TRIAL-Saturday-21st-Feburary-7:00pm Wests Tigers V Cronulla Sutherland Sharks @ Campbelltown Sports Ground

[evertonshark]

Bit worrying a few of you have said the only time our wingers got the ball was running it out of our own end, really hope we can run plays that actually give them some room to move this year

 

[stormshark]

Could it be a stroke of luck we play Raiders at home whilst combinations are not yet settled?

 

[The Wild Man]

Anyway, trials and Nines are over. Has anyone unexpectedly put a case forward for first grade?

Seems like Semi Sauiluma has put his hand up for not only a NRL spot but also a centre spot. I definetely didn't see that coming from his Raiders form.

David Fifita is on the radar after his effort against a star-studded ALL-STARS team.... but Jack Bird is the one who I believe will mature into one of our TOP players in 2 or 3 years. Hang on to this guy Sharks.... he has future star all over him for mine.

 

[Sutty]

Hmm I wonder if alot of that was just users re-clicking/refreshing the stream to try and get it to work or rebuffer. Not sure exactly how they measure the hits

Yep, I highly doubt there was 27k different people watching that game online all at once.

 

[BlackWhiteBlue]

Could it be a stroke of luck we play Raiders at home whilst combinations are not yet settled?

No. Cos we'll get beaten by a ricky stuart coached team AGAIN

 

[BlackWhiteBlue]

Yep, I highly doubt there was 27k different people watching that game online all at once.

they probably counted the amount of times i tried refreshing their piss weak site. No wonder their board of directors is a mess!

 

[Gards]

Bit worrying a few of you have said the only time our wingers got the ball was running it out of our own end, really hope we can run plays that actually give them some room to move this year

Sadly I am no longer confident this will be the case. Barba slotting in and a few fresh faces in the backs hasn't really changed our shape in attack it seems
People can say it's just a trial but that is exactly what concerns me, if Flanno had devised a new structure or gameplan then the game on Saturday was the perfect time to execute and test it out before the season proper but we didn't see a significant deviation away from the status quo.

He looks to be accepting of his legacy gameplans and is more or less just seeing how his players are going and who is best suited/in form

I really do hope things evolve over the course of the season

 

[endevour shark]

Sadly I am no longer confident this will be the case. Barba slotting in and a few fresh faces in the backs hasn't really changed our shape in attack it seems
People can say it's just a trial but that is exactly what concerns me, if Flanno had devised a new structure or gameplan then the game on Saturday was the perfect time to execute and test it out before the season proper but we didn't see a significant deviation away from the status quo.

He looks to be accepting of his legacy gameplans and is more or less just seeing how his players are going and who is best suited/in form

I really do hope things evolve over the course of the season

So do I, .think I read somewhere that DCE would like to go to a team that plays expansive footy that has to be us Right!!!!!!!!!

 

[Gards]

[/B]

So do I, .think I read somewhere that DCE would like to go to a team that plays expansive footy that has to be us Right!!!!!!!!!

Well we do shift the ball, it just so happens that there is an opposition player waiting there to smack us once we catch it

 

[endevour shark]

Well we do shift the ball, it just so happens that there is an opposition player waiting there to smack us once we catch it

That is very inconsiderate of them or maybe we are still very easy to read in attack

 

[1990 sharkie]

That is very inconsiderate of them or maybe we are still very easy to read in attack

Or we are just hopeless because our half is useless in attack,our fullback is old school and only knows how to run and our 5/8 is a work in progress with only one good year of footy under his belt in a few years .

 

[Sutty]

Just watched the replay, they're on the Tigers website (too lazy to link, go and look for it yourself if interested).

But yeah, pretty scrappy game, not many sets were completed. Not too worried about the performance, the tries we let in that mattered were:
1) Intercept, on a play we should have scored off earlier (Robson had a gimme short pass to an unmarked Gordon who would have scored under the post, ignored him).
2) A chip and chase from nothing, though the bomb should have been caught beforehand.
3) A ball that was raked off Feki in a 4-man tackle in their in-goal, no way in hell was that a try. So yeah, that's not too worrying, our defense seemed pretty good.

