NRL Round 3 - Knights Vs Warriors - 3:00pm Saturday, 21st March - McDonald Jones Stadium

Have had a few hours to stew on things.

A few notes

- I don't think we earned the right to ballplay and run shapes in our half, we lost the forward battle badly after the first 20 minutes, and instead of trying to get back into the wrestle, we tried to go around them, coughed up a lot of ball and gassed ourselves.

- Today was definitely not Dane's day, I thought he was poor in possession and killed a lot of attacks with selfish runs, his elbow to the face was a brain snap that killed our momentum and defensively he wasn't great either.

- Another half decent prop needs to appear from somewhere, whether it be a signing from elsewhere or someone in our ranks, Saf and Mooney can't do it alone and when they're off the field we can't go forward.

All in all not as bad as I thought it might end up, I don't think KP, Brown or Sharpe make the world of difference in that one aside from maybe icing a few plays. There's a good side in there and this one may be a necessary hiccup early in the season to bring some issues to our attention.
 
Wagyu Patty said:
Have had a few hours to stew on things.

A few notes

- I don't think we earned the right to ballplay and run shapes in our half, we lost the forward battle badly after the first 20 minutes, and instead of trying to get back into the wrestle, we tried to go around them, coughed up a lot of ball and gassed ourselves.

- Today was definitely not Dane's day, I thought he was poor in possession and killed a lot of attacks with selfish runs, his elbow to the face was a brain snap that killed our momentum and defensively he wasn't great either.

- Another half decent prop needs to appear from somewhere, whether it be a signing from elsewhere or someone in our ranks, Saf and Mooney can't do it alone and when they're off the field we can't go forward.

All in all not as bad as I thought it might end up, I don't think KP, Brown or Sharpe make the world of difference in that one aside from maybe icing a few plays. There's a good side in there and this one may be a necessary hiccup early in the season to bring some issues to our attention.
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Definitely need another prop or two, we get steam rolled when they are off
 
Another decent prop or two is a must if we want to get back to that 5th-8th range. And then if we want to actually be serious, one of the kids coming through needs to be one of the best middles in the game.

On “earning the right”, the difficulty is that we were playing against a team where State of Origin starter calibre middle Mitchell Barnett comes off their bench *and that may be what they do all season*, because Ford is going so well, Fish is the second best prop of the last ten years, and Clark compliments those two so well. Only middle I’ve seen them at all struggle to get a leash on this year is Naf Whyte, Tapine didn’t go much better against them than J Saf. So we kind of had to try some chancy stuff to get forward.
 
We had the same amount of tries scored against us as the roosters and raiders. Both wouldnt be considered bottom 4 teams and most would have them in the 8.

The last try shouldn't have been scored. The boys, especially frizz and gags need to work on their mindset. Probably a bit of PTSD from the last few seasons.

We should bounce back from that. We need a better set of bench forwards. Hopefully we get Niakura and one of the young ones or crouch etc step up.
 
Not sure how much better the score line would have been with 1, 2 or 3 of our injured playing as it is the forwards up front that we need first and foremost, yes score would have been better, closer, maybe a close win but our go forward is lacking, no quick fix just battle through.
With a full side we will win a good few games but our top 8 finish could be gone in the next 6 weeks.
We did cop a hiding by the Ref with huge count against us in the penalties, didn’t help.
 
They also got Niukore back yesterday who is a handy middle but they used in the back row. Looks like he might be coming to us next year. Would definitely be an upgrade on our middle/backrow stocks.
HarVeeGee13 said:
Another decent prop or two is a must if we want to get back to that 5th-8th range. And then if we want to actually be serious, one of the kids coming through needs to be one of the best middles in the game.

On “earning the right”, the difficulty is that we were playing against a team where State of Origin starter calibre middle Mitchell Barnett comes off their bench *and that may be what they do all season*, because Ford is going so well, Fish is the second best prop of the last ten years, and Clark compliments those two so well. Only middle I’ve seen them at all struggle to get a leash on this year is Naf Whyte, Tapine didn’t go much better against them than J Saf. So we kind of had to try some chancy stuff to get forward.
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Couldn't watch it live, watch 60 minutes of it this morning.

