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Also on Zyon, he was a junior sprinter on a number of successful relay teams for Waitakere. He was too big for individual sprint glory but always raced anyway. I’ll never knock a kid that has the guts to compete individually, whether it be track or boxing or tennis or whatever. You can have a bad day in team sports and your team can still win, you have a bad on the track or in the ring and everyone sees you fail, sometimes in front hundreds of people.
How are his tattoos even a factor in judging his playing ability? He’s from a strong Samoan family with a sister signed to NZ sevens and was in the squad that played at the recent world champs, and a younger bro the in the Warriors pathways that’s also a sprinter.
Good luck to him, if he retired tomorrow, he’s still played one more NRL game than any of us have ever played.
How are his tattoos even a factor in judging his playing ability? He’s from a strong Samoan family with a sister signed to NZ sevens and was in the squad that played at the recent world champs, and a younger bro the in the Warriors pathways that’s also a sprinter.
Good luck to him, if he retired tomorrow, he’s still played one more NRL game than any of us have ever played.
I'm pretty sure that Cappy will remember the last time we had a heap of young talent coming through (2016 - 2017) and we let go of too much experience to make sure we kept the young ones who then let us down. Need to keep Capewell, Fish, Barney etc. for as long as we can to make sure the youngsters coming through learn the hard yards of such a tough competition.
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After a loss like that, it's important to take a day off to have some perspective rather than rage posting like many of us have done.
Very disappointing to follow up our best performance with one of our worst. We weren't awful and at times I thought we defended our goal line very well. But our line speed was definitely off what it was against Cronulla. And when you are off by even 1%, no matter who you are playing, you're not getting the chocolates in the NRL. We can put this down to flatness after the bye, which many teams have been guilty of. We've also been up for so long that maybe we were due a performance like this. In any case, none of this excuses the performance which is well below the standards we've set all season. This is not the sort of game a premiership contender dishes out.
Regarding positives, I think it's the growth of our young forwards. Demi's silky ball skills. Laban's line running which looks just as damaging as what Cronulla has with Nikora. Jake is also solid on D- when Penrith made that break with Laurie, he was chasing and keeping pace. Made a few tackles in that same set to prevent the try scoring opportunity. if anything, Leka was the weakest performing young forward out there tonight. But he'll come back better next week no doubt.
As for the injuries, I guess we'll have to wait. But if Luke has an issue, we should not hesitate in give Boyd a crack. He's earnt it and won't let us down. I'd even be tempted to switch CHT and TMM for the game and have the pairing of Boyd/TMM that's been killing it in cup. CHT can play as the utility. As for Marata, Bunty comes in for me and TT for DWZ. Capewell to take MGT's place.
Onwards and upwards. If this year's history is any judge, we'll bounce back next week for the Suncorp trifecta.
Very disappointing to follow up our best performance with one of our worst. We weren't awful and at times I thought we defended our goal line very well. But our line speed was definitely off what it was against Cronulla. And when you are off by even 1%, no matter who you are playing, you're not getting the chocolates in the NRL. We can put this down to flatness after the bye, which many teams have been guilty of. We've also been up for so long that maybe we were due a performance like this. In any case, none of this excuses the performance which is well below the standards we've set all season. This is not the sort of game a premiership contender dishes out.
Regarding positives, I think it's the growth of our young forwards. Demi's silky ball skills. Laban's line running which looks just as damaging as what Cronulla has with Nikora. Jake is also solid on D- when Penrith made that break with Laurie, he was chasing and keeping pace. Made a few tackles in that same set to prevent the try scoring opportunity. if anything, Leka was the weakest performing young forward out there tonight. But he'll come back better next week no doubt.
As for the injuries, I guess we'll have to wait. But if Luke has an issue, we should not hesitate in give Boyd a crack. He's earnt it and won't let us down. I'd even be tempted to switch CHT and TMM for the game and have the pairing of Boyd/TMM that's been killing it in cup. CHT can play as the utility. As for Marata, Bunty comes in for me and TT for DWZ. Capewell to take MGT's place.
Onwards and upwards. If this year's history is any judge, we'll bounce back next week for the Suncorp trifecta.
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After the game, that guy was out taking photos and signing stuff for a-a-a-ages, like he didn't want any kid to miss out. Absolute diamond.
