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Soccer fans are even more relentlessly negative than Dogs fans :)

I am always amazed when fans think a coach doesn't know the game.

Coaches that have been total flops as head coaches like Baz have detailed footy knowledge.

Joey Johns knows the attacking side well, but knows nothing about defence.

Lots of ex- players and ex-coaches in the media talk an attractive high risk game, many wouldn't actually coach like that.

All coaches know a giant wrecking ball is coming for them if they don't get the wins
 
Hounddog said:
Soccer fans are even more relentlessly negative than Dogs fans :)

I am always amazed when fans think a coach doesn't know the game.

Coaches that have been total flops as head coaches like Baz have detailed footy knowledge.

Joey Johns knows the attacking side well, but knows nothing about defence.

Lots of ex- players and ex-coaches in the media talk an attractive high risk game, many wouldn't actually coach like that.

All coaches know a giant wrecking ball is coming for them if they don't get the wins
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Abit tough to suggest Joey Johns knows nothing about defence.

He was probably one of the toughest and brutal defenders as a HB.

Perhaps what you meant was he couldn't coach defence, even though he was good at it individually....
 
Marki said:
Abit tough to suggest Joey Johns knows nothing about defence.

He was probably one of the toughest and brutal defenders as a HB.

Perhaps what you meant was he couldn't coach defence, even though he was good at it individually....
Click to expand...
Joey admits that he doesn't watch the defence, if he paid attention he would understand, but he just isn't interested in it.

Sometimes it is very hard for elite players to understand why the players they are coaching can't do what they could do.

Yes, that is what I meant, being able to do it, and being able to teach others to do it, are different things.

Some of the more successful coaches were not elite players.

Joey would be OK for an SOO coaching role with a good assistant coaching the defence. But he wasn't even totally successful as a specalist halves coach and has never been a head coach.

Joey is honest and understands his limitations.
 
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If Austalia had Haaland we would would have been a world cup contender.

A player like that is the biggest hole in the team, but only a few countries have that level of elite talent.

Without elite attack, the defence has to limit the opposition to a score the attack can get.
 
Raiders have a couple of key forwards back for us Pappa and Martin.

That follows a pattern this year, often key players come back for our game.

The weakened Storm side was the only major break we got recently.

I am expecting Skicky to have the Raiders pumped. It is a dangerous game and we are starting favourites.

We will need to earn the win, but our form before the bye was good.

I expect that the starting lineup will be unchanged, Preso or Spinks will come off the bench.

Or possibly Presto starting, and Spinks on the bench.

Salmon would move back to lock and Hayes to the bench?
 
I am surpised that many of our fans don't rate Hughes,. He is out injured a lot and he seems to be playing with injury moxt of the time.
Inspite of thst he scores more trys than King and Thompson in fewer playing minutes. He is surpisingly fast and mobile fir a big guy, has good anticipation, and is propably our no2 enforcer after Thompson.

The downsides are injuries, giving away too many penaltues and playing fewer minutes than King amd Thompson.

I alxo rate Underhill, Todd, AJ and Hopoi, beyond 2027 these yoing guys probably offer more thsn Hughex.

For 2026 and 2027 a semi-fit Hughes currrently offers more than the young guys.

I am not doing a top 30 at this stage, but I think the following guys can be development in 2027 and NRL in 2028, Conti, Cocherane, Alatini.

I still think we rate Young as a long term hooker, he has speed, has plsyed lock anf 5/8 in reserve grade, and might be able to play centre.

Every year I expect to lose some players that we want to keep, and squeezing everyone into the top 30 will get harder.

Players we sign will be top class players like Dykes looking for an opportunity, adding more speed to our squad, or guys to replace guys we didn't want to lose.

I'll have a crack at a 2027 top 30 at the end of the season, it will not be easy to do.
 
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Good to see the blues win the origin now for the nitty-gritty NRL
Blues were playing a bit like the Bulldogs with tsuffocating defence Queensland really had no answers ., got some
lucky tries that's about it.
 
Great to see Loz call out the negative media BS in the presser.

It is the same BS the the Dogs and other important clubs cop.

Canberra never cop it, becuase the media hacks are Sticky's mates and no one cares about Canberra.

The media only do it for clicks and eyeballs and most of it is mase up.
 
I don't like the fact that we are favourites against Canberra. I am glad the Critter came through the SOO match ok.
 
Wasn't that a big turns around . Looking so good then the unbelievable first try from Raiders put a spark back in them.
Sutton not doing any
 
Not sure what to make of the Raiders game.

Sutton didn't do us any favours.

I have hunch that someoone grounded the ball before the Savage length of the field try.

After that we didn't get much ball.

Usually only one Canberra half kicks the ball, we may have been to fatigued to pressure him.

We need to get Critter right. O'Sullivian is suspect in defence, but might be worth a shot,

I am not sure if we were bad or just extremely unkucky that game, Lucky no guys injured themselves walking off the field,
 
Regardless of the potential knock on, I thought Rinakama grounded the ball.

First 40-20 possibly wasn't a 40-20.

We played pretty well for the first 20 mins, the effort was there, we had no luck, but somehow we were not at our best.

I am not going to criticise team selection or the players, both gave it there best shot.

I don't like Mann starting at hooker or Xerri at right centre, but neither was acutally a problem.

