2020 Pre Season and Trial Games

Sione had a good first half defensively.

The first try of the 2nd half was on the 5th tackle. the team was expecting the dragons to kick but they didnt. about 3 knights on the right rushed out of the line to get the kicker and about 3 stayed back. There was about 10 missed tackles in that play.
I'm not sure how it's all Sione's fault.

And the try after that Sione actually stops the centre but he offloads to the winger to score.
The Dragons winger scored because our winger (not sure who it is) rushed in on the centre.

Sione got injured some time before or during the 2nd try and continued to play on making a few more good tackles. Then Sione went off injured. Dragons continued to score more trys.

So keep banging that drum about how it's all Sione's fault. But for some reason all the coaches we have had keep playing him in the 17. Maybe because in they're expert opinion he is a decent player.
 
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slotmachine said:
I'm sure the coach would agree on review.
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I'm sure the coach would agree with you on review.
Like when you said he'd cut Sione, or when you said he'd never pick Sione in the 17, or when you said he'd never pick Sione in the starting side, or when you said he'd never let Sione play centre again. On review, the coach would agree with you on all of that.
I'm sure when the coach said in his interview that Sione was playing well and was a big loss, on review, he would say Sione is the worst player he'd ever seen and should be playing for Maitland reserves.
 
slotmachine said:
It's in the video clear as day. If you're not willing to have a look because it challenges your preconceptions, we're done here.

Knightime watch the replay. It's all there. If you can find the incident before the Lino bomb where Sione was injured I'll have a look.

After challenging for the bomb you can see Sione grimace in pain, and he is limping noticeably afterwards. Before that, fine.
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Sione hurt his leg in the dragons second (correction) try in the second half.

If you watch the video, you can see he is limping a little when he first starts running back after the conversion. And I thought it looked like he had a limp in the shot showing the team regrouping after the try.

Just after that, he makes a tackle in the next set of 6 and limps away from it.

This is all before the bomb.

Edit, second try. Dragons second try sorry. Sione dives to tackle and thats when the injury happened.
 
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slotmachine said:
It's in the video clear as day. If you're not willing to have a look because it challenges your preconceptions, we're done here.

Knightime watch the replay. It's all there. If you can find the incident before the Lino bomb where Sione was injured I'll have a look.

After challenging for the bomb you can see Sione grimace in pain, and he is limping noticeably afterwards. Before that, fine.
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I just rewatched it and he was limping a couple of minutes before that.
So maybe you should watch it again.
 
Thanks Kurri, someone who actually wants to have an informed discussion.

Had a look and can't see it tbh. Certainly looks to be running freely from the kickoff after the third dragons try. But if you and Krusty can see it I must be looking at the wrong thing.
 
slotmachine said:
Thanks Kurri, someone who actually wants to have an informed discussion.

Had a look and can't see it tbh. Certainly looks to be running freely from the kickoff after the third dragons try. But if you and Krusty can see it I must be looking at the wrong thing.
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Easier to say in minutes on the video. If you look at 1H 07m of the video, that the try where he dives across. at 1H 7m 20s you see Sione walking back to the huddle clearly limping. After that conversion, if you watch that a few times the wide angle of the team coming back to the kickoff, he is limping slightly.

1H 09m 24s - Sione makes a tackle and clearly limps away.
1H 09m 46s - Again, can clearly see him limping in the defensive line.
1H 11m 00s - That is when the bomb you are talking about happened. He was clearly limping before this.
1H 11m 40s - Sione limping badly and he goes out the back to lay down and goes off.

Before the 1H 07m tackle, he was running freely the whole time, and he came out playing Centre straight from the kickoff of the second half.

Really, coach/trainer should have noticed Sione limping and got him straight off as soon as it occurred, bad miss that could have caused further damage.
 
