goals have to be higher and better, unless we persue excellence we can never improve....this brings me back to what I am saying about the coaches role in the undermentioned.
I could finish this blog now and leave it with that....but I have created an idealogy, not a solution.
Well what is the solution? firstly there is no magic formula....the reality is we have 17/19 players that have the same physical features as the opposition on any given day. I believe and think that the coach and his staff have to sit down with the first and second grade players and anyone else contemplated as a selection possibility in the near future and go back to "last year" and analyse the difference.
We showed yesterday we could be as effective in attack as any side and these opportunities actually came from our maligned backs.....what has happened to our running forwards?
Interimly we need to find out who is "out there" player wise and start hunting now before 30th June comes about....sooner the better.
PS The criticism of the coach, his staff, the front office, the GM Football and R&R all have relevance....it doesn't work sacking people unless you have better replacements, every decent Manager knows this, how you address it requires leadership.....who is going to provide it ......please answer without the rhetoric?
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Interestingly the beginning of last year was not disimilar to this year, the question is what is the difference?...we only played well last year when it was all over for us. When there was nothing on the line anymore we stood up.
A lack of self belief will do that..... and Ryles is feeling more like Kearney by the day. Chiefu should change his little GOAT icon to a confused Donkey
How are you Randolph, is your health ok?
I'm good. Hating the game atm, too fast. Vlandys & co have screwed the pooch. I m also not a fan of the "new vibe" here. Scrollng through comments is a repetitive whine withouit a chuckle to be had...like an offbrand temu TCT.
Well relax, I am still the "old arrogant prick" but I haven't got the sparring partners that I have had in the past.
I'm relaxed but I'm not amused by the game or the site at the moment...something something about Babies & Bathwater applies to both.
as for Ugly Pete...he is a rat
Actually, i am not that relaxed...We filled tanks with $3.79 diesel yesterday.
Our whole region is grinding to a halt.
I enjoy our games Randolph, but I am not playing any longer as I will be hi jacking my own blog.....
There is a serious message here and we need to understand things better.
On the subject of rats though, I always think of an outdoor restaurant on the beach in Bali, there was sand under our feet at our table and an adjacent little garden when we saw this very large rat come out of the garden......my wife and friends made mention of this to our waitress, who was apparently used to this regular reference........No No !! not a RAT....biiig mouse! .......we christened him RALPH and he became a well known character amongst the guests that frequented this 5 star hotel with one of its restaurants on the beach!
I am not playing any longer as I will be hi jacking my own blog.....and yet you followed up with a whole paragraph of off-topic natter.
Pops, love your blog. I'll throw this out there.
Junior Paulo not playing like a near $1000000m player as per his contract
Ryan Matterson is certainly not giving us his $700k value to the team
Will Penisni is certainly no where near giving us his $650K in value to the team
We have now lost Iongi, Hopgood, Doorey and Samrani to go with the other 2.
This brings me to my next point, with the amount of misses at the recruitment table and the need to pivot to 2nd/3rd or even 4th choice available talent, the real question for me is, when do we break the shackles and actually sign the players Rules nd his team have identified in the first instance. There is just no way you can dress up a 4th choice Pig as a Sunday Roast Lamb, no matter how great the cook or in our case the coaches.
Its not who we have that is the real problem, I suspect its more like, whom we have missed on and why that is the real problem and then our inevitable pivot to having to sign lesser talented players or the left overs. We dress those players up with grand signing announcements to get fans invested in them, meanwhile our coaches have to get the best out of St George's leftovers, The Titans Leftovers, and then sign a player with a handful of games experience and expect him to play out of position at 5/8. Throw in that we are about to lose Russell "who we couldn't re sign even though coach's wanted him " to the Bears and we resigned Simonsson who only just recently wanted out of the club but couldn't find ny taker having to come back with his tail between his legs, dissing the coach in a public way, you have to ask how desperate are we to sign a player of decent ability.
Honestly, I'm surprised we are playing this good, with what we have to work with. When you delve deeper into it, our recruitment and retention guys have some real real big problems that need to be sorted and improved on very quickly.