1. Gutho
2. Sivo
3. Penisini / W Blake
4. Opacic
5. Fergo / Dunster
6. D Brown
7. Moses
8. RCG
9. Mahoney
10. Paulo
11. Matterson
12. Papali'i
13. N Brown
14. Cartwright
15. Kaufusi
16. Lane
17. Niukore
18. W Smith
19. Dunster / Fergo
20. Makatoa
21. Hipgrave
Firstly, JA can fuck right off. We are fighting for a spot in the top 4, so we should be playing W Smith and not fucking JA. If we were coming last, I understand playing JA. But we are not. If everyone remebers last year in the final round we needed a win to cement a spot in the top 4. BA rested some players and W Smith was in the halves. He absolutely delivered in that game. From memory he set up a try through ball playing and scored the match winnng try himself. Why is he not our no 1 back up over 18 years JA who is built like a marathon runner (no wonder he beat Hayne in pre-season).
W Blake defence has been so much better since moving. They have only conceeded 3 tries down their edge (1 with Sivo in the bin). The only thing W Blake offers in attack is his tap back of kicks (which he does regularly) and speed (which is never used). So it is up to BA whether he thinks we need more from W Blake in attack or use Penisini who can set up a winger but is still not fully tested in defence. Might I add, Penisini was switched to the left hand side in reserve grade after starting at right centre.
Opacic comes back into the team once he returns from compassionate leave. No spark in attack, but top defensive centre. Defense wins premiership.
Mahoney to play the full 80min since he is 2 games back from injury. Carty to play the utlity role.
Ferguson's return looked promising. IDK how his ribs are but we really need him come finals time. I have been vocal of how shit his defence has been. But if his defence is fixed (he will have Opacic and D Brown inside of him in defence to help), his carries will really help us. Him and Matto are the only 2 people with preimiership sucess (at roosters) so we will need them at their best.
Moses to return from his rib injury. Gutho should of ben rested as he was clearly playing injured.
Review:
I cannot understand why JA was playing. I am not going to rant further because that has been covered in every blog.
Our attack is non - existent. Why was JA taking "reins" of this team. He is clearly to young to lead. D Brown only had 36 touches of the ball to JA 60. We needed D Brown to have his hands on the ball. Secondly our spine rarely touch the ball in the same play. We need them to play together. Reed kicking game was pretty good, but his passing and trickery around the ruck was pretty poor today. Regardless, of Moses in the team or not, our predictable, slow and awful attack has been evident for a while. Our attacking coach really needs a fucking kick up his ass because it is not working. Our only set play is Gutho throwing a cut out pass to Sivo. I thought N Brown was off the field for to long. We really needed his ball playing skills. Whenever he connects a pass to another forward, we look very dangerous and gain momentum. I am so sick and tired of this one out shit. Can we please play some more expansive footy. For the love of God, study the way Panthers and Storm attack. Constantly, players are pushing up around the ball and importantly, their attack is done at high speeds with everyone doing their job to precision. JA speed is the same as a 90 years olds walk. We need our attack to straighten up more infield, to give space for our outside backs.
I thought our defence in the middle was very weak. They were breaking tackles with ease. They were gange tackling us, while our first contact was very poor and pathetic. The first try was bound to happen. JA can't defend 1 on 1. Espicially on an inform CHN. The second try was such shit defence by Sivo. He should of made the tackle on Kris. The scramble work was poor, with 2 players left on the ground when the tackle was completed. Kaufusi didn't close the gap behind the play the ball which allowe Rapana to sneak in. Even if their fowards one the battle in the middle, we had the oppurtunities to win the game. However, our spine and attacking game plan is beyond a joke.
I must give credit to Ricky's gameplan. Raiders had great line speed (regardless if they were a bit offside) and made sure they gang tackled us. As a result, we barely gained any meters, we had slow play the balls and looked shit in attack. They put a lot fo pressure on our key offloaders such as Matto which really shut down his game. BA doesn't have any other tactical onus when team use this strategy. Dragons did it to us and other teams will start doing it as well. Be more creative BA ffs. Use your brain and get better assistants to help you if your to dum to find solutions yourself.
