¬ Your Thoughts On The Game ? (panthers V bulldogs)

[cookieman909]

First half was poor, second half was solid. My main concern is our line speed, hopefully that will come. Reynolds went well, one thing I hate bout him is when he runs outta the line n misses, ****s me!!! Graham was, WOW! He's tough, makes good meters, good ball playing skills. Our defense was outstanding. Lots of room for improvement, But very excited for the year ahead!

 

[WestieDog]

I feel Barba's greatest problems with the high ball are that he's not getting the support of his first line pressuring the kicker and he is not getting enough of a screen against the chasers. Taking those balls becomes a confidence issue, and he isn't getting the consistency of help he needs - tending to second-guess a lot.

Also - Graham is a MACHINE!

 

[Woods]

Did anyone else notice Reynolds couldnt stick to a ****ing tackle he kept charging through for a big hit and never landed one all game ive never seen a player run so fast out of the tv screen lol

 

[Chicharito]

Did anyone else notice Reynolds couldnt stick to a ****ing tackle he kept charging through for a big hit and never landed one all game ive never seen a player run so fast out of the tv screen lol

gotta love his enthusiasm though

 

[Pa-28]

My thoughts:

Our line speed in defence was the best I have seen it for some time. We were actually sprinting up off our own goal line and putting lots of pressure on the Panthers.

Graham was outstanding. Should be starting next week and looks like he could be an 80 minute player in the forwards like Gallen.

Josh Reynolds needs to realize he is not SBW in regards to shoulder charges. Control your enthusiasm

We looked a lot more dangerous when Romelo was scooting out of dummy half. Maybe Ennis is not an 80 minute player.

Tolman and Stagg should never be on the field at the same time. We get absolutely no go forward from both of these guys.

Our kicking game was very average, both Reynolds and Hodkinson are not long kickers of the ball and we will struggle to get out of our own end if they remain in the halves.

Given the conditions I won't say much about the attacking structure but it's the same as last year the halves need to take control inside the opposition 20 and work on getting early ball to our outside men.

 

[Mr Invisible]

Did anyone else notice Reynolds couldnt stick to a ****ing tackle he kept charging through for a big hit and never landed one all game ive never seen a player run so fast out of the tv screen lol

Hasler will tear him a new one if that continues much longer. Rushing out like that is good if you hit, bad if you don't, because it opens up a big hole in your defence. Reynolds does this even in NSW Cup, so it's a trait in his game. That said my concern is if he does hit a big bloke he may get injured. Leave the big hits to Romelo and our big boppers, and he can concentrate on his halves pairing with Hodko.

Encouraging signs from last night though a few things I thought:

1. Wright is not polished enough for first grade. He's had many chances and whilst shows glimpses of ability, he's far too mistake prone to depend on. Over-ran an easy ball last night that would have put him under the goalposts. I feel he's just holding that position until Lafai is more match fit, or Dougs is ready.

2. Ennis is SO predictable. When Romelo came on we scored within a few touches. Our speed around the ruck was much faster and we looked threatening. Ennis comes on and it's one man out garbage again. That said Romelo REALLY needs to be careful about his line passing, as a few went forward last night. Love Romelos enthusiasm though. Oh and Ennis .. 3 penalties against him *sigh*.

3. Eastwood and Payne are starting to come alive again. Heres hoping they are coming into form.

4. Halatau and Stagg are running some really nice lines. Good to see.

5. Pritchard and Graham are absolute beasts.

6. Barba needs greater protection under the high ball. At the moment fast opposition backs are pressuring him.

7. Kasiano needs more match fitness. Came on last night and was shot after a 10 minute stint.

8. Beastwood playing a lock for part of last night?

 

[Alan79]

My thoughts:

Our kicking game was very average, both Reynolds and Hodkinson are not long kickers of the ball and we will struggle to get out of our own end if they remain in the halves.

Hodkinson managed a couple of 40/20's in a match when Dymock took over coaching so maybe it's part of the game plan. The side might be trying to keep a good defensive line against kick returns by doing shorter kicks.

Aside from that the wet weather wouldn't have helped with long kicking either. I'll give it more time before condemning their long kicking games.

 

[jpneves]

Even though the team won. Hasler was not impressed. Ball control and the silly penalties will be rectified as these are things Hasler demands. The conditions were not great so hard to really analyze. Think a dry track and a match fit Hodkinson and Ennis will go a long way

 

[Dognacious]

I feel Barba's greatest problems with the high ball are that he's not getting the support of his first line pressuring the kicker and he is not getting enough of a screen against the chasers. Taking those balls becomes a confidence issue, and he isn't getting the consistency of help he needs - tending to second-guess a lot.Also - Graham is a MACHINE!

