Round 2: TITANS vs WESTS TIGERS

[Tamwelg]

Not that anyone deserves point, but voting is open for round 2 http://www.leagueoftitans.com.au/poty.php

Voting will automatically open at the start of every match.

[Boonarga]

Ok, Bird & Bailey worked their butts off. Other than that, pfft.
Did anyone else see the Tigers forward doing pushups on the field while waiting to receive a kickoff following yet another try? This was late in the second half. Apparently he wasn't working up a sweat running through our pack.

[DIEHARD]

Not that anyone deserves point, but voting is open for round 2 http://www.leagueoftitans.com.au/poty.php

Voting will automatically open at the start of every match.

Votes. Spread them pretty thing this week.

[DIEHARD]

KG got one point from me for the zinc cream.

[DavidBouveng]

bird bailey and kelly kept trying too. shame everytime he looke dto his centre and wingers they were in his pocket or in front of him.

[DIEHARD]

Gold Coast Titans accused of giving up in woeful 42-12 NRL loss to Wests Tigers

GREG Bird could not feel his arm for a few minutes, but at least it diverted his attention away from the other pain.

The pain of the worst home defeat in club history, a 42-12 shellacking from a Wests Tigers outfit tagged as the wooden spoon favourites.

This was as low a moment as there has ever been for the Titans, who are desperate to win back fans but tossed up a display as ugly as they come.

It was an embarrassing defeat that featured woeful defence, disjointed attack and schoolboy handling errors in a performance that lacked any cohesion for all but 10 minutes.

Bird — who vowed on match eve to make the Robina stadium a house of pain for opposition teams this season — was assisted from the field clutching his left shoulder and needs scans today.

Hooker Beau Falloon tore the medial ligament in his knee and making matters even worse the club’s only fit back-up hooker Sam Irwin was injured playing for Tweed Heads.

“Oh, beauty,” John Cartwright deadpanned.

“It was a very average performance.

“I’m not surprised, disappointed more than anything. You certainly don’t train to do that and plan for it to happen, just things transpired today and that’s what we tossed up.

“I’m not going to sit here and make excuses, it was a bad display for the team and I can’t paint any other picture.”

With talented youngsters James Tedesco and Luke Brooks in complete control, the Tigers ran away with the win as Channel 9 commentators began to question if some Titans had hoisted the white flag.

Cartwright was adamant no player could be accused of tossing it in on a day like yesterday.

“That’s a tough call, I’m not going to subscribe to that,” he said.

“I’m in it with them and there’s no hiding from the fact it was really disappointing but I think in those conditions I won’t say anyone raised a white flag, we were poor and made a lot of errors and we suffered defensively because of it.”

The Titans had 25 missed tackles by halftime, more than double what the Tigers (12) produced in the entire game, and finished the day with 43 misses.

Errors ballooned to 18 and when Cartwright conducts his video review today it will be a horror show all will want to quickly forget.

“I do feel for the people who stayed to the end and watched it, it was ugly and we will deal with it tomorrow,’’ Cartwright said.

Bird said his teammates became individuals on the field, guilty of trying to become the hero as they drifted away from the game plan.

“It was frustrating, usually when we get behind on the board we get together and work our way out of it as a team,” Bird said.

“Everyone probably got a bit individual out there and everyone probably tried to do it on their own.

“We have to address everything we did wrong, we can’t just brush it off like it didn’t happen.

The fact Bird was talking like he would play in Canberra on Sunday was a positive.

It was about the only one.

WESTS TIGERS 42 (P Richards 2 L Brooks D Nofoaluma M Taupau J Tedesco B Thompson tries P Richards 7 goals) bt GOLD COAST 12 (A Kelly A Sezer tries A Sezer 2 goals) at Cbus Super Stadium. Referee: Gerard Sutton, David Munro. Crowd: 12,038.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/

[DIEHARD]

According to the Daily Telegraph, we have a new coach!



