Round 2: STORM vs TITANS

[DavidBouveng]

just remember hoffman was one of the games best wingers.... maybe he can try that again

id settle for some tackles. he has proven to be almost as much as waste of cash as Zillman. I had really high hopes for him too. i wonder if he will get picked up anywhere after us? i cant imagine he would.

[Supergoose]

Hoffman and a rusty Luke Douglas were the reasons we got behind on the scoreboard. Mortimer compounded that when he came on. Shillington was stripped by Cameron Smith early on leading to the first try. Other than that we were very decent and didn't deserve that scoreline, most of which can be attributed to Hoffman. If we can move him at least to left wing that should repair that left edge somewhat. I'm still hopeful we will finish higher than 13th.

[titanfan1980]

i agree Pete - dougie looked far off the pace tonight. he made some big runs in last few minutes but damage was done. first game of the year from him, so maybe he was not quite match ready. ill let it slide for now

across the first two weeks... Ryan james has been our most consistent prop. he played most minutes out of the props last week and made tonnes of tackles and hit ups, and this week he seemed to be the one most likely in both of his stints. He also has our quickest play the ball and makes the next forward look good. Paasi was a freak last week, and maybe needs to start?

Mead was out of position a couple of places tonight, but Zillman is most weeks, and Mead was still safe under the high ball - he just looks uncomfortable when he runs his sweeping lines and is trying to pass.

Ash is looking slightly better each week, and i think tyrone and him will develop into a good pairing. early on, the long high kicks was keeping melbourne pinned and starting their set from on their 10 metre line.

It was errors from Shillo and Dougie that started the rot and storm punished us to the full 6 points for most of the errors we made. shillo had shades of Myles in him tonght, but also made some sdtrong runs in there as well.

Hoffman was a shambles in defense tonight. Ash taylor showed more gumption stopping blokes.

Davis is holding his own. would have preferred olive on wing and nene in centres, but Davis has put in and played strong, making it hard for henry to drop him.

against a clinical storm - might also have preferred to have the experienced pettybourne in the side and let Pulu drop out ( someone correct me if petty was injured i just saw the omission and it didnt say any injury).

overall i think we are a young side who wont get smashed in the forward as often as we did before, and we have some good young halves improving as a pair, but it will take a while to get the consistency over 80 minutes as a team to match good sides. while we are going from competing for 40 minutes, to 50 to 60 to 80, which will take a year or more, hopefully a couple of guys drop out of the side and others come into the team.

- - - Updated - - -



I think Ryan james lifted, and not just the hit and try, he was full of action all game.

But i love Paasi too. He is the cult hero for sure, but James performance seems to be going under the radar and is travelling really well.

I must be seeing what you are, last week 2 of his quick play the balls lead to 2 try's and against Melbourne had the most hit up and and the only forward to run for 100 plus meters!! Talk about not giving up smashes Munster at the end re gathers the ball and scores.. And the thing I'm happiest with is his penalties but this year he hasn't given away one so he must have worked on it.

[DavidBouveng]

I must be seeing what you are, last week 2 of his quick play the balls lead to 2 try's and against Melbourne had the most hit up and and the only forward to run for 100 plus meters!! Talk about not giving up smashes Munster at the end re gathers the ball and scores.. And the thing I'm happiest with is his penalties but this year he hasn't given away one so he must have worked on it.

yep most metres, minutes, zero errors and penalties... but thats only in our version of the match we watched. there is an alternate match out there confusing people.

[shamus]

I said some time ago (Auckland 9's thread I think) that Ashley Taylor wasn't ready for NRL. I was wrong...

......also I can't believe no one has mentioned Mortimers grubber through for McQueen on the 1st tackle in the middle of the field! LOL.. even McQueen wasn't aware of it! Admittedly the game was already lost but handing back possession after 1 tackle

[DIEHARD]

Match highlights: v Storm
<script height="349px" width="620px" src="http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#pbid=fd5fc71d2bcc4b60a622cf8d3348d605&ec =xmZHR5MTE6b6reZuqWfmj1Y4Zrj3waP-"></script>

[DIEHARD]

Media conference: v Storm
<script height="349px" width="620px" src="http://player.ooyala.com/iframe.js#ec=5ianR5MTE6eMQIPw3iE1TjLqzW7No7_R&pbid =fd5fc71d2bcc4b60a622cf8d3348d605"></script>

[JunctionBlock]

Did Henry just throw Ash Taylor under the bus as using him as the example of an inexperienced team? I think it was mentioned during the game, our kicking game was good, our kick chase was non-existent.

