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[Thresher]

Fingerless gloves sponsorship fell through

 

[Sparkles]

Fingerless gloves sponsorship fell through

Fell through his fingers?

 

[GF78]

I guess Cleary is **** then?

All players miss tackles, you keep trying to justify how **** Moylan's defence is for some reason.

Hard to think of another half in the game who is worse.

Do you mean the worse defense of halves in the NRL? If so, low bar that one.

Not too many defensive juggernaut 5/8ths in the game, and frankly, I want their skills set heavily weighted on their ability to set up tries.

The above is why I Iiked how Moylan worked in the team in 2022.

Sharks scored tries for fun until we met a strong opposition forward pack that steamrolled our forwards (Canberra/ Melbourne/ Penrith/ Easts/ Souths).

More importantly The left edge was strong - 3rd best defensive unit.

Why did the left edge go from a juggernaut to so pear shaped in 2023? Serious question.

Moylan defence got worse? Talakai's defence got worse? Ronaldo reads got worse?

Wilton in for Graham was the key differential for mine.

 

[HaroldBishop]

Do you mean the worse defense of halves in the NRL? If so, low bar that one.

Not too many defensive juggernaut 5/8ths in the game, and frankly, I want their skills set heavily weighted on their ability to set up tries.

The above is why I Iiked how Moylan worked in the team in 2022.

Sharks scored tries for fun until we met a strong opposition forward pack that steamrolled our forwards (Canberra/ Melbourne/ Penrith/ Easts/ Souths).

More importantly The left edge was strong - 3rd best defensive unit.

Why did the left edge go from a juggernaut to so pear shaped in 2023? Serious question.

Moylan defence got worse? Talakai's defence got worse? Ronaldo reads got worse?

Wilton in for Graham was the key differential for mine.

Some fair points there.

It is a low bar but can you name a worse defensive half than him? I can't.

For sure the other factors you listed are a reason for our left edge defence, Wade made a big difference for sure.

Yeah Teig has some big defensive issues but the difference is he's young, just like Nikora two years ago when plenty, including me, wanted him gone.

Moylan isn't young, there is no improvement coming. Would he make less defensive errors with reading defence with Wade? Maybe but I doubt it, he looked down on himself in defence this year. Wade also isn't going to make Moylan's one on one tackles for him.

On attack, I'm not sure what he brings apart from digging into the line which he is very good at. He's slow, crap kicking game.

I like Tricky but I'm not all in on him. Hopefully he makes the spot his own but let's remember he's young and will make mistakes. We need to use him better next year though, share the load.

 

[andrew's_sharks]

Do you mean the worse defense of halves in the NRL? If so, low bar that one.

Not too many defensive juggernaut 5/8ths in the game, and frankly, I want their skills set heavily weighted on their ability to set up tries.

The above is why I Iiked how Moylan worked in the team in 2022.

Sharks scored tries for fun until we met a strong opposition forward pack that steamrolled our forwards (Canberra/ Melbourne/ Penrith/ Easts/ Souths).

More importantly The left edge was strong - 3rd best defensive unit.

Why did the left edge go from a juggernaut to so pear shaped in 2023? Serious question.

Moylan defence got worse? Talakai's defence got worse? Ronaldo reads got worse?

Wilton in for Graham was the key differential for mine.

I feel like this post is misleading. We were the 3rd best defensive team. But that doesn't mean the left edge was the 3rd best defensive unit. Just a thought.

 

[Sir Chadley]

I just get the feeling that there is no one out there we can realistically pick up for 2024.

So I have no high expectations for next year, I believe top 4 and the Premiership is out of our reach again. We’ll finish somewhere in the bottom part of the 8 or we could miss it totally.

Not enough talent with what we have or on the market to see us improve in 2024.

 

[BurgoShark]

Why did the left edge go from a juggernaut to so pear shaped in 2023? Serious question.

Less possession, more quality possession for the other guys, never having healthy middles, and opposition teams having a better idea of how the Sharks intend to play.

The forum hyper-focused on the left edge as the problem, but there were games where they right edge was a problem, and other games where teams would go at Nicho's edge, get a quick ptb and then expose numbers on the other side. In the Warriors game Moylan got dropped for there were middles falling off tackles and allowing quick ptb's from 15m out. All of things add up to the defence on a whole being subpar. Moylan was the worst of a bad bunch.

Which corridor the tries get scored down aren't really the issue unless it's just one guy missing a one-on-one tackle (e.g. Moylan on Timoko in Rd3).

 

[Super Impose]

While there are good points Re Teig , Sifa etc but Moylan’s defence became a massive target and a running joke across the NRL .

Credits in the bank for his silky hands were all used up by the time of his belated dropping ..

 

[bort]

I feel like this post is misleading. We were the 3rd best defensive team. But that doesn't mean the left edge was the 3rd best defensive unit. Just a thought.

By % Storm Dragons and Warriors conceded a lower number of their tries on left. Roosters equal.

Given warriors and dragons conceded far more than us overall probably fair to say we were better than them. Without mathing it out we probably were top 3 with storm and roosters

 

[bort]

While there are good points Re Teig , Sifa etc but Moylan’s defence became a massive target and a running joke across the NRL .

