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Winning It From the Bottom Half of the Eight

CCR said:
I'd be very happy if you are right. I don't think we have the halves pairing to win this season, as I said unless we get some injuries and suspensions to other top 4 teams.
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I think the thing for me is last night showed me that we can beat the Sharks. Probably showed me where we are.

The halves were terrible last night. Cody has been well off and despite that we are competing with the top sides. Ilias previous few weeks played some very good footy.

Having Latrell as the link man will help our hugely. We missed that in the second half. Was frustrating to watch last night. The fact we were able to still get back in the game despite this has me feeling like there is still something there.

Although I do really feel like we can’t make the 4 from here and that will be a hill too big to climb for us.
 
Gazman said:
5th is not too bad a spot this season. 4th will get you vs Penrith first up most likely with Cleary and Luaii back fit and raring to go. Much rather get a softer first week at Accor and then face a first week losing team next up. If it’s Sharks or Eels or even the Broncos you’d have a fair chance of progressing further.
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Boom. That's it and then we're in another prelim ie the final 4. From there it's advantage to the teams that had the week off but it didn't help the Storm last year so it is possible but much harder.

I'm confident we'll make the final 4 even if we don't make the top 4.

We still have time to work on a few things that were made clear last night. We must have a plan B to go around the up-and-in defence. The usual thing is to kick behind them early to make them hang back more and then we can go through the hands. Has been the antidote for decades but we don't seem to have it sharpened enough. JD and the boys need to train for that better. Cody has to get his short kicking game going which is usually better than his long kicking game. Service from the middle also needs to be crisper against a rushing defence.

One thing I have noticed with our left side attack is that Arrow has been on Cody's hip quite regularly and Cody has gone short to him a little too often for mine. Perhaps they need to get Jai to have more space outside of Cody so he can take his options because with Jai right there in his pocket, it virtually forces Cody to give it to him when there is space on the outside and we are wanting to get it to AJ.

And surely Latrell spends plenty of time practicing his field goals at training. We were dominant but lacked the polish to ice that game against a heavy weight. We're in this comp up to our eye balls.
 
The Sharks are OK. We are OK. Deadset the only teams that look very good are the Panthers and the Cowboys when they play at home. Everyone else is hot and cold.

Souths, Storm, Sea Eagles and Roosters have all gone backwards. Parra are Parra. The Cowboys, Broncos and Sharks have improved but are not at the level we or Melbourne were last year.

The Cowboys and Sharks have had the easiest draws. The Cowboys have barely left QLD. The Broncos get every rub of the green and Reynolds and Capewell, along with a breakout year for Carrigan have improved them - but they still make fundamental errors and are shaky as hell defensively on their right edge.

I can't see either the Panthers or Cowboys losing their week 1 home finals, but from there the race to the prelim is WIDE open.
 
bigbopper said:
Well it's now clear that to win the premiership we'll have to do it from somewhere in the 5th to 8th group. Our best hope now is to finish high enough to get a home final in the first week. Can we do it? Yes! Eventually a club will win it from there and why not us this year :) Last night we showed that we have much more potential than Cronulla. Ilias had another poor game (he seems to get them occasionally) while Cody struggled. Latrell did next to nothing except miss field goals. Yet we still went so close. It looks like we've lost Cartwright and Tom will get an extended holiday. So the next few weeks will be tough. I hope Nicholls is back soon.

Our mid-season signings of Suluka-Fifita and Nikorima have been very timely. Kodi brings a lot of experience and gives us a bit of cover for injury. I like Suluka-Fifiata. and with Tom's absence JD will have to give him a bit more game time in the coming weeks.

Our pack is magnificent. Again last night they showed their strength against a very tough set of forwards who were playing at home. Arrow, Murray, Koloamatangi, Burgess, Cook, Tatola and Havili (what a good signing he's been) will power us through next week and against the Eels. Hopefully we'll have Nicholls back soon but we might be missing Tom for a while.

JD has to fire up our left side attack by using it from inside our own half. That will give Walker a bit more room - he is getting frustrated with the defence being all over him when we play the ball from one metre out. With Campbell Graham back our outside backs go up a notch. So we've got to wait until the Penrith game for that. Tass is coming along nicely and AJ is just pouring on the tries. Paulo is probably our best option but it's not a great one.

