Round 6: TITANS vs DRAGONS (2023)

[Appsy]

Absolutely pumped we won that game! As always, have so much to work on, but winning feels so damn good. Sexton take your bow mate. And massive open arms to Leemings! Thought he really stood his ground and showed his good darts from dummy with the time he was given. Sami had his career best game in my opinion as well.

[RavShamrock]

13 - 4 against penalty count makes it an even better win and there is no way in the world they were 3 x more disciplined than us.
Once again biased IMO and on home turf...enough is enough how about a fair go wankers

[Titanic]

Had to watch a replay due to work commitments and what a game for the ages. Read all your comments and want to add that the turning point for me was when Hunt took that clearly offside intercept: in previous years they would have scored in that next set.

A cracking win: welcome Kruise Leeming (didn’t look out of place at all), welcome back Toby Sexton (I’m just tucking into a huge slice of humble pie) and who was that fleet-footed try-scoring machine (from the eastern stand: he’s everywhere, he’s everywhere, Philip Sami’s everywhere, meanwhile from the western stand: he’s everywhere, he’s everywhere, Jayden Campbell’s everywhere).

Yes there were errors but in fairness the whole team won a lot fans today. Now I’m going back to my pie, which unlike revenge is best served hot.

[Cowabunga]

Another thing I noticed and we talk about it here often, When the little skirmish went down there's not one Titan standlng by, Moe and Fifita are straight in after Clark. Everyone is backing up the boys and ready to go, They weren't the ones seperating it...

We need to create some fear or at least not let teams bully us... It was a beautiful sight.

[shamus]

Another thing I noticed and we talk about it here often, When the little skirmish went down there's not one Titan standlng by, Moe and Fifita are straight in after Clark. Everyone is backing up the boys and ready to go, They weren't the ones seperating it...

We need to create some fear or at least not let teams bully us... It was a beautiful sight.

What he said…..��

[indoallstars]

Another thing I noticed and we talk about it here often, When the little skirmish went down there's not one Titan standlng by, Moe and Fifita are straight in after Clark. Everyone is backing up the boys and ready to go, They weren't the ones seperating it...

We need to create some fear or at least not let teams bully us... It was a beautiful sight.

100% agree this is the mongrel we needed! Good on Tino and Clarke, and Fifita. It actually reminded me of a turning point of the baby Panthers a few years ago not backing down to the bullies. Great to see!

[gotitans101_]

I can't stop watching that Sexton try. The obvious play was to just hand it off to Fifi but he fooled us all lol. I gotta give it to him though, kid played well apart from a missed tackle that led to a try earlier in the game (and it's good that he acknowledged it in the post-game interview they did with him on Fox).

That win felt so good though, and I feel like overall our goal line defence has definitely improved...although that Rava try still feels so deflating. It shouldn't have happened. Both Lofi & Campbell were right there to make the tackle yet Rava just strolled straight past both of them.

[Hail Sezer]

What a win! Getting the W at home with a spine of Chris Randall, Tanah Boyd, Toby Sexton and JC with Kruise "still jetlagged" Leeming off the bench. Who would've thought.

Just an epic storyline...the resilience, the defensive display, the effort, the redemption arc of Sexton scoring that try from running the ball and letting the D drift onto Fifi and taking on that poor inside pressure. Still buzzing.

Phil Sami clearly got word from the grandstand that I was talking trash about his pace on an internet forum as he went on to have a career-game from the minute I called him a turtle. Made me eat ****. Huge performance. Gj turtle.

JC was excellent and we don't win without him yesterday. We're so fortunate to have this guy right now.

Our middles fronted up on both sides of the ball and the difference was night and day from last time we played them in that department. If they do that every week, we'll be in with a chance more often than not. Isaac Liu straightening and digging into the line when he passed that ball to Sexton was just beautiful..Toby wouldn't have scored the try wtihout that subtle piece of movement/timing/skill from his lock inside him.

Tanah Boyd deserves a heap of credit...the team getting to spots, getting to the kick from the right point, finding space through both edges, and running good shape at the right times for 80 minutes is no coincidence. Without Foran there and with a mismatched spine it's on him to make things run smoothly and he did that. Those are the intangibles that make a good 7.

Kruise Leeming looked promising.

Fifita had 21 carries. Massive effort.

Could probably go on with spot praise for individuals bust just a really good performance, with some clear signs of improvement from individual players and the overalll team resilience, defensive principles and effort from last year. I know it's only the Dragons but they're not the clear wooden spooners everyone thought and any team with Ben Hunt is going to give you a challenge. The physical, through-the-middle way they play is typically a bad matchup for us and it's important we show we can win that kind of game.

- - - Updated - - -

That win felt so good though, and I feel like overall our goal line defence has definitely improved...although that Rava try still feels so deflating. It shouldn't have happened. Both Lofi & Campbell were right there to make the tackle yet Rava just strolled straight past both of them.

