Team List Tigers vs Warriors - [Round 4, 2025]

Regarding Berry. While he doesn't have the form, power or reputation of young Leiataua. His inclusion still gets a biggish body hitting the gaps from Metcalf short passes or if Marata runs the short ball line and Metcalf fires it past him onto the chest of a flying Berry. Berry might be suffering from the lack of adaptability whereas Ali just needs to be on the paddock to be a threat.
 

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I sense a lot of negative energy here based on the odds for this game. Let's face it- betting on a sports game is not like betting on financial markets where traders might actually have some inside information. The bookies don't have some special knowledge: they're making decisions based on vibes rather than any inside info on team selection or anything concrete. Tigers have had a wretched couple of years, so who can blame them for getting a little excited about the tigers right now. Let the tigers get high on their own supply with all this favoritism talk and let us bring them down to earth on Sunday like we did to the Roosters.

As for the game, we have the superior forwards but they have the better spine. If we don't own the middle, their crafty spine has the potential to take advantage of our compressed defense and somewhat flaky edges. If we own the middle and things go according to plan, we can ensure that they never get enough red zone ball to exploit these weaknesses. We've come up against two of the biggest packs in the comp and soundly bullied them. Would be a massive step backwards if we end up losing the physical battle here to a much smaller and less dynamic pack.

Finally, two things can be true at the same time. Tigers have certainly improved from last year but the scope of that improvement is unclear given the poor quality/form of their opposition. They still have serious deficiencies in their game, especially their middle ruck defense. Knights game is case in point: they got bullied by what is essentially a NSW cup quality Knights pack, leading the way for Sharpe and Ponga to wreak havoc on them through the middle. Even against the Dolphins, they got torn to shreds at times by Nikorima and Isaako.

If we are to have a successful season, these are the types of away games we need to win. If we turn up like we did in Vegas, we'll have our asses handed to us. But if we play like we did for the last 2 weeks, we should be too powerful for the tigers in this one.
 
As for Berry, I really don't mind that Webby has put him on his favored side. He fits perfectly in Webby's system, so I really don't mind where we play him. Although he isn't as dynamic as Ali, people forget that he is also a decent hole runner as well.
 
Makasene said:
I have no issues at all attacking wise for Ali on the left.

Defence is the question. Most of his grotesque arm grabs have happened on the left..
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Don't think poor tackling technique is a function of whether you are on the right vs left. When we had the horrid injury run last year, we were forced to put him into the first grade side before he was really ready. He is still by no means the finished product now, but with every game he plays, he'll only get better.
 
Found this little thing interesting that others may already know.
Vaimauga posted a training video, said video had a song from a Campbelltown rap group that may uses quite a bit.
Turns out May and Vaimauga are around about the exact same size and build. Both the exact same height. Vaimauga is just 4kg heavier and 4 years younger. Both started off as bench props with very small mins. Devloping into more mins over time. May going from < 20. 25, 30 over about 9 games. Vaimauga is doing about the same, just a little lower, but he is on the exact same track a year younger than when may was on it.
Hopfully there will be a time in the game where both of them are on at the same time.
 
On Ali changing to the left.

If Webster has a season game plan of Berry right and Ali left, and he knew Berry was back in a few weeks, why didn’t Ali start the season in his season long position on the left with Pompey covering Berry on the right?

This just screws up combinations on both sides and wasted 3 weeks of building teamwork for Ali.
 
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wizard of Tauranga said:
On Ali changing to the left.

If Webster has a season game plan of Berry left and Ali right, and he knew Berry was back in a few weeks, why didn’t Ali start the season in his season long position on the left with Pompey covering Berry on the right?

This just screws up combinations on both sides and wasted 3 weeks of building teamwork for Ali.
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Think there were some serious questions about when Berry might be back.

Will be interesting, I actually think CHT > Ali > RTS (A shame he is out for 2 months) could be a killer edge.
 
wizard of Tauranga said:
Wouldn’t it help the bigger size and bog down our fast and mobile game plan?

Time will tell…
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In my view, the mistake Manly and Roosters made was thinking they could just copy/paste their expansive gameplan to the wet and dewey conditions that generally surrounds Mt Smart on a Friday night. Gotta be willing to get down into the mud, which is why such conditions disadvantage teams with expansive attacking structures like Manly/Roosters/Tigers and benefits grind-ball teams like us and Canberra.
 
wizard of Tauranga said:
On Ali changing to the left.

If Webster has a season game plan of Berry left and Ali right, and he knew Berry was back in a few weeks, why didn’t Ali start the season in his season long position on the left with Pompey covering Berry on the right?

This just screws up combinations on both sides and wasted 3 weeks of building teamwork for Ali.
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Totally agreed. The combination built with Ali on the left is starting to become lethal and really looking like its starting to gel, just get Ali about 10m out running certain lines and there's a good chance its a try. Now we switch him over to the other side and start all over again, which in recent times has been our weaker side. Its a bit concerning.

The other concern is our back 3 are looking much weaker in regards to getting us metres out of the back field without RTS. We will have Tuaupiki, Pompey and Charnze. Ali is powerful to do some good hit ups but does not do many and Berry can be decent but can also do weak ones. This is a concern, the only thing that mitigates this is the fact that Tigers defense is not as relentless as the Roosters or some other teams. Charnze to make a heap of hit ups this week.
 
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MrFrankWhite said:
I was just thinking is this the game to do the last min Leka / Marata swap? But then we've been winning with this team, no chance Webby does that.
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I noticed watching live that Leka and Vaimauga get fatigued before 20 minutes is up. Vaimauga more pronounced, struggles to even get back into the line by 20th minute. So risky to expect more than that at this stage, a good half will see that and expose it.
Although match fitness must come if they get more time so catch 22.
Leka definitely not as bad so he would be the first one i would extend time on
 
sup42 said:
I don't wanna be bagging Rocco too much because I have nothing against him.

It just feels like we moved Clinton Toopi when the new Clinton Toopi is just hitting form for the sake of team balance....which personally I think is a mistake.

Rocco is not as fast, not as beautifully balanced on his feet, and doesn't have as much nose for the Try line....Rocco is like watching a Mannequin v Ali who most NRL clubs would kill for at center the way he is shaping up.

Put it this way, I would be fine with it were the Warriors the type of club that used both sides of the field fluidly, they are not, the left is an after thought at the Warriors, it is used predictably when their main set up on the right with block plays, hole runners, and other shapes fail.

And their in lies the Rocco problem, it means the Main Star the Warriors have right now in their back line is no longer seeing the best ball.
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100% agree mate

The kid is going guns on the right, leave him there... It's still also the side we seem to shape the attacking moves too.

I get it, Rocco might feel out of sorts on the left. But he's a no nonsense type that I back him to do fine there.

Instead of having a dangerous right flank, and a muted left flank it's just going to be a muted right flank and a unused left flank lol... Someone mentioned earlier CHT might benefit, with some added attention on Ali on the left it might open things up for CHT who is actually looking very dangerous running the ball in on the goal line attacks
 
Guys let's have a wee bit of perspective...I'm a big Ali fan and I think he's going to have a big future with us, but he's hardly set the world on fire this year. He's nowhere near the 'we can't move him' form yet.

3 tries and a try assist is fantastic, but he hasn't been carving up. His tries were largely running straight and hard close to the line. Imo most centres score those tries, including Rocco. Ali can do all of that from left centre and leave the finesse and setting our winger up to our number one centre, Rocco
 
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