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I payed special attention to the kicks. We had:

Ennis - 50m, 35m, 38m, 37m ---> Total 160 meters, 4 kicks (Looked to have first dibs on the long kicks)
Barba - 30m, 30m, 9m, 28m, 24m ---> Total 121 meters, 5 kicks (His bombs and short kicks were pretty good)
Robson - 17m, 25m, 25m, 30m ---> Total 97 meters, 4 kicks (NOTE: Included a ball kicked out on the full which was not called, and a 40-20 attempt that went 25m)
Stanley - 15m, 28m, 55m, 5m ---> Total 103 meters, 4 kicks (His short kicking looked crap)
Leutele - 26m ---------------------> Total 26 meters, 1 kick (Spread the ball for Wade, who didn't kick all game, but he got rushed so offloaded to Leutele)
Murphy - 20m ---------------------> Total 20 meters, 1 kick (LMFAO @ Settling touch finder, to be fair they were tired by that stage. He was only on for 10 minutes)

 

[Sutty]

So yeah, all the forwards looked very solid. Prior was probably the pick, Gallen also very solid along with Tupou. But yeah, everyone was rolling up the field when Ennis was on. Arona getting quick ball meant he was gliding like 15m every hitup. Andrew Fifita looked a bit lacking of practice, didn't get an offload, seemed a bit weary on that arm of his. He was very strong in defense though.It'll help our lack of short kicking if we can roll up the field each set. Feki was making plenty of meters as well.
-------------------

Robson was absolutely fking pathetic in attack, he stifled us. Gallen still touched the ball 3 times every set when we got to their end. Wade's short balls were real nice at the line though, and Gordon to Feki face-ball nearly led to a try again, they should keep working on that. But yeah, I'm not too concerned with the performance. It's as expected, we don't have a halfback.
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A few things to note: Jack Bird only played a couple of 5 minutes stints in the forwards, didn't have an impact. With about 20 to go, he and Sauliuma both came back on the right side, Bird was actually playing at Right-Centre instead of Sauliuma, who was playing in the forwards.

http://www.weststigers.com.au/news/2015/02/23/replay_nrl_trial_vs__0.html - Skip to 27:20 (25:30 in-game clock) for his first touch at centre. FFS I want him there.

P.S. That Santi guy for Wests looked like an absolute gun, was on for 40 minutes, made like 30 tackles, 10 hitups and 5 tackle breaks.

 

[slide rule]

Stanley put in a kick of 55m? Give him the 7. I think I'm even being serious too.

We can't get by with halves that are kicking 25 metres. In fairness looking at the those stats, I've got no idea about the field positions for those kicks. But, it pretty much tells the expected story anyway.

 

[Sutty]

Oh yeah I may have been too generous with the 55m kick for Stanley, I think that actually went dead in-goal. But we didn't really get a lot of opportunity for long kicks, Ennis took 4 and Robson shanked the other. The rest were in our territory.

 

[Born&bred]

Stanley put in a kick of 55m? Give him the 7. I think I'm even being serious too.

We can't get by with halves that are kicking 25 metres. In fairness looking at the those stats, I've got no idea about the field positions for those kicks. But, it pretty much tells the expected story anyway.

I refuse to watch any game that stanley plays HB - he shouldn't even lace up a boot in reggies. Robson is far better ( and I aint joking)

 

[andrew's_sharks]

Just watched the First half. I am reasonably happy with that. Attack never sticks well the first couple weeks and I think for the most part we looked fairly good. We were definitely much stronger than the tigers in the first half.

 

[Gards]

Just watched the First half. I am reasonably happy with that. Attack never sticks well the first couple weeks and I think for the most part we looked fairly good. We were definitely much stronger than the tigers in the first half.

We didn't really try that much in attack either which is what worries me, nothing we hadn't seen with Carney in the side. Flat balls, chips to the wing, outside inside balls
I'm not a Flanno hater but I don't think he has a clue how to create a sturcture or gameplan that can create space and unlock our backs. Speaking of we have decent backs now so he can't use that as an excuse any longer

This is why I think a half back of the utmost quality (DCE pretty much) is a must for us to have a real shot as Flanno is around for some time yet. Someone who can create something out of a mediocre attacking structure

More and more I feel like the promising attacking games I have seen under Flanno were just some sort of fluke, either that or he just loves falling back to what he knows and trusts...

 

[Sutty]

Seriously I'd settle for a halfback that isn't a complete liability in attack. Robson is talentless.

That's right, even Todd Murphy's got a better touch settler.

 

[deano the p]

Cheers for the review Sutty.