Obviously someone is employed under false pretences at News Ltd because that is the coach of the Tennessee Titans.

[DIEHARD]

So I was just looking for news, like I usually do and this is exactly what happened.....

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/SffX8iUlFJQ?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I was amused.

[DIEHARD]

Luke Brooks looked to Andrew Johns to nail down tackles then Titans

James Tedesco of the Tigers attempts to break free from the defence.William Zillman of the Titans in action during the round two NRL match.Titans fans show their support.William Zillman of the Titans breaks away from the defence.Martin Taupau of the Tigers attempts to break away from the defence.A young Tigers fan and his Dad show their colours.Keith Galloway of the Tigers takes on the defence during the round two NRL match.Greg Bird of the Titans screams in pain after injuring his shoulder.Sauaso Sue of the Tigers pushes through the defence.Robbie Farah of the Tigers prepares himself at kick off.David Taylor of the Titans attempts to break away from the defence.Martin Taupau of the Tigers is swamped by team mates as they celebrate his try.

His sizzling attack has been compared to that of Andrew Johns but Wests Tigers tyro Luke Brooks took inspiration from the Immortal’s defence as he prepared for Sunday’s breakout performance against Gold Coast.

Predictions the 19-year-old will be NSW’s next Origin halfback will only grow louder after he bossed the joint venture’s 42-12 win in searing heat at Cbus Super Stadium. Brooks was pummelled in a heavy loss to St George Illawarra last week, attracting criticism of his defence, and was shown replays of his missed tackles by coach Michael Potter.

"It’s awesome; I’m pinching myself every day": Luke Brooks.

‘‘I was shown bits and pieces and I knew I had to improve,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s really down to technique. You’ve just got to get your body in front of them.

‘‘I think I was better today. I look at Andrew Johns – he was a really good defender – and Cooper Cronk as well. I just had to work on it. My attack will follow if I get my defence right.’’

Brooks’s halves partner, veteran Braith Anasta, said of the teenager: ‘‘He’s just got it. You can see by watching him.’’

The schoolboy star set up fellow tyro James Tedesco’s seventh-minute try, was involved in several others then scored himself near full-time. Despite the plaudits being heaped on him, Brooks remains wide-eyed at being a regular first grader. ‘‘It’s awesome; I’m pinching myself every day,’’ he said. ‘‘We all get on well and there’s some young blokes here.’’

Skipper Robbie Farah said the youth of the Wests Tigers side did not make it difficult to restore confidence after the 44-24 loss to St George Illawarra last week.

‘‘It was more the older fellas, to be honest,’’ he said. ‘‘We let them down. Guys like myself and Braith, we didn’t take control of the game like we should have.’’

The victory eases the pressure on Potter but he wasn’t getting ahead of himself, knowing he has to ensure his players recover from the gruelling heat in time to take on South Sydney on Friday.

‘‘It’ll be all about recovery,’’ Potter said when asked about the week ahead. ‘‘That’s most important. We’ll do a little bit of stuff on the field to try and counter what they throw at us.’’

Tigers centre Chris Lawrence suffered a hamstring injury in the first half and will have scans on Monday. The crowd was told a collarbone injury to Titans co-captain Greg Bird was not serious but coach John Cartwright was not completely sure of the prognosis. ‘‘It’s an impact injury ... he’s a quick healer,’’ Cartwright said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/l...#ixzz2w8aNr37t

[C-Whiz]

As we all know it was woeful display from the Titans yesterday, but there are a couple of issues I want to raise about it, but I also want to make it clear I am not making any excuses for the teams disgraceful effort.

Firstly, I noticed Nate Myles was very ordinary, in attack and defence, and when the Tigers scored their first tries he was taking a knee in the shade by himself while the rest of the team was in a huddle. He shuffled off at about the 20 minute mark, not injured, just looked totally wrecked physically. So, I am wondering if he was suffering from a flu or some other sickness, and possibly this had gone through the team. Just putting it out there.