Yeh i found myself thinking gee Walsh seems to have all day to put up his bombs. Could be wet conditions making it harder to rush out of the line and chase the kicker down. dont know. Something to work on. The bombing game is something Penrith are good at, and if they didnt have it, they would never score any points. It was them last year that started the rot with us being bombed all day by teams after showing weakness under them vs Penrith. We have Des Hasler as coach and ppl seem to continue to think that the way to fix problems is replace players rather than coach them. Thats a retarded way of thinking after just one round. Last year doesnt count for sh1t any more btw. And i keep hearing ppl in various threads complaining about line speed. You arent going to get the best line speed in the sloppy conditions.

 

[Dognacious]

Hasler will tear him a new one if that continues much longer. Rushing out like that is good if you hit, bad if you don't, because it opens up a big hole in your defence. Reynolds does this even in NSW Cup, so it's a trait in his game. That said my concern is if he does hit a big bloke he may get injured. Leave the big hits to Romelo and our big boppers, and he can concentrate on his halves pairing with Hodko.Encouraging signs from last night though a few things I thought:1. Wright is not polished enough for first grade. He's had many chances and whilst shows glimpses of ability, he's far too mistake prone to depend on. Over-ran an easy ball last night that would have put him under the goalposts. I feel he's just holding that position until Lafai is more match fit, or Dougs is ready.2. Ennis is SO predictable. When Romelo came on we scored within a few touches. Our speed around the ruck was much faster and we looked threatening. Ennis comes on and it's one man out garbage again. That said Romelo REALLY needs to be careful about his line passing, as a few went forward last night. Love Romelos enthusiasm though. Oh and Ennis .. 3 penalties against him *sigh*.3. Eastwood and Payne are starting to come alive again. Heres hoping they are coming into form.4. Halatau and Stagg are running some really nice lines. Good to see.5. Pritchard and Graham are absolute beasts.6. Barba needs greater protection under the high ball. At the moment fast opposition backs are pressuring him.7. Kasiano needs more match fitness. Came on last night and was shot after a 10 minute stint.8. Beastwood playing a lock for part of last night?

Pretty spot on but think u are being a bit harsh on Ennis. He is obviously way under done. He didnt play SOO last year because he was predictable or no good, and i think given a little time he will find that form again. Reynolds was good at some things are pretty retarded in others. A number of times he flew out of the blocks in defence to wipe out a player and completely misses and ended up 20m behind the Penrith team and left big holes on our defensive line. Lucky Penrith were too rubbsih to take advantage of it, other teams will so des needs to settle the kid down.

 

[Big_Dawg]

Hell yes

Did anyone else notice Reynolds couldnt stick to a ****ing tackle he kept charging through for a big hit and never landed one all game ive never seen a player run so fast out of the tv screen lol

I definately noticed the guy thinks he put on shots but he cant even aim, even if he was to hit one he would end up hurting himself even more!!!
He needs to be sacked and bring in Romelo #6 his defence is excellent and can create spark exactly what we need

 

[Big_Dawg]

So no one has mentioned hodkinson lack of involvement ?
I reckon des will end up with Reynolds and Romelo in the halves
They were both outstanding tonight

are you guys sure use r watching the same game Reynolds is an idiot!!!!!!!!! sure he scored a try big whoop. The amount of times he tried to put a shot on and failed was ridiculous and a crucial miss off the kick off almost cost us the game he is a dim wit and needs to be dropped bring on Romelo. And what you guys are saying about Hodkinson is unfair, he was played on left last night not his natural game he was swaped back to the right at the end of the game for a reason.

 

[Big_Dawg]

Hasler will tear him a new one if that continues much longer. Rushing out like that is good if you hit, bad if you don't, because it opens up a big hole in your defence. Reynolds does this even in NSW Cup, so it's a trait in his game. That said my concern is if he does hit a big bloke he may get injured. Leave the big hits to Romelo and our big boppers, and he can concentrate on his halves pairing with Hodko.

Encouraging signs from last night though a few things I thought:

1. Wright is not polished enough for first grade. He's had many chances and whilst shows glimpses of ability, he's far too mistake prone to depend on. Over-ran an easy ball last night that would have put him under the goalposts. I feel he's just holding that position until Lafai is more match fit, or Dougs is ready.

2. Ennis is SO predictable. When Romelo came on we scored within a few touches. Our speed around the ruck was much faster and we looked threatening. Ennis comes on and it's one man out garbage again. That said Romelo REALLY needs to be careful about his line passing, as a few went forward last night. Love Romelos enthusiasm though. Oh and Ennis .. 3 penalties against him *sigh*.

3. Eastwood and Payne are starting to come alive again. Heres hoping they are coming into form.


4. Halatau and Stagg are running some really nice lines. Good to see.

5. Pritchard and Graham are absolute beasts.

6. Barba needs greater protection under the high ball. At the moment fast opposition backs are pressuring him.

7. Kasiano needs more match fitness. Came on last night and was shot after a 10 minute stint.

8. Beastwood playing a lock for part of last night?

I totally agree with you about Jono Wright he is shocking! he has no idea how to play , he can't tackle, can't run and can't catch! Who saw him do that dum dum play on last tackle it was embarrassing

 

[Big_Dawg]

Thought we went to Morris' side of the field a little bit too much. Hardly saw Wright or Turner get the ball on the run...maybe it is something we could work on during the year, as I do understand our strike players are all on the left in Hodkinson, Pritchard and Morris.

