The RUN-HOME 2010

[karnage]

I started this very same thread at this time last year. Origin is over and now every team, with the exception of St George and Brisbane who have the bye this coming week, has 9 games left before either a finals campaign or a 'Mad Monday' celebration.

I am going to keep this thread running each week with the obvious focus on the Titans and how certain games each week will benefit / hinder our drive toward a home final.

Here is the ladder after Rd. 17, assuming that the Dragons get the better of the Panthers tonight (I think they will...):
Dragons - 28
Panthers - 24
Tigers - 22
Titans - 22
Rabbits - 20
Manly - 20
Roosters - 20
Warriors - 20
____________________________________________

Broncos - 18
Eels - 16
Knights - 16
Dogs - 14
Raiders - 14
Sharks - 14
Cowboys - 12
Storm - 0 (in reality 22)

Almost every year 28 points is the number required to play finals footy but with the Storm debacle it basically means that there is a Top 9 this year so it could be as low as 26. However, with our woeful for and against that is all academic. We should really be looking to win 6 of our last 9 and securing 34 points and a home final.

Here is our run home:
18 - Wests (Campbelltown)
19 - Brisbane
20 - Dragons (WIN Jubilee)
21 - Warriors (NZ)
22 - Eels
23 - Cowboys
24 - Roosters (SFS)
25 - Sharks (Toyota)
26 - Wests

Can we win 6 of those??? That is the $64,000 question. The only game that is an absolute no-hoper is the Rd. 20 visit to Kogarah but there are no gimmes in there either and if we play the way we have for our last 3 halves of football (2nd half v Dogs and then Knights) we won't even make the top 8.

With 9 rounds to go I think it is fair to say that 4 teams are Gooooone...
The Raiders, Sharks, Cowboys and Storm are all gone and any team (including us) that gets them in the run home have to get the 2 points against them.

Obviously the Storm are a massive wildcard in that pack and we should be super thankful that we have seen the last of them for 2010. In essence they are playing for us over the last 2 months becasue they play almost all of our main rivals and any games they win will be a bonus for us.

We get the Cowboys in Rd. 23 (home) and the Sharks in Rd. 25 (away). These 4 points are absolute musts because if there seasons aren't over now they definitely will be by the time we get to them.

Anyway, there is plenty of water to flow under this bridge between now and September and I look forward to plenty of great discussion as our drive to a home final (gotta keep it optimistic ) gains momentum in the next 2 months.

[karnage]

Here is the Storm's run home. Teams currently in the 8 are in bold:

Dogs
Warriors
Panthers
Raiders
Manly
Rabbits
Sharks
Tigers
Knights

They will give us a HUGE shot in the arm if they win all 5 of those - the other 4 are completely irrelevant. Well, the Dogs game isn't, they will still be in finals contention if they win that one...

[titansrawesome]

i think if we play to our best potential we can win all of those except the dragons one(we unfortunately have to face it)

[TITAN PETE]

i think if we play to our best potential we can win all of those except the dragons one(we unfortunately have to face it)

Fark that no team is unbeatable , if we can win the teams confidence will go through the roof & thats exactly what is needed as we head towards the finals, if Carty has the same thoughts as u guys he will run the under 20's on & rest the guns..i don't think so

[Ryan]

Fark that no team is unbeatable , if we can win the teams confidence will go through the roof & thats exactly what is needed as we head towards the finals......

Exactly, what sort of attitude expects your team to lose any game?
It wasn't that long ago that Melbourne were unbeatable at "The Graveyard", Bellemy was the best coach ever and the Storm were full of undefendable players. I still tipped my team to win that game and we did.
Same thing with the Dragons, great team, great coach and tough home game - but unbeatable? - FARK NO!

Time for the boys to turn it up and cut the crap. If our forward pack and backs can both pull it together for 80min - we can put away any team at any venue.

[titansrawesome]

Exactly, what sort of attitude expects your team to lose any game?
It wasn't that long ago that Melbourne were unbeatable at "The Graveyard", Bellemy was the best coach ever and the Storm were full of undefendable players. I still tipped my team to win that game and we did.
Same thing with the Dragons, great team, great coach and tough home game - but unbeatable? - FARK NO!

Time for the boys to turn it up and cut the crap. If our forward pack and backs can both pull it together for 80min - we can put away any team at any venue.

actually i have tipped the titans every week, including the skilled park games against the storm and dragons and the brookie game, but now the dragons have even more depth with gasnier and we have a horrible record against the drags especially at their home ground, i hope i'm wrong but they are the pacesetters.

[karnage]

If we all agreed that the Titans were going to win every week there wouldn't be much point discussing anything to do with any games though would there boys??

"Exactly, what sort of attitude expects your team to lose any game?"
Just being realistic mate. I am sitting here three weeks out from that game trying to see how the Titans can win 6 from their last 9 to make the top 4. If you think we will win all 9 you are kidding yourself. The Titans have shown absolutely nothing in the last month to suggest that they can get anywhere near the Dragons at Kogarah. That is a fact of life, and realising it does not make somebody any less of a fan or a supporter.

"Time for the boys to turn it up and cut the crap. If our forward pack and backs can both pull it together for 80min - we can put away any team at any venue."
Tell me the last tme you think they did that. I can assure you it WAS NOT in 2010.

"if Carty has the same thoughts as u guys he will run the under 20's on & rest the guns.."
Not exactly sure what the point of this comment is. No one with a rational thought in their brain would expect a highly paid, proffessional career coach to be thinking the same things as the fans.

I put a pretty detailed post up there about something other than an upcoming match, a preferred line-up or a newspaper article and all forum members want to do is bag me for even suggesting that we won't beat a team that has all but sewn the minor premiership up. If the quality of this forum has deteriorated to a point where all anyone wants to read is 'Go Titans' then this whole exercise is going to be a complete waste of time.

