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Looking at the stats from reserve grade Baker, DSF, AJ and Spinks posted good numbers.

Toy in the centres in reserve grade is unusual, but he can play thst position. Montoya playing centre in reserve grade wouldn't surprise me.

If AJ doesn't make his debut, there is a chance Spinks might make his debut.

There is an outside chance that both might get a run, probably with Mann and Hopoi if Hayward can play 80 and we don't get any backline injuries.

I think Baker and Gordon CKT might be devopment squad?

O'Donnell seems to be posting better stats than Gordon.

I understand a lot of what Cirro and Gus are doing even when I don't agree with it. I understood very little of what Des was doing.

I think that we will be trying to win with "back to basics" , "stick to the process" , effort, and energy.

Young forwards providing more punch off the bench is something i would try.

We are playing 4 fridays in a row, with 2 games in Brisbane, we might say in SEQ for the week if we can find somewhere good to train.

The Cows have a good pack of forwards, if we can match them or beat them that will help us win.

I hoping at least one young guy + Hopoi lifts the energy and enthusiusm levels.

My hunch is Montoya playing centre in reserve grade AJ and/or Spinks playing NRL. Spinks probably on the 19 man bench with Turpin and Rinakama, in 17-19.

This 19 plus O'Sullivian and Hayes go to SEQ.

Curran might play reserve grade just to give him some minutes or he will play NRL. Curran will go to SEQ.

King and Kiraz go if they are any chance to play either game.

Woods goes if he is no chance to play in the next few weeks.

So we might take a 26 man squad to SEQ and stay 8-9 days, that is what I would do.

This is proably the crunch part of our season we need to win 2 out 0f 4, ideally 3 out of 4.

All 4 teams will be fairly strong and just as desperate.
 
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One of the big variables in the NRL is the state of the opposition when we play them, are they well rested and motivated.

The other variable is ecploiting any weakness in their line up.

In recent weeks, other teams have exploited Monotoya.

Against Parra, Volkman didn't turn out to be the weakness we hoped he would be.

Against the Broncos, our edge was in the forwards and we exploited it early. The injury to Kiks stuffed up our rotation and we didn't attack or defend well enough.

The 5 day turn around was a factor against the Broncos, but the effort was mostly there.

Against Parra, we definately turned up with the wrong attitude, we had a longer rest than they did.

Cows leak plenty of points so finding a weakness should not be hard. We should have done plenty of video on their attack.

I hope that we put a lot if thought into the positioning of our winger in defence. Look at old tape of Hazem, he was always in position to take the intercept, or knock the ball down.

Positioning, reading the play and antiicpation are important for a winger. Our inside defence should be prepared to slide to cover the opposition centre. Our winger should be inside the opposition winger but positioned to take an intercept or tackle the winger into touch.

If the opposition centre seems to be outside our centre, the winger should jamb in. If the defender is coming outside in, it is harder for the centre to make the pass. And when all else fails, knocking the ball down is a good option.
 
Rumours still curculating about Bulla, he is exactly what we need at fullback and apparently great mates with Galvin.

I stll gave mixed feelings about poaching talent from the Tigers.

So far Gus hasn't rung me asking for advice, this is why he gets the big bucks.
 
PTB Dogs 3.67 Panthers 3.2
6 agains Dogs 4 Panthers 6

PTB Dogs 3.47 Eels 3.45
6 agains Eels 2 Dogs 9
Penalties Eels 1 Dogs 6

PTB Dogs 3.47 Broncos 3.54
6 agains Dogs 2 Broncos 3

IMO our first 2 tries against the Panthers were from quick play the balls when we won the ruck.

IMO our attack looked worse against the Eels becuase they slowed the ruck a few times on critical plays.

A couple of Broncos trys could nave been prevented if we slowed the ruck.

We used to concede more 6 agains last season at our end and backed ourselves to defend them.

This area of the game is a jungle of inconsistency, the QLD girls had enough time to plat the NSW girl's hair in some tackles last night.

A quick ruck and lots of 6 agains suits us. Be prepared to concede a tactical 6 again at the right times.
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I don't rate the ref we had against the Eels at all, he is by far the worst ref we have had this year, luckily we don't have him against the Cows,
 
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Hopefully or fans realise how important this game is and they turn up and help the team.

This is a game where loud fan support should help.

Technically Mase and Scope recon the Cows are aiming for a play the ball near the black dot and Drinky swings late to create an overlap either side.

IMO we want Hayward on one side covering / chasing Drinky and Tracey biased towards the other side.

Shoot up on Drinkwater, like we shoot up on Cleary, force him to run or pass early.