Umm yeah why would you spread the ball to jono wright he is hopeless!!!!! bring in mcdougall i went to the trials and the boy can tackle what we need out on the right especially if they persist with reynolds out there

 

[Spaz]

Some good signs last night considering the ugly conditions. Penalties conceeded were way too high, if we were playing the Dragons , Manly or Storm ,we could have got spanked. Graham is a beast, has to start next week for mine. Id be resting Tolman if he isnt 100% and give Tapau a run. Romelo looked better than Ennis when he was on. Halatau is also killing it, should be strong if he stays fit. Reynolds has his place, but needs to not run out of the line for a big hit every 5 seconds. Pritchard looks like a monster, hope he doesnt miss next week as there was nothing in his tackle. Im excited. We can only get better.

 

[habibsta]

First half i though "oh no, here we go again" Second half was better, of course! but i'm not convinced just yet. More interested in everyone elses thoughts on the dogs game tonight ?????????
Still, happy the Footy season is back! Go Doggies!

1. AMAZING defence especially goal line penriths two flukey tries are all they had to show for it and we held them scorless for 60 mins
2. Most tackles were two in a tackle turning the player on there back and slowing the play down Halatau outstanding
3. Goal line last year we pretty much assumed try how about Barba holding up Clinton
4. The structure in attack is very flat which suits Graham, Pritchard and Eastwood as they have footwork and offloads.
5. Attitude NEVER dropped there heads like last year
6. Mistakes were there for EVERY team this weekend do none of you understand the affect of water on a footy we made three more than Penrith
7. The Penalties were very crowd orientated if you were there you would of understood
8. Rotating ENNIS fantastic gives him a beather and to come back fresher
9. WE ALWAYS StRUGGLE AGAINST PENRITH especially at Penrith last time we beat them there was when had that great season in 2009 even though we just won and had the points stripped

Only dissapointing thing last night was the kicking barring the short kicking online Seeing all games so far were on target thing will need to improve but there are no teams i saw play that i would fear the dogs playing

 

[doggieaaron]

probably the first time in a long time i could actually relax when penrith were on our line,des has certainly fixed our defensive structure,rolled them on their back and wrapped the ball up everytime.only concern i had was luke walsh had so much time to put bombs up(no pressure on kicker)which is part of reason barba has problems.morris had an off game he will come good hes a class player ,wright has to go,i think reynolds is a bit of a loose cannon sometimes ,he is also a talent which i think des will mould into a top 5/8 and we need to be patient and give him time.At manly des moulded alot of players that were pretty average into very good players.cut our mistakes out and look out.

 

[Chris Harding]

Our defence was the most pleasing aspect. I can't recall a single line break by the Panthers; their tries came from us fumbling a slippery ball in wet conditions.
Glad it wasn't Manly or the Warriors we were playing.

The "never give up" attitude, and lack of panic when behind is something I'm glad to see back in the side - it will hold us in good stead when we meet the tougher teams.

 

[_BT_]

Lots of bagging on a guy who hasn't played in over 6 months. FFS

 

[Captain Kickass]

I thought we were very courageous ... we did a lot of what good football teams do.
We could've packed it in after going down 12-0, but no-siree-BOB ... we stuck to our guns in sh*tty conditions and pressured them into multiple mistakes to get back into it.

Think of it this way ...
- After they scored the first two (scrappy) tries, we out-scored them 22-2 (for tries to none) in the last hour of football.
- None of their tries were off line-breaks.

It was ugly, but we ground it out, and systematically choked the life out of them.

On the players, I thought Guvna Graham with his 40 tackles + dozen hit-ups, was just EPIC numbers.

Joel Romelo looked like the pre-season has done him the world of good (that being said, had those two forward passes been called, you'd all be screaming for him to go to NSW Cup ... so I'll acknowledge he was a little lucky). Bummer he never go the try eh ?

I like how Stagg runs in attack these days, as opposed to just making 60 tackles ... Barba looked crisp .... Eastwood looked fantastic and tackled a few with extra starch !

I'm confident going in against the Dragons. Our games against them follow the same pattern. They score early, and hold us out as we peg their advantage back. We've lost a couple of close ones against them recently (video ref at Kogarah in '09 and SCG intercept last year come to mind as games where we were nearabouts). The core of the squads has been the same the last 3 seasons. The longer the game goes, the more likely we'll run 'em down.

It'd be nice to score first and disrupt their shizz ... that'd make life interesting, especially once they start b*tching among each other.