Round 10: Sharks vs Penrith, Toyota Stadium, Sun 16th May 3pm

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Well said Shark68,

On a good note it was great to meet and chat to some of the Sharks greats.

At the game was Jonathon Docking, Maurie Raper, Les Davidson, Gavin Miller and some others that I couldn't find.
They were selling the men of league pin (gold coin donation)

Gardner really impressed me for a bloke on debut in a struggling team. He ran the ball with conviction and confidence (something Stapo wasn't doing). Still needs some work under the high ball though, probably just nerves.
I just thought we didn't get the ball quickly enough, like we were standing still when getting it. The Panthers seem to come off their line quick and smash us. Vave again looked good coming off the bench. Gallen did well and tried hard as usual, thought Barrent really did well.
Smith gave me a heart attack nearly everytime he handled and his 5th tackle options were ordinary, seemed to kick for himself a bit.
Robinson is a ****wit.

So frustrating to watch... unfortunately everything Phil Gould said was right. Our attack is going absolutely nowhere

Ibanez said:

We're nowhere near the salary cap. Plenty of our players took pay cuts.

And to chunk: GTFO.

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Well thats not the case mate. We may not have a 2nd tier cap going but apparently we are using all the 4 million on our first grade squad. There are only three clubs listed as being under the cap and thats Brisbane, Warriors and Knights. I just don't know how. I dont see 4 million worth of talent there. I'm sick of paying for two bit cast offs from other clubs when a junior could do the same thing. I've got no doubt that O'donnell or Baillie could do a better job than Tautai. Lets not forget Mat Wright. Why did we play him for most of last year as a 17-18 year old only to drop him like a hot spud this year. He is easily better than Tautai. We buy Tim Smith and drop Porter yet I don't see an improvement. Today he ran for a total of 1 metre. 1 ****ing metre. We complained about Porter's running game yet replace him with a halfback that is scared to get tackled and cant tackle himself. We are poo at the moment.

chunk67 said:

What a ****ing **** excuse for a footy team! I hope our team just folds so i have an excuse to support another team

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You are a joke.

chunk67. give yourself an upper cut mate and **** off. you are not what the Sharks are all about. go have a good, hard look at yourself in the mirror, you've got problems.

We still look a little unsure of what we're doing at times. The effort is there, but the execution needs improvement.

chunk67 said:

What a ****ing **** excuse for a footy team! I hope our team just folds so i have an excuse to support another team

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You've spelt "I am a poor excuse for a human being" wrong.

We desperately need to rid ourselves of dumb penalties and errors. Where's the discipline, Ricky? Panthers first try was off the back of two lousy penalties. Not seeing an improvement, and still plenty of drop ball.

snowman said:

jennings will bag a hatrick this weekend

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good call snowman

I actually think we did okay in this game. IMO we were clearly rorted of one try (Vave's one should have been benefit of the doubt), and Penrith got at least one try they shouldn't have (Coote's forward pass).

That would have meant we were trailing by 2 points with 5 minutes to go. If that were the case I am confident our confidence would have meant better defence.

We were in the game. We weren't completely outclassed to the point the score board would suggest.

Also a lot of their legit tries were things most teams wouldn't be able to defend against. Flukes to an extent.

Gardner was great, Broderick Wright I think has found his real position. Vave was great. Millington was good, Gallen was great, Tupou did nothing again but this didn't matter because at least he was off the field and his replacements were actually doing something.

I liked Ricky's late changes too. Morris actually worked really well as an impact hooker.

We just need to put Stapleton in for Tautai and then leave the team like that and let them build up some time together. I think it is close to our perfect team. Cuthbertson was good impact. Tupou could perhaps be good impact (and have some value at least.

I also want to say that the refs weren't exactly biased against us, they were just bad in general. We got some lucky calls plenty of times but the two crucial ref mistakes gave them a try and cost us a try, and that I can't stomach.

Today was really dissapointing, in the first 15 minutes I thoughts we played a controlling, smooth, good tempo brand of footy.

when we took the 2 in the first few minutes we told penrith "we are aware that it is unlikely we can score against you, so we try and score the 2"

I remember on one of Millos runs in the first half he had barrett calling out for a clear offload, if he had of made the effort he would have been home.

There is no way we should have let penrith win that game, it was ours for the taking, sure the refs didnt help.

In regards to penalties in defense, I notice something st george do so well is fully cover the attacking opposition on the ground with 2 or 3 defenders, we seem to cover the player half heartedly, letting the opponent kick and scream on the floor, and usually getting a penalty awarded, St george do it so well, cover the player completely so he cant move, then smoothly get up and go back to the ten.

Panthers have to be the most luckiest team in the comp, talk about the bounce of the ball going your way.

Ibanez said:

We desperately need to rid ourselves of dumb penalties and errors. Where's the discipline, Ricky? Panthers first try was off the back of two lousy penalties. Not seeing an improvement, and still plenty of drop ball.

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Yes but both those penalties were rubbish. Our blokes had been held down longer than that plenty of times but it seemed the ref's decided it was time to turn the momentum against us.

Every call that could have gone against us did, once again. The refereeing was so inept, it became a joke.

Atr least half of the time, both referees were standing back with the defensive line, no-one covering the ruck. They don't even know what they are doing. And whoever mentioned the referees laughing at oursituation got it spot on. They seemed to find great amusement in ruling against us.

We started with great momentum and looked to be physiaclly dominating the Panthers, even after they scored a lucky intercept try, we looked the better team.

It was when those two crappy penalties were given back to back that led to the Panthers second try that the game turned, the boys seemed to lose heart. And why wouldn't you, it must be getting a case of, "Well, here we go again..."

Sure, we played scrappy, especially in the second half but some of that was down to playing catch up footy, in my opinion.

I saw plenty out there to give us some encouragement, we just need some decent luck.

i couldnt believe it today, not one bomb went up for fergo when he was on elfrod... not one, smithy what the **** are you doing. he is 6'3, and athletic as all hell, bomb for him.

unlucky cuthbo, you were doing ok. toops got a concussion, dont know if he came back on.
snow... you phone call about origin wont come after that, very disappointing. same for you gal...

welcome to first grade gardner, dont get disheartened.
thanks for showing up baz.

all in all, we played ok, as good as penrith lets us, but **** me they are lazy slow and ****ing all over the place in the play the ball.

We need Jason Robinson to never come near the Sharks again! Seriously, what's his beef with us? Would have loved to have knocked that stupid smile off his face

I call for Porter to be recalled, how bad is his injury?

the boys tired hard gardnier looked good at the back we were unlucky with a few calls i guess wipe the memory of that and back to the drawing boared next week

Really for a team that is talked up as a good chance for being premiership favourites penrith are rubbish. TBH they got 4 lucky tries with the bounce of the ball and **** ref calls.
I didnt think we were that bad, but our attack at stages can look so promising yet so poor. We really need to give early ball to fergo, collis and gordon they can create chances but they need the ball. Defence was still very ordinary.
Standouts were baz, gal, gardner who looked great on debut.

Not saying the refs cost us the game but fmd some of the decisions were dreadful today.
Robinson = a total wanker.

SharkBoy said:

We need Jason Robinson to never come near the Sharks again! Seriously, what's his beef with us? Would have loved to have knocked that stupid smile off his face

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Yeah, saw him smirking on a couple of Penrith's tries.

dont forget suttor i had sports ears in and heard him say when the pentaly counts was 3-0 sharks he had to level it up