Phil Gould

[Great White Shark]

I don't like the guy...but he does have a point. Ricky has been around for 3 off seasons now. We have great attacking players like Barrett, Gallen, Toupou, Seymour (didn't show much in round 1), Matua (granted has been injured for the last two games he played).....and nothing to show.

For the love of the lord....they scored 10 points and we could not win!!!

"The same can't be said for the Sharks. Coach Ricky Stuart has now had three off-seasons with the Sutherland Shire club. His relentless personality has definitely given this team much-needed steel in the belly. Courtesy of their superb defensive techniques and committed mental toughness, the Sharks manage to keep themselves competitive in most games.

However, Cronulla's attacking deficiencies will continue to plague any premiership aspirations. The start of every new year produces reports the Sharks have worked tirelessly on their attacking game during the summer months.

This year they also recruited four experienced attacking players - all played yesterday - three of them internationals. Despite the hard work and welcome influx of new talent, the first three games of this season have produced only five tries in 240 minutes of football, and three of these came from kicks.

Granted they have some injury problems, but from what I see, the basics in their attacking structures are poor and this team displays little confidence in its ability to produce line breaks and score tries. The "Hail Mary" bomb has become their weapon of choice. Coach Stuart and the Sharks need help.

The inability to score tries will eventually eat away at their resolve. If the batsmen consistently fail to get runs on the board, the bowlers tend to lose heart from always having to defend small totals.

Yesterday they held the Dragons to 10 and still couldn't win".

 

[fancyman]

Did anyone hear gus saying nice this about on the tv coverage, i couldnt belive my ears, i wonder why the turn around.

 

[mjef3966]

He is like TV ratings, he will say anything to get people behind him.

Everyone is hitting panic buttons too quickly just relax guys we can only get better.

 

[hitman124]

didnt he say we were the most likely team to take the title from manly a month ago?

 

[Sixgill]

An off season working with Kearney, Seymour and Barrett (I believe our three attacking chances, Kearney particularly) isn't helped when they are never on the field together, apart from a dismally wet game Round 1. Were these players all on the field yesterday we would have won by another few tries at least.

Gould takes superficial shots at anything flying low that he can reach. What he said required very little analysis and thought and has already been stated here a few times. The Sharks and Ricky are easy targets at the moment.

Truth is, our attack is poor at the moment but, as mjef said: "we can only get better". Get the injuries, suspensions and instability out of the way now. How often are a strong team decimated by late injuries and incidents (Bird and Seymour last year's finals).

We'll be there come September and if our best is on the field, we'll be hard to beat. I don't imagine Ricky is unaware of our current inability to score tries. He doesn't need a media fool to tell him.

 

[slide rule]

I don’t like Gould and think that some of his comments are outrageous verging on Lunacy, but on this occasion he is at least partly correct.

Perhaps we are playing too conservatively. Sometimes in order to attack you need to be flamboyant and take risks. So in a way, I think our great defence has come about by sacrificing our attack.

As frustrating as it can be to watch, I'd rather play how we are currently playing, because other teams will realise that they are going to have a tough grind when they play us.

Despite our setbacks so far this year, I get the feeling that we are creating a better football club with a “winning culture”. This attitude will become ingrained in the club and it will give us some strong foundations to build on in the coming years.

Eventually the attack will come. We are currently a team with better forwards than backs, and this is reflected in our style of play. Ricky has the team playing to its strengths and that is what a good coach does. I believe that we only need one or two exciting new backs and we will be the best team in the comp.

I definitely think Ricky has bought us toughness and credibility and for that I’m extremely grateful.

 

[IronShark]

It is very hard to criticise our attack when we have yet to really see it fully manned. Most teams struggle when they lose just their starting halfback - look at how the Titans go without Prince - we have played the last two games without our halfback and the last match with our star five eight out for the second half. We were always going to be flat in attack. At least our defence was good last week, it was average against the Knights. If we keep our defence tight, we will win plenty of games, even if the attack takes a while to hit top gear.

 

[Master Sharky]

I agree 100%, he is right and it hurts to admit! But we can not solely rely Kearney to produce line breaks?? We are lacking pure speed and some players need to be dropped! Simmons must go and either Orcher or Stapleton, Hughes swapped for Seu Seu. And if Pommeroy doesnt produce this weekend he must go aswell. It is evident that Mitch Brown has some spark and must be fitted into the side aswell!! Cmon Ricky,we can only tolerate this inept attack for so long.

 

[andyshark]

Yes our attack needs work, but it is round 3. Yesterday we had no Seymour, no Kearny and Barrett gone after 50mins, show me another team in the comp who can play affectively without there best 1,6 or 7.
Guys and girls Im as disapointed as any one here that we are struggling, but we really do have to put this in context, as I said its round 3 !.
Besides,
Phil Gould is a grub. He's agenda driving bias towards us and especially Ricky is just poor journolism to say the least. He hates anything to do with the daily or Sunday telegraph (guess who Ricky writes for), foxtel or the NRL especially David Gallop, why ? superleauge all those yrs ago thats why.
From what I've been told the guy would not know if there was a bus up his bum until the passengers got off, such is the extent of his after hour habbits, but in the famous words of Jerry Seinfield "not that theres anything wrong with that". Look just ignore this joke of a writer and you will be better off.

 

[Capmar]

On the whole Ricky has done a great job & has changed the culture from easy beats to a professional competitive unit. Gus will take any opportunity to have a swipe at Ricky.

