Round 4: TITANS vs DOLPHINS (2024)

[Titslover]

It could be the long weekend coming up, and I think my initial dismall pessimism has passed. I can feel my mood changing. I'm almost certain... I'm feeling a tingle in my nether regions...

I can smell an ambush! Des will have the boys believing it's them against the world! This is the turning point. Titans by 16. Randall MOM!!

Send us your dealers number mate, must be some quality stuff

[Menoitios]

High on life, brother!

[willhelm]

High on gas

[Titslover]

High on life, brother!

Hahah respect mate, this team has destroyed my ability to produce serotonin

[NZFan]

I’ve been the biggest critic of Boyd and still firmly believe that we messed up big time letting Sexton go to keep him. However, Boyd was dealt a pretty rough hand last week. The Dogs had a clear game plan to target him and he was given no help whatsoever from the rest of the team.

It was somewhat typical that Penrith figured out how to bend the new rules almost instantaneously and provide Cleary protection but we took the opposite approach and dished our half up to their big forwards on a platter.

Service from dummy halve wasn’t actually that bad IMO but our forwards were put on their back at the end of every set, there was no option for another kicker, and the body language from the whole team showed that yet again we were preparing for a long kick. Des had an opportunity to change that at half time but didn’t.

Good teams would have taken the pressure off by using their fullback/dummy halve/five eighth as kicking options, running on the last - especially in the holes where the defence had rushed the kicker, switch plays behind the ruck, the list goes on.. we decided to telegraph everything. That’s just bad coaching.

That’s not to say Tannah doesn't deserve criticism. He takes way too long to get rid of the ball when kicking. His positioning is far too deep when we have good attacking ball. He doesn’t have a short kicking game. But the biggest issue is he doesn’t play what’s in front on him.

I’m reluctant to throw Weaver in when the rest of the team is underperforming, and the coaches game plan is so poor. He’ll just end up as another failed halve from the Gold Coast. The issue is though I don’t think Boyd has the confidence or natural ability to bounce back from this performance. Last year he actually had worst performances than this last game, and he hasn’t shown any long term improvement. We let of Sexton last year to buy Maumalo and now we’re in a position where we are either stuck with Boyd, or we throw our young under sized halve to the wolves. Who’s fault is that..

[MaroonTitan]

It could be the long weekend coming up, and I think my initial dismall pessimism has passed. I can feel my mood changing. I'm almost certain... I'm feeling a tingle in my nether regions...

I can smell an ambush! Des will have the boys believing it's them against the world! This is the turning point. Titans by 16. Randall MOM!!

Menoitios! You've made my week so far. Love it!

[RavShamrock]

Well I see Foran has been named as captain so this will be very interesting to see how he plays with the C and interesting to see how the team respond to this. This butch needs a good communicator as a leader. One that knows where the game is at at any moment and be in that moment and communicating to the team their required tasks. All good captains do it so hopefully our new captain will rise to the challenge.

[Whats Doing]

I just see the Dolphins backline scorching our backs with too much pace.

[Upthetits]

I just see the Dolphins backline scorching our backs with too much pace.

After Brian Kelly's defence effort last weekend, put herbie down for a hattrick

[hungryjacks]

Im on the same page as Menoitios. Titans by 16, Brian Kelly for a double and Klese to score a barnstorming try through three defenders.

[Titanic]

I don’t give a Tom Tit what happens as long as Wallace doesn’t score.

[Cowabunga]

The issue I have with a lot of the 17 right now heading to the game is that I don't really like alot of them as players (great people). A lot of them are the type of players I don't enjoy as much compared to someone like Randall who within a year has become one of my favourites when I didn't even know him before last pre-season. It's been the exact same stuff for years and there's zero evidence of anything looking better from the usual candidates.

On Tannah, I think it's worse for him to be playing at this point for his own career and confidence but I don't think he's in our top 3 problems right now and the coaching staff and team aren't putting him in any position to be successful like said. He's had constant spine changes, Sounds like Foz is barely ever training to work on combos. The lock is basically a spine member yet we have no idea who ours is and have chucked JJ in there last minute, He did a job but he is not going to be helping Tannah or Foran get to their spots quicker. None of them are passing the ball either, Des has completely shut down any movement early or offloads.

It was on 360, I thought Des was coaching a lot of these guys who came through with him to be great at his clubs and I'm sure he had a decent part to play but he also gave them freedom to do whatever they wanted. Those teams also had dally m contenders everywhere, We don't have 1/10 of the talent, creativity or experience in the spine that his good teams had. He's going to have to give a lot of leeway with how we attack or completely change the team which he re-signed or they are mostly here till 26.

[MaroonTitan]

Is it just me or is anyone else irked by some of these quotes from Verrills:

"We need to play good, and we know we haven’t been at our best and it’s been pretty embarrassing if I'm completely honest. Well while you're being honest Sam, how about, Ï've played like five kinds of sh!t and let in a couple of tries with complete negligence at crucial stages. I really need to play good and actually give a sh!t, if I'm completely honest".

"It’s not going right anywhere at the moment, and we’ve got to be pretty honest with ourselves. Including me.

"Our attack hasn’t been good, coz I've been dishing out absolute horsesh!t from dummy half but our defence has to complement our attack, and our attack has to complement our defence…(I can't believe I'm getting away with this drivel) we're making it really hard on ourselves by pretending to careso we need to get back to playing what suits us which is hopefully with a lot more effort rather than waiting for the paycheck.

"It’s not just Tanah and the crap service I've been setting him up with, it’s the whole team and were not playing the ball fast enough for him... we’ve had our meetings and we’ve addressed it," Verrills said.

“We’ve put a lot of pressure on ourselves. Our errors have been really bad, and we don’t have much possession of the ball. It’s hard to get down to the end of the field and put attacking sets on when you’re not there. And to be honest, I've not been there.

“We need to work on our defence and attack to get points on the board... we’re very confident in the team that we can deliver and get the win on this weekend.” (The CEO held me at gunpoint to say this).


Remember that excuses get in the way of who we want to be. And as Jimmy Cliff says, Actions speak louder than words.

[ozynorts]

The Dolphins are playing that well but I don’t see us challenging them much. Old Methuselah will have them ready for an ambush and we won’t score more than 1 try.

[Titanic]

Nope, we are going to fark them up with our killer pack, flashy backs and pinpoint kicking.