Why does it have to be poor us? Key injuries, unlucky bounce, we lose. It happens and hardly the end of the world.Can’t get behind the inevitable yarn of “poor us, DWZ and Marata ruled out and Metcalf got hurt”
Poor defence across the whole team tonight even before that, I’m pretty confident that if the Dogs or Raiders were in the same spot they’d have come out with a W
Also, let MGT enjoy the last of his time with the club with the Cup boys
If you want to understand this guy from a body language perspective let me break down the Alpha male posturing from a body language read of Addin Fonua Blake and James Fisher Harris.
The NRL billed the Sharks clash as Alpha vs Alpha. And they kindly did a split screen for us before kick off so we could see the stare down.
Watch the Sharks replay at the start to see who wins the battle of the Dogs before they are unleashed in a pit fight.
You will see Fonua Blake is really affected, watch him hyper ventilate coming out the tunnel that is obviously his pscyh up tic right, he huffs and puffs to prep for a brawl.
Then he sees his opponent, turns his back on him then turns back and huffs and puffs some more. If you can Freeze frame at 2:19 seconds split screen. AFB is wide eyed, full fight flight mode, mega stressed, Adrenalin level ten.
Now lets analyze JFH. He squats down, his body language is deliberate, he is saying to his opponent, I do not give a shit, and I am insulting your haka. He even spits at the ground during the posturing which classic Alpha Prison block behavior.
And you will see Fisher Harris barking at Erin Clark (given we kicked it straight down Addins throat his yelling would be 'get up there and smash him, kick it straight at him).
Fisher Harris then stand up, which gives him power for what comes next, a screamed battle cry straight at AFB.
AFB who had turned away hears him, spins back to face him and gets up on his toes bouncing in fighting ready position.
Psychologically what that transaction is saying, is that one guy can make the other get into fight mode, up on his toes, just by staunching him out with his voice....JFH has not struck a single stance or swung his arms in circles as league players will often do before kick off and lots of other little body language tells that are aimed at looking intimidating.
In the animal Kingdom, the fighting dog, the pit bull, stays quiet while the Ker barks and yaps, the pit bull pulls on the leash before release and eyes the throat. That is what James did to Addin.
And Addin drops nuts for the rest of the game relative to his pregame talk about dominating JFH.
No matter where the Jungle, the Jungle is the Jungle.
Tackle one, Addin Fonua Blake takes the hit up, turns his back in the contact, Marata, JFH, CLark, Healy try to gang bang him in a four on one, Leka and Pomps are there too, so JFH had five mates come in to try target AFB tackle one.
Given Addins belief he carries a team on his own, and JFH style of being a leader of men, that first tackle is poetic, an illustration of the difference between the Sharks and the Warriors.
It is emblematic of what was wrong at the Warriors last year 'the poison Addin was spreading, every man for himself' and what JFH has brought to our club this year 'all in together, kick it to that loud mouth kient, on me, smash him'.
Given the back story that Addin Fonua Blake disrespected the Warriors, his team mates, the coach, the dressing room, and given JFH came in to take the spot his entitled ass occupied, the power of that stare down and the silencing of AFB by JFH holds a power as the teams leader that you cannot buy, that was some Maori Battalion shit.
Our boys needed to see their Captain defeat their betrayer.
Look at our own posts when Addin split and we got this guy, most of us thought we lost someone a bit better than what we were getting but were happy we were getting someone that wanted to be here.
Now I can honestly say we have the better player when you add up every calculus that a professional rugby league player brings to an NRL campaign, we have the better Kevin Campion guy, we don't need the flat track bully prima donnas, we have a real hard man.
View: https://youtu.be/72QS_TYvnAY?si=kjTllWUdxYK76i_-
The NRL billed the Sharks clash as Alpha vs Alpha. And they kindly did a split screen for us before kick off so we could see the stare down.
Watch the Sharks replay at the start to see who wins the battle of the Dogs before they are unleashed in a pit fight.
You will see Fonua Blake is really affected, watch him hyper ventilate coming out the tunnel that is obviously his pscyh up tic right, he huffs and puffs to prep for a brawl.
Then he sees his opponent, turns his back on him then turns back and huffs and puffs some more. If you can Freeze frame at 2:19 seconds split screen. AFB is wide eyed, full fight flight mode, mega stressed, Adrenalin level ten.
