Round 4: COWBOYS vs TITANS (2023)

[DIEHARD]

NRL 2023 | North Queensland Cowboys v Gold Coast Titans | Match Highlights
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[Appsy]

I want to give Moe some particular praise. 126 metres from 11 carries in that first half alone. finished with 19 and 198 metres, with 70 pcm. He has shown that sparkle that he's always had for the first time this season finally. If you do look at the stats though, the effort WAS there. It is just hard to try and find that bit of an extra push when arguably your two best players go down injured. I have faith in the squad, even if we are in for another long season, I am always going to keep my faith.

[Titanic]

Yes Mo earned his spot and responded to his critics who included me. As for Tannah, he’s streets in front of Sexton. It’s a pity no one else in the team can kick in general play which would help the team immensely. Has everyone forgotten that Boyd was pushed into hooker behind Taylor then behind Fogarty and Sexton. He is far from perfect but he’s the best we have right now but still a relative newbie. I thought we went pretty well except for Tamou schooling Mo, Schoupp’s tribute to Herbert and Boyd’s gift to Holmes. LKP continues to improve and he really has a set of wheels.

[Whats Doing]

There is some harsh comments on Tanah here Sure he had one Clanger but other than that, he played extremely well. We must remember that notwithstanding that he is 23, he has not had a lot of first grade at half. Whether he is the long term option time will tell and we need to give him time this year to improve as a half and prove he is the right one long term as Sexton certainly isn’t.

Special mention to Mo who had a blinder and played like the old Mo.

JC was very good at fullback and AKP despite some errors just can score tries that others cannot due to pure speed. Certainly need to resign him.

On the downside Vuna was poor and we were dominated down the middle when he was on. Again Lui was ineffective with only 63 metres and it was just not good enough particularly when leadership was needed when the troops were down. Also he gets turtled far too often in possession.

I would be moving Stimson to prop to stiffen up the middle and bring Klese on the right edge to give us more attack on this side of the field.

[MaroonTitan]

I thought Mo had his best half of footy in that first half for a long time. Unfortunately, he was completely gassed early in the second half and he unravelled a bit. With the injuries we had I'm reluctant to point the finger at Holbrook for that.

I thought Liu was too predictable with his catch and pass early and needed to run more to make that work.

JC is a godsend (pun intended).

Really happy for Lofi and despite calling for him to sit out before we had injuries, he's winning me over. Resign him please.

Vuna was disappointing but on last week's performance deserves another go before we think of Klese at second row and Stimson back in the middle.

We slipped back into our premeditated passing to guys in front of shooters yesterday, which i thought was behind us.

What do we do now with those injuries? JC at the back but is Sexton the stop gap on his last chance on the right and Boyd relinks with Fifita? Does Kini come onto the bench? Is Weaver the man yet?

We can beat the Dragons. We MUST beat the Dragons.

[Upthetits]

I guess the thing that still burns me is those 2 mistakes were at crucial times of the game that I personally think changed the outcome. If we score that to go infront then also complete the 2v1 from schoupp cows most likely do another 2nd half fade out.

I don't buy that he's young, I won't cop it. 23 isn't that young anymore and to not be able to understand we have an extra number, see that space with minimal players and knowing we have a full back line set out and then do what he did is inexcusable.

Being a half he should understand that we had defended for ages also, finally getting abit of ball and it was still early in the set as I think we got a set restart. Take the high percentage play.

Holbrook better spray him over that, he's an ex half back. ****ing coach the kid. It cannot happen again

Aaron schoupp 2v1 situation, I'm lost for words. Sit in him down make him watch the Herbert footage. With his footage. Honestly I thought they had coached that out of him, that is just not good enough at this level.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we are just a dumb football team. No footy IQ

We should be 3-1 going into a bye which would put us into top 4 with the bye points too. Again, points gone begging

[hungryjacks]

Don't know why people are calling boyd a nooby. Look at the other halves who are the same age him in the league and have played similar amount of games. For example Shaun o Sullivan is the same age as him, has the same limited talent but is leagues ahead of him in terms of current skill and control. Mo played fantastic especially in his second stint he looked like he really wanted to punch a hole through.

[Cowabunga]

I reacted a bit over the top on Tannah, he was fine yesterday and overplayed his hand due to the circumstances, I don't think he's the guy long term and that's why I call out a lot of it but like others said I don't think Toby is either so it's the best of what we have. The fact no one else is kicking in play for the team is pretty ridiculous and needs to be figured out, It can't all be on him. That right side isn't creative at all so that makes him stand out more compared to our good the left is.

On the other side that cut out might work if he's going at Shibaski and Feldt, Maybe not the best defensive centre in the world, It was a horrific pass though and was never really on. Randall was letting him down with service as well but what can you expect from a back up 9. I think Le

Moe just overreacted but he wasn't lazy at all so I can tolerate that, Was very impressed with him yesterday. Fifita is starting to look back to his best. Lofi was really good besides the errors which he should fix and Sami had a big rebound game, It sounds like Maumalo is going to spend a bit of time in Q cup potentially and isn't a certain in.