That one is more on BK and eventually Fifita. JC & Lofi did their job to push up and force him inside (which is meant to push him back into traffic) but BK is standing way out of position toward the touchline flat-footed (literally behind Lofi??) just staring at him, and it leaves a huge space that Fifita then has to run and try to fill. Which is where Ravalawa runs at, and through to score. Bk was trying to take the cheap option and cover a potential kick seeing that JC was out of the line but really he should've just assumed his normal position and pushed up which would've been Fifita's queue to push up inside him and take away the space that Rava ran at.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk

[Bayside Titan]

One thing I noticed just after the game finished I watched Foran walk out and find Tanah and they looked like they were having a good chat / debrief. Agree with HS re Boyd getting the team around , he really is starting to control the team more. To me the most underrated guy is Joe Stimson. He does a lot of little things that don’t get seen on TV.

[NSW Titan]

Im still convinced that when Hunt receives the ball he is behind Couchman i think it is? behind his back or on the inside shoulder, which would make it an obstruction. but again need to be better defensively anyway

[AliDavysStep]

That kind of goal line defence was non existent last year..actually we haven’t had that kind of resilience for years!
Watching from behind the posts you could see the desperation from the boys. Was so frkn good to see.
Tanah had a great game. Showed a lot of maturity and confidence on both sides of the ball. Defended like a trooper.
Proud of Toby’s game too. What a way to come back to first grade.
I was worried we’d miss Foz’s strong D but both boys stood up tough.
JC is phenomenal. His X factor is next level. Yes AJ (rightfully) is our number one fullback but we lose next to nothing when our number 2 JC comes in. How many teams can say that?? Hard to imagine the footy gods will let us have this luxury for too much longer.
Sami played the game of his life. He plays an unorthodox game our Phil but so elusive. And can never doubt his passion!
Gotta give AKP a wrap. Thought he handled Ravalawa well (aside from the try, which was more the fault of his inside men anyway)
We missed a few opportunities to put his lightening speed into open space though. One occasion Tanah was screaming for the ball from Erin (we had a big overlap) but instead Erin went short to Iszacc and at least twice BK could’ve put Lofi away but chose to kick or not pass.
There are tries just waiting to be scored if we can just take the right options.
On BK, I do reckon he’s trying out there but for mine Jojo should be in that centre spot once he’s fit. Leave AKP and Sami on the wings.
From the ground, the shift in tempo when Leeming came on was immediate. Love the spark and style he brought. Signs are promising.
Thought the whole pack stood up and atoned for their Round 2 performance.
The middle held pretty tight.
Gotta say I’m liking Stimson a lot. Tough hombre.
As said in above posts, it’s soooo frkn good to see our boys show some mongrel out there for each other.
We’ve been missing that heartiness for so long and it seems our boys aren’t gonna be anyones chumps anymore. More of it please boys, Love it!
Bring on them Ponies!!

[GCTTSD]

Noticed a few big hits from Stimson when dragons were coming out of their own end stopping their momentum he's turned out to be the experienced forward we really needed out there

[Hail Sezer]

Few shouts for Stimson here and have to agree, he was great and deserves some credit. Got through a tonne of work, was an asset defensively and was closing space inside and out on the right queues. Toby owes him a few beers.

Another one who I thought had his best game yet was actually Lofi KP. I've been critical of his errors and defensive issues but he really stood up with a few clutch catches under the high ball, and he was launching himself like a missile to cut down Ravalawa + was smart enough to give him the outside and drag him into touch that time. We know Lofi can run fast and score tries but it's those parts of his game (no errors + defensive work) that are more important for him to hold his spot. I think we can probably use him a bit better on exit sets and with a few better decisions from players inside him, he would've scored 1 or 2 during that game as well.

[Cowabunga]

Stimsons already at the point where I just expect him to do everything well, He's constantly an 8/10, He does everything with 100% effort all the time and is has a bit of crazy about him, He's pretty much our new Keegan in my eyes and exactly the players we need to build culture, Seems like an awesome team guy around the group as well. I've seen enough to give him a lifetime contract.

The great thing about Lofi is that he seems to be learning every game and that's all you can ask. I've been impressed with his defence since that Round 2 game, He hasn't really been caught out by memory and he's doing it with Kelly inside him who isn't a great defender, Also like you said HS, His physicality has surprised me a bit on both sides, He's not getting the pcm but he's not getting smashed in tackles. The Jojo injury has been a bit of blessing in disguise because if he had been dropped after the Round 2 game it would've been bad for him, I think he's proven he can be at this level.

It's going to fascinating how we go moving forward this year. I can understand Kelly keeping him spot for now but I'm probably 60/40 on Jojo taking that left centre spot and Lofi keeping his wing. Probably not this game but moving forward.

I don't know if it's this week but I can see Leeming taking the starting spot and Randall being dropped to reserves as harsh as it is to keep JC at 14 when AJ returns, Once Verrills returns it's a whole different problem, but a very good one.

[willhelm]

Stimson hits like a truck. He’s exactly what we’ve been missing, though I’m not sure about the comparison to Hipgrave.