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Only Gus knows, but we can dream. If we can stretch the coin we have (including JAC) on two young beast mode props and Paps it feels like the right move and I reckon also solves the halfback issue in a way, Sexton would thrive in that lineup until Woods is ready.

If we can add Thompson and May as our front rowers in rotation with King, Hughes and Tupouniua, and an already elite second row, we are set.

I stand corrected…

That’s what I keep thinking too. Many will be all over the Roosters next week, their season was over last week. Such a missed opportunity for us to have gone into a preliminary final.

Sexton was nowhere near as bad today as some on here are saying. He’s been given a job which is to take some of the kicking off Burton, use his short kicks close to the line, and don’t be a turnstile in defence. I wasn’t at the game but I think he needs to communicate better when he’s planning...

The boys will be in the sheds right now absolutely gutted but if I was in there I’d be telling me they’ve just given us the most inspiring season in many years. They can hold their heads high today, they were back to the team that won 9 of 11 or whatever it was. Crichton and Kikau absolutely...

Maybe. I am just a bit sick of everyone saying every close loss is because of the referees, or there’s some huge conspiracy against us. It’s a cop out. Every other club’s fans think they’re on the end of every bad call too, I bet even Manly are saying they won today despite the referee.

Going to take some time to process that. I never felt safe even when we were up by 10 and had the momentum. You can just never count DCE out, his game management is second to none and when it mattered most he did what he always does. Same with Turbo, plays with one arm dangling and still...

This is what I've been thinking since Saturday. Not sure I believe the whole 'Ciro deliberately tanked a couple of games to throw everyone off' but with three key players coming back, a couple of flogging that still sting, and the fact this team has come from nowhere to finish 6th(!!!) beyond...

Just because a player isn’t playing first grade doesn’t make them a recruitment fail. We need depth for FG and a pathway for younger players to figure their game out. On your list of fails I think Tetevano, Taaffe, Suluka-Fifita and Poasa fall into these categories. Can’t agree on Luai, I...

He’s been the only real recruitment fail I reckon, Gus’s strike rate remains almost perfect for this season at least.

While this is all true.. Ciraldo does deserve some credit for realising his mistake and hooking him at halftime. It’s pretty rare to bench your half at halftime, at least CC recognised what was happening and did something about it.

I think Preston might be our best option at 13. He’s not running great edge lines at the moment, we’d be better of putting him in the middle and starting Hayes on the edge, with Salmon either gone or benched.

Of course we are, he came across in 2022 when we were an awful team, what choice did we have? The decision to play Hutch today was absolutely terrible judgement by Ciraldo but equally Hutch wasn’t the only passenger out there. Sua and Clarke made some of our best players look very ordinary. We...

100% this. You can kind of understand the poor attack tonight with JAC, Burton and Xerri all missing, and the terrible decision to play Hutch instead of Hayward at 6. But none of that explains the defence this week and last. Mann is the difference, absolutely massive loss and probably the...

Good post. Speaking of DCE, he might be intensely hard to like but man he is a good player. He’s 35 and looks like he could keep playing top level for years. 300 odd games over 14 seasons will teach you some stuff I suppose.

What is with his line running at the moment? Pretty much every time he got the ball last night he did that big telegraphed left foot step back into the defensive line that’s coming across in cover and he got shut down. The only time he went the other way he got past DCE and got a great offload...

We’ve had 28% possession. Momentum will shift, it always does. We just need to be good enough and hang on here.

Gotta say, Xerri is not just holding his spot anymore, he is getting up there with our top few players. Bends the line constantly, solid defensively, very few mistakes, regularly burns his opponent with speed, and his judgement on when to pass and when to run is getting better each game...

One of life’s great mysteries. They didn’t know how to use him, played him in the halves, lock and 14 at different times. Also possible that he was just over them and needed the change. Whatever it was we have benefited massively.

3. Mann - great try, 26 tackles, 5 tackle breaks, 138m run. Gets better every week, absolutely crucial to our success this year and his experience will be invaluable in finals. Hits like a truck in defence and so smart with ball in hand. 2. Sexton - beautiful combination with Xerri, great...

