Round 1: TITANS vs DRAGONS (2024)

[RavShamrock]

One of my young blokes is a dragons supporter and he was really confident all week. We had a few digs at each other after the trials. He told me yesterday that he could see improvement in the dragons as the off season dragged on, and definitely through the trials. I told him they were heading to slaughter at cbus. The big prick just laughed, looked me in the eye and asked, "where have the Titans improved from last year in the off season? A new coach...but the same squad".

Can't wait to get another crack at them! Man I hope Des can work his magic.

Side note....you know what I love about Tino? You know he's not here for the money. I understand that his roll is perhaps an easier task than other positions...but if everyone else approached their rolls with the same determination and aggression that he does, week in week out we'd be unbeatable!

Tino is a wonderful player there is no doubt.
On the other hand the teams ceiling is unfortunately linked to his captaincy.
Having Tino as captain has an unstable and unbalanced effect (amongst other things) on this team and not really what this team/club needs right now IMO

I mostly watched Ben Hunt's movements last night and the way he was communicating with his team is exactly the type I believe this team needs right now (we really do lack leadership and Foz for this reason was a massive out).

There is no way Des could have come in and changed the captaincy it would have been way to controversial and unsettling for the club so we are stuck with the status quo for who knows how long but trust me it is an entrenched problem and I wish Tino would put his hand up and say "you know what I just want to concentrate on my own game at the minute so I have to unfortunately step down as captain but obviously I will still be leading from the front with my actions" Quote end Quote

YES I know it's controversial but burdens always are.

[Whats Doing]

Titanic

I thought it was Keenan who was the lazy A defender (No 13) when Liddle made that break up the centre but will stand corrected if wrong. Keenan has been a real disappointment so far particular his defence.

You need good defenders around Fermor as he is really exposed in defence particularly when he is required to move laterally against pace

I don’t get the love of Weaver to be honest, Yes he may have a higher ceiling than Boyd but not much. I cannot see how he will ever develop into a top line half as he, like Boyd, lacks creativity and does not have the speed to compensate. Hope I am wrong but he (and Boyd) would be the two bottom halves in the comp and would appear IMO not to have the skill sets to progress much further up the halves ladder.

The boneheaded decision to release Fogerty back in 2022 has really hampered our club. Australian schoolboy stars does not necessarily transfer to good NRL players and in fact it is a very low percentage that actually do.

I would be looking at trying to develop Campbell as a half this year, similar in style to Hughes, and if that fails, go to market even if having to trade to get a high quality half as this deficiency cannot go on next year. You won’t win a premiership unless you have a high quality creative halfback

[willhelm]

Titanic

I thought it was Keenan who was the lazy A defender (No 13) when Liddle made that break up the centre but will stand corrected if wrong. Keenan has been a real disappointment so far particular his defence.

You need good defenders around Fermor as he is really exposed in defence particularly when he is required to move laterally against pace

I don’t get the love of Weaver to be honest, Yes he may have a higher ceiling than Boyd but not much. I cannot see how he will ever develop into a top line half as he, like Boyd, lacks creativity and does not have the speed to compensate. Hope I am wrong but he (and Boyd) would be the two bottom halves in the comp and would appear IMO not to have the skill sets to progress much further up the halves ladder.

The boneheaded decision to release Fogerty back in 2022 has really hampered our club. Australian schoolboy stars does not necessarily transfer to good NRL players and in fact it is a very low percentage that actually do.

I would be looking at trying to develop Campbell as a half this year, similar in style to Hughes, and if that fails, go to market even if having to trade to get a high quality half as this deficiency cannot go on next year. You won’t win a premiership unless you have a high quality creative halfback

It was Clark but Verrills shouldn’t have turned his back. Hope he gets roasted at training for that.

[Titanic]

Brandy pulled no punches in his assessment which agrees with the consensus here. He summarized with: “the Titans defence in the second half was horrible. Horrible! If you are relying on a nearly broken 32 year old half then you are in trouble.”

Lets throw the cheque book at French.

[gotitans101_]

(1) Fermor upset the defence by not defending. Something that has nothing to do with his injury and was apparent in 2022.

Well why was he 'not defending' then?

[Titanic]

Well why was he 'not defending' then?

I would be very happy to eat humble pie but imo his technique is so far off which is a cut and paste from our left edge woes in 2022. Poor positioning, turns like the Titanic, poor reads and waits for someone else to go in low but can’t wrap up the ball … otherwise he’s fine, can score a try and probably a great bloke. He needs time in Cup to hone his craft.

Bring down the lightning.

[Hail Sezer]

I would be very happy to eat humble pie but imo his technique is so far off which is a cut and paste from our left edge woes in 2022. Poor positioning, turns like the Titanic, poor reads and waits for someone else to go in low but can’t wrap up the ball … otherwise he’s fine, can score a try and probably a great bloke. He needs time in Cup to hone his craft.

