Round 8: DOLPHINS vs TITANS (2023)

[NZFan]

first comment in /r/nrl, thread where that is posted (dunno if it's any of you) mentioned that in Brimmo's halftime interview he said, "we know we can leak points". I didn't watch the game so I never saw this.

But wtf man. Mindblown how you can just casually say that then proceed to have 24(?) put on you in the next 40 minutes to lose the game.

I’ve been quite unimpressed with AJ’s attitude this season. When asked at the start of the season about which position he plays, after confirming it was fullback, he joked around about how much easier it is on the body because the defence is easier. It doesn’t really scream team first approach that he’s happy to let someone else do the hard yards in the front line.

I know the Gold Coast attitude is typically laid back and quite jovial but he’s been here a long time now (comparatively) and needs to step up as a leader.

[Cowabunga]

I’ve been quite unimpressed with AJ’s attitude this season. When asked at the start of the season about which position he plays, after confirming it was fullback, he joked around about how much easier it is on the body because the defence is easier. It doesn’t really scream team first approach that he’s happy to let someone else do the hard yards in the front line.

I know the Gold Coast attitude is typically laid back and quite jovial but he’s been here a long time now (comparatively) and needs to step up as a leader.

I love AJ more then probably any Titan in a long but I am wondering if there's some issues with his leadership or position in the team as well. I know he's not really a leader with words but he's in the leadership group and we already have Tino leading with actions and Moe and Fifi to a lesser extent, We need someone who's vocal and won't let this stuff happen and he's an experienced player in this side. Fogarty was good in this regard but someone has to take the mantle and he's the clear option to be that role.

I know it's not his fault really with his injuries and our team being bad but he's not made the finals in his 5 years now (was injured 21). With Holbrook he's one of the guys that's constantly been around in these periods of just horrible football. At some point he's surely got to step up and say enough is enough because it can't all be on Tino.

[Hail Sezer]

I think AJ just isn’t great at thinking before he speaks sometimes, to be blunt.

He shouldn’t have said what he did at halftime but if that’s genuinely how he feels then the issue is deeper than him just saying it - it’s him believing it to be the case.

I know within the club AJ is highly respected as a leader and he takes his football very seriously/sets good standards within the group. He just communicates very casually and makes some tongue-in-cheek comments at times to the media that can get taken the wrong way. I wouldn’t take his throw away comments in interviews and podcasts as a reflection of his professional attitude

[Bayside Titan]

I also feel that AJ had a devastating start to the season and maybe he still dealing and processing that.

#Itaintweektospeak

[MaroonTitan]

I think AJ just isn’t great at thinking before he speaks sometimes, to be blunt.

He shouldn’t have said what he did at halftime but if that’s genuinely how he feels then the issue is deeper than him just saying it - it’s him believing it to be the case.

I know within the club AJ is highly respected as a leader and he takes his football very seriously/sets good standards within the group. He just communicates very casually and makes some tongue-in-cheek comments at times to the media that can get taken the wrong way. I wouldn’t take his throw away comments in interviews and podcasts as a reflection of his professional attitude

That's good to hear HS. I think he might actually believe what he said and I think he's not alone. A good psych will get to the bottom of that.

AJ hasn't come close to Ponga's strawberry milkshake comment yet but I'm concerned he might be heading that way. Hopefully as a leader, he'll be taking some responsibility for Sunday and it'll be a turning point for his communication.

[Titslover]

I don’t buy into those comments at all about AJ, anyone who’s followed this team since he came into the league knows what a laidback and funny bloke he is and that comments such as “playing fullback cause it’s easier on the body” should know that’s to be taken with a grain of salt. If anything he was probably poking fun at himself for how injury prone he is. AJ is one of the few blokes in the side that I can 100% say with confidence that they love the club and I would be shocked to see him ever move on. If you have any doubts about that look at how upset he looks at the end of the Broncos game

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrSVf...d=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

[Gold Coast 88]

https://astonishingsports.wordpress....tuck-in-act-2/

- - - Updated - - -

Token posted a decent read off that titans fan zone page I'm struggling to link it directly as I don't have Facebook.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/238142596643583/

THE MATH AROUND INTERCHANGE
I had to drill down and get some solid stats around yesterday. Being a data scientist for work, I've gone through and found the proof. There are some caveats;
1. I’ve focused around only our interchange players
2. Dolphins only used 3 of their bench Totalling Phins 6 players, Titans 8
3. In terms of players used against weights and times, they coefficient difference is 75% against the Titans.
4. I’ve used a simple Power/Weight multiplied time spent on field to find out where the problem lays, you can see in the table the clear issue when Mikaele comes off and is replaced by leeming (115kg vs 87kg)
5. I’ve excluded both edge backrowers as both side’s 11 and 12 played 80mins each as they did not interchange.
6. Understandably we made a number of errors that helped the tide. But this should shine a light on the lead up to those erros.

HYPOTHESIS
Does the weight of the players make a difference in the terms of inertia and exertion? Did the Dolphins simply ‘outweigh’ us in size and turn the tide? Is bigger better?