That’s just it. He was that good and that influential on the game today. I said in the other thread but worth repeating here that defences KNOW what he’s going to do, study him all week, try and negate him any way they can.. and he STILL does it to them. Very few players are that consistently...

Imagine trying to defend him? You look up and see him on the 30m line ready to come at you, you know he’s either going to steamroll you or make you commit and then palm an offload to his winger. You know all this and STILL he carves you up.

Xerri was fantastic today. Ran for 201m, regularly got on the outside of the defence and showed good judgement. JAC and Tracey weren’t in good positions when Xerri made that break (mainly through good Raiders positioning) so it was smart to hold on. He’s lost some of his pace but he was so...

3. Critta. Far from a perfect game, but three of the most elite plays you will ever see. I remember reading an article many years ago about how SBW carried us on his back to a win against the Broncos, that’s what Critta did today because without him I don’t think we win that. 2. Xerri. His best...

We lost the Cowboys, Raiders and Souths games by a total of 10 points. Throw in Storm and Panthers which we lost by a total of 8 points, that’s five games we’ve lost by a total of three converted tries. We win all of those and we are very likely top of the table right now…

This 1000%. He also whacks in defence, never misses and has great technique. He has excellent judgement with ball in hand, he knows instinctively when it’s time to push into the line or when there’s something brewing and needs to link it all up. Just another brilliant example of our...

Even that Walsh try shouldn’t have happened, Burton had him lined up and did some arm grabbing. Someone posted earlier that they’d take Tracey over Walsh any day and I completely agree, Tracey won’t cut a defence apart or kick a 40/20 like Walsh can but Tracey will also never go missing or try a...

Tracey’s vision is what sets him apart. He has great instincts for when to run, when to pass, when to push the sweep play or just hammer it forward. Even within the sweep play he is ready to do something different, there was a play yesterday where it looked like the classic sweep but he threw a...

I watched yesterday’s game with my old man and said I can’t remember enjoying a season as much as this year because I absolutely know we will be competitive until the end. The players are just demanding it of each other. I was laughing out loud at some points because it’s just so joyful to watch...

Math was never my strength.

That was a game of inches and seconds. Hayward gets a finger or two more firmly on the ball and it’s a try or gets a knee to his head half a second earlier and it’s a penalty try. Burton kicks his two misses slightly straighter and we have four more points. Wilson puts his arm on the attacker...

He should have been their bench hooker with Hunt starting and Grant dropped. Grant is not the player he was a few years ago. Hunt always plays out of his skin for QLD and if they’d had Reed come on with 20 minutes to go he’d have put some starch back in their defence and would have been in Leniu...

Reed living his best life

Played 69 minutes today too, 141m run on top of 56 tackles with none missed. What a machine. Always bends the line and looks to offload but has really good judgement about whether to risk it. Love him.

How good was Xerri’s tackle?? Pretty sure it was his miss that sent them downfield but to keep chasing and execute a perfect try saver was pretty impressive, I thought he was great today.

Yep, Preston will really help to put some starch back in the forwards. Hayward tries hard but he’s too small and his knees hit the deck as soon as he’s tackled so his ball playing is wasted.

Starting to agree with this. Sexton hasn’t been great the last few weeks, he is a rocks and diamonds player and there were too many rocks today. Thankfully Hutchison isn’t available, would love to see Hayward get a chance as he’s not impacting enough as a forward.

Man I’d love Mitch Barnett in blue and white. He was massive today, played 82 minutes, 54 tackles and only 2 missed, 5 tackle breaks, 226m run. He’s the type of big bopper prop we desperately need.

The difference is even though we do let in some tries through poor defensive efforts, we don’t let them affect us mentally. The heads don’t drop like they have in seasons past and the tries don’t keep coming. We just reset and keep going.

Especially Kikau. He doesn’t always nail them but having him thundering downfield must put the fear of God into every winger and fullback and he usually does enough to make sure the rest of the defensive line can put the attacker down quickly.

Absolutely spot on. Last night proves we get the best of both worlds with him at 5/8, hands on the ball multiple times every set so his passing game is there, plus his unbelievable kicking game, plus 135m of runs that always threatened their line. He was really good last night and should never...

