Post Match Rd 5 Rabbits Beat Warriors 24-22: Mom + Post Match Talk

[fanrrior]

It's not often I feel positive about our performance despite losing the match.

 

[Danpatmac]

It's not often I feel positive about our performance despite losing the match.

When you've had to eat up as much crap as we have recently the taste of this loss is like fine cuisine in comparison...

 

[fizurg]

Yeah, I don't like it but at this point I'm prepared to take a good loss.

 

[Matulino's Left Shoulder]

It's not often I feel positive about our performance despite losing the match.

Thats how I felt after the 8-10 Broncos game in 2012. And we all know what happened after that.

 

[wallacenz]

Laumape for me, this guy is impressive

 

[Matulino's Left Shoulder]

Beat the Raiders away (LOL)
Lose to Storm away
Beat the Titans at home

3-5 going into Bulldogs in Wellington. Thats a big hole to climb out of.

 

[fanrrior]

I think we could beat the Storm tbh. For whatever reason they just play badly when they come up against us.

 

[Wigan Warrior]

Was trying to avoid the score to watch later and came across it whilst looking for the U20 score (hate when that happens).

Whilst only losing by 2 points is a good result, I can't help but go back to what I said at the start of the season that having no recognised goal kicker will cost us dear. You could argue it has already attributed to 2 of our defeats now.

 

[MarkW]

Gave the points to Mannering based on his stats not his mad kicking skillz.

 

[¿N. ig-mah¿]

I think we could beat the Storm tbh. For whatever reason they just play badly when they come up against us.

Matty Johns summed up why we tend to outplay the Storm. They are used to every other team trying to "out-Storm the Storm", whereas we just play our own game, which they are not used to dealing with.

 

[Matulino's Left Shoulder]

I think we could beat the Storm tbh. For whatever reason they just play badly when they come up against us.

So says everyone and yet 0-2 last year.

 

[Inruin]

I went Mateo. I thought he was very good today, still not near his best but good offloads, metres and effort.
If we play like that against most teams we will come up with a fair few wins this season (intercept tries aside) Our attack looks fantastic when we get that structure right. I thought everyone had fairly good games. Locke, Laumape (this kid is the goods), even Tupou. If Shaun Johnson and TL (think Godinet and TLneed to switch roles) can get our kicking game under control we will be unstoppable. The amount of times we had momentum and had a really poor kick put in to finish it off was ridiculous. And on the flip side Reynolds was a machine.
Well done M.E. we are starting to see some real signs of improvement and hope.

I actually picked us to win this game. Unfortunately we came up just short. Got me well on board the bus though. Not just on board, I'll collect the tickets, give tour guides, change any flat tires, whatever they need.

 

[Wigan Warrior]

So says everyone and yet 0-2 last year.

They were far from the walkovers they should have been though

 

[¿N. ig-mah¿]

Was trying to avoid the score to watch later and came across it whilst looking for the U20 score (hate when that happens).

Whilst only losing by 2 points is a good result, I can't help but go back to what I said at the start of the season that having no recognised goal kicker will cost us dear. You could argue it has already attributed to 2 of our defeats now.

I know what you mean. When I read ME saying he will stick with Johnson because eventually we will be able to say that his boot won us a game, I just thought, how many will it lose us first? I don't know why we don't try Locke. He is no worse than Johnson and I believe he is more comfortable with pressure.

 

[Wigan Warrior]

I know what you mean. When I read ME saying he will stick with Johnson because eventually we will be able to say that his boot won us a game, I just thought, how many will it lose us first? I don't know why we don't try Locke. He is no worse than Johnson and I believe he is more comfortable with pressure.

Johnson kicked quite well last week and I'm not going to blame him for either defeat but the Warriors aren't a side that have the tendancy to outscore sides too much anymore and so kicking is vital. Wigan lost their main kicker for a large part of last season but were outscoring sides by 3 and 4 tries so it didn't matter.

I'd be interested to see how many points Maloney and Witt gained for us from kicking goals.

 

[Matulino's Left Shoulder]

I know what you mean. When I read ME saying he will stick with Johnson because eventually we will be able to say that his boot won us a game, I just thought, how many will it lose us first? I don't know why we don't try Locke. He is no worse than Johnson and I believe he is more comfortable with pressure.

because he is always farrking injured or playing at 80%. Can't make him the primary goalkicker when he is not a guarantee to play week in, week out.
Notice how Shaun Johnson started doing the kick offs half way through the game ? Did we not all see Locke's 40m line drop outs.

