2025 Season

Edwards and Kenny don’t really offer much in attack and when they don’t have Yeo it’s just Talagi and Cleary you have to watch out for

Talagi had a shocker last night as well
 
Their game plan has always been built around outworking the other team, wearing them down. Their superpower is that they can spend 30 minutes camped in good field position failing to score points and their mindset will always be "we are putting fatigue into them, this will pay off later, and also they won't have the gas in the tank to threaten us with the ball" rather than "god damn it we keep not scoring, this is so frustrating". Losing Kikau and Stephen Crichton harmed their ability to score points but it doesn't stop them from winning.

If they get a do-over of that game and grind it out 18-10 instead of hand the other team the chances to make it 18-22, no one should be surprised.
 
The bets come crashing down.

I'm glad I bet against Penrith.

All this media junk about their chances is utter blather. The talk is for easy clicks, attention, and many hours of pointless cooler talk. You only have to watch them to know it won't happen in 2025.

It's over, and it's really between two other teams.

Melbourne will only be better when a few of those other players are back.
 
Continuum Hypothesis said:
The bets come crashing down.

I'm glad I bet against Penrith.

All this media junk about their chances is utter blather. The talk is for easy clicks, attention, and many hours of pointless cooler talk. You only have to watch them to know it won't happen in 2025.

It's over, and it's really between two other teams.

Melbourne will only be better when a few of those other players are back.
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Wow, you are a game man!
I have learned over many years never to doubt a champion.
Penrith are far from done and legitimately should have won last night.
Let’s just see how it plays out till first week in October.
 
Continuum Hypothesis said:
The bets come crashing down.

I'm glad I bet against Penrith.

All this media junk about their chances is utter blather. The talk is for easy clicks, attention, and many hours of pointless cooler talk. You only have to watch them to know it won't happen in 2025.

It's over, and it's really between two other teams.

Melbourne will only be better when a few of those other players are back.
Click to expand...

I completely disagree. I don’t know if they’ll win the comp but they’ll be up there again.
 
Continuum Hypothesis said:
The bets come crashing down.

I'm glad I bet against Penrith.

All this media junk about their chances is utter blather. The talk is for easy clicks, attention, and many hours of pointless cooler talk. You only have to watch them to know it won't happen in 2025.

It's over, and it's really between two other teams.

Melbourne will only be better when a few of those other players are back.
Click to expand...
Still too early to write off Penrith.
 
This is what happened to them last year too, they ran out of steam at the back end. They’re very consistent and well coached but they’re still a bit short of strike power + physicality, built around really fit and mobile players in depth applying stifling line speed and constant second efforts. So they win, but they redline to do it. Also I don’t think their attacking structures are that good either, which are important for netting you easy wins.

Basically: they’re good, they’re really bought in, but they need to find ways to get themselves some easier wins over the season so they don’t burn out. Kind of the exact opposite to what the Roosters were in 2024 (a team that won TOO easily too often, so they never figured out how to grind out tough wins in different ways). Funny old game rugby league.
 
HarVeeGee13 said:
He’s unbelievable. The winning play was amazing but he almost single-handedly kept them in it when Penrith were on top all through the first half. Melbourne have had the two best hookers I’ve ever seen back to back. It’s like if we already had Johnathan Thurston ready to go when Andrew Johns retired.
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Peak Robbie Farah was pushing Cameron Smith imo. He was an unbelievable hooker.
 
Roosters finally found someone with a good long kicking game to take them to the next level

I don’t know why they would ever want DCE
 
Are Penrith good enough to win the comp? Yes, definitely.

But they arent nearly as good as they were last year, and they were even better the year previous. 25' Penrith is a considerably weaker proposition, even at their best.

The Storm full strength would beat Penrith 4 times from 5 imo. Full strength Broncos (if they can get that together) should be capable of beating Penrith on their day also.

Then youve got the Roosters and the Raiders who could beat Penrith in a GF, but are unlikely to make it that far.
 
Just watching the Melbourne v Panthers and chooks v dogs games, how good there kicking games are. Clearly, Walker, Burton, Galvin, etc. Both long and short. All the top teams have exceptional kickers.

Something we have lacked for a long time. I’m still worried who will do our long kicking next year to get us out of trouble.

We also need to be utilising Dom in the air more. We need a kicker that can put it on the spot for him. It’s a cheat code for Roosters and Melbourne with Topu and Coats.
 
I know “try assists” aren’t the objective “how good playmaker is” marker some people hold them up to be but damn, this is Joey level outlier stuff (scroll down to the circled numbers):

IMG_3559.jpeg
 
Titans play the Warriors next week which is very winnable considering how often they beat the Wahs. We also didn't help ourselves losing to them twice this year.
 
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