2nd Trial Game Sharks vs. Tigpies Sat 24 Feb 2018 7:00pm - Campbelltown Sports Stadium

Mr Ryan

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Really couldn’t ask for much more than what we saw from both our trials.

They’re not real games, we all know that. For me, though, I like to see tries scored.

They’ve been training all off season, working on combos, and you just wanna see some of that come off.

I’d still be happy if we lost, but scored 3-4 tries.

I think we are on the right track.

I remember back when in 2010(I think) we played Manly at home and scored 0, then Newcastle in Maitland(or somewhere around there) and we got 2 tries, but only at the end of game when it was 30-0. You knew it was gonna be a long season.
 
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Went to the game last night, pretty good crowd but suppose the locals only get a few games a year there.

Things I remember
- Katoa played the whole game or had to be a vast majority of it.
- Grey replaced Loots and didn't play on the wing.
- Ramien replaces Dugan. Dugan went to FB a bit.
- Ava looked good, hopefully not a serious hamstring injury.
- Uele also looked troubling, good size. Won't play big minutes.
- Fifita was very good.
- A few of Brailey's passes were too high for a bit, think he got on target a bit later.
- Brailey Jr is tiny, long time before he plays 1st grade.
- Chad did pretty much all the general play kicking, some was good, some was not.
- Moylan looked OK, better defensively than Maloney but his game management is going to need some work.


Brailey's one on one defence worries me a tad.
Yes he is always one of our highest "tackle counts" but still a bit to small to finish off a tackle on his own.
He tends to get driven backwards a lot until help arrives.
Don't get me wrong, he is a gutsy kid and always makes good first contact, just not big or strong enough yet to finish off the one on one tackles at the moment.
I know he will become a standout when he bulks up as his technique is good and he isnt affraid to put his body on the line but he is going to see a lot of chargers running his way this year.
 

Wiz

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Brailey's one on one defence worries me a tad.
Yes he is always one of our highest "tackle counts" but still a bit to small to finish off a tackle on his own.
He tends to get driven backwards a lot until help arrives.
Don't get me wrong, he is a gutsy kid and always makes good first contact, just not big or strong enough yet to finish off the one on one tackles at the moment.
I know he will become a standout when he bulks up as his technique is good and he isnt affraid to put his body on the line but he is going to see a lot of chargers running his way this year.

So true, he also tends to tackle around the shoulders which isn't good for his size - he is an awesome player hopefully we see him run the ball more this year open up the defense
 

Super Impose

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Surprised that Chad was/ is first choice kicker.

Really thought Val or Moylan would be ahead.

Any concerns?
 

Thresher

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Surprised that Chad was/ is first choice kicker.

Really thought Val or Moylan would be ahead.

Any concerns?

Yep I'm surprised as well. Am guessing that Townsend has been going the best off the tee at training. An important job.

I didn't use to rate Cam Smith but he's become a pretty decent converter of tries. That's the way I tried to reconcile the decision. Not ideal.
 

Gards

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Missed the opening stages but anyway. Team didn't do much wrong first half with near full strength squad, broke down second half with a boat load of penalties given way, some from fifita... more errors second half as well, tigers got alot more ball. Atmosphere pretty good from the crowd for a trial.

Lewis - beast, charge down and always there first tackler on kick returns

Moylan - liking his creativity, seems willing to try things. Running game very good, elusive and hard to tackle last night, if he continues to improve and finds his consistancy we are looking very good. He is dangerous and unpredictable and it works well with Chad
I liked when Brailey from the ruck dummied to a runner and passed it out the back to Moylan who then had alot of time and space to do things, this caused tigers headaches.

Dugan - alot of energy and hard running (with some crabbing) , copped a typical tempoary injury and went down momentarily

Prior - so good to see this bloke again, some good carries

Noodles/Katoa - real deal these kids. I recall Noddles getting slammed in a ball and all tackle from a forward and looked wrapped up, broke free and ran further up field, loved it.
Just some magic plays from these boys, at the death Noddles throws a round the back flick pass for Katoa to leap over in corner. Just gold. Katoa some great runs as well in general play.

Loots - some classy runs and a flick pass to feki, wow where did that come from

Graham - usual self, some good carries and a nice kick in behind to the corner for a try

Refs - nice again to see decisioins made and we get on with it, will be back to 10 minute vid reviews in a few weeks. Copped plenty of flack from tigers fans for some reason... their fans getting their gameplan ready for the season ahead watching thier ****house squad perhaps

Chad - putting in with enthusiasm, another player looking to step up, can't be our goal kicker though. Some good signs from his kicks in general play though carrying over from last week. Looks like Moylan will be doing the short close to the line stuff.

