NRL Round 26 - Knights Vs Titans - 2:00pm Sunday 1st September - McDonald Jones Stadium

Roundtable said:
www.nine.com.au

Gould perplexed by Ponga tactic amid big warning

'Trying to look after their own position'
www.nine.com.au www.nine.com.au

Interesting article about our use of Ponga
Click to expand...

Been saying for ages we use Ponga poorly.

I do agree with Gould etc that Ponga intimidates the halves I've seen it plenty where Ponga is in the team and the halves almost cease playing their game, and just robotically go through the motions leaving it up to Ponga to create.

Ponga could dominate the league for the next few years, but not with this team and how we play.
 
Roundtable said:
www.nine.com.au

Gould perplexed by Ponga tactic amid big warning

'Trying to look after their own position'
www.nine.com.au www.nine.com.au

Interesting article about our use of Ponga
Click to expand...
And this comes back to the coach.
There are times when Ponga is very frustrated at the knights. There just doesn’t seem to be any connection between Ponga and the leading half. Last night Ponga made a 50m break and every Knights player stopped dead, no one player backing him to carry the movement on. I don’t think the Knights have a plan to get Ponga into the game, it just happens sometimes if Ponga happens to get the ball, as sad and as ridiculous as that sounds.
 
jamesgould said:
Absolutely mad that we can win 2 from 2 and probably be odds on to nab eighth spot.

I tell ya what, I damn well hope we do though! 😃🤞🏻
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How do you figure that? I thought we still needed quite a few other results to go our way even if we do win the last two
 
nunnsy said:
How do you figure that? I thought we still needed quite a few other results to go our way even if we do win the last two
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We have to beat the Dolphins, so they'll be gone. Broncos have to beat the Dolphins and Storm - probably unlikely they win both. Dragons the best chance but could easily drop one to the Eels or Raiders.
 
Dragons still in box seat with games to come against Eels and Raiders.

But if we win our final two home games and focus on bring out points differential down whilst at it, Phins and Broncos play each other next wkend. then we play phins in final round whilst Brisbane play Storm in final round. Raiders have a horrendous +/-

Chances are we finish equal with Dragons on 30 and we're already 20 points+ ahead on differential.

Goals is for Broncos to lose both or just win 1
 
jamesgould said:
We have to beat the Dolphins, so they'll be gone. Broncos have to beat the Dolphins and Storm - probably unlikely they win both. Dragons the best chance but could easily drop one to the Eels or Raiders.
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Well as we speak sharks have beaten Dragons. Don’t know how many players Melbourne will rest last game.
 
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frankLauda said:
Well as we speak sharks have beaten Dragons. Don’t know how many players Melbourne will rest last game. You think Broncs are in the box seat for and against.
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Bellamy suggested today he'll rest some next week but not in final game against Broncos.

Yeah said in my post we were already 20+ points ahead of dragons, bigger now with Sharks towling them
 
It's not beyond the realms of possibility.

The Raiders have been a bit of a hoodoo team for the Dragons pretty much since the dawn of time.

In theory we should come home with a wet sail and win our last 2 matches at home, but in reality we'll probably lose next week to the Titans and then also the Dolphins. But it would be great to knock off old man Wayne in the final round to book a finals spot.
 
The Raiders aren’t good per se, but they’re the exact sort of team you don’t want to have to play to secure your ladder position. They are great at getting up for one game and bringing a lot of physicality and spoiling tactics.

Parra are definitely very bad, but they’re playing to avoid the spoon, so I don’t think they’ll just hand it to the Dragons.

It wouldn’t shock me if they lost both games.
 
Defence wins games said:
And this comes back to the coach.
There are times when Ponga is very frustrated at the knights. There just doesn’t seem to be any connection between Ponga and the leading half. Last night Ponga made a 50m break and every Knights player stopped dead, no one player backing him to carry the movement on. I don’t think the Knights have a plan to get Ponga into the game, it just happens sometimes if Ponga happens to get the ball, as sad and as ridiculous as that sounds.
Click to expand...
This has happened multiple times this year. He’ll make a long range break from a kick return and literally run past a bunch of knights players just standing there watching him. This shot, they’re literally standing there with hands on hips.

Does he blow up at them in video reviews, because I would. Where the hell are they? It doesn’t require skill to support him. Look at be Storm when a break is made.

I know we have an overall slow team but fmd the effort on the break last night was awful.

Really need some more speed in the spine. It’s a shame Phoenix isn’t at least quick because he’s probably the one who should be pushing up there. Efforts all he really has so he needs to use it in these cases.

The problem is the smartest half we’ve had is Hastings, he got the best out of Ponga last year but unfortunately he’s Jackson Hastings.

I agree with Gus, if KP isn’t going to get in there and demand the ball, we need a smart half who will tell him where to be and work to put him in good positions. Having said that the coaches should be helping them all with this.
 

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Roundtable said:
www.nine.com.au

Gould perplexed by Ponga tactic amid big warning

'Trying to look after their own position'
www.nine.com.au www.nine.com.au

Interesting article about our use of Ponga
Click to expand...
Just following on from Gould's Statement's and Newygirl's post above around Ponga's access to the ball/frustration...

I think the biggest frustration for Ponga this week (and it has been evident in past few weeks i've been focussing on it) is the poor service he seems to get from Brailey in particular. On the weekend. I saw at least half a dozen occasions where Brailey clearly (and intentionally?) ignored Ponga on the weekend and it is consistent with the past few weeks, since he has been advised they want to move him on.

I've actually developed a very clear sense that Brailey has completely cracked the $h!t$ and is basically doing what HE wants out on the field to try and make him look good as an option for another prospective contract next year, now that he has been tapped on the shoulder by O'Sullivan.

He has regularly ignored Ponga as said above to feed Crossland or Cogger when it was clear where the play was meant to go, or he's made several ineffective barge over attempts close to the line at the expense of structured attacking plays and there has been other subtle stuff throughout the game that I've noticed - in effect, he appears to have spat the dummy in regards to the coaching/playing instructions that the team is working to and is just trying to go it alone to beef up his stocks for securing a new contract next year.

The other thing that has clearly crept into Brailey's game is his lack of focus on service from dummy half....he has become very regularly 1/2 a second late on picking up the ball in the ruck because he's spending more time watching the opposition defensive line and is not actually watching the player play the ball. It has been really evident in this last 5-6 weeks that his focus on the basics has been sliding since he had the chat,

I get it and fully understand...but I think it is going to cost us at critical times in games over the next few weeks and potentially cost us any slim chance we have of cracking the top 8 this year
 
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