Team line up is as I expect:- Readon, Spinks or Preston might play some backrow off the bench.

Underhill, AJ and Hopoi might play middle off the bench.

Hayward might be able to play 80 mins , Mann or O'Sullivian might play some minutes at hooker.

I would not risk Presto unless we are 100% sure, but King indicated he was a 60% chance.

Halves wise, I'm optimistic about all of our young halves- Woods, Conti, Teapua, Reuben, Fing, Bakarat.

We are developing a spine, not buying a spine.

Critter is more or less playing halfback for the rest of this season. Woods or Conti might be the halfback next season.

O'Sullivian is a project player and he is an outside chance of taking over from Critter at some stage this seasoh.

But Critter would be the best defensive 6/7 in the game, O'Sullivian needs to improve a lot.

Dykes is the other wild card, but he is more of a traditional 5/8 or fullback.

A vocal player organising the team seems to be more important than I thought it was.

Apart from being a below average passer, Burto is apparently very quiet.

So Galvin might had had to try to do most of the talking. Now he can just focus on playing his role.

Critter is smart enough to know how Cirro wants the team to achieve and how the sets should be run.

Woods apparently motivates and drives teams with his sheer will to win. If the team isn't doing it, he will try to do it with a run or a kick.

Good to see Presto at least named seems he may be keen on coming back .. we will miss Sitil one of our best forwards. O'Sullivan could be a stand in for Critter or Hooker role as was mentioned.
Titans will be flying high still over their win over the Panthers . May have to grind out another victory :

Titans will be energised.

The Panthers game was not as intense as normal. Many teams have been at full strength and peaking when we play them.

Against Manly the following areas were good, scramble dedence, running hard, support play, long and short kicking. Usual kick chase backed by strong defence.

High kicks can test the Tits fullback. Grubbers for trys / repeat sets.

We need to run big bodies at the Tits halfback, just run Thompson at him.

I think Presto will play and we might move him back to the right to team up with Galvin,

NSW cup is in Tamworth, Spinks is from Tamworth.

We might be signing Jessie McLean to replace Montoya, that might be before June 30th.

The team is apparently staying st the Gold Coast.

I hope wives and kids are staying seperately at Sea World. That is a great place for young kids.

Seems to me that reserve graders and possibly Spink's familty could travel by bus from the Gold Coast to Tamworth on Saturday.

Bus around 6 hours, flight 4 hours, bus with a break for lunch would be ok.

Spinks could possibly play the last 10-15 mins of NRL on Friday night then back up in reserve grade at Tamworth on Sunday.

Presto could start, Spinks could replace him, or if we are chasing points, have both on the field.

My bench would be-
Curran, Hopoi, AJ, Mann, Spinks, O'Sullivian.

AJ and Underhill played limited minutes against Manly, both could back up. I think AJ needs more minutes, and Underhill possibly needs a rest.

Hopoi was very good last reserve grade game and probably deserves a chance.

If we need to play Spinks or O'Sullivan, I would probably rest Mann.

Spinks is probably even more dangerous than Presto in attack, at least in reserve grade. But his defence still needs some improvement.

When we started Galvin and O'Sullivian together in the havles we lead the Phins 12-4 and lost 12-44.

40 unaswered points in 50 minutes speaks for itself.

To be fair, we had a lot of issues in defence, Xerri, Tracey and Sua were struggling

O'Sullivian still has some potential and we might play him off the bench, but he will defend in the middle, not on a edge, is my expectation.

Watch for our left edge defence to be the best it has been all season with Critter there.

With Hayes in the middle, Presto or Curran on the right edge, our right edge defence will also be the best it has been.

We are not going to win a game where the opponent scores 40 points.

We are going to win plenty of games where our opponent scores 12 points.

If / when Cirro thinks Critter at 5/8 isn't working he will probably try a young guy, becuase our season will be over. Critter at 5/8 is the last spin of the Roulette wheel, we don't get 2 spins.

It takes a lot of energy to power a human brain, some of our fans are wasting thst energy on emotion rather than logic.

Beating a team 16-12 is the same as beating them 34-30.

We are not going to mske up a lot of F/A in one game, because the rules are dufferent to earlier in the season and defenses are better.

How much ball did the Panthers have at the Tits end?

Miggest margjns last round Phins +14, Warriors +18, Storm +22, Roosters +19.

