Wonder if he'll be given the rest of the season off to get it properly right?
Pick Your Team Pick Your Team 2018 Rnd 23 - Bulldogs vs Warriors
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Wonder if he'll be given the rest of the season off to get it properly right?
Glad it didn't stop him taking on the line against the Knights.
Not sure what Hiku's inclusion was about tbh.
But how good would it be to win comfortably against the Bulldogs then thump the Panthers and have a good tough workout against the Raiders to get ready for the finals.
Agreed. Having Blair Harris Mannering Papali'i and Pulu all fit and in form is important.
Their rotation means having the ability to swarm defensively throughout the game. And Blair has a good pass in him but Tohu Harris is a ball playing big fulla which is gold on the right edge because he attracts the defenders in x1 position in turn creating multiple try scoring opportunities for our man Mr. Fusitu'a.
Punch on both sides from your edge backrowers is hugely important, and we havn't had that since the Pulu/Harris combo was broken up way back when. Papali'i and Blair are both locks and don't put the defence in two minds when they hit a short ball as they're not fast or dynamic enough on their feet. To be a threat in the finals we really needed Pulu and Harris fit and firing leading in, which now looks pretty unlikely.
The likes of cordner, frizell, kaufusi, kikau etc. make such a huge difference to the attack of their sides, and create that extra space outside them to work with.
I feel a lot of our staleness in attack atm stems from who we currently have as our edge backrowers. Hopefully we can atleast get Harris back on the right and fit for Penrith, because he wouldn't have spent much time with Beale like he has with Hiku.
The likes of cordner, frizell, kaufusi, kikau etc. make such a huge difference to the attack of their sides, and create that extra space outside them to work with.
I feel a lot of our staleness in attack atm stems from who we currently have as our edge backrowers. Hopefully we can atleast get Harris back on the right and fit for Penrith, because he wouldn't have spent much time with Beale like he has with Hiku.
Gee all these games against the lower eight....its sobering how many times the top eight contender losses.
Watching the Dogs the only worry is their forwards, and it is a pretty big concern.
Thankfully when our back five pull finger they're a reasonable foil for the forwards.
Watching the Dogs the only worry is their forwards, and it is a pretty big concern.
Thankfully when our back five pull finger they're a reasonable foil for the forwards.
i have concerned that they are going to clock off, even Blake Green indicated that they were please to finally get to 28 points which sounds like they may relax somewhat
Seems to be affecting all the teams.
Teams that you wouldn't expect to clock off or play stupid (I am thinking of Melbourne's disgraceful start against the Sharks most recent example.
The opportunity is there for the Warriors to seize the initiative and be the team that is gunning for it...like they did at the start of the year..except this the time to do it.
The Roosters and Rabbits on the other hand look pretty serious all in all.
That will be the biggest indicator of if we are contenders is if we can win the games we should win and not take the opposition lightly.
I know a few people felt we should have thrashed the Knights but I was impressed how patiently we played and how well we controlled that game which in previous years may have been a banana skin.
The Roosters are looking the most composed but the Tigers showed how to rattle the bunnies, the rest have been patchy.
ToiletDuck
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Have to beat the Dogs here. Absolutely no excuses. Team should be relatively settled, spine is fit. Dogs have not a lot to play for other than avoiding the spoon and have been rubbish all year.
If we can't get up for this then we will exit week one of the finals no question.
If we can't get up for this then we will exit week one of the finals no question.
Nice to finally agree with you Mr. Duck.
At our best we can beat everyone.
Being at our best is the challenge.
I honestly think we can win this comp. It is just a top 4 for finish makes it soooo much easier. I think we may struggle if we need to win 4 finals games
The Dogs pack isn't the land of giants it used to be. We've beaten bigger packs into submission this year. Their backline is filled with inexperienced youngsters who shouldn't be playing first grade and oldies past their prime like Morris and Hopoate. Simply put, they just don't have the ammunition to beat us. The only way we fuck this up is if we turn up with a shit attitude. If we turn up with the last few weeks attitude and keep building as we have done over the last 2 weeks, this should be a 13+ win for us. Game plan has to be similar to last week. Use our back 5 and our hard running forwards to beat the Dogs pack into submission and get them tired from tackling like we did against the Knights. Then expose their inexperience on the edges. Going down Kerrod Holland's edge has been a gold mine for sides against the Dogs and if our edge finally get it together Fusitua will have a field day. Lachlan Lewis is talented but also young, inexperienced and can be a liability in defence. We need to send Blair down to terrorise him just like he did with Widdop against the Dragons.
Pulu out would be a big blow. Surely Tohu Harris isn't too far off - was just a 2-3 week injury wasn't it? At least he will be fresh and ready to tear in when he gets back. Gee it'd be nice to roll our best 1-17 out ONCE before the finals though haha.
I've accepted Jazz as our bench utility too. As long as he's only running out of dummy half while Luke is on and not being forced into hooker fully, he's a handy player. I watched him very closely this week and he was really troubling the Knights with both attack and defence. Grasscutters and Judo throws all day.
I've accepted Jazz as our bench utility too. As long as he's only running out of dummy half while Luke is on and not being forced into hooker fully, he's a handy player. I watched him very closely this week and he was really troubling the Knights with both attack and defence. Grasscutters and Judo throws all day.
It appears Pulu's recurrence of his foot sore sore isn't as bad as first thought.
But I'd still use him sparingly given both Blair and Papali'i can punch out 80min if we're dominating.
Or perhaps give Vuna another chance on the bench to give Tohu Harris and Pulu more time.
If they are ready I'd run them both against the Panthers and Raiders in prep for the finals.
I'm hoping that SK Stacey and Cappy have an attack strategy they've been saving for the finals lol.
Probs wrong thread but can anyone supply some helpful information on getting to ANZ stadium from Moore Park?
We are going over for the Bledisloe / Warriors double
We are going over for the Bledisloe / Warriors double
Eh.......have you watched much of Hopoate? He's been pretty good in a shite team. If he's an oldy past his prime at 26 then we should be shipping out Luke, Shaun Johnson, Blair, Green etc asap because 3 of those 4 are at least half a decade older. Slater and Smith? 10 years past their prime these days, it's why they've been so embarrassing to watch over the past few years (I mean between them they only currently hold the following individual awards, Dally M Player, Dally M Captain, Dally M Hooker, Dally M Fullback, Clive Churchill Medallist and State of Origin Player of the series - should have rode off into the sunset long ago).
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