Credits in the bank for his silky hands were all used up by the time of his belated dropping ..

I’d be surprised if many NRL coaching staffs got so caught up on Moylans defence they didn’t pay any attention to those around them.

I assume you mean his defence was a massive joke among NRL fans? Or actually the NRL?

 

[Super Impose]

I’d be surprised if many NRL coaching staffs got so caught up on Moylans defence they didn’t pay any attention to those around them.

I assume you mean his defence was a massive joke among NRL fans? Or actually the NRL?

Yeah I meant fans - but it’s fair to say he was the #1 ‘ spot defender ‘ on every game plan against us ..

 

[bort]

Yeah I meant fans - but it’s fair to say he was the #1 ‘ spot defender ‘ on every game plan against us ..

Every NRL team runs plays designed to attack at/around the halves, and try and either single them out or manipulate numbers to their advantage on the outside.

Moylan would be highly targeted for sure, we also saw Hynes beaten at times. I think it is probably incorrect to suggest NRL coaching staff are so focused on the fact Moylan is a bad defender they didn't also realise that Wilton wasn't defending the line well, or that Talakai had poor lateral movement (which could be further abused as both guys inside him weren't doing well). And that Ronnie can tend to shoot in to try and compensate for these issues also (not necissarily a mistake, but does leave space).
The edge was a massive target, Moylan was a decent factor in that but far from the only factor.

This is extremely relevant as Wilton is back next season so if he hasn't improved we are a big risk of seeing similar results.
Teams won't go 'oh well no Moylan' they'll go 'okay Wilton is back and Trindall isn't a particularly good line defender' and keep doing much the same thing. Hopefully a priority for Fitz in offseason to get that edge to click better.

This is very circular because I totally agree Moylan defended like ****, I just still also have other concerns about that edge.

 

[GF78]

‘Trying to push up the price’: Rugby Australia’s real offer to Angus Crichton as $1.6m deal exposed as ‘fake’

‘Trying to push up the price’: Rugby’s real offer to Crichton as $1.6m deal exposed as ‘fake’

www.foxsports.com.au

Ok! WOW!

Classic agent BS.

 

[HaroldBishop]

Classic agent BS.

Yeah I'd believe that for sure. No one is paying Angus $800k once his current deal expires unless he has a massive uptick in form.

 

[BurgoShark]

Every NRL team runs plays designed to attack at/around the halves, and try and either single them out or manipulate numbers to their advantage on the outside.

Moylan would be highly targeted for sure, we also saw Hynes beaten at times. I think it is probably incorrect to suggest NRL coaching staff are so focused on the fact Moylan is a bad defender they didn't also realise that Wilton wasn't defending the line well, or that Talakai had poor lateral movement (which could be further abused as both guys inside him weren't doing well). And that Ronnie can tend to shoot in to try and compensate for these issues also (not necissarily a mistake, but does leave space).
The edge was a massive target, Moylan was a decent factor in that but far from the only factor.

This is extremely relevant as Wilton is back next season so if he hasn't improved we are a big risk of seeing similar results.
Teams won't go 'oh well no Moylan' they'll go 'okay Wilton is back and Trindall isn't a particularly good line defender' and keep doing much the same thing. Hopefully a priority for Fitz in offseason to get that edge to click better.

This is very circular because I totally agree Moylan defended like ****, I just still also have other concerns about that edge.

It would be useful to know how many times teams attacked to each edge, rather than just how many times they were successful.

For all we know the opposition coach said "attack both sides equally" but Moyza's side just happened to miss more often.

 

[GF78]

Some fair points there.

It is a low bar but can you name a worse defensive half than him? I can't.

For sure the other factors you listed are a reason for our left edge defence, Wade made a big difference for sure.

Yeah Teig has some big defensive issues but the difference is he's young, just like Nikora two years ago when plenty, including me, wanted him gone.

Moylan isn't young, there is no improvement coming. Would he make less defensive errors with reading defence with Wade? Maybe but I doubt it, he looked down on himself in defence this year. Wade also isn't going to make Moylan's one on one tackles for him.

On attack, I'm not sure what he brings apart from digging into the line which he is very good at. He's slow, crap kicking game.

I like Tricky but I'm not all in on him. Hopefully he makes the spot his own but let's remember he's young and will make mistakes. We need to use him better next year though, share the load.

Regarding speed... I was shocked to see how slow Tricky was when he took that great intercept against the Roosters? and got hauled in so quickly. Was he injured or is simply not blessed with jets.

 

[HaroldBishop]

Regarding speed... I was shocked to see how slow Tricky was when he took that great intercept against the Roosters? and got hauled in so quickly. Was he injured or is simply not blessed with jets.

Can't even remember it tbh, he's definitely not a speed demon, though.

 

[Sevshark]

Tuilagi signs with eels

 

[Western Sharkie]

Classic agent BS.

110%

 

[BurgoShark]

Regarding speed... I was shocked to see how slow Tricky was when he took that great intercept against the Roosters? and got hauled in so quickly. Was he injured or is simply not blessed with jets.

Can't even remember it tbh, he's definitely not a speed demon, though.

I think he means when he trapped it with his feet and ran 70m prior to the Teddy sin bin.

https://imgur.com/gdH1EUl