2022 NRL Round 21 Cronulla Sutherland Sharks vs St George Illawarra Dragons @ Pointsbet Stadium, Saturday 6 August @ 7:35pm

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Obviously I've quoted you Matt but my reply is not necessarily directed at you or what you said.

It wasn't long ago I remember watching the warriors go almost 80 minutes with a 100% completion rate but they never looked like winning. It seems pretty obvious to me that we are trying to play a fast, slick, advantageous/opportunistic, maybe even sort of "predatory" style of attack. We take a lot of risks with the ball and at the moment it's not sticking as much as we would like, no doubt. But it's only part way through year one with Fitz and he is clearly trying to build something a bit unique that I see a lot of promise in.

We also had half our regular spine missing and a key link man in Dale which no doubt owed to some of the clunkyness.
Riccio eluded to this.

Part of our attack is to move the ball around a lot and so it’s just going to result in more errors and it’s a accepted part of the game.

That doesn’t mean the unforced errors are acceptable though.

If we can have our completions at the mid 80s we’ll be in any game
 

Six Again

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Watched the replay when I got home after the game.

I was so angry with that performance. It’s been said a lot on here but the errors are just ridiculous.

If that was against a top four team, we’d have got beaten by 20. There were some strange ref calls and how Sims wasn’t sent off I’ll never know. I know he was remorseful but that is a send off for sure.

But the ref calls don’t matter if we hold the ball and complete. It is just so **** to watch at the moment.

On the brighter side, to win playing rubbish with no Dale, Moylan, Kennedy, Katoa, Hunt and for most of the game Tracey, then it’s a fair effort especially in defence.

On ABC Johnny Gibbs gave 3 points to Nicho. I know he scored a try and kicked four from four but in no way was it a man of the match performance. One of our engine room deserved it more.

If anyone in Sharks colours thinks next week against the Tigers is going to be easy, then think again.
Agree Chad the overall performance was poor .

I have not been on the Nicho bandwagon to date this year but he made two crucial effort tackles on the line last night which I believe were big in saving us from a dreaded loss to the dragons. While Trindall was good in the first half I do think we actually missed Moylan last night .
 

apezza

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I get what you're saying but I don't think they have the mentality of "it's not our night" and if they do I think it switches quickly to "let's make it our ****ing night".

Again, I see what you mean and agree we need a few more gears and patients. But we cleanup those errors and make it stick we are an absolute force and as that happens our defence only improves.

We are up to our neck in this comp when really we're probably an off-season or two off anywhere near our best.
Agree. And will also add that many of our basic errors are not due to being flamboyant in attack. They are dumb play the ball or simple fumbles when getting up to play the ball, blatant holding down tackles etc.

Whilst our playing style may be an excuse for the odd mistake (eg the tip on drops) nothing excuses the other examples I mentioned.
 

apezza

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Riccio eluded to this.

Part of our attack is to move the ball around a lot and so it’s just going to result in more errors and it’s a accepted part of the game.

That doesn’t mean the unforced errors are acceptable though.

If we can have our completions at the mid 80s we’ll be in any game
Ha agree (just did a similar post before reading this).

Unforced errors are killing us.
 

CrazyMatt

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Obviously I've quoted you Matt but my reply is not necessarily directed at you or what you said.

It wasn't long ago I remember watching the warriors go almost 80 minutes with a 100% completion rate but they never looked like winning. It seems pretty obvious to me that we are trying to play a fast, slick, advantageous/opportunistic, maybe even sort of "predatory" style of attack. We take a lot of risks with the ball and at the moment it's not sticking as much as we would like, no doubt. But it's only part way through year one with Fitz and he is clearly trying to build something a bit unique that I see a lot of promise in.

We also had half our regular spine missing and a key link man in Dale which no doubt owed to some of the clunkyness.
Thats all well and good, but most of these mistakes are basic mistakes. Like play the ball errors or from basic hitups. That’s poor fundamentals and we need to get that right before earning the right to do the entertaining stuff.
 

Shortfin Mako

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Thats all well and good, but most of these mistakes are basic mistakes. Like play the ball errors or from basic hitups. That’s poor fundamentals and we need to get that right before earning the right to do the entertaining stuff.
It was weird last night though. Almost everybody dropped the ball - even in positions that they never drop it.

One thing that gives me hope is that great teams always find a way to win even if it is their off day or everything is working against them and it looks like we are fast becoming that. Lots of errors and stuff but always finding a way.

If NRL did not gift the Cowboys 2 pts, we could have been sitting in 2nd with points difference.
 
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If you kick someone in the balls twice you seriously need to make sure they don't get up...
I think it was Once in the balls, once in the dick [head]

Falcon try!
Header to himself!


We don’t knock that in either klein is either incompetent or a cheat.
That’s 10 in the bin for you son

Not our night. Can't complete our sets
68 f’n % last night to the Dragons 85%

that **** needs fixing
 
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Capital_Shark

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One thing that gives me hope is that great teams always find a way to win even if it is their off day or everything is workign against them and it looks like we are fast becoming that. Lots of errors and stuff but always finding a way.
We found ways to win much more unwinnable games in late 2016 I feel.

We're in good stead.
 

HaroldBishop

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One thing that gives me hope is that great teams always find a way to win even if it is their off day or everything is working against them and it looks like we are fast becoming that. Lots of errors and stuff but always finding a way.

Depends if it's just papering over the cracks or we're learning from it. Hopefully the latter.
 
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The difference between teams like Penrith & Storm and us were clearly on display last night.
Penrith won missing both halves, against a team playing at home (who has beaten us twice this year) and made it look easy.

They completed at 74% and had 9 errors compared to our 68% and 17 errors and their defense is almost perfect.
That's what a good team looks like lads. I'm not worried about Parra or Cowboys or the like but teams like Penrith & Storm will lap us in the semis
if we keep playing error ridden dumb football.

We just don't have the star player/s (yet) who can carry a team through a **** performance against quality opposition.
 

Capital_Shark

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The difference between teams like Penrith & Storm and us were clearly on display last night.
Penrith won missing both halves, against a team playing at home (who has beaten us twice this year) and made it look easy.

They completed at 74% and had 9 errors compared to our 68% and 17 errors and their defense is almost perfect.
That's what a good team looks like lads. I'm not worried about Parra or Cowboys or the like but teams like Penrith & Storm will lap us in the semis
if we keep playing error ridden dumb football.

We just don't have the star player/s (yet) who can carry a team through a **** performance against quality opposition.
That's what the best team looks like and they have been crafting it for three or more years. We aren't even through a full season under our new coach, learning new attacking and defensive play and generally growing as individuals. And we are keeping up with them and I believe will give them a shake in the finals.

We got way more to come this year and beyond.
 

Super Impose

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Yeah our defense deserves great credit outside of Ramiens decision - we were however awful with the ball which can be explained up to a point by the number of changes ..

Move on to next week - actually the next two weeks on the road will be very tough games ..
 

apezza

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I might be in the minority here but a Grade 3 careless for Simms it a bit rich IMO. Tracey was falling when he struck him with his upper arm - not his shoulder.

We are talking a split second difference between a great tackle and this one.

Then again if we are comparing to Dale's two weeks Simms should get burned at the stake!
 
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