We simply don't have depth in attack. Kearney was key to our attack & whilst Mitch did a good job yesterday he does not run into the line or play a support role in attack as Kearney or someone like Brett Stewart.

I agree Mitch needs to be in the team and possibly Blake or Poms may need to be reconsidered. Personally I think Poms is just having a rough run & needs to fix his defence line positioning. Unfortunately Simmons has had his time. His impact aprt from catching a kick was woeful. He does not break tackles and is susceptible to the step in defence.

It must be hard for Ricky blooding someone with no first grade experience & who desperately needs a few extra kilos on them. Unless we can buy a mid season fullback then I can't see the answer except for Orcher.

Ricky is merely playing safe but he needs to bite the bullet & take risks in attack. Possibly moving Williams to the centre may be a good idea & briunging Afamasaga into the forwards. How is Filiga playing?

We need to unearth an X factor very fast or our season at best will be competitive but not effective.

What do you guys think.

 

[bort]

On the whole Ricky has done a great job & has changed the culture from easy beats to a professional competitive unit. Gus will take any opportunity to have a swipe at Ricky.

We simply don't have depth in attack. Kearney was key to our attack & whilst Mitch did a good job yesterday he does not run into the line or play a support role in attack as Kearney or someone like Brett Stewart.

I agree Mitch needs to be in the team and possibly Blake or Poms may need to be reconsidered. Personally I think Poms is just having a rough run & needs to fix his defence line positioning. Unfortunately Simmons has had his time. His impact aprt from catching a kick was woeful. He does not break tackles and is susceptible to the step in defence.

It must be hard for Ricky blooding someone with no first grade experience & who desperately needs a few extra kilos on them. Unless we can buy a mid season fullback then I can't see the answer except for Orcher.

Ricky is merely playing safe but he needs to bite the bullet & take risks in attack. Possibly moving Williams to the centre may be a good idea & briunging Afamasaga into the forwards. How is Filiga playing?

We need to unearth an X factor very fast or our season at best will be competitive but not effective.

What do you guys think.

i think you havent been paying attention because karlos is gone
generally on the ball but williams should ot be center. how would that help our attack at all?

 

[mnc]

At the start of the season I believe Barrett said our new combo's would take some time to "click". So far they have barely played together, so don't panic just yet. In saying that I think these guys need to take some risks & throw the ball around, watching us run one out over & over again yesterday was frustrating & boring. I keep remembering the game a few years ago where we flogged the eagles 68 to 6 or something like that. I would love to see us destroy our opponents like that again!!!

 

[slide rule]

A lot of people were blaming Kimmorley for our attacking problems last year and the year before. It now seems like he may not have been the (main) problem after all!

 

[Capmar]

Sorry Bort I thought Karlos was still with us but I must have confused it with another Pacific Islander name

I thought williams would help our attack because centre & second row are interchangeable & both attck the fringes of the ruck. More importantly Williams is great in defence & we dont have to many options. Granted I can understand your view I would rather a specialist centre as well.

 

[stormshark]

True sliderule, always a risk to march him, wouldve worked well with Barret.

 

[bort]

Sorry Bort I thought Karlos was still with us but I must have confused it with another Pacific Islander name

I thought williams would help our attack because centre & second row are interchangeable & both attck the fringes of the ruck. More importantly Williams is great in defence & we dont have to many options. Granted I can understand your view I would rather a specialist centre as well.

positions arent 'interchangeable' just because some people can play both. theres 2nd rowers who can play center, second rowers who can play prop, wingers who an play center you wouldnt put at second row and second rowers who you wouldnt put at center or prop etc etc

 

[vicsharkfan]

im a big ricky fan,

atleast we are in just about every game to our eyeballs, last year we got over the line in plenty of close ones no reason we won't turn it around (little annoying at the moment granted) please lets be honest surely we didn't all expect to jump straight out the gates this season with so many new players launching attacking raid one after another. barrett topou gallan williams matua these guys all have silky skills they are all to good and proud not to turn it around very soon.....stay tuned

 

[kiwishark]

Our attack is to 1 out, we take 2 hit ups and at least 2 dummy half runs per set, thats not leaving alot for our ball players to work with, on top of that our best hole runners are taking the hit ups and are not available when we do go wide, our support play is SH!THOUSE Toops runs 40 metres and not once is there a back to offload to, I counted another 4 times he punched the line looked to offload and nobody was there SCHOOL KIDS back up better

 

[jimmymac]

i agree kiwishark. topou was far and away the best shark on the paddock v the dragons. he punched through the line on several occasions,with no backup. the other problem is that topou and gallen are the only 2 players running off barrett and into gaps. where are the hard running centres that hit a ball with pace. pomeroy was getting the ball too flat and standing still, while the only ball that ferguson got was from dummyhalf runs. if ferguson wants to play first grade, he has to step up, and want the ball in his hands. the best play we could come up with was get the ball to pomeroy, and see if he could run over jamie soward. soward actually muscled up ,and put pom away every time, with sailors help. not good enough. blake green just does not cut it for mine. he puts the kick up for simmons to score, brilliant. 10 mins later, he is 15 metres out, and puts a grubber through that nearly went through the fence. usain bolt couldn't have chased that one through, let alone simmons or ferguson. we really need seymour and barrett together, so they can work on a combo. i hope baz can play this weekend.

 

[Megashark]

if ferguson wants to play first grade, he has to step up, and want the ball in his hands.

I think it is simply a confidence thing Jimmy - right now he is the new kid on the block, and as he starts to feel more comfortable in his new surroundings, confidence will flow from that and he will start to call the plays more.