Eddy - made some strong charges into the defense. Feki needs to watch himself this year, so much competition for his spot

Holmes - getting involved on support plays but watched a kick near the deadball line not go dead, tigers player got try from behind him - have seen this a few times before...
 

Born&bred

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I didn't watch the trial, but followed it online.

I've read and heard a fair bit about the game, but not anything positive about Moylan...

Then I read this:

Matt Moylan stars as Cronulla Sharks tame Wests Tigers


Star signing Matt Moylan provided the first half X-factor as Cronulla ran out 24-12 winners over the Wests Tigers at Campbelltown in their final trial match on Saturday night.

Almost everything Moylan touched in the first 40 minutes turned to gold for Cronulla as they ran in four unanswered tries to lead 20-0 at half-time.

Cronulla were almost at full strength with only veteran Paul Gallen missing. There were plenty of new faces in both sides with Moylan, Josh Dugan and Trent Hodkinson all turning out for the Sharks, while Josh Reynolds, Russell Packer and Ben Matulino appeared for the Tigers.

Moylan didn't return for the second half, the Sharks taking a precaution with his knee but he had done enough. Shane Flanagan was desperate to sign Moylan because of his ability to play ad-lib football and this was the evidence as Moylan continually probed the Tigers' defensive line.

"That's what he can do and that's what I want him to do," Flanagan said.

"I've got some players in there Val, Dugan, Moylan who can play off the top of their head and play unstructured footy and you need to be able to do that sometimes when the defence don't do what you expect them to do, so he did a really good job there."

Moylan's halves partner Chad Townsend was equally impressed.

"I thought he was really good. I thought some of his touches were really classy," Townsend said.

"I said to him before the game you look really dangerous when you're aggressive with the ball and running the ball. He threatened the line a couple of times tonight and he played what he saw which is the player that he is. We have structures in place but to go out of the structure is a good thing when you see the right thing and I thought he did that a few times tonight.

"He's only going to get better I think and our combination has been working really well. It's going to take some time until we hit our straps completely. I think we're definitely heading in the right direction. We've been working really hard and we expect a lot of ourselves."

Cronulla were in front from their first attack of the match. Moylan earned his side a penalty after being hit in a high tackle from Packer. The Sharks marched downfield before a simple shift left saw Valentine Holmes find Ricky Leutele ,who produced a strong run to score out wide.
The Sharks were 12-0 in front midway through the first half again through their left side attack. This time they were rewarded for a short-side raid with Moylan catching and kicking almost in the same motion with the ball ricocheting into the arms of Leutele, whose flick pass found Holmes to score.

It began to look ominous for the Tigers on the half-hour mark when Cronulla went left and scored again, with Wade Graham's pinpoint grubber kick bouncing up perfectly for Sosaia Feki to touch down.

Cronulla were out to a 20-0 half-time lead when they scored their slickest try of the night just before the break. It was a play straight out of their 2016 premiership-winning playbook, a shift to the right with their No.1 sweeping around from the back. But instead of Ben Barba storming onto Townsend's perfectly held up a pass it was Holmes, who sliced through to score his second try of the night.

While Moylan enjoyed a happy night, it wasn't as happy for Cronulla's other big-name recruit Dugan who left the field with 12 minutes remaining holding his jaw, though Flanagan confirmed Dugan would be right for their round-one clash with North Queensland.

Townsend, Luke Lewis and Holmes were all outstanding alongside Moylan in the first half in what Flanagan called the perfect trial performance.
The Tigers were much improved early in the second half and were rewarded with a try when fullback Corey Thompson punished Holmes who had dawdled on a Luke Brooks grubber kick in the in-goal.

They scored again with 15 minutes remaining as Pita Godinet made the most of some soft Cronulla goal-line defence to score from dummy-half before young Sharks winger Sione Katoa sealed the result late on.

While Cronulla were professional, the Tigers will be disappointed with their sloppy first half. The hosts put one kick-off out on the field, were twice penalised in possession for not getting to their feet to play the ball and made a number of poor handling errors.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/ma...sharks-tame-wests-tigers-20180224-h0wlm4.html
 

hank

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Reckon Western Sharkie is closer to the mark. Some good things, but not a superstar performance by any means.

First 40 minutes when the entire first grade team was on it was a clinical performance. They look ready for a big year. Also, remember it was just the tigers who will be closer to bottom 4 than top 4 this year. Still, can only beat whats in front of you
 

gando2230

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then you didnt watch it properly

everything he did was dangerous, we were up 20-0 with him on the field, he didnt return second half and we had no creativity

Did the tigers put their full strength side on the first half?
 

hank

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Not sure what game Snowman was watching. We had virtually full strength team (ex Gal) first half. Tigers close to as well.
 
