Round 20: TITANS vs RAIDERS (2022)

[Titanic]

oh dear god no.

I’m horrified, I thought you’d relish the opportunity to create another voodoo doll :-)

[MaroonTitan]

A few observations from the 40m line yesterday:
- Booth played less than a half of footy. Any ideas why?
- We then had both Boyd and Clarke at 9. Why?
- The second rowers switched back to their preferred sides at half time. What was that switch beforehand all about?
- JC has errors when he tries to make things happen but eventually, he makes it happen. Too good not to start.
- Herby's stats were better than Herby looked. Would Marzhew have run 180m in that game?
- Our downtowns were terrible. Not a decent one all game. Not nearly enough hangtime on our kicks and our chase is poor.
- Would Alick give us a nice bit of youthful enthusiasm off the bench?
- BK looked ok but what about next week and the week after? Why switch a left edge that seemed to be working?
- Toby is a defensive liability. Even opposition wingers are taking advantage of him at A defender.
- Is our coach second guessing himself?

[Hail Sezer]

A few observations from the 40m line yesterday:
- Toby is a defensive liability. Even opposition wingers are taking advantage of him at A defender.

This is very true and IMO part of the reason our right edge is constantly getting pummelled. He's so slow to move across and cover space at 3 or 4 man that the rest of the edge is late to move, moving backwards, or already beaten and the centre/winger has to diagnose early and try to shut it down. Either the system needs to change or they need a backrower + centre who's going to compensate but that shouldn't really be necessary.

Good post MaroonTitan and I think all your observations raise some good questions

[MaroonTitan]

Thanks HS. You're a well respected 'Voice of Reason' on here, so it's reassuring that I'm not just 'seeing things'. You don't have to be crazy to be a Titans fan but it helps.

One of the most underrated traits of modern halves, is their communication skill in D. If the half has the respect of the team, he can marshal his edge in D. If he's not, the fullback has to do it all. I think our talk in D has let us down all year. A lot of our edge issues are coming from inside out but the edges get the blame. I've always thought it's up to the halves to get their numbers right and keep talking to their insides and outsides to keep it tight. It's a part of Toby's game I'd love to see him develop.

Hopefully Foran will bring that and to start the year defending well, maybe AJ is our only other talker in D, who could play 6. I'd prefer to see AJ in the centres to start 2023 but if our halves aren't talking, changing centres won't be the silver bullet. Maybe Tannah's talk in D is ok?

[JunctionBlock]

Had to watch a replay as I was at a wedding Saturday. We didn't look as bad as we have. We tended to force a few things that caused issues and in turn let points in. Fermor combining with JC was great to see. Defence is what is killing us and like the rest of you I can't work out why our outside backs are being played where they are or why they are being chosen in the first place.

I shuddered when Holbrook said "Foran can't get here fast enough" I hope we aren't pinning our hopes on him. Scary thought

[Whats Doing]

Agree with HS and MaroonT on the defensive frailities of Sexton. One thing you cannot coach is speed which is a critical criteria for a half and that is why IMO he has such a low ceiling.

He will always get exposed for pace where there is room to move and the attacker has speed and footwork which is often the case out wide. Also if the centre decides to jam in, the half is required to cover his space and if he doesnt have the pace, he will be brutally exposed.

In attack, defenders are laying off him and picking off the support players knowing that if they make a mistake, his slow pace is very easliy covered from the inside defenders.

He would be much slower than Fogerty who was no speed merchant himself and I just dont understand why, although I have no problems in signing him for depth, we would sign him on huge money (23/24) when the physical deficiencies were obvious but the titans are known for paying overs and we fail to learn from our mistakes.