METHOD
Look into the weight of the players against the total time spent on field for the interchange to form a comparison and see if this aligns with points scored.
Each cell indicates minutes X weight with interchanges as the columns. The totals at the bottom are calculated and then compared with the coefficient to give a comparison.

RESULTS
a) From min 38 to min 52 Dolphins scored 12 points to swing the tide of the game and put us on the back foot
b) During this 12min period we had 3 experienced hookers on the field and only 1 prop (who had already played 40mins straight).
c) From the 38min mark to the 73min mark (35mins total) the Phins Power/Weight varied between 3-7% higher than ours
d) The swing reflects the shift in weight of the interchange

CONCLUSION
1. In this instance weight of the interchange players and shift with differences on field correlates with the data shown on the table
2. Momentum of the game DID correlate with weight on field of the interchange.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Phins used 1 Hooker player all game with Jeremy Marshall-King clicking 80mins saving them interchanges for more specialty props on the bench, we don't need anymore than 1 hooker in the 17 to free up an interchange
Our only specialty prop spent 12 minutes on the field, with Phins bench props totalling 74mins. We're relying on Mo and Tino to do too much work.
"forwards win you the match, your backs will determine by how much" - Gordon Tallis

Some great analysis. Im unsure about teo hookers in the 17. I do think you need someone on the bench that can cover the hooker role, whether thats a specialist or not is the question .
Sam Mac filled in there last year but all opposing teams know that he doesn't run from dummy half which makes it easier to dhut attack down, so I dont think he is the answer..

[DIEHARD]

Darren Lockyer says lack of game-management rather than poor attitude costing Titans
https://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/

League icon Darren Lockyer says a lack of game-management rather than attitude issues are what is behind the Gold Coast Titans' alarming trend of second-half fade-outs.

Gold Coast was left stunned after coughing up a 26-point lead to the Dolphins last week, with skipper Tino Fa'asuamaleaui slamming what he called a "**** attitude" from his side in the aftermath.

"We didn't stop tries we didn't want to defend our line," Fa'asuamaleaui told Triple M after the loss to the Dolphins.

"Just frustrating. Two weeks in a row, teams don't do that. You learn from one week and then come out and do that again.

"It's embarrassing. It makes you emotional, makes you angry especially on a day like this."

Lockyer conceded that attitude "was a small part of it", but said the real problem was elsewhere for Justin Holbrook's side, calling the coach's second-half tactics "all wrong".

"At half time, (leading 26-6) they came back out and the mentality was, 'Let's just keep playing footy'," he told Wide World of Sports' QLDER.

"In hindsight, that wasn't the right call. I think they needed to start grinding the second half out, in other words, kick the opposition to death, put them in the corners, make them work out and create that scoreboard pressure.

"I think attitude was a small part of it, but I actually think the tactics or the game plans of the Titans in the second half was all wrong."

Lockyer pointed to the inexperience of 22-year-old halfback Tanah Boyd as one of the reasons why the Titans struggle to see out games after building early leads.

"He is still learning the craft of game-management," he said.

"Kieran Foran, who has been there for a long time, he's only just come back from an injury.

"I just think it's a learning curve for someone like Tanah Boyd.

"Once you get in front, what you need to do is build pressure to apply that scoreboard pressure and almost break down the other team to force them to make errors. They've got to start thinking more like that.

"Once they hit the front, they've actually got to adapt their game to the scoreboard."

[Upthetits]

This is pretty similar to what I wrote on a reddit post earlier in the week.

I really like Holbrook but I just don't think he has enough **** or ruthlessness in him to win a premiership.

The fact he couldn't remember 4 weeks ago when we lost to the dragons after we started well and he bought a small bench. To not make that connection against the Dolphins who are a tough up the middle sort of team is really inexcusable at this level of coaching.

If he wants to play a bench that small, do 2nd tackle kicks off your 10m line as far down field as possible and run like hell. Try to tire them out and take them out of the game as much as possible until your starting props get back onto the field.

Not only did he pick the smallest bench possible he played them all at the same time. He didn't stagger them at all and for some (unknown to me) reason one of our best first half players was benched for alot of second half in Randall.

The fact he didn't pull foran from the field when he done that 2nd tackle kick to AKP when we finally got the ball back is a perfect example. Use that moment to send a message to the team to stop being dumb ****s. Instead we get a failed short drop out whilst infront and aj pushing a pass like we are chasing the game.

He's simply too worried about upsetting people to make the tough decisions. Or he just overthinks **** in his head instead of just keeping it simple and calling it for what it is.

Bringing off Thomas Mikaele for Kruise Leeming when we are trying to gain control of the middle is peak Holbrook coaching.

It's not good enough.

[DIEHARD]

Hi I’m new here, but have been reading LOT for many years (come back Mr Bods)
Whilst I’m am disappointed and even had trouble sleeping last night, I am rock solid..

Warm welcome to you! Even though you were lurking for a long time, I always imagine all of you as part of the LoT community.

Thanks for debuting. Fans are so important are the type of fans a club has is a massive consideration when choose a club. When we started it was a blank slate but I've been impressed with the passion and more importantly the experience and knowledge of our fanbase. It's small but rewarding to be part of.

I think things will get easier for us in the years ahead.

Please keep dropping your thoughts on LoT! Go Titans.