I thought we played pretty well considering the scoreline, but it was obvious we missed Ponga and Brown. You can't really say those players would have added 1-2 more tries and we still lose, as with them the entire game could have went differently. Psychological affect of missing them from the outset and all week could easily lead to a different team turning up. But they weren't there so the players need to make do.

I thought we competed for the 60 I watched. First half the ref was handing out 6 agains with glee. I wish they would just let the game flow through sets of 6 without freebies all the time. If we rewound the clock and those were penalties given, would the ref have ended the first half with something like a 14-2 penalty count or something? NRL wide 6 agains are handed out way too freely for what seems to be a knife edge of time in the ruck.

Warriors tries were all mainly the same up to the 60 minute mark, short balls and straight through. Very easy, and looked like we missed some talk from leaders out there, again KP missing, Hunt isn't going to come in to the team and be vocal with defensive position, JSAf isn't going to be either, Friz not likely he is fairly quiet. To me it looked like we lacked chat out there to get players in the right positions defensively.

Just wanted to add, and I haven't read through this game thread. But I think sadly, it's time to move on from Marz. He adds something to the team but what he takes away I feel outweighs his contribution. He is a liability under the high ball every time, and we can't afford that weakness at the end of every attacking set. He also has a loose ball carry in him and prone to a knock on. I like how he carries the ball mostly, just think we need to look at a better all around option.

Q> What are they doing to the upper stand in the AJ stand? Do we know how long it will be out of action for? I have foo fighters tickets up there later in the year.

I'm not concerned with that loss against a Warriors team that would fancy a top 4 spot. Down on key players, not getting the rub of the green.
 
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I think that’s it, we just missed Ponga and Brown’s voices out there as much as anything. And when things aren’t going well, Ponga might push one bad pass, but he doesn’t do it repeatedly these days. And Brown will just run the ball to get us back on track. So I think we probably score a few more and concede a few less with them there, and look a lot more composed.

But there’s no getting away from our pack being monstered … was our main problem coming into the season, and still is. Warriors will go a long way this year with their forwards.
 
Penrith can do them team wise, as a whole unit, just because To’o is incalculably better in yardage than every other winger (it goes beyond the raw metres, he’d be so exhausting to tackle). And IMO the Wahs centres are kind of mud whereas Penrith always get plenty out of theirs.

Just in isolation though, player for player, the Wahs pack is the best in the game right now. Jackson Ford and James Fisher Harris are better than Lindsay Smith and Moses Leota. A fair bit better.

And yeah Dylan being an extra guy who’ll just run the ball 10-12 times per game and actually win quick play the balls, that’s a real thing too. It’s absolutely a part of why Penrith and Melbourne are so consistent, that guys like Cleary, Hughes, Munster, Grant all contribute to go forward. Watch a Storm “all tries” video and they score heaps each year which are one of their spine players running it, half break, quick play the ball, followed by Hughes or Grant getting the ball and just barging over. Good stuff PVL.

Even in Brown’s “quiet” first game, a lot of the roll on we got, he was playing a big part in establishing it with a play 2 or 3 run.
 
Seeing us literally match them until the penalties became stupid and our forwards gassed out, I don’t see the Wahs touching the grand final this year at all.

Everyone looks like world betters with the ref blowing the whistle like his life depended on it.

I’ll wait and see
 
I thought that was an extremely disappointing performance yesterday. Ball handling and discipline atrocious, hopefully something we can fix up because to win games without KP and Brown we need that to be spotless. I’m also pretty concerned about Sandon Smiths’s defence, so many tries and breaks are conceded either side of him, seems like something he’ll really have to work on and fast.
 
Time to move on to the dogs. They have a more mobile and lighter pack, so we might have a better time getting field position if we find a way to get around them and their rushing defense. They also have a problem scoring pts, so with Sharpe back, I actually think we have a better chance next week than we did yesterday.
 
Kurriboy said:
Amazing how that problem seems to have moved from us to them.

Fingers crossed Sharp is back next week for some added strike.
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With limited data, so far at least, that's kinda what it looks like huh. It looks like if AOB had just become their attacking coach, struggling to score more than 2-3 tries p/g is kinda what youd expect to see.

But hey, its 3 rounds in, perhaps they'll debunk that in the 4th round and thereafter
 
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