Goal kicking (and now field goal kicking) will be a worry.

Next week and beyond we have to see Latrell up his involvement and his has to continue it for the rest of the season. His had enough time since his return to do that. Our halves were poor last night and whatever happens I'm sure we won't see that again - Ilias has the occasional bad game but some the finals campaign we can't afford it.

I guess the one positive to come out of last night is that gives us the chance to make history by winning premiership from the bottom half of the eight.

Cheers
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Sorry Bops, can’t agree with most points…
Re Latrell - who set up AJ’s try? In attack, Latrell is our only X-factor now. If he doesn’t fire, then no one else is the architect or saviour.
Walker should have been dropped earlier on. Has only had 2 good games this year. Past his best due to attitude and dumb kicks and plays. Disappointing senior player.
Kodi? Why did we sign him, to save face with the Milford drama? You mention experience, how had that transferred to key moments on the field other than missed tackles? Another senior player who can’t deliver late in the tackle count….
Paulo - we have all been patient and given him the benefit of the doubt for a couple seasons. Time has run out, heart in the mouth stuff from Jaxson.
Ditto for Ilias. His end of set options have been shocking. Why isn’t he first receiver on lost sets?? Give Taaffe a go at half.

Cheers
 
rabbitohleigh said:
Sorry Bops, can’t agree with most points…
Re Latrell - who set up AJ’s try? In attack, Latrell is our only X-factor now. If he doesn’t fire, then no one else is the architect or saviour.
Walker should have been dropped earlier on. Has only had 2 good games this year. Past his best due to attitude and dumb kicks and plays. Disappointing senior player.
Kodi? Why did we sign him, to save face with the Milford drama? You mention experience, how had that transferred to key moments on the field other than missed tackles? Another senior player who can’t deliver late in the tackle count….
Paulo - we have all been patient and given him the benefit of the doubt for a couple seasons. Time has run out, heart in the mouth stuff from Jaxson.
Ditto for Ilias. His end of set options have been shocking. Why isn’t he first receiver on lost sets?? Give Taaffe a go at half.

Cheers
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How IS Taaffe going in reserve grade anyway
 
CCR said:
How IS Taaffe going in reserve grade anyway
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I didn’t see him yesterday. The previous weeks he hasn’t filled me with much confidence. Especially when he was playing in the halves. Although both those games we were depleted.
 
Here’s the big problem with talk of winning the premiership from here. Sorry Lachie but I’m looking at you.

Anyone else notice where teams with a premiership winning #7 are sitting on the ladder? There’s only 5 out of 16 teams.
- Cleary (1),
- Townsend (2),
- Reynolds (4),
- Hughes (5)
- DCE (10).

Its the most important position on the field and our #7 simple isn’t in the conversation. He may be eventually. But not for a few years.
 
Prowsey said:
This.

We lost to Cronulla last night…they didn’t win.

They scored a good try down their right edge. An absolute freak of a try by their winger…try of the year for mine, but if not in the top 3.

And then sloppy defence by our markers let that fat bastard Fifita score.

I’m in a more positive space now…that loss will galvanise us to go on a run.

We’ll finish 5th and win it from there!! (I did say I was in a more positive space!)
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We would have won last night’s game in 2021. That’s the difference.
 
There's no way you can write off a Top 4 spot yet. We were a dog's breath away from beating the Sharks and with injuries and suspensions hitting the sides above us and the fact we could win every game from here it would be foolish to make that call now. Tigers and Bulldogs could also put a dent in some of the teams we're competing with. Some South's fans are so negative it amazes me. And for those claiming it's only being realistic, it's a negative realism that's actually far from realism this far out.
 
Our halves couldn’t create squat in the 2nd half behind a dominant pack. If dumb and dumber can get the basics right, then anything is possible. But they can’t seem to to find the right pass option, and there’s no semblance of a kicking game between them ATM. We know it’s in there somewhere with Cody. Dunno about Ilias…all seems to happen too slow.
 
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