Secondly, and something we touched on after Alby's charges out of the line in the Sharks game, is that Birdy is now talking about people trying to be individuals and being "heroes" rather than playing the team structure.

So, again i ask the question about when/whether Alby should be just doing his own thing? Again, I am of the opinion that if talent sees an opportunity, talent should take it, but the first rule of team sport is to play to the teams game plan. Not that for 1 single minute am I suggesting Alby looking for solo brilliance and playing what he sees is a bad thing, nor am I suggesting that he is in any way responsible for the crap that was served up yesterday, but do you think Cartwright/Henry should be trying to structure more game plan around our exciting backs, and less around forwards making soft hit-ups and wasting tackles? The Titan hit-ups yesterday were SOFT!!!

Finally, does anyone else feel we have too many Chiefs and not enough Indians out there????

We have 2 co-captians, 1 vice captain, Bull Bailey who still seems to think he is still 25 years old and the original Captain, and he wants to try and take a quick tap every time we get a penalty. Let it go Bull, you are now a rotating prop off the bench. Then we have Alby making his own decisions on the fly, and as per yesterdays effort, no one had a clue what was actually going on.

Add to this 2 coaches, and you've got to start to ask yourself who is actually in charge, and who is actually responibile for the results???

The only structure we really played to was the Sezer kick to Flash in the corner on the 5th, and we were all waiting for it on the 3rd, so it's not like the Tigers weren't ready for it. They had 3 blockers closing Flash out on most kicks.

[Supergoose]

My mother said that if I don't have anything nice to say, say nothing at all. Screw that. This was pathetic. On a day when my cricket side chased down 283 to win a semi-final, I saw great character and then I came home and sat through this shambolic display of heartless plodding. I then watched the Tweed game which was far more entertaining and enterprising. Didn't think James was going all that well from what I saw and he still looked to be protecting his shoulder, but back to the Titans. I could not believe how disinterested they all were. Apart from Sezer, Bird, Douglas, Bailey and Carter the rest just did not want to be there - and apparently we're shopping Dave Taylor now too. I have no idea what goes on at our training sessions, but it can't be attention to detail and it can't be attacking structure because we have neither of both. This is the most pain I've felt as a supporter of the Titans. I'm not sure where we go from here, but getting James back in to start the game is a must. Myles needs to be either at Lock or come off the bench at best. Play Harrison on the right edge or not at all. Ridge needs more time in the heat of battle. Kelly needs to put his shoulder in and number up in defence - he was targeted yesterday and was woeful to say the least. He did spring to life a couple of times, but it can't hide how inept he was in defence. Zillman has to be at left centre or left right out.

There isn't any number of changes that can prevent the attitude deficiency that was evident against the Tigers. I can only hope that this was caused by some virus that swept through the team. The Raiders will rip us a new one if we don't address what happened today. They were killing the Cowboys in the first 20 minutes of round 1 and have ground out a win in Newcastle - I fear what Milford is going to do to us after their pack monsters us. The only reprieve may be that Papalii may not be there.

[Titan68]

Morning C-Whiz. Shouldn't the head coach take responsibility for results.

[C-Whiz]

Morning C-Whiz. Shouldn't the head coach take responsibility for results.

yes mate, absolutely he should certainly take some responsibility, at the end, the buck stops with him, but what about the players out on the field? They have to be held accountable too for what happened yesterday.

[psmitty]

On the Sunday Roast they interviewed John Cartwright and he mentioned that there focus in the offseason was defence and they hardly spent a lot of time on attack. Well it is good to see that the whole offseason was such a success and there defence yesterday was brilliant. Yesterday was disgraceful..... We need major changes in the playing and coaching roster.

[Titanic]

I would go further and suggest that the franchise needs to be thrown out and the whole thing started again. THe management is a fark up, Searle is a fark up, Cartwright is a fark up, the players are a fark up, junior development is a fark up and community engagement is a fark up. We have no Board and no credibility … the whole thing is a freakin' fark up.