Now lets analyze JFH. He squats down, his body language is deliberate, he is saying to his opponent, I do not give a shit, and I am insulting your haka. He even spits at the ground during the posturing which classic Alpha Prison block behavior.
And you will see Fisher Harris barking at Erin Clark (given we kicked it straight down Addins throat his yelling would be 'get up there and smash him, kick it straight at him).
Fisher Harris then stand up, which gives him power for what comes next, a screamed battle cry straight at AFB.
AFB who had turned away hears him, spins back to face him and gets up on his toes bouncing in fighting ready position.
Psychologically what that transaction is saying, is that one guy can make the other get into fight mode, up on his toes, just by staunching him out with his voice....JFH has not struck a single stance or swung his arms in circles as league players will often do before kick off and lots of other little body language tells that are aimed at looking intimidating.
In the animal Kingdom, the fighting dog, the pit bull, stays quiet while the Ker barks and yaps, the pit bull pulls on the leash before release and eyes the throat. That is what James did to Addin.
And Addin drops nuts for the rest of the game relative to his pregame talk about dominating JFH.
No matter where the Jungle, the Jungle is the Jungle.
Tackle one, Addin Fonua Blake takes the hit up, turns his back in the contact, Marata, JFH, CLark, Healy try to gang bang him in a four on one, Leka and Pomps are there too, so JFH had five mates come in to try target AFB tackle one.
Given Addins belief he carries a team on his own, and JFH style of being a leader of men, that first tackle is poetic, an illustration of the difference between the Sharks and the Warriors.
It is emblematic of what was wrong at the Warriors last year 'the poison Addin was spreading, every man for himself' and what JFH has brought to our club this year 'all in together, kick it to that loud mouth kient, on me, smash him'.
Given the back story that Addin Fonua Blake disrespected the Warriors, his team mates, the coach, the dressing room, and given JFH came in to take the spot his entitled ass occupied, the power of that stare down and the silencing of AFB by JFH holds a power as the teams leader that you cannot buy, that was some Maori Battalion shit.
Our boys needed to see their Captain defeat their betrayer.
Look at our own posts when Addin split and we got this guy, most of us thought we lost someone a bit better than what we were getting but were happy we were getting someone that wanted to be here.
Now I can honestly say we have the better player when you add up every calculus that a professional rugby league player brings to an NRL campaign, we have the better Kevin Campion guy, we don't need the flat track bully prima donnas, we have a real hard man.
View: https://youtu.be/72QS_TYvnAY?si=kjTllWUdxYK76i_-
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Will get lost in the mix with Origin this week, but hope he can get some love from outside NZ this week- To have been medically retired at 24, to now notching up 100 games is cracking stuff
Doing it against his first club is pretty cool too.
Doing it against his first club is pretty cool too.
To learn off a proven leader & pro / origin player.
The club might have actually timed that contract perfectly with the stocks coming through...
Don't agree, he is there like Barney, CNK, RTS and Fish for experience, attitude and professionalism for the young gen to learn and develop under.
All clubs needs a decent ratio of young guns and old dogs.
We're going to see more of this as our pathways systems continue improving...
I know Grahan-Taufa is moving on. But he's been a loyal servant to the club and has toiled away in reserve grade. He deserves a run in first grade.
Hopefully, we will get some stability in that position towards the end of the season.
Good to have a team naming Tuesday. It's been a long two weeks. Let's hope it's closed out with another 2 points this weekend.
Hopefully, we will get some stability in that position towards the end of the season.
Good to have a team naming Tuesday. It's been a long two weeks. Let's hope it's closed out with another 2 points this weekend.
TSS extends till 2028
Not sure, I've just noticed Kayliss makes far better decisions when defending in space. That sort of thing is hard go down a grade and 'work on'. Its almost second nature. He's also more dynamic when running the ball (has speed and step that Ali doesn't have).
But then i'm not sure how well Kayliss would go at other aspects required from a center, i.e. can he set his winger up consistently or would he be a Solomone Kata out there?
Bit of a jigsaw puzzle really.
Berry is still our most complete center imo, just cant master the availability aspect, while Pompey has mastered that and, in doing so, has become the first choice center.