MBQLD
Shane O'Grady
Do you always have to be a party pooper? Could say the same about you whinging about Cogger at every opportunity
NRL Round 6 - Knights V Roosters - Thursday 11th April 7:50pm - McDonald Jones Stadium
- Thread starter Lefty
- Start date
I wouldn’t mind being not a great side and coming first on the ladder.
And I wouldn’t say they beat a much stronger roosters side than we did. Only difference is teddy who was solid but Manu had one of the great fullback performances against us
MBQLD
Shane O'Grady
Their main weekness was moving Manu back out of full back. Apparently the coach gave him the green light to roam out of centre but you can really only move so far for large portions of a game. A smart team will seize and opportunity to exploit a hole when possible.
Manu would be an elite fullback especially if he could improve his ball playing. But even then he would just be Dylan Edwards on crack, and with a million tackle breaks.
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
I don't think Manu is the kind of handbrake washed Teddy is proving to be though.
Defence wins games
Ben Rogers
Or that Annesley’s Monday review calls it as it is, and not how far he should protect referees or the bunker.
I heard Joey openly question a few decisions last night and I would back his judgement any day!
I just don’t see the point in the ref complaints. Although personally I think they do a good job in what must be the most difficult sport to officiate on the planet. I would never want to do even a single game at that level, just the thought of the pressure and the million and one things you have to look for and multi-task on stresses me out. With that in mind we are never going to get perfection from them.Do you always have to be a party pooper? Could say the same about you whinging about Cogger at every opportunity
Our players are something within the club’s control, we can coach them, devise tactics, work on fitness (have the best off-season ever! lol), change our roster … so that’s what I’m a lot more interested in. But each to their own.
We definitely had plenty of opportunity to win last week though, no matter what the refereeing decisions were. I guess it’s personal responsibility to an extent, the club can moan about the ref, or acknowledge they weren’t up to it and do the work needed to improve.
MontyBrogan
Darius Boyd
The players are something within the club's control - but not anymore controllable by us random punters on a forum than the referees are.
Reckon it's open season here to complain about any or both. The roots of the complaints are the same - if the referees gave us better calls surely we would win more, if our players just put in the effort surely we would win more...
Both are misguided in the same way. We tell ourselves that we jut need a few calls, and we tell ourselves that we have the