InGusWeTrust
Kennel Enthusiast
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2021
- Messages
- 4,274
- Reaction score
- 7,216
The negativity on here is off the charts. Some positivity would be nice aye?
So real talk, I was very impressed with our first hit out for the new season. Considering how many new players/combinations we have, the fluency in attack was amazing. Some of the tries we scored were very sharp.
Burton as usual cops most of the criticism, with a lot of it unwarranted. Watch the game again without a hate boner and he actually does his job ok. He played about 45 minutes and setup Xerri who went within a whisker of scoring, then he dummied and almost scored himself. Thos was far from a fail. Can he do better? Of course but it was a 45 minute performance in a trial ffs. Plenty of the squad didn’t impress. Mahoney and Preston for example.
I thought Mahoney got in the way too much, as did Salmon. Hutchison was good(ish) in his directness, but he doesn’t offer much else. Sexton offers more spark, but not so much composure. Add Taaffe and in the first half we had Hutch, Salmon, Mahoney and Taaffe all touching the ball too much, particularly Mahoney and Taaffe. Burton is hated on as usual, but they only went down the left 5 or 6 times while he was on.
The point of a trial is to test players and combinations, as well as systems and tactics. It gave Ciro heaps to work with. He actually has options! The most impressive thing about the game was how committed and intense we were in defence, especially the young guys, many of whom also impressed in attack. Heyward was clean as hooker, Papa, O’Neill, Todd and Hayes all shined and for his first game in 4 frickin years, Xerri really warmed into the match and will only improve.
The only issues I see is the selection headaches Ciro has and the lack of depth in the forwards. I am worried less however about our front row stocks after seeing a good performance by Hughes and Poasa. King was solid and Knight can be decent when he cuts out the bullshit. I’d say he or Sutton is a toss up for a bench prop. Or neither may be needed if Patolo or Todd can stand up.
I like Taffy’s involvement and positional game, I don’t however like his attacking in the backline, hence I’m still favouring Tracey at the back. The starting pack for me would be Max, Reed, Poasa, Kiks, Presto, Curran, Hutch, Hughes, Kautoga, Sutton/Knight. I reckon Ciro will pick Hitch at 7 though because he covers a few positions and Sex only plays 7. You still need a utility on the bench though in case he gets injured.
Heads up doggies fans, this was way more encouraging than last year’s trials. We haven’t even seen many of our big guns yet.
So real talk, I was very impressed with our first hit out for the new season. Considering how many new players/combinations we have, the fluency in attack was amazing. Some of the tries we scored were very sharp.
Burton as usual cops most of the criticism, with a lot of it unwarranted. Watch the game again without a hate boner and he actually does his job ok. He played about 45 minutes and setup Xerri who went within a whisker of scoring, then he dummied and almost scored himself. Thos was far from a fail. Can he do better? Of course but it was a 45 minute performance in a trial ffs. Plenty of the squad didn’t impress. Mahoney and Preston for example.
I thought Mahoney got in the way too much, as did Salmon. Hutchison was good(ish) in his directness, but he doesn’t offer much else. Sexton offers more spark, but not so much composure. Add Taaffe and in the first half we had Hutch, Salmon, Mahoney and Taaffe all touching the ball too much, particularly Mahoney and Taaffe. Burton is hated on as usual, but they only went down the left 5 or 6 times while he was on.
The point of a trial is to test players and combinations, as well as systems and tactics. It gave Ciro heaps to work with. He actually has options! The most impressive thing about the game was how committed and intense we were in defence, especially the young guys, many of whom also impressed in attack. Heyward was clean as hooker, Papa, O’Neill, Todd and Hayes all shined and for his first game in 4 frickin years, Xerri really warmed into the match and will only improve.
The only issues I see is the selection headaches Ciro has and the lack of depth in the forwards. I am worried less however about our front row stocks after seeing a good performance by Hughes and Poasa. King was solid and Knight can be decent when he cuts out the bullshit. I’d say he or Sutton is a toss up for a bench prop. Or neither may be needed if Patolo or Todd can stand up.
I like Taffy’s involvement and positional game, I don’t however like his attacking in the backline, hence I’m still favouring Tracey at the back. The starting pack for me would be Max, Reed, Poasa, Kiks, Presto, Curran, Hutch, Hughes, Kautoga, Sutton/Knight. I reckon Ciro will pick Hitch at 7 though because he covers a few positions and Sex only plays 7. You still need a utility on the bench though in case he gets injured.
Heads up doggies fans, this was way more encouraging than last year’s trials. We haven’t even seen many of our big guns yet.