Friend putting his hand up for Melbourne's try after the 40-20 but the whole team seems confused as to whether they are coming hard up off the line or hanging back. I think the inexperience is in the team as a team itself. SO many changes from last season it's a brand new team. It comes back to lack of communication across the team and I would have thought that was Henry's job. Anyway, hopefully we can sort it out a bit better for next week or the only positive I can see is that Tedesco is my FB in Fantasy NRL.

[Show and Go]

My take on the game was that we matched them up forward but once they shifted wide it was all over. Plus they were getting quick play the balls and we rarely did. I thought bringing Paasi off the bench was a mistake. Why change something that worked? Hoffman is terrible defensively. Chambers gave him a hiding out there last night. The halves did pretty well but need to get a bit creative with their kicking game. Another big difference between the 2 sides was pressure on the kicker. It seemed like Roberts and Taylor had no time to kick. As others have said the kick chase was poor also.

[DavidBouveng]

I said some time ago (Auckland 9's thread I think) that Ashley Taylor wasn't ready for NRL. I was wrong...

......also I can't believe no one has mentioned Mortimers grubber through for McQueen on the 1st tackle in the middle of the field! LOL.. even McQueen wasn't aware of it! Admittedly the game was already lost but handing back possession after 1 tackle

ha i messaged teke or Hs about it at the time. funny thing is, i actually rewound foxtel to check who the hell it was saying out loud to wife ' who would grubber like that on the handover - seriously!'....get back and see mortimer who i had forgotten was on and immediately it made sense.

so funny.

and Ash is coming along nicely. good kicking, nice short kicking, is holding his own in defense and doesnt mind getting stuck in. pleasantly surprised by his physicality

- - - Updated - - -

My take on the game was that we matched them up forward but once they shifted wide it was all over. Plus they were getting quick play the balls and we rarely did. I thought bringing Paasi off the bench was a mistake. Why change something that worked? Hoffman is terrible defensively. Chambers gave him a hiding out there last night. The halves did pretty well but need to get a bit creative with their kicking game. Another big difference between the 2 sides was pressure on the kicker. It seemed like Roberts and Taylor had no time to kick. As others have said the kick chase was poor also.

i agree with you about benching Paasi being a mistake - however we played our best before he came on last night. i think that maybe no matter if he or james started that Shillo and someones else error would have cost us.

[titanfan1980]

ha i messaged teke or Hs about it at the time. funny thing is, i actually rewound foxtel to check who the hell it was saying out loud to wife ' who would grubber like that on the handover - seriously!'....get back and see mortimer who i had forgotten was on and immediately it made sense.

so funny.

and Ash is coming along nicely. good kicking, nice short kicking, is holding his own in defense and doesnt mind getting stuck in. pleasantly surprised by his physicality

- - - Updated - - -



i agree with you about benching Paasi being a mistake - however we played our best before he came on last night. i think that maybe no matter if he or james started that Shillo and someones else error would have cost us.

I think ash should kick every ball!! He puts it so close to the try line and can actually get repeat sets.. Tyrone just puts up bombs.. Anyone ever think how bad Newcastle are going and think they still didn't want him.. Good news is Kane just resigned as I mentioned earlier I was confident he wouldn't can see ash and Kane being the future.. And I know everyone is high on passi.. But I think the more games the better he will b.. He's not as good in defense as we need him to be yet... Tbh I'd start him and James.. Take passi off after 25 bring on shillington then swap James for Douglas at 30...

[JunctionBlock]

Would it be conceivable that perhaps Mortimer thought that he was still playing in the Nines and thought he had a "free shot" or whatever they called it after an infringement, cause if he seriously thought that was the smart play then how can they justify his inclusion in our team?

[ozynorts]

We lost the game but on the bright side we are higher on the ladder than Manly......

[DavidBouveng]

We lost the game but on the bright side we are higher on the ladder than Manly......

i had a peek on their forum and there is MYLES of dissapointment. he is very high on the **** list.

[Nols of the Goldy]

I also went onto the Manly forum They sure are giving it to Myles and their million dollar star player I would take Elgey and Taylor and even Roberts over giraffe neck any day. He isn't worth the dollars, thats for sure. Nate plodded along tonight as we all knew he would. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside seeing them all imploding.