It was probably the most heart and best defence we've shown in the Holbrook era. There was some real fight in the team and we just kept going. Injuries are starting to become a big concern. We probably all knew AJ and Foran would get injured at some point, But in the same game with in 5 mins was insane hahaha. At the start of the season I didn't want the bye this round but now it couldn't be better timing.

Going to be interesting what we do with the injuries, Hopefully Leeming is on his way so we can chuck him into 14. I'd probably go JC at 6 and Kini at 1. I'd bring Haas in for a stint as to move Stimson back into the middle for his second one.

[DIEHARD]

I really credit Boyd's toughness, especially after what happened with him being targeted by the Storm.

Mo did play well. Was hard to leave him out of my Moejoe points. Keep it up.

[Just-a-Fan]

Hi all hey could someone please tell me when the rule changed about thearm carring the ball hit the ground isnt the the tackle complete????
I am talking about the lost ball that turned into a try to me is should of been a Penalty to us as he pass off the ground but I dont think it was even mention
sad loose great team spirit

[MaroonTitan]

Good point Just-a. I reckon we got the moral victory yesterday (like the Dolphins did). Up against it with injuries and didn't let it affect our effort. Some good things to take from the game.

And yeah, as Titans fans, we're used to some pretty weird rule interpretations but as far as I am aware, the ball carrying arm touching the ground while a defender effects the tackle (by placing a finger on the attacker) is a tackle.

[Boonarga]

Yeah, I was yelling at the telly. Passed after tackle. But there was no clear replay that showed the arm touching the ground.

[Hail Sezer]

HS, not being a smart **** here, genuinely interested in your opinion. You come across as having genuine footy iq and a great understanding of our local juniors.

Do you think Tanah has the ability (maybe not now, but in the future) to grow into a clutch NRL half. I realise Cleary is an exception and Hunt, DCE and Reynolds have years of experience on Tanah. Moses can also go missing in games as well.

Just curious if you think he is our best option going forward?

Sorry mate I missed this

Tough to say where Tanah can get to, and when you're looking specifically at halfbacks and not five-eighths, they have such different and unpredicatable development timelines. You can get by as a young player a lot easier being a 5/8 like Ezra Mam or Sullivan (Dragons) when all you have to do is support, tackle and basic ball-play. Tanah is in the unique position where that is flipped and he's the 7 so there's a pile of intangibles he's responsible for that aren't reflected in the stats or scoresheet. It's why I think instead of focusing on what the player might turn out to be, because it's impossible to predict, the focus is instead if they're best option right now, and whether you're seeing improvement in that player over the course of each season. Which I think Tanah is doing. We've got enough in other positions to make up for things he's still needing to improve in, and clearly he needs to improve defensively but you could say that about a heap of halves in the comp.

Going forward, I think in the short term he's worth persevering with until someone takes his jersey, or he plays himself out of it over a period of time. Of the three young halves on our roster, IMO Tom Weaver has the highest ceiling. But Tom needs to get his body physically ready for the rigours of NRL and improve defensively in Qcup.

Now without Foran there, it's a completely different story.

[Ausphin]

Sorry mate I missed this

Tough to say where Tanah can get to, and when you're looking specifically at halfbacks and not five-eighths, they have such different and unpredicatable development timelines. You can get by as a young player a lot easier being a 5/8 like Ezra Mam or Sullivan (Dragons) when all you have to do is support, tackle and basic ball-play. Tanah is in the unique position where that is flipped and he's the 7 so there's a pile of intangibles he's responsible for that aren't reflected in the stats or scoresheet. It's why I think instead of focusing on what the player might turn out to be, because it's impossible to predict, the focus is instead if they're best option right now, and whether you're seeing improvement in that player over the course of each season. Which I think Tanah is doing. We've got enough in other positions to make up for things he's still needing to improve in, and clearly he needs to improve defensively but you could say that about a heap of halves in the comp.

Going forward, I think in the short term he's worth persevering with until someone takes his jersey, or he plays himself out of it over a period of time. Of the three young halves on our roster, IMO Tom Weaver has the highest ceiling. But Tom needs to get his body physically ready for the rigours of NRL and improve defensively in Qcup.

Now without Foran there, it's a completely different story.

Awesome, thanks for the reply.

I’m not looking to replace Tanah at the moment, just was hopeful that he might have seized the opportunity to step up and take control on the weekend when Foran and AJ went off. Maybe, understandably, he went back into his shell after the intercept.

Thanks mate.

[5 Year Contract]

Injuries didnt help but it always comes back to the same thing: We are an extremely low IQ football team and have been for the better part of a decade now. This team just cannot make the right choice at crucial times and it continues to burn us in close games 9/10. I loved the fight on the weekend, we hung in there better than we would in years prior but as others have mentioned when the game was on the line it was 2 x low IQ plays that cost us momentum and ultimately the game.