When it happened my first thought was Kiraz was having a mare of a game at fullback (in attack) but CC trusted Kiraz and Wilson more in the last 15 minutes or so given how close it was. Tough for Skelton but I kind of get it.

If there’s a positive (need to squint pretty hard to see it) it’s that we didn’t get blown away against a good team with probably our worst performance of the year. Roosters were damn good - Walker destroyed us, JWH and Radley belted us, Tedesco and Smith carved us up, May played 80 minutes...

Complete mystery. Even when Hutchison was finally moved to centre he offered nothing, he is just so slow and no-one runs in support because he never passes. Surely Clarke wouldn’t have been worse and we’d have had Burton at 6 all night. Not sure we‘d have won though, given all our errors and...

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke.. Walker is the biggest grub in the game, was nice seeing him get steamrolled by Fifita who then stood over him and screamed at him.

The thing is though, our third man helping stop the offloads is so fit he (whoever he is) is then sprinting back into the line and not breaking our system. There are so many 1% things happening like that at the moment, that’s what Ciraldo means by trusting the system.

Good call. Definitely part of Ciraldo’s defensive system, whenever we have two or three in the tackle the last guy usually is there to wrap up the ball. Parra have a bunch of good offloading forwards and although they got a few away yesterday most of them weren’t to advantage or just dribbled...

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, but did anyone else notice in the presser that Critta called Ciraldo “coach” a few times? Not “Ciro”, not “Cam”. Sign of respect even though they’re obviously close personally. So many little signs like that everywhere you look at the moment.

My favourite moment of the game. Didn’t even react to Mann getting marched, just turned around and said to the boys “right then, let’s go”. He is only 23, unbelievable to be as good as he is and still improving. He will lead us to greatness!

He will definitely stay there while JAC is out, and our depth is such that we can roll Wilson straight into the team and watch him have a cracking game today. We have every position covered by multiple guys, it‘s beautiful to see. Watch our recruitment over the next year too, players will...

Nailed it about the Eels, they are so entitled. Every tackle one of them throws their hands up asking for a non-existent penalty and Gutherson and Moses are constantly in the referee’s ear. The best contrast was Critta when Mann was marched. Just copped it sweet, gave a little raised eyebrow...

Yep, all the talk before the season was how hard he’d been training by himself to keep fit and all credit to him, I love him and hope he stays with us for a long time. He’ll keep his spot while JAC is out, will be interesting to see how both he and Wilson go for the next couple of months. Our...

Good points. I really like Xerri and thought he was excellent in his first few games. Again not saying he’s done anything wrong and with JAC out for a while I’d say both he and Wilson will keep their spots which I am totally fine with.

Unbelievable player and even better leader. Coming off a 5 day turnaround after Origin don’t forget, and turns in his best performance for us yet. Never makes mistakes, threatening with every run, absolute brick wall in defence. Never blows up or looks pissed off, just laser focused on the next...

How does Wilson go at centre? If he goes alright, I suspect if he keeps playing like today he isn’t far off replacing Xerri. As much as I love Xerri and can’t point to anything he’s done wrong, he seems to have plateaued a bit in the last month and it might be worth giving him a stint in NSW Cup...

We’ve seen a few games this year where we know we should have won and had opportunities, but didn’t convert because of inexperience, bad decisions, bad luck, etc. Best thing about that win is that again we had opportunities but this time converted enough of them to win. A win like that is the...

Moses and Gutherson are such whiners, Gutherson still giving the ref a gob full after full time. Nothing more satisfying than seeing Moses’ smug face after a loss.

3. Critta - what a player, generational talent and still so young. I hope he wears blue and white for the next decade. 2. Tracey - burned Parra’s left edge multiple times, such a smart footballer. 1. Burton - rediscovered the nightmare bomb and terrorised them with it. Looked dangerous in attack...

Absolutely phenomenal game from Tracey. His combination with Critta was so awesome to watch and he’s deceptively quick, he burned Parra’s left side almost every time we were in their red zone. He has fullback sewn up for as long as he wants it.

Both Voss and Brandy are painful. They were going on as if the Raiders are world beaters and were flogging us by 30.

Yep. Said this in another thread last week, he doesn’t actually need to do any yardage runs when we have Kiraz, Critta, Kiraz and Tracey who do that really well. He needs to stay fresh and ready on his wing for when we need him.

