Its fair enough.
They bombarded us with stories all off season about how everything has changed and we'll barely recognise the side when they play football under the leadership of Sheens, Marshal and Farah.
To my eye, very little has changed. We are still hesitant on the collision, we are still hopeless at defusing high balls, we clock off in defence - especially the inside men, we have no leadership nor clue when attacking in the opposition red zone, our ball handling is still poor and we panic.
After watching the stirring effort of the Dolphin players this afternoon, it was depressing seeing our guys in action.
Yeah thats a puzzling thing to say isnt it?
We were very good in round one last year and had a decent shot at beating Melbourne.
We were never in this contest today. Sure we pressured their line a lot, but it was only medium pressure, which they repelled with moderate ease.
think after round 10
1. Bula
6. Laurie
7. Brooks
13. Douhie
I was with there Jedi until I saw Adam at 13, he’d be like a broken turnstile in that position.
You seem to have found a lot of positives in a game where our opposition did not necessarily play well and easily beat us.
We were poor in many areas I thought. Brooks, Laurie and Doueihi are killing our attack because they are all natural runners who are trying to ballplay. None of them are organisers or plan implementers.
Leaving Api on the sidelines for the first 25 minutes was a huge mistake. We needed leadership in that first 20 when we were pummelling their line. His cool head would have resulted in at least 1 try.
Nofoaluma and Talau should be dropped. They contribute nothing. Talau in particular is hopeless. Kepaoa is a beast and should be starting centre. Tupou should come onto the wing. He has proper star potential.
I get its round 1, but I watched the Dolphins totally outplay a strong Roosters outfit this afternoon. I dont buy the 'need time to gel line' that many are peddling.
Too much sideways, to much hesitation in running, too many errors.
Agree. It was a huge issue today, and so obvious given how much ball we had. Shocked we didn't have trainers/runners out there asking the halves and edges to straighten up early in the first half, let alone after half time etc.
D was generally just ok. Bad read on the first try (need to see a better angle to see what exactly happened), lack of urgency on the second, shambolic fundamentals on the third, and laziness on the last one.
There was a clear difference between today's team and Madge's version - we spread the ball in our own half more today than we did in the last two years combined. A lot more ball movement from the middles too, but that contributed to the surplus of crabbing as mentioned above.
FB is a huge concern - really don't know what we do with Laurie. Suspect our best option will be to put Staines there and Tupou on the wing, but not sure that's a long term winner either.
Thought Stefano was disappointing. Didn't really bend the line, had a big error and was very lazy on the Brimson try. Early days obviously but really need him to start delivering on his potential if we're going to do anything this season.
End of the day, the cohesion should improve, but it needs to happen quickly - can't go 0-2 against these two teams at Leichhardt.
He does try hard, but he just isnt a fullback.
He refuses to compete for the highball, letting one bounce for a try today was inexcusable.
His positioning is often found wanting. He is usually not where he should be in try scoring opportunities.
I dont know how much talking he does out there, but historically our defence has been a rabble. It stands to reason, he is not great at helping organise it.
He doesnt follow for offloads enough and isnt another ball player that we can use effectively out the back.
He is a decent ball runner but that isnt enough to be a first grade fullback for mine.
1Just got home from the game and feel very frustrated. Ill have to watch a replay because at the game i genuinely didnt see what some of you were seeing.
1. Brooks wasnt horrible, I actually thought he had a great game other than a dropped ball and hitting Naden in the chin. When the ball went left Brooks speed straightened and engaged the defence well and definitely better than previous years. Whenever there was a Titans dropped ball it was usually Brooks scrapping for it and his kicking game was much improved with 2(?) restarts forced.
2. The Api hate amazes me. At the game, I was impressed and excited to have him. he does so much from dummy half that we havent had since probably Farah, but the way he engages the markers it was noticable that Titans defence compressed around the ruck when Api came on. The team needs to get used to him though and there seemed to be a few time some disjointed timing between runners and Api.
Other thoughts.
3. The first 15mins is a s dominant as Ive seen a Tigers team in many years.
4. Our defence in their half was much improved and at times brutal.
5. Ive ridden AD for most of last year so its only fair to say in attack he looked really good tonight.
6. Naden is a good one.
7 So is Klemmer, very happy to have him.
8. Nofoaluma is a grade 1 tosser. Down 18 to 6, when we got a scrum (then turned over after Titans challenge) Nofa literally did a dance. Just play football mate, you are losing.
9. Great to see Joffa get worked up. not sure who it was but he wanted to kill someone out there tonight. Foran?
10. Unbelievable unforced errors cost us the game. Laurie not competing the bomb, IP running out and then all the dropped ball.
11. For much of the game, I actually thought it is the best we have looked in over 4 years but stupid errors cost us badly.
12. Kepaoa looked strong as did Blore briefly. Im in two minds about TT.
Great to hear your views @Tiger5150
The view from the ground give s you a better understanding of the players than what we get on TV
Yes Joffa was angry at Foran
The Foran shot out of the line next play, which is where AD run through the gap to score
That Penalty was very well played for by Joffa, Joffa was standing in the tackle as the ref was about to call held. Foran was running past the tackle and Joffa reached out and grabbed him pulling him into the tackle and wouldn't let him. Foran reacted and that is what he was penalised for. Great gamesmanship from Joffa.
In memory of Geoff Chisholm (1965-2022)
Then Foran had it in for Joffa. Run at him out of the line as the ball passed and went to Doueihi instead, who then ran straight through were Foran should have been and Doueihi scores.1Just got home from the game and feel very frustrated. Ill have to watch a replay because at the game i genuinely didnt see what some of you were seeing.