With Barnett now clearly bulked up to play middles and Sione injured (I still hope it's minor because he tried to run it off), we only have Fitz and Guerra as genuine second rowers who have firstgrade experience.
We need someone on the bench who can play second row.
I think Brodie Jones is the only guy who is ready, but I get a feeling that O'Brien likes what he sees in Momoisea and might go that way.
I like what I see in Momoisea too, but think he needs 10 games of reserve grade before we even consider him. He is still learning.
 
Billy said:
With Barnett now clearly bulked up to play middles and Sione injured (I still hope it's minor because he tried to run it off), we only have Fitz and Guerra as genuine second rowers who have firstgrade experience.
We need someone on the bench who can play second row.
I think Brodie Jones is the only guy who is ready, but I get a feeling that O'Brien likes what he sees in Momoisea and might go that way.
I like what I see in Momoisea too, but think he needs 10 games of reserve grade before we even consider him. He is still learning.
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I'd be happy to see Brodie Jones in the 17 at some point this year.
 
Other options we could look at.
Shibasaki can apparently play second row, but I don't know what his form is.
Hunt played some second row for Souths.
Jake Saifiti played second row as a junior up till reserve grade and has lost a bit of weight this year.
I don't know if Glasby has ever done it, but he looks like he could.
Eseese also looks like he could be mobile enough for second row.
 
krustykraz said:
If Sione is out I'd start Guerra and possibly have Jones on the bench.
Or have Jacob, Glasby, &Herman on the bench and Barnett could cover 2nd row if necessary.
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Yeah, I'd go the same with your first suggestion. Pending how the next trial goes, my top 17 would be:

1. Ponga
2. Lee
3. Tuala
4. Shibs
5. Hunt
6. Mann/Lino (TBD)
7. Pearce
8. Klem
9. Brailey
10. DSaf
11. Fitz
12. Guerra
13. Barnett
14. Watson
15. Herman
16. Glasby
17. Jones
 
That left side attack, Mann's side, really weren't on song. Even Pearce threw one that went to ground out there. Thought they were fine defensively. Only had time to watch the first 20 again but Obi has a bit of work to do with attack.
 
Coach was saying they were paranoid about giving away anything in terms of attack before round 1, but that doesn't really explain Mann not being able to make a pass.

If sione is out then the coach doesn't have to make a choice between j saf, glasby and Guerra. They all make the side.
 
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Geez that is paranoid, they just about all do the same thing, just a matter how well they do it
 
Pearce did a lot more defence and donkey work than I thought he would, but he really didn't show a lot of fancy moves, and I noticed he didn't put his body on the line when he had a kick land near him - just let it bounce.
I think he was just going through the motions and has a lot up his sleeve for when things get serious.
Most of the others were making sure they kept their spots.
 
I notice Jock Madden was starting halfback for Wests in their trial game.

I still shake my head when I think about how we lost in the semi final of SG Ball in 2018 with halves of Madden and Crossland, backs like Best, Toa, Sasagi, Mitch Black at hooker, NSW rep forwards like Harry Croker, Jarron Purcell and Cooper Jenkins - basically 10 future firstgraders.

Jock Madden was the SG Ball player of the year for the comp and Wests offered him a top 30 spot straight out of Ball, and after 1 year in Flegg and reserves, they have him starting at number 7 in a trial.
 
Billy said:
Other options we could look at.
Shibasaki can apparently play second row, but I don't know what his form is.
Hunt played some second row for Souths.
Jake Saifiti played second row as a junior up till reserve grade and has lost a bit of weight this year.
I don't know if Glasby has ever done it, but he looks like he could.
Eseese also looks like he could be mobile enough for second row.
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I had a chat to Jacob about his weight a few weeks back. He weighs the same on the scales as he did last year, but he is definitely leaner... he's a lot fitter than last year and is up for a massive year.
 
slotmachine said:
Coach was saying they were paranoid about giving away anything in terms of attack before round 1, but that doesn't really explain Mann not being able to make a pass.

If sione is out then the coach doesn't have to make a choice between j saf, glasby and Guerra. They all make the side.
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It might if he was in two minds when passing.
 
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