Round 19: TITANS vs DOLPHINS (2023)

[NZFan]

We surely can’t be blaming the ref for that loss. I get the theory that they were perhaps offside at the other end so it was a tough call, but we were the ones who gave them the chance to hit a field goal right in front of the posts with one minute remaining before we swapped sides. We play dumb stupid football and the key offenders in the team have never been punished for it. It is not surprising that we lose so many games at the death.

Hard to say who to blame. Clarke should never have been on the field in extra time. The Dolphins ran at him three times in the first set knowing he can’t win the tackle. That’s the coaches fault. There was little urgency in that final set before we lost the ball, even though it was our last set before the break and all we needed to do was kick deep and defend a few tackles. That’s the players fault.

We are fit enough this season and we have the talent to score points. Our defence is improving slowly too. What we need is the coaches to be brave and make hard decisions on players that are underperforming. We have a better squad than last year, yet somehow we are going to finish in a lower position than last year.

On Haas, I think we’ve been too trigger happy bringing our juniors through under Holbrooks watch. Iszac, Haas and even Kini would have benefited with a full season of Cup before coming into the NRL. I don’t think Haas was particularly bad today but he needs to develop so much more.

[T0ken]

I hear you NZ but the fact is that if they called the offside dolphins charge down (there had to be there were 4 of them in tanahs face in a second) we get the penalty and win 22-21 but apparently because we scored the fg it’s a-ok? That’s bs in my books. You can’t call penalties based on results otherwise you are picking winners and losers and it seems just like Holbrook and payten said rightly last year, the big clubs don’t get the wrong side of those calls

Re: haas baby tino and kini. I think haas is ready, he’s a defensive unit and is way more stable than Stimson imo and alick was good too

Looking at our draw there’s 2 maybe 3 winnable games so I’d be blooding players where we need to work for next year

1. JC
2. AKP
3. Brimson
4. Jojo
5. Sami
6. Foran
7. Boyd
8. Moe
9. Verrils
10. Tino
11. Fifita
12. Haas
13. Alick / Randall
14. Randall / alick
15. Liu
16. Joliffe
17. Iszaac

[Cowabunga]

Bringing up Haas early is a sacrifice of having two highly well paid 2nd rowers in Fiifta and Fermor, We can't have good back ups worth any real money when we're spending close to 1.6/7 already on those guys.

Clark is another backroom thing with his mum coaching/running our Netball team that we've stuck ourselves with so the talk of him bailing seems odd to me as much as people want it... He'll get dropped at best.

We've got guys to good for sitting on a bench who don't have a way into our team, Our roster struture is dumb right now, WHY have AJ, JC and Kini if there is no real plan going forward.

This goes back to Lafranchi trying to keep his job imo.... What is our roster really at if there's actually more people who can leave contracts???

[Titanic]

Funny how Foz avoids mention in our fade-outs. Not his fault but not not his fault either. The Dolphins had us beaten with size … again. Alick showed more in his effort than the other wannabes have all season and must be kept. He immediately stepped over Haas, Iszac and Clark, imho.

[NZFan]

I get that Token and I’ve always been vocal on here that I genuinely believe the NRL is fixed. We don’t help ourselves though. We need players that are smart enough not to give refs the opportunity to make calls like that because they will always go against us.

I think we need to start planning for life with Ben Hunt. We can’t make the play offs so we need to decide our spine for next year. For me, AJ has to be at 6. He’s too important to this team out the back, or worse, sitting out in the centres. He’s a senior player now and he needs to step up. I’d either shift Foran to 7 for the rest of the season as Boyd will be back up at best next year, or send Foran to get his operation so he can get himself right for next year. Either way, AJ has to be at 6 and JC has to be at the back. Kini can be back up fullback but I don’t mind if he sits in Cup for another year. His stats are amazing but so was JC’s when he was there and he’s a smaller body than JC. A little time to develop won’t hurt him.

[RavShamrock]

Didi Jojo get on the field?

i just dont get a just in case reserve, it seems to be a Leinahsn thing

This might sound harsh but I would have hooked AKP and injected JoJo.
AKP then becomes the bench back so I don't get any bench player not getting some significant time (bloody ridiculous really).
With all of the head knocks these days there are plenty of extra subs available in a game

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Funny how Foz avoids mention in our fade-outs. Not his fault but not not his fault either. The Dolphins had us beaten with size … again. Alick showed more in his effort than the other wannabes have all season and must be kept. He immediately stepped over Haas, Iszac and Clark, imho.

Foz was very good early and yes mate they did roll a bit down the middle latter in the game

[Cowabunga]

For me it's clearly going to be AJ and Kini as the 1 and 6 going forward whichever spot, JC is the one to fit in if he ever does.

[The Birdman]

So we can't sack the coach anymore, whose fault was that loss?

