Finals Week 2: Parramatta Eels vs Gold Coast Titans

[gotitans101]

I'd love to see Walker and Rogers in the centres but I seriously don't know whether Carty will just 'ditch' Atkins after only putting him in a month ago. He hasn't done TOO badly I don't think, his first game was a bit wonky but he's been pretty good the past week or two defensively imo.

[DIEHARD]

Zillman and Delaney trained strongly this arvo.

[gotitans101]

Hmmmm Delaney....adds more confusion to our team list this week. I am confident Zilly will come straight back into fullback though.

[Steve]

Atkins goes alright, I don't mind him at all.
Walker was on fire on saturday night though, and we're at our strongest with Zillman at the back, Presto in the halves and Rogers in the centres.

With Delaney coming back from injury, there's another headache.

Once more it's a headache I'm happy to have, and with both Walker and Delaney leaving at the end of the year, our stocks will be a bit thinner.

[patskE]

yeh cant see zillman not being the nod, maybe bench?
but hmm a centre who link's with his winger, or a solid centre who can tackle
hard one

[Rage]

I wouldn't want to mess with the Walker and Mead combination that they've got going on.

I think Carty might put Rogers back to centre and Delaney on the bench at the expense of Tagatease or Graham if he's injured.

[Rage]

yeh cant see zillman not being the nod, maybe bench?
but hmm a centre who link's with his winger, or a solid centre who can tackle
hard one

It is a hard one. On the one hand, we might not have scored so many points if Delaney was playing instead of Walker against the Broncos but on the other hand, Delaney's defence could have prevented some of the Bronco's tries as well

[patskE]

well half of their trys came of intercepts :P

[jimbeam06]

Cmon titans we didnt finish 3rd for nothing lets lift for this one. We played at our best in the 2nd half on saturday night lets play like that from the start of the game till the end. I for one dont want to go out in straight sets.

[TITAN PETE]

It is a hard one. On the one hand, we might not have scored so many points if Delaney was playing instead of Walker against the Broncos but on the other hand, Delaney's defence could have prevented some of the Bronco's tries as well

Agree with that but he would have to replace Walker his defence is average & Atkins is far more solid, so it depends if Carty wants to stop trys or score them

[DINGb@T]

The more I think about it the more I reckon this game could be exactly what we need to win the comp.

The week off isn't necessarily a good thing. Teams often come off the rest period a bit underdone while the team who played the week before hits the semis with momentum. The Eels didn't exactly thrill- the Dragons were their own worst enemy squandering chances (especially that kicking game during the first twenty minutes ) and just generally being unable to score points. It took 2 tries against the run of play and an intercept try to finish off the Dragons, none of which came from well built plays, they just capitalised on opportunities while the Dragons were completely unable to turn build-up into points.

I'm happy to report that we dont have that problem. In fact, if the Eels play the way they did on the weekend, and our boys, unlike the Dragons, can get some points and momentum early then we could walk all over the 8th place qualifiers. From there it will be on to the Bulldogs who, again, aren't the highest scoring team in the world, especially with Kimmorley out (listened to the game on the radio on the way home. Was it really as bad as the commentators were making out?). If the 'Dogs lose even the slightest edge after the break and we come storming out of the prelims with an emphatic win over the Eels those odds of $31 will start to look completely absurd.

Can you imagine the Sydney paper headlines? 'Titans into the finals! This shouldn't happen! Where were they?! Were they even UNDER the radar?!?!'

[DINGb@T]

That and I think our young fellas will be a lot better off now they've worked the 'first finals' jitters out of their system. It's probably no surprise that they played their best footy in the second half AFTER 40 mins of settling into the pressure and crowd noise. I'm particularly thinking about a certain dropped bomb...

[Rage]

Agreed, the experience for the team as a whole after the first ever finals game will be good for them. Add that to the confidence they'll have gained from the second half and the return of Zillman and the like, I'm sure the boys can come home with the win even if no one else gives them a chance

[numba7]

This will be a big task but i think if we can shut down hayne, and mortimer we are in with a great chance of racking up a big score!

Will be hard though.

[karnage]

This will be a big task but i think if we can shut down hayne, and mortimer we are in with a great chance of racking up a big score!

Will be hard though.

We only need to score 1 more point than they do. 3-2 (our way ofcourse) would do me just fine!!