 

[¿N. ig-mah¿]

I went
3 Godinet
2 Locke
1 Laumape

I thought we were looking like we just had no scoring ability until he arrived. We went from an arm-wrestle to an attacking game in seconds when he came on. It was nearly instant. I had just yelled at the TV "where the fuck is Godinet", when the ref called goal line dropout (and amended to 20 metre restart). After the replay showed his error and he changed the call, I noticed Godinet on the field. Straight away we looked fast, dangerous and hungry. People were running everywhere and everyone wanted the ball.

Locke got the 2 points for his courage. Coming back from a concussion and having his head targeted by the dirty Rabbits was courageous. And the amount he injected himself was great to see. His defence was solid (particularly near the end with his try-saver on Burgess). Only his fumble stopped him from getting the top spot.

Laumape is unstoppable. He looks like he has been playing first grade for ages.

We just gotta get Fish back and send Tupou back to the Vulcans and I'll be happy (and perhaps Leuluai switch grades with Sjeika, and Mannering switch positions with Lowrie).[DOUBLEPOST=1365319630][/DOUBLEPOST]

Johnson kicked quite well last week and I'm not going to blame him for either defeat but the Warriors aren't a side that have the tendancy to outscore sides too much anymore and so kicking is vital. Wigan lost their main kicker for a large part of last season but were outscoring sides by 3 and 4 tries so it didn't matter.

I'd be interested to see how many points Maloney and Witt gained for us from kicking goals.

I'm not BLAMING him for the loses. But I agree that conversions could make or break our season, and any player who is kicking at 60% should not be our preferred option. I assume Sjeika will take over when he gets the call up.[DOUBLEPOST=1365319842][/DOUBLEPOST]

because he is always farrking injured or playing at 80%. Can't make him the primary goalkicker when he is not a guarantee to play week in, week out.
Notice how Shaun Johnson started doing the kick offs half way through the game ? Did we not all see Locke's 40m line drop outs.

The first one was Johnson (the commentators called it wrong). The amount of games Locke played last year where most others would have sat the game out shows he will be there if its any chance. It takes a fairly substantial injury to keep him out of the team. They have chopped and changed last year and this year with the kick-offs and goal line drop-outs. It seems a lottery if its going to be Johnson or Locke. I feel Johnson is too much of a confidence player to be responsible for our conversions.

 

[Magic Stick]

3 Laumape - Solid D all game,cut Inglis down around ankles when it looked he was thru,Defuse's kicks ingoal.topped 100m again even thou play didnt really go his way, Kid is just all class, Doesnt make errors

2 Godinet - this dude is a spark plug,so quick in everything he does,brilliant long ball for Laumape try, gave early ball to Hurrell down short edge and backed up for the try. Time to give Godinet extended mins in the halves,he our best playmaker

1 Mannering - giving Hurrell early ball, excellent meters and overall game

This team is not far off from smashing some teams,if they can get healthy, continue to spread there attack with width and depth. Just need to move Leuluai out of the halves and this team can acheive some results and get in that top 8

 

[t-wade23]

Have to say Laumape has been a gem so far this year his work rate And his effort levels are awesome and his defence has been very good was good on Farrell who is a good Attacking player. Many positives despite the loss our attack looks much more structured which I like guys running good lines hitting holes it looks good. Defense is still a work in progress and improving need to work on the little things we have a whole lot a bad luck this year like wayward kicks or loose passes we fix those up we will be good. I like our run and gun style attack rabbits were struggling to keep up

 

[Viking]

It's no coincidence that when Mannering decided to start passing, Hurrell began to shine.

I know wingers are meant to centre play in the first few tackles but I'd love to see Manu take on the flanks on one of his big runs to see if he can bust tackles instead of running into brick walls.

I probably should've voted Laumape but Godinet was a game changer again. It's not an issue of him being better than Friend but the fact that we have another playmaking option on the field. I'd rather see Friend stay on or at least do longer minutes and Godinet interchaning with the halves to potentially give us two (sharp) hookers and two playmaking options on the field at critical times in the game.