Two steps back tonight after some real steps forward in the last few weeks. Atrocious handling errors, directionless attack, terrible last tackle options, poor goal kicking… you name it, we messed it up. And yet… we lost by 4 to a team coming off the bye and with the wind in their sails...

We’ve scored four tries now, shame two of them were setting up the Raiders.

It felt like last night was the first game in a while where we didn’t really take any risks, we’ve been increasingly willing to play aggressive attack this season but then we hit the Penrith wall last night. No one can match their game plan, they pin you in your half with fast sets and deep...

Damn, how good is that? Total opposite of the last two or three seasons where we might look ok for the first 30 minutes, let ourselves down with a couple of tries before half time and then capitulate in the second half and lose by a thousand.

Good post, agree with everything except the Tracey comment. The way he accelerated into the corner to create space for Kiraz to score is exactly what we’ve been missing for ages, and what the best fullbacks do. Haven't seen enough of him yet but I give him at least a 50/50 chance of developing...

Absolutely. Allowing only two tries against the Panthers is a massive achievement and yes we gave up way too much ball but still managed to get across the stripe twice. That’s about as good a feeling as you can have after a loss.

That was a good game of footy. Penrith are the benchmark, their defence is sensational and even without Cleary they are stacked with attacking options, how good are Edwards and Yeo? Not to mention JFH, his carries are so good and he plays the ball so quickly, Warriors are damn lucky to be...

Had the exact same thought. He figures if he slots into a top team he only has to do enough to stay in FG rather than having to carry the team and bust his arse every game. Even if he has to take a pay cut he’ll still be bringing in a lazy $16k per week, not bad when he’s only 24. It makes me...

It’s gotta be our recruitment right? I doubt Ciraldo has changed anything about his systems or coaching, but we went after experienced players who either come from great teams (Crichton) or who stood out in poor teams (Mann). I can totally see someone like Mann just going about his business at...

Is Skelton spending any time in the forwards in NSW Cup? If he stays on the wing it‘s hard to see him getting picked in FG over Kiraz or JAC or even Tracey for that matter. If he can play second row then he would surely be a better bench player than Morrin?

Great post. There’s just a sense every week that we’re going to be competitive until the end, even when we let in some points early. The fact that after 9 rounds we are sitting in eight position on the ladder with a +25 points differential (comparable to Brisbane and Manly and not far off...

You don’t often see our guys cramping either which I always reckon is a giveaway of poor fitness.

Yep. Ciraldo knows what he’s doing, I don’t think his system has changed but this group of players has collectively decided they are going to buy in. It shows the value of our recruitment, even a player like Salmon, he might never set the world on fire as a ball playing lock but his defence is...

The game went racing past him while he was in England. Everything he does is slow. All he did today was complain constantly for penalties.

It’s definitely not his strength. We‘re lucky this year that we don’t really need any yardage metres from him, Tracy/Xerri/Critta/Kiraz give us plenty. JAC should keep himself out of yardage so he’s ready in attack.

Positives for me today: - Winning ugly. Opposite of the Roosters game, ordinary first half but switched on in the second. In previous seasons we lose that game by a lot. - Kikau. I will keep saying it, we are so fortunate to have him at the peak of his career, he is essentially a perfect...

JAC was poor today, you’d think he’d be fresh after a week off early in the season but he just looks knackered. Possibly carrying a niggle, I am guessing his shoulder is still a bit busted.

I desperately want to rate Morrin but man his hit ups are ineffective. Haven’t looked at his stats so happy to be proven wrong but I would guess his post contact metres would be pretty low compared to other props, he just isn‘t big enough and gets stopped in his tracks more often than not, and...

I thought she was as fair a ref as we’ve had in a long time. We could argue a couple of calls (Sezer not being sin binned for one) but overall I thought she managed a tense game pretty well. I can imagine the NRL calling all coaches this week to remind their players that mouthing off to a female...

Exactly. According to the NRL a missed tackle is when the "defensive player does not bring player to ground or complete the tackle". So I think that means if say Mahoney hits an attacker first and slows him down but falls off or doesn't jump back into the tackle before the referee calls held...