1. Brooks wasnt horrible, I actually thought he had a great game other than a dropped ball and hitting Naden in the chin. When the ball went left Brooks speed straightened and engaged the defence well and definitely better than previous years. Whenever there was a Titans dropped ball it was usually Brooks scrapping for it and his kicking game was much improved with 2(?) restarts forced.
2. The Api hate amazes me. At the game, I was impressed and excited to have him. he does so much from dummy half that we havent had since probably Farah, but the way he engages the markers it was noticable that Titans defence compressed around the ruck when Api came on. The team needs to get used to him though and there seemed to be a few time some disjointed timing between runners and Api.
Other thoughts.
3. The first 15mins is a s dominant as Ive seen a Tigers team in many years.
4. Our defence in their half was much improved and at times brutal.
5. Ive ridden AD for most of last year so its only fair to say in attack he looked really good tonight.
6. Naden is a good one.
7 So is Klemmer, very happy to have him.
8. Nofoaluma is a grade 1 tosser. Down 18 to 6, when we got a scrum (then turned over after Titans challenge) Nofa literally did a dance. Just play football mate, you are losing.
9. Great to see Joffa get worked up. not sure who it was but he wanted to kill someone out there tonight. Foran?
10. Unbelievable unforced errors cost us the game. Laurie not competing the bomb, IP running out and then all the dropped ball.
11. For much of the game, I actually thought it is the best we have looked in over 4 years but stupid errors cost us badly.
12. Kepaoa looked strong as did Blore briefly. Im in two minds about TT.
Great to hear your views @Tiger5150
The view from the ground give s you a better understanding of the players than what we get on TV
Yes Joffa was angry at Foran
The Foran shot out of the line next play, which is where AD run through the gap to score
That Penalty was very well played for by Joffa, Joffa was standing in the tackle as the ref was about to call held. Foran was running past the tackle and Joffa reached out and grabbed him pulling him into the tackle and wouldn't let him. Foran reacted and that is what he was penalised for. Great gamesmanship from Joffa.
Thought the Titans defended really well today. I think that was their main focus and keeping things very simple. It’s a plan which is good one early on in the season when things might need a while to come together in attack. And although they had a few nicely structured plays they kept errors down by playing a less expansive game. Not sure how far it’ll take them but they might have some joy early season with that style against teams with not a great deal of strike.You seem to have found a lot of positives in a game where our opposition did not necessarily play well and easily beat us.
We were poor in many areas I thought. Brooks, Laurie and Doueihi are killing our attack because they are all natural runners who are trying to ballplay. None of them are organisers or plan implementers.
Leaving Api on the sidelines for the first 25 minutes was a huge mistake. We needed leadership in that first 20 when we were pummelling their line. His cool head would have resulted in at least 1 try.
Nofoaluma and Talau should be dropped. They contribute nothing. Talau in particular is hopeless. Kepaoa is a beast and should be starting centre. Tupou should come onto the wing. He has proper star potential.
I get its round 1, but I watched the Dolphins totally outplay a strong Roosters outfit this afternoon. I dont buy the 'need time to gel line' that many are peddling.
I wouldn’t been carried away with a win and I’m not too disappointed with this loss as I knew it’d be a tough one to win. It’s round 1 and I’ve always thought there’d be many, many ups and downs this year. We can get better obviously and that’s where I’ll leave it. Next week is important for us in terms of confidence more than anything. It won’t be easy either as I’m sure a few Knights boys will want to get one over Klem and Hastings will also want to prove a point. Both teams will be highly motivated.
He does try hard, but he just isnt a fullback.
He refuses to compete for the highball, letting one bounce for a try today was inexcusable.
His positioning is often found wanting. He is usually not where he should be in try scoring opportunities.
I dont know how much talking he does out there, but historically our defence has been a rabble. It stands to reason, he is not great at helping organise it.
He doesnt follow for offloads enough and isnt another ball player that we can use effectively out the back.
He is a decent ball runner but that isnt enough to be a first grade fullback for mine.
I mentioned this after the trial game. Laurie didn’t attack 2 kicks in the first half that fortunately landed and bounced safely. They could have easily bounced back into a raiders players hands and turned the game completely.
I agree he tries hard but as mentioned above, he often gets manhandled when bringing the ball back, lacks voice or confidence in setting the defence and inexcusably doesn’t commit to diffusing the kicks. Not sure if Staines is the answer at the back, but I’d like to give him a month to see the results.
The most frustrating thing out of yesterday was Alex Twal IMO.
The clubs has spoken all summer about ball playing / attacking football. If that is the case then why on earth is Twal playing 68 mins at lock forward? The guy is not a ball player. He's a very slow prop with little impact.
It seemed like there were a number of attacking opportunities thrown away because Twal or Klemmer were trying to ball play inside the attacking 20.
This has got to end.
I was at the game last night, really disappointing performance.
There were some positives:
Asu Kepaoa has really matured as a player and had a real dig.
AD did some really nice things and was really the only player who threatened in attack.
Forwards overall were solid. Statistically we were far better than Titans.
Blore looked good before HIA
Naden looked dangerous
Pole needs more minutes on the field - looked very good.
Negatives:
Nofo is awful. Just adds nothing. Tupou needs to come in next week.
Brooks performance was impotent. We looked much slicker with Wakeham there against Canberra, and I don't rate Wakeham at all.
Twal and to a lesser extent Joe O stifled our attack too much, especially in the opposition 20.
Laurie was poor. The sooner we can get rid of someone to promote Bula the better. Bula was outstanding in reggies.
Yes they were smart.
They didnt try to re-invent the wheel and did the simple things well.
When they get going later in the season, they will cause some problems.