PS. On immortal behaviour, Joey actually gives Jordan Rankin a small wrap.
Replies
Personally I would have Dunster over Fergo. He may not have the flair, but is much more reliable all round.
It's an interesting scenario with the centres. Opacic this year has shown that to be a good NRL centre you need to have good defence and be able to play off the edge forward and feed good ball to your winger. It's almost as if the edge forward is the one who has the skills that the centre used to have. Centre is the middle man between edge forward and winger. Luckliy we have 2 edge forwards who have the necessary skills.
Oh goody a team list blog.
No each way bets. Don’t pick two blokes in one position.
1:Gutho 2:Sivo 3: Opacic 4: Nuikore 5: Fergo 6: D Brown 7: Moses 8: RCG 9:Mahoney 10: Paulo
11: Matterson 12: Papali’i 13 N Brown 14: Cartwright ( and fucking allowed some minutes to get into the game) 15: Kaufusi 16: Lane 17: Smith or anyone because the great man BA doesn’t use the 17 for more than 9.5 minutes, so I could be the 17.
My thoughts also My Bob.
Nuikore showed we played best with him at Centre. The only difference might be Haze over Fergo because Fergo is still running on past performances and yes he had a good run and kick but he wouldnt have taken the half volley Haze took last week to score. Also Haze looks quicker and less injury prone.
But we are talking winger so lets not argue over that position.
So my team: So keep Penisini on the left with Sivo because is requires less defence and he can set up Sivo with more opprtunities like Jennings did. After a few games Penisini will feel more comferotable come finals time. I assume Opacic is out of the bubble and needs to quarantine so Penisini may get 2 more weeks at least. So Opacic stays on the right with D Brown due to their strong defense. Ferguson has a premirship and if he has fixed his defensive issues, he is very valuable with meters from the back end. So I have switched the sides of Papali'i and Matto. Papalli'i suits D Brown game style more. Dylan is not afraid of going deep into the line (direct) which will help Papali'i get 1 on 1 opportunities on halves. Papali'i runs should then be follow by Opacic, D Brown, Reed, Gutho running in support incase of potential offloads. Contrastingly, Moses likes to give early ball which will help Matto because he likes to have room to put his body and arm in the position to offload. The rest of my smarting line up is pretty much explains itself. The bench explains itself as well. Carty to play the utlity role. Any injury to the halves or hooker Carty comes in. Any injury or rest for Matto and Papali'i, Carty to come in. Lane & Kaufusi to get 30 minute spells when Paulo and RCG are off. Niukore to chew minutes from all middles (Nathan, Paulo and RCG). Any injury to the outside backs, Niukore comes in. My only concern with this line up is hooker is not properly covered if Mahoney is injured and if a winger is injured, Opacic and Penisini are not wingers. That is where W Blake is handy as he can play on the wing as well. Fergo can play fullback if Gutho is injured.
I like this team, concern for me with this team is carty at dummy half if reed gets injured.
Yea. Really hard to cover every position I guess. The other option is W Smith or Lussick on the bench instead of Carty. But I like what Carty can bring to the team. Well that is if BA gives him some freedom and game time.
It's a toss up between will and carty for me.
BA's game management leaves a bit to be desired, with niukore's injury and bugger all creativity from our halves I would have expected for carty to get at least 20 minutes.
Good team. Not sure about lane too inconsistent. Other players need game time. The pass he threw was ridiculous .
I don't have a problem with the lane flick pass, sometimes, particularly it tight games where you can't crack the defence , you have to take your chances. He was unlucky it got knocked down by a raiders player and it bounced their way. It was going straight into kaufusi's hands. The patient. Less risky play was to take the tackle and build pressure but that approach didn't work for us all night and we had plenty of chances.
x2 Coryn! Shaun at his best and that was a great combo.
It's all about combos!
where have our combos gone
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