Yep, doesn’t hurt that Fox looks like he is on every type of steroid either, how can a guy that bulky up top run that fast? The other defensive effort that is just out of this world is Kikau. Makes it his personal mission to lead every kick chase and rarely misses, imagine the sound of him...

Spot on. Look at Fox - how many miracle intercepts did he go for in our defensive 20m last year out of either desperation or just not knowing what to do? Has he even done that once this year?

It’s also because missed tackles are a completely misleading stat. They don’t reflect the impact of a missed tackle on bringing the attacker down, or slowing him down enough for other defenders to take him. This is why the nonsense about Mahoney’s number of missed tackles drives me so crazy...

Agree with this. With Patolo gone for a while I reckon Ciraldo goes with: - Hughes and King starting props - Bench of Mann, Morrin, Taaffe and one of Kautoga/Knight/Faamausili/Tetevano. - We also have Sutton and Suluka-Fifita to come back from injury at some point.

Spot on. Burton is a confidence player, when he’s on he’s unstoppable and when he’s not he goes missing and into his shell. Today you could just tell he could smell blood and his confidence was up, he just looked so much sharper and ran for 70m. Couple of errors and missed tackles but he is...

While we keep playing like this I suspect Hutchison stays and Taaffe is on the bench to come on and play 7 only when we need him. Ciraldo is squeezing every last bit of effort and ability out of our list at the moment and switching halfbacks is a risky move. Taaffe came on for Hutchison today I...

So many things to like about today: - Our forwards once again playing way above expectations. Patolo gone after 10 seconds and we don’t even blink, Hughes comes straight on and scores. - Our bench punching miles above its weight. - Critta screaming at the boys to keep them out with three...

Ciraldo did this with Hughes too. Hughes was getting 10-15 minutes max for the first few rounds and then in the last two rounds he's up to playing 40 minutes and looking really good. I wonder if Ciraldo just does this with new/young props, he wants to ease them into their role for a few weeks...

As much as Kiraz might want to play centre, look at him last night when back on the wing - 303m run and 6 tackle busts, he was in total beast mode. He is a winger any day of the week.

Great post. We don't need more yardage backs when Kiraz can run 300m and Tracey, Critta and Xerri can also pitch in. JAC is money well spent when as you say he can burn pretty much any opposition if he gets room on the outside. And when he has guys like Burton, Kikau and Xerri feeding him good...

Xerri was awesome. Most impressive for me was actually when he dropped the ball. No excuses, didn't look to the ref for a penalty, just got up and owned it and then took the first hit up of our next set. The guy is clearly so grateful to be playing footy again, absolute masterstroke by Gus to...

Yep absolutely. Taaffe has shown enough and has experience as a halfback, and Tracey was a rockstar last night, so safe under high balls, strong carries, has pace to burn, he has been really impressive every game but took it to another level last night. You're right about Crichton too I reckon...

He was fantastic. Tracey and Taaffe both playing well and with confidence together will be awesome to watch. Xerri was also awesome tonight. He’s been feeling his way in earlier games which is fine, but he remembered how to play like he used to tonight, he will be a gun again and tonight locked...

Haha yeah I get you, you’re totally right though that Critta was off tonight and I really think it’s because we haven’t worked out how to best use him yet. It’ll come.

Not sure about that when Hutchison is also part of the backline… but we seem unsure how to use Critta at the moment. He is a world class player but currently he’s doing way too much yardage (which he is awesome at by the way), we are not using him in attacking positions at all. His defence was...

This exactly. Crichton putting in short ineffective kicks on the last happened way too many times, that is not his game but probably felt he needed to do it while ever Hutchison is in the team as he offers so little in attack.

Kikau, Burton and Mann definitely our best three as most are saying.. but a few honourable mentions: - Hughes: finally got some minutes and looked really good, 45 minutes for 124m run, really bent the line. - Taaffe: confidence is growing, he was very good until Young cleaned his clock. - King...

I’d say three things explain that second half: 1. As you say, we just forgot how to play when 26 points in front at halftime. Most of our team have not experienced that in FG. 2. A bit of complacency to start the second half, some of the boys fell for the old trap of racking the cue and we went...