No way we were going to beat Manly by +20.

Raiders and Sharks have a few questions to answer. In the context of round 16, they were flogged.

IMO our attack is pretty good, the only poor defensive side we have played recently was the Storm.

In our round 7 game the Eels defence was poor, but we still found a way to lose.

Tits defence was good against the Panthers.

Raiders game after the bye might be an opportunity to score a lot of points. Their season might be over.

Broncos / Roosters will be interesting, my hunch is a Broncos win, because they need to win.

The ideal result is a draw after golden point with both being stripped 8 comp points for terrible hairstyles.

Just once I wanted to hear a player say...
"Actually, I hate this club, but they were offering a few more bucks, and I'm happy to play reserve grade"

My hunch is the next NSW SOO coach needs to be a current head coach somewhere.

ESL hoping to transition to NRL is fine.

Ex-NRL currently coaching ESL is fine, Ex-NRL not oaching anywhere who failed on their last assignment, not ideal.

Assistant coach who failed their last NRL assignment, not ideal.

Assistant coach with potential to be an NRL coach is fine. Should have wins as lower grade coach.

SOO playing experience ideal, but not essential, they can watch video.

Everyone knows that critics are waiting to pounce, and everyone knows QLD has better players.

Appoint the guy for 2 series, then decide after game 2 of series 2.

Changing coach isn't guaranteed to win the series.

We could try rotating Reado and Spinks in the second row or starting Curran, and playing another middle forward.

I still expect Presto to play

Well i was wrong about that.

We just have to play defensive style like against the Sea Birds and Eels : Tits good at scoring long range tries have a lot of fast backs
What about the player movement market looks like Xerri is good as gone , Shame I liked him. Very effective in attack when in form . Spence looks like a deal with the Eels and Averillo of to the Tigers .
Talk around is Bulldogs have met up
With Paps: would he be a liability:. ?

Paps had injury issues torwards the end of his time with the Storm.

Depends on how much money he wants, how much he wants to play and what shape he is in.

We do need more pace it is a shame Mazzone left and Sua is apparently leaving.

We do probably have some young guys with pace. Woods is fast and has good foot work

I Ihink we might have a new 6 next year, but Critter might end up playing 6.

Critter, Burto and Tuala are currently better centres that Xerri. I am not sure how many games and now much money the 4th best centre at club gets.

If Xerri goes to the Storm, playing outside of Munster should help him.

Currently Tuala is our best right centre and we need to fit Burto and Critter in.

Hounddog said:

Paps had injury issues torwards the end of his time with the Storm.

Depends on how much money he wants, how much he wants to play and what shape he is in.

We do need more pace it is a shame Mazzone left and Sua is apparently leaving.

We do probably have some young guys with pace. Woods is fast and has good foot work

I Ihink we might have a new 6 next year, but Critter might end up playing 6.

Critter, Burto and Tuala are currently better centres that Xerri. I am not sure how many games and now much money the 4th best centre at club gets.

If Xerri goes to the Storm, playing outside of Munster should help him.

Currently Tuala is our best right centre and we need to fit Burto and Critter in.

Click to expand...

Seems Cirro might finally come around Burto is best at centre and Galvin is a number 6 . But with Critter still playing injured he could remain no 6 . Galvo may have to look for another position or compete with Woods for the 7 spot .

I see Gavin as a lock, the best lock in the game.

We might end up with 1. Dykes, 6. Woods, 7. Conti, 9.Lussick, 13. Galvin, 14 Hayward as early next season. Hayward can be dynamic when he plays fewer minutes.

If Critter is fully fit he will play left or right centre, we can always Tuala on the wing even though he is a better centre.

I am worried about tonights game, I hope we keep winning and the Broncos and Storm also keep winning. We all take points off the teams above us.

My radical thought for the Tits game is starting Readon at hooker. He is a good defender, speed, footwork, seems to be good at picking up the ball and passing and he only needs to last 15-20 mins at hooker.

Hayward is much more dynamic when he comes off the bench.

IMO Readon can possibly cover hooker, lock, secondrow and centre.

I would like to surprise the Tits with something and gain a crucial edge.

Playing well so far playing that old style suffocating the opposition football . The boys look like now they are playing for each other . Tits are frustrated

Good to keep Tits on 0, will damper their confidence.

Very professional win, Critter playing well at 6, Burto seems more effective a centre.