Post Match Dolphins v Warriors - [Round 11, 2025]

[SJ2k]

I feel like you almost want to be the heavily penalised team and try not give away many points in the first half. Because of the way the officials second half square up and the momentum that comes with the current game. You're almost guaranteed a second half wet sail home unless your are shite.

I feel like it's been pretty clear for a while the best teams have this figured out. Panthers and Storm will push offside and the ruck incredibly hard in their own half at the start of the game. If the ref lets them which they sometimes do, it's over for the other team. If they get pinged they just infringe the shit out of their own goal line combined with a good defense and don't leak many points. By half time penalty count is heavily against them, they get the rub of the green in second half and it's over for the other team again. Key is being able to defend your line like that, but being offside and slowing the ruck obviously pays massive dividens there. They're also priviledged about not getting binned quickly for repeat infringments on the line.

The refs will only blow so many penalties against a team in almost any game, so just push the rules very hard but very smart. Penrith and the Storm are incredibly good at it.

---

Pompey might be our most improved player this year. Dudes been moved back and forth all year, just super solid. No issues marking up against stars. Should probably be kicking the goals too. Clearly our first choice centre at this point. Berry a very distant 3rd that can't stay healthy. If we replaced Berry with a marquee center it would transform our team. Ideally CNK with a dynamic fullback. Imagine if we had Hammer/Herbie, who we could totally afford at this point. We'd turn into genuine contenders. CNK is doing his best, but watching drinkwater and hammer just open the game up from the back two weeks in a row has me frothing.

 

[Noitall]

JFH doesn't have the get out of jail free card of playing for New South Wales though

Origin star Crichton learns fate after high shot on Rooster

Less than two weeks out from series-opener

wwos.nine.com.au

Will be interesting to see, I think the decision for Crichton sets a precedent for JFH if a good lawyer argues it

 

[Noitall]

If we are finding it hard to score points then I think you’re never going to win games against good attacking teams such as Melbourne

If we let any team score 42 points, we’ll struggle to win. Defence wins games more than attack in my view but attack will get better with cohesion to combinations, we’ve had plenty of injuries in the backline to hinder combinations

 

[Bay39er]

If we are finding it hard to score points then I think you’re never going to win games against good attacking teams such as Melbourne

If you had said good defensive teams then your derision of our attack may have been more appropriate

 

[Damo]

Origin star Crichton learns fate after high shot on Rooster

Less than two weeks out from series-opener

wwos.nine.com.au

Will be interesting to see, I think the decision for Crichton sets a precedent for JFH if a good lawyer argues it

Crichtons was a lot lighter contact than Fisher-Harris unfortunately

 

[juju]

factoring in our remaining byes. we're 8 / 10 points (4 to 5 wins) away locking in top 8.

 

[Wrighty]

When do we find out the charges to JFH from the game? Tomorrow morning?

 

[Damo]

When do we find out the charges to JFH from the game? Tomorrow morning?

Usually around 10 - 11am NZT

 

[Warriorsfan92]

Marata in career best form. It’s frustrating though, like where was this when you were on a massive wicket the last 3 years? Just so happens he’s off contract & playing out of his skin. I’d re sign him but a hugely decreased salary for his lack of output the last few years. His last month has been immense though, as a damaging bench middle & strike edge, which is what we purchased him for years ago

 

[Wellington Taniwha]

One thing I kept saying when watching the game last night was "how many times do we keep putting players on the deck!" Just seemed like every tackle we were putting them on thier arse.

I was noticing this too. And putting them on their back. It really slows their attack and gives us to to reset. And when we are attacking we’re always trying to roll forward steal a couple of metres

Who’s our defence coach? Massive improvement this year. And they look comfortable. Looks of talk to organise

 

[Noitall]

Crichtons was a lot lighter contact than Fisher-Harris unfortunately

Might be some mitigating factors between the two, but Collins lying on the ground with the tackle looking completed is more of a dog shot I reckon. Crichton knew he’d done wrong straight away reaching for Collins head to show remorse

 

[Wellington Taniwha]

If we let any team score 42 points, we’ll struggle to win. Defence wins games more than attack in my view but attack will get better with cohesion to combinations, we’ve had plenty of injuries in the backline to hinder combinations

The attack will look after itself. If you have a wall which no one can breach it just puts pressure on the other team to try miracles. We have been beaten by two very good teams and I think we’ll struggle against sharks bulldogs but trust the process and be in with a chance. We’re showing true grit this year.

 

[Wrighty]

Marata in career best form. It’s frustrating though, like where was this when you were on a massive wicket the last 3 years? Just so happens he’s off contract & playing out of his skin. I’d re sign him but a hugely decreased salary for his lack of output the last few years. His last month has been immense though, as a damaging bench middle & strike edge, which is what we purchased him for years ago

He played great. And his try was huge in the context.
When Capewell comes back to the forwards a bit of dilemma whether to play Marata at edge or middle given he is going well in both.