We didn't number up well for the 2nd Raiders try, Curran was probably too far in field. Critter was forced to jamb of the halfback and the second rower ran into acres of space.

We just needed to play better, but it is hard when the opposition has all the ball,

We need to win 6 out of 8 from here, that will have us scraping into the 8.

Best to just forget the Raiders game, it isn't the first nightmare we have had in a game ref'ed by Sutton.
 
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Given a chance to name a ref they didn't want, fans and players at a club would probably name the same ref.

Different clubs would name different refs, but I think a couple of refs would be named by 5 or more clubs.

Of course the NRL would never allow that.

In our game there seemed to be more 6-agains and penalties than in recent weeks?

If the style of the game is reverting back to what was before SOO, that is bad for us, probably terminal.

The evidence seems to be more 6-agains and penalties this week and more points scored than recent weeks?
 
Woods scored a great solo try stepping past players in resrve grade.

Later he came off injured, fans think it might have been hamstring, but ir sounds like it might have been cramp.

Edit Woods onoy played 51 mins, my cramp theory was wishful thinking.

Either way Woods isn't a candate to replae Critter. We could start Mann at hooker, Hayward at 5/8 with O'Sullivian / Dykes on the bench.

I 'm not the only fan thst doesn't like the idez of O'Sullivian playing 80.

Burto could try some Torps but on hit the ewth 3/4 power Canberra seemedvto be sble to control and place them.
 
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For the soft trys we conceded against Canberra, the line wasn't set and the scramble was too slow to get there.

We have got good at not conceding 6-agsins, but at times we need to concede some tactical 6-agaiha.
 
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Other fans have pointed out the Raiders deliberatley conceded 6-agains early in the game and may have been slowing our PTB all game.

It wasn't as obvious to me as the Tigers game, and I thought that we handled it well early.

Still we know the tactics the Tigers are going to use and we continue to tty to shift the ball when the opposition line is well set.
 
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I am not sure if we can read too much into our trys in the last 10 minutes, but at least the guys kept trying in a very difficult game.

Looking at the game rather than the scoreboard, i think that we outplayed the Raiders in attack and defence. Except for when the Raiders had a large chunk of posession and our petrol tanks were low.

The Raiders totally out played us in the kicking game.

Individual errors, and running through the rehearsed plays cost us.

Still we were mentally on tilt after some diabolical ref calls and a few errors resulted in the Raiders having a lot of the ball.

A few pieces of the jigsaw seem to be missing, and we don't seem to be playing smart.

There is still hope, becuase the players are trying, and getting a lot of stuff right.

On the other hand, it just doesn't seem to be our year, and it is a different problem every loss.

I am worried that the Tigers will lie all over us in the ruck, the ref will let them, and our dumb clueless fans will turn on the team.

Cirro needs to anticipate that and prepare. Every game when our halves have got early ball and turned it back inside to middles we have won.

Woods could fix all of the issues with our kicking game, and he is a big threat running the ball, with adequate passing. i am hoping it isn't a hamstring because he may be a chance of playing NRL this year.
 
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I am going to rewatch the Canberra game to see how much they were holding us down.

I only noticed it at the start when we got the 6-agains, but I was visiting family and having dinner with them while mostly watching the game.

Other fans think it was a big part of the result.

The main lesson from this season is, win the games we should win.

Refs cost us a few wins, but we cost ouselves plenty. Plenty to cover in the season review and learn from, for players, coaches, medical staff, recruitment and management.

The lid might be on the coffin, but we can still climb out and make an impact in the semis.

Even if we have a good run from here, we still need the review.
 
We have had 9 losses I recon they can be assigned as follows

Refs - 2
injuries, recruitment, team selection - 5
New rules, confidence, mistakes - 2. (In part due to the 5 losses above.)

The biggest problem is playing injured players or players down on confidence because we didn't think we had a better option.

The injuries that have costs us the most are Thompson, Hughes, Turpin, Woods, Preston, Kiks, Tuala, Rinakama, Montoya, Kiraz and Tracey.

Many of them cost us becuase we are developing players and they are not yet ready.

We have stregthened the squad for 2027 with a hooker, winger/centre and fullback. Our young players are progressing.

We can't get any of those losses back, but I recon the coach would like to change some team selections. The Eels, Broncos and Cows losses are when the season went off the rails.

A loss to the Tigers would end our semi chances. That would be bad.
 
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I couldn't watch the entire Canberra game, I kept seeing decisions from Sutton that really annoyed me.

TV commentators are getting good at glossing over and ignoring bad ref and bunker decisions.

I centainly don't remember the standard of the refs and the bunker being worse.

I did notice that we struggled to put some of the Canberra big boys on the ground.

That strengthened my opinion that if we make the semis we need Toups and Hughes in the side.

If we convert our first 3 try scoring opportunities against Canberra we possibly win.

Yes the ref cost us, but we contributed to that. But I can't stress enough how annoying a shoddy incompetent ref performance like that is.

If we make the semis and have King, Thompson, Hughes, Toups, Preston, Kiraz, Tuala, Critter, Galvin and Hayward in the side, I'm pretty confident regardless of the opposition. But a better fullback would improve our chances.

Will we make the semis? 45% chance is my take, higher if Hughes is back soon and is in the 17.

Without Hughes the Warriors and Roosters might steamroll us, drop one other game, and we are done.
 
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