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then you didnt watch it properly

everything he did was dangerous, we were up 20-0 with him on the field, he didnt return second half and we had no creativity

Happy to Agree to disagree.

First try - no involvement
Second try - ricochet kick which fell into Leutele's arms who created with his flick pass. (Some luck involved, but credit to him, he put in the kick and that helped create that try).
Third try - no involvement
Fourth try - Best you could say is he was a decoy for Val to score otherwise no involvement.

Also, we had near full strength side first half (Gal excluded) with second half had a lot of fringe players, so we were naturally going to look better first half.

I'm not saying he was ****, I'm saying he had a few good touches and we are starting to see some good things but not a Star performance. I'm hoping he smashes the Cows and shows what he can do and has a great "Star performance" game.

I just don't think he did against the Tigers (Good but not Star).
 

andrew's_sharks

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Very happy with our two trials. Our first half of this game was clinical. Moylan, although not a standout, did his job. You can not expect him to be a superstar as a 5/8th at a new club straight away. To me the promising thing is that we won comfortably without that. By mid season i expect things to step up a notch and Moylan to start to really find his groove, which is something that is very exciting.

Overall I think our squad is a lot better than last year, with a lot more depth in all areas.

Our backs have gained a greater potential for points with Holmes looking much better at fullback. Dugan an upgrade on bird and is someone who will score a lot more tries than bird. Katoa, looks to be the winger we were looking for to replace holmes on the wing and is way stronger than beale already. (We have Gray, Edrick Lee, Ramien, Capewell And a host of others able to fill in when necessary)

Our Forwards are much stronger. I think Ava is an upgrade on Heino and i think Uele will be good for us as well. I actually think he will pip Capewell for a bench spot. If not in round 1, by round 10.

Hodko and Flanagan are excellent back up half options.

Brailey can probably play 80 mins, Seggy is a good back up/bench option

Paulo is a good utility/forward to have.


Loving the depth and talent of our squad. I think we will surprise a lot and make the top4.
 

Wiz

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Very happy with our two trials. Our first half of this game was clinical. Moylan, although not a standout, did his job. You can not expect him to be a superstar as a 5/8th at a new club straight away. To me the promising thing is that we won comfortably without that. By mid season i expect things to step up a notch and Moylan to start to really find his groove, which is something that is very exciting.

Overall I think our squad is a lot better than last year, with a lot more depth in all areas.

Our backs have gained a greater potential for points with Holmes looking much better at fullback. Dugan an upgrade on bird and is someone who will score a lot more tries than bird. Katoa, looks to be the winger we were looking for to replace holmes on the wing and is way stronger than beale already. (We have Gray, Edrick Lee, Ramien, Capewell And a host of others able to fill in when necessary)

Our Forwards are much stronger. I think Ava is an upgrade on Heino and i think Uele will be good for us as well. I actually think he will pip Capewell for a bench spot. If not in round 1, by round 10.

Hodko and Flanagan are excellent back up half options.

Brailey can probably play 80 mins, Seggy is a good back up/bench option

Paulo is a good utility/forward to have.


Loving the depth and talent of our squad. I think we will surprise a lot and make the top4.

Good post my man , I think one of the big reasons we won the comp was because barbas pass selection and lines he ran were second to none (still are) - if Val can get anywhere close to those things we can go very far otherwise the halves will not have confidence and will look for the inside or short ball instead ..
 

andrew's_sharks

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Good post my man , I think one of the big reasons we won the comp was because barbas pass selection and lines he ran were second to none (still are) - if Val can get anywhere close to those things we can go very far otherwise the halves will not have confidence and will look for the inside or short ball instead ..

I personally think Val will be a lot better this year. We are also fortunate that we have Lewis and Graham who can change up our attack. Last year our right edge with bird and beale struggled with points. I think our right edge of Lewis, Dugan and Katoa will be more potent than our left edge. Add an improved holmes and it is looking good. (also take out Maloney's missed tackles, penalties and errors, he was so bad last year)
 

snowman

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I personally think Val will be a lot better this year. We are also fortunate that we have Lewis and Graham who can change up our attack. Last year our right edge with bird and beale struggled with points. I think our right edge of Lewis, Dugan and Katoa will be more potent than our left edge. Add an improved holmes and it is looking good. (also take out Maloney's missed tackles, penalties and errors, he was so bad last year)

think we will still give penalties away this year, smart ones though, not his stupid ones

wade gave a cracker away on the weekend on the quick play the ball, probably would have been binned if it was a real game
 
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