We need a good strategy for defending this play.

Numbers in the middle close to the black dot winning the tackle is important. Hughesy and Leo should hit hard and drive players back. Salmon needs to join in where possible

If we can keep them in a yardage grind, that limits their opportunities.
 
Just no intensity from the team in both attack and defence .
Critter no fully recovered. Sua giving it his all
 
We have got a lot of work to do.

It would be good to add some pace to the side, Sua is fast

3 dopped balls from Thompson very unusual.

5 missed tackles by Xerri 3 by Sua some of them counted.

I was hoping that we would be going better by now.

We don't have a lot of depth a centre, moving Burton or Critter to left centre might be worth a shot.

I would give Spinks a run, he is a try scorer.

Broncos did look gone at times last season, but they have far more talent than us.
 
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Galvin as good as he is not a 7 would be worth trying Woods or bringing in Sullivan at 7 pushing Galvin back to 6 . Burto in centres , Xerri not himself this year , But then again our forwards have not dominated for our backs to fire up .
Thompson not at full potential could still be trying to get use playing with the team .
Team has to find form and win a lot of games soon otherwise they will be playing behind the eighth ball .
Pressure will definitely mount on CC to find a solution.
 
Woods is still injured i don't trust O'Sullivian in defence.

But i am happy to try anything.

Our young halves Conti and Teaupa are good, but are probably too young.

If Dykes, Cocherane and Rinakama played well i would promote them.

Play Dykes or Critter a 6, Cocherane at fullback.

I would promote Spinks becuase we need more attack.

With Turpin and Mann out we need to promote a new backup hooker.

Galvin is fine as a left sided playmaker. Unless we have an NRL quality organising half, 6 and 7 don't matter.

The Storm haven't had an organising half since Cronk left,

Fogarty is a good option who we could have tried to sign.

Woods is an organising half, as is Conti, O'Neill who left was also good.

We don't have a lot of centres. The Chester line break was very sloppy defence from us at a critical time.

Our better players are young, too young, some of our current players don't seem to be good enough at present.
 
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Criticism from fans, media and the results have really sapped the players confidence.

They need to ignore that, and it will take a good win to turn it around.

Starting Curran instead of Toups was a negative move.

We are not going to get an easy game, we need to earn it.

I am not sure about our attacking coaches, but perhaps the players don't have rhe confidence to do what we should be doing.
 
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If the club or Gus comes out supportive of the coach the current players then something is not right .
Critter came out supporting Galvin few days ago so it seems players might have been reading fans site or taking in media comments.
 
To score trys of slow PTB we need genuine ball players in the spine, Galvin and Hayward are ok.

Woods would be handy.
 
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Zoz2025 said:
If the club or Gus comes out supportive of the coach the current players then something is not right .
Critter came out supporting Galvin few days ago so it seems players might have been reading fans site or taking in media comments.
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Our fans are the problem, i always support the club,

Players should ignore the fans and the media, but that is hard to do.

If we sack Cirro and Gus we are clueless, and will collect a draw full of spoons.

Cirro and Gus need to sort out the players.

If the club or Gus bags out tne players in public, we will definately get the spoon this season.

Kicking someone when they are down never makes them play better.

I don't know where our next win is coming from. If fans keep attacking the players, why would the players want to play for the fans? Why would any good players want to come to our club?

Sometimes players and fans need to do the hard yards, it helps if we are on the same side.
 
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Players don't know or care about what fans say to other fans in private.

They don't expect fans to attack them directly in public.

If I was playing for the Dogs and a fan attacked me in public, i would not bother trying to play well.

Does Cirro have a few things to learn, yep. How did Bennett go last year?
 
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Young played the last 31 minutes in reseve grade, an unknown player coming from nowhere to save our season would be Young or Conti, but that is unlikely, thowing a talented young player into a struggling team before he is ready, rarely works out.

I don't count Dykes, Cocherane or Spinks as unknown.

If i was feeling lucky, i might be temped to try Young as the bench hooker against the Phins.
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I would make a lot if changes, time to roll the dice. We can try another 3-4 young guys and see which ones are ready for NRL.

The last 3 weeks we have been a lot worse than I expected. I don't think anyone expected this. Broncos and Cows were good.

If Cirro makes mass changes and we lose, he will be criticised. Young players will not get a long honeymoon. But we need to try something.
 
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I sat though the 2008 season, that was a nightmare, and Folkesy was nowhere near as smart at Cirro.

Us winning the comp this year was a long shot and probably needed Woods and Thomlson playing in round 1. It is an even longer shot now.
 
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