It's going to take a while to stop the rot and turn around ingrained losing habits and mentality. Realistically it's unfair to expect an interim coach that was on Holbrook's staff no less to turn it around.

[Hail Sezer]

Either way, AJ has to be at 6 and JC has to be at the back. Kini can be back up fullback but I don’t mind if he sits in Cup for another year. His stats are amazing but so was JC’s when he was there and he’s a smaller body than JC. A little time to develop won’t hurt him.

I think I get what you’re saying, but this just isn’t really true. JC & Kini in their debut cup season are veeeery different prospects. Stats are stats and but even in that respect, Keano is miles ahead of where JC was across the key measurables. More importantly though is what he’s actually doing on the field on ball and off ball.

Watched them come through from 16s and have seen every game of their respective first years in cup. Apples and oranges.

[DavidBouveng]

Lofi is the fastest, but most unreliable guy on a fast break ever.

blasts past them, then is thinking a million things as he approaches the fullback. chip, grubber, cross field grubber to my team mates, bad pass inside, and a new one last night, drill it 18 rows back with 5 minutes to go to give them a 7 tackle set.

I love him, but he doesn't have game sense. Learn a nice little in and away brother, if you get tackled so be it, let the team finish it off on the the next play from a quick play the ball.

[T0ken]

Lofi is the fastest, but most unreliable guy on a fast break ever.

blasts past them, then is thinking a million things as he approaches the fullback. chip, grubber, cross field grubber to my team mates, bad pass inside, and a new one last night, drill it 18 rows back with 5 minutes to go to give them a 7 tackle set.

I love him, but he doesn't have game sense. Learn a nice little in and away brother, if you get tackled so be it, let the team finish it off on the the next play from a quick play the ball.

Clearly was forced to play fullback and play make when his biggest asset is when he tucks it under the arm and puts on the afterburners

But I’m saying that he burned the whole dolphins squad with that dash and chip to Foran so sometimes it works

[The Birdman]

Clearly was forced to play fullback and play make when his biggest asset is when he tucks it under the arm and puts on the afterburners

But I’m saying that he burned the whole dolphins squad with that dash and chip to Foran so sometimes it works

Yeah but it just strikes me as a very low percentage play and he's got lucky a couple of times considering how poor his kicking game is.

[JunctionBlock]

Bloke could have taken the "tackle" but it was shoulder charge from Nikorima that went unnoticed by our brave referee again. Great news, he's in the bunker for us this week.

[NZFan]

Yeah but it just strikes me as a very low percentage play and he's got lucky a couple of times considering how poor his kicking game is.

I don’t think it is a low percentage play if it is trained for. It doesn’t look natural for Lofi at the moment and it wasn’t something that he did a lot of for Burleigh. Typically he just ran around players.

I’d much rather see players back themselves in try scoring positions. Done well the worst outcome should be a goal line drop out.

I’d be taking him aside in the off-season and giving him set parameters when he should use the play. For example:
- when there is nobody in support
- when he is within 50-30 m from the line. Any closer to the try line is too risky.
- when he is angling back in field, not when he is hard up against the side line.
- on the fourth or fifth tackle, definitely not the 1st or 2nd.
- not when the game is on the line.

I think at the moment he is being indecisive. He just needs to commit to a play. He’s got so much speed where he could run around fullbacks, by having the chip and chase available it’ll put the fullbacks in two mind about what he’s going to do.

In short, I’m all for it. He just needs to get better at it.

[The Birdman]

I don’t think it is a low percentage play if it is trained for. It doesn’t look natural for Lofi at the moment and it wasn’t something that he did a lot of for Burleigh. Typically he just ran around players.

I’d much rather see players back themselves in try scoring positions. Done well the worst outcome should be a goal line drop out.

I’d be taking him aside in the off-season and giving him set parameters when he should use the play. For example:
- when there is nobody in support
- when he is within 50-30 m from the line. Any closer to the try line is too risky.
- when he is angling back in field, not when he is hard up against the side line.
- on the fourth or fifth tackle, definitely not the 1st or 2nd.
- not when the game is on the line.

I think at the moment he is being indecisive. He just needs to commit to a play. He’s got so much speed where he could run around fullbacks, by having the chip and chase available it’ll put the fullbacks in two mind about what he’s going to do.

In short, I’m all for it. He just needs to get better at it.

Lofi doesn't have the awareness or the coordination to pull it off consistently.

He's done this silly chip a couple of times when he's had open inside support. It's a bad habit that he automatically reverts to at this stage, whereas an inside pass will be a better option 80% of the time.

He looks super uncoordinated and awkward when he kicks the ball. He needs to do a LOT of work on it before it becomes his default play.

As he really lacks feel for the game the coaching staff should be getting him to really simplify his decisions. We should be just instructing him to use his pace and take the simple options like the inside pass or taking the tackle and look for a quick PTB. If it's the last tackle and he has no support by all means have a go but otherwise he should stick to his strengths.