Bring down the lightning.

You’re right. And you know your football tech better than most on here, even though you wouldn’t admit it.

His poor defence had nothing to do with his injury. Was making terrible reads, missing queues and getting his contact wrong among other things. All the detail points you mention you’re spot on. This system seems to ask more of him and he’s struggling to get it right. He wasn’t a good defender in 2022 but no one paid attention because of his offensive output.

Even Klese was meeting his assignments more often than Fermor did last night, IMO.

[Whats Doing]

The Titans had 52 tackles in the Dragons 20 and could only come up with one try from a kick. Just shows how ineffective and lack of creativity our attack was on the night.

[Titslover]

Some pretty strange use of interchanges and minute distribution for the forwards. Tino plays the first 40 and then subs off only 6 minutes into the 2nd half, and isn't brought back until the 68th minute when the games well and truly lost. Randall and Clark also interchanged at the 46th minute. Wtf is the point of wasting interchanges only 6 minutes into the 2nd half when the players should basically be fresh. And Jollife only used for 22 minutes, he should be getting at least 35-40. Liu 22, Clark 27, Palasia 31, it's all over the place.

[gotitans101_]

You’re right. And you know your football tech better than most on here, even though you wouldn’t admit it.

His poor defence had nothing to do with his injury. Was making terrible reads, missing queues and getting his contact wrong among other things. All the detail points you mention you’re spot on. This system seems to ask more of him and he’s struggling to get it right. He wasn’t a good defender in 2022 but no one paid attention because of his offensive output.

Even Klese was meeting his assignments more often than Fermor did last night, IMO.

I know he was always iffy defensively but not this bad. In fact, I recall even back then the bloke would scrap for everything and make some very crucial tackles on our goal line. It's easy to say he was always a bad defender but jesus, last night was just another level of bad. Is he lacking confidence or something?

[Ausphin]

I forced myself to rewatch the game, as hard as that was.

From being at the game, it felt like we were never in it. However we started the 2nd half ok and then 2 plays really hurt us. A shocking kick from Boyd that Suli took in goal and then quick tap and they make 50 metres. Then Kelly’s dropped ball that lead directly to Flanagan’s try off the next set (with Paliasia being lazy inside).

Anyway, we have already talked about the negatives (and there was plenty). Here’s some positive observations.

I thought Kini tried hard, looked dangerous and continually supported anytime we bent the line. I don’t get any negativity towards him. He was far from poor or the reason we looked awful.

Brimmo looked super dangerous when he ran through the middle. I still have concerns about his level of involvement at centre, but he looked great and hopefully can avoid any soft tissue injuries with the less kms he will have to cover

Verrills had a brain fart when he turned his back and let them through, but I can’t recall him taking off from dummy half so often last year. We are set with him and Randall sharing the hooker role.

[Hail Sezer]

I know he was always iffy defensively but not this bad. In fact, I recall even back then the bloke would scrap for everything and make some very crucial tackles on our goal line. It's easy to say he was always a bad defender but jesus, last night was just another level of bad. Is he lacking confidence or something?

It's the technique and defensive IQ issues that are the big one for me, and those are things he struggled with in the past but you're right it looked near its worst on Saturday night & the trial v Parra. I think part of it is how the Dragons chose to use their possession which really exposed it.

The way I saw it the Dragons had a simple game plan on attack - if not working through the middle, bang down the door running at our right edge for yardage (which we did a good job containing if I'm honest). And then when in good ball, set on the left post and attack our left edge; run big bodies on unders lines at Weaver/Fermor (neither can get over the ball), or run shape targeted at Fermor's inside/outside, or kick for Lomax over our shorties, or kick behind BK/Lofi. And it worked a treat.

I don't love NRL.com defensive stats because they're high-level but for the sake of painting that picture:

Our right edge:
Tanah Boyd 31 tackles (1 missed)
Klese Haas 45 tackles (0 missed)
AJ 21 tackles (0 missed)

Our left edge:
Tom Weaver 24 tackles (2 missed)
Beau Fermor 30 tackles (4 missed)
Brian Kelly 16 tackles (2 missed)

[Whats Doing]

Lets throw the cheque book at French.

He was man of match against Penrith and is the current player of the year in Super League so he must have some consistency in performances. Showed some real good ball skills at 5/8 and certainly has pace.

I would also go after him as well

[willhelm]

Can he tackle yet?

[Whats Doing]

It was Clark but Verrills shouldn’t have turned his back. Hope he gets roasted at training for that.

I had another look at the video and I was talking about the A defender which is the 1st defender on the defensive line on either side of the ruck. This was Keenan who was the right side A defender who was too wide as an A defender and made no effort to shut the space down and tackle Liddle when he broke though down the middle. Clark was 1st marker and Verrills was 2nd marker who you quite rightly pointed out he unforgivably turned his back.

In fact all 3 fell down in their job in the ruck area