 

[sydneywarrior92]

1 - I thought the Dolphins were clueless in attack, slow, disjointed and didn’t look threatening at all. Perhaps we caused that with a defensive wall but they seemed lost until they started throwing it around in the last few minutes. Clear bottom 8 team that we put away as we should have.

2 - JFH seemed fired up during the game, mouthy at times and in the thick of things. Great to see the attitude and swagger. What our team of ‘good guys’ in the past has missing. The fire that drives on excellence.

3 - thought JFH send off wasn’t too bad. Turned the shoulder a bit but not as forceful as others. Tired play because of exhaustion rather than bad technique.

4 - despite the defensive brilliance, I think there’s still lots of improvement in our attack. Still opportunistic tries without ‘creating’ tries and setting up players into holes.

Regarding 1, everyone on the pre-game thread was stressing out about the Dolphin's silky spine. They put 40+ on the storm and 30 on the Raiders, two of the other top 4 teams, so they really can pile on the pts on even the best defenses when they are on. So all things considered, keeping them scoreless for 73 minutes is rather remarkable. Best defensive performance of the year by a country mile.

Regarding 2, there's a penrith panthers documentary series that goes through the premiership defense years (2022, 2023). JFH features a lot and is shown to get into the opposition heads constantly during matches. He really got to NAS during the 2023 prelim where the Storm kind of fell apart completely. He did the same thing to Kaufusi and Molo yesterday. Winning the psychological battle is as important as the physical one when it comes to the middle. Glad we have a master of it now co-leading our side.

Regarding 3, I agree and believe it will get better. But I also don't think we need to have a storm like attacking shape to be competitive this year. 2016 Cronulla side wasn't flashy and won a lot of games by 14-8. Never had the flair of the storm but ground them into the dust in the GF through their gritty style. I think 2025 is the same. It isn't a fluke that teams 1 and 2 are dogs and us, whereas more flashy teams (ie broncos, cowboys, manly) are all sitting well below us. The Penrith system, whilst boring to watch for a neutral observer, has been shown to work under the current rules.

 

[shuffle]

Mate he's making a huge impact! He looks every bit of 300 gamer to me!

The both of them do! The club could build them up to be legends here!

 

[wizard of Tauranga]

2016 Cronulla side wasn't flashy and won a lot of games by 14-8. Never had the flair of the storm but ground them into the dust in the GF through their gritty style.

I had been thinking of the Sharks premiership comparison and think it’s very apt.

The only thing is everyone hated the Sharks with the attitude and it did a lot of long damage to the brand - even today, still hate those Sharks

I really want our attack to click and be a more well rounded team.

 

[John Nick]

Regarding 1, everyone on the pre-game thread was stressing out about the Dolphin's silky spine. They put 40+ on the storm and 30 on the Raiders, two of the other top 4 teams, so they really can pile on the pts on even the best defenses when they are on. So all things considered, keeping them scoreless for 73 minutes is rather remarkable. Best defensive performance of the year by a country mile.

Regarding 2, there's a penrith panthers documentary series that goes through the premiership defense years (2022, 2023). JFH features a lot and is shown to get into the opposition heads constantly during matches. He really got to NAS during the 2023 prelim where the Storm kind of fell apart completely. He did the same thing to Kaufusi and Molo yesterday. Winning the psychological battle is as important as the physical one when it comes to the middle. Glad we have a master of it now co-leading our side.

Regarding 3, I agree and believe it will get better. But I also don't think we need to have a storm like attacking shape to be competitive this year. 2016 Cronulla side wasn't flashy and won a lot of games by 14-8. Never had the flair of the storm but ground them into the dust in the GF through their gritty style. I think 2025 is the same. It isn't a fluke that teams 1 and 2 are dogs and us, whereas more flashy teams (ie broncos, cowboys, manly) are all sitting well below us. The Penrith system, whilst boring to watch for a neutral observer, has been shown to work under the current rules.

Whilst our attack needs to improve it actually is improving.
Comp is not won at this time of the season.
Make sure we are in the 8 and as high as possible and hopefully our attack will be firing.

 

[Wrighty]

Throwaway comment
I thought TSS did very well in his first big interview. Very composed and intelligent answers.

 

[The Undertaker]

If we defend like that every week, we win 90% of games. I thought the second half ruck penalties / six again calls were harsh on us compared to Dolphins who arguably were slower than us clearing the ruck.

We had the game iced at 16-0. JFH had a rush of blood but I thought the ball and his own arm hit his head not JFH…

 

[Wrighty]

JFH finding his club being 2nd on the ladder after 11 rounds is business as usual as far as he is concerned.