[titansrawesome]

If we all agreed that the Titans were going to win every week there wouldn't be much point discussing anything to do with any games though would there boys??

"Exactly, what sort of attitude expects your team to lose any game?"
Just being realistic mate. I am sitting here three weeks out from that game trying to see how the Titans can win 6 from their last 9 to make the top 4. If you think we will win all 9 you are kidding yourself. The Titans have shown absolutely nothing in the last month to suggest that they can get anywhere near the Dragons at Kogarah. That is a fact of life, and realising it does not make somebody any less of a fan or a supporter.

"Time for the boys to turn it up and cut the crap. If our forward pack and backs can both pull it together for 80min - we can put away any team at any venue."
Tell me the last tme you think they did that. I can assure you it WAS NOT in 2010.

"if Carty has the same thoughts as u guys he will run the under 20's on & rest the guns.."
Not exactly sure what the point of this comment is. No one with a rational thought in their brain would expect a highly paid, proffessional career coach to be thinking the same things as the fans.

I put a pretty detailed post up there about something other than an upcoming match, a preferred line-up or a newspaper article and all forum members want to do is bag me for even suggesting that we won't beat a team that has all but sewn the minor premiership up. If the quality of this forum has deteriorated to a point where all anyone wants to read is 'Go Titans' then this whole exercise is going to be a complete waste of time.

whatta gonna do

[karnage]

Well... got one thing wrong - the Panthers just rolled the Dragons which sets both of those teams up as basically top 4 certainties:

Dragons - 28 (with a bye in hand)
Panthers - 26
Wests and Titans - 22
3rd through 8th - 20

Panthers and Saints really have cleared out and the minor premiership might not be such a fait accompli for the Dragons now...

That really is not a good result for us tonight. We probably would have been better served with the Dragons winning and leaving the Panthers closer to the chasing pack

[Ryan]

I put a pretty detailed post up there about something other than an upcoming match, a preferred line-up or a newspaper article and all forum members want to do is bag me for even suggesting that we won't beat a team that has all but sewn the minor premiership up. If the quality of this forum has deteriorated to a point where all anyone wants to read is 'Go Titans' then this whole exercise is going to be a complete waste of time.

Harden-up sponge cake
If you can't handle people disagreeing or even bagging your opinion, then a public forum probably aint the best place to express yourself...
For the record, I thought it was a good post overall.
All but sewn up? They are only two wins ahead of us, and tied for the top spot on the ladder with nine games still to go......

If we all agreed that the Titans were going to win every week there wouldn't be much point discussing anything to do with any games though would there boys??
Just being realistic mate. I am sitting here three weeks out from that game trying to see how the Titans can win 6 from their last 9 to make the top 4. If you think we will win all 9 you are kidding yourself. The Titans have shown absolutely nothing in the last month to suggest that they can get anywhere near the Dragons at Kogarah. That is a fact of life, and realising it does not make somebody any less of a fan or a supporter.

I got no problem conceding we will not win all nine remaining games, possible - yes, realistic - probably not. But writing off any particular game as an "absolute no-hoper" 3 weeks before it's kickoff is ridiculous, especially in this competition.

"Time for the boys to turn it up and cut the crap. If our forward pack and backs can both pull it together for 80min - we can put away any team at any venue."
Tell me the last tme you think they did that. I can assure you it WAS NOT in 2010.

Tell me one team who boasts about already playing at 100% at this stage of the season. Titans have barely 'turned it up' for 80min in 2010, considering they have not played their best but still been in top 4 all season - I'd say things are looking pretty good. Our forward pack have shown they have it against any other pack, and our backs have shown plenty of brillance in patches too.
Like I said - If they can all pull it together for 80mins, they can beat any full strength team at any venue. And heading into the finals, now is the time to start getting serious.

[titansrawesome]

and our backs have shown plenty of brillance in patches too.

but you must admit they dont have the space they had in 09?

[Supergoose]

I think that's crap. They have plenty of space but through a lack of who knows what they aren't converting awesome field position into points. It will come, let's hope it's this week against the tigers. I read in an article that we'll just scrape into the eight this season. I really hope we make that journo eat his words and finish strong into a nice 3rd or 4th.

[titansrawesome]

I think that's crap. They have plenty of space but through a lack of who knows what they aren't converting awesome field position into points. It will come, let's hope it's this week against the tigers. I read in an article that we'll just scrape into the eight this season. I really hope we make that journo eat his words and finish strong into a nice 3rd or 4th.

its not crap, how many times this season have we passed it on the 3rd to mead/gordan and they race away? not much, last year we did that about 4-5 times maybe more, we are this lucky to do it once a game.

[karnage]

If you look at the table you can see why journo's and bookies give us very little hope of winning the comp. We are sitting 3rd on the table but most bookies have us at around $17 to win the comp.

That table I put up the other day is wrong BTW. Should look like this:

Dragons - 26 (with a bye in hand)
Panthers - 26
Wests and Titans - 22
3rd through 8th - 20

The Broncos in 9th have a bye this week so they go to 20 points for sure. It means we are 4 off the top but also 4 off being outside of the top 8. If we lose to the Broncos and Tigers in the next 2 weeks Brisbane go to 22 and we drop as low as 9th and would have a horrendous for and against.

The importance of this Friday's game really can't be undersold. It is a genuine 4-point game.

[karnage]

If we click I think we are very well placed to secure a home final - if we serve up the same rubbish we have showed in our last 2 games for the next couple of weeks we will struggle to make the 8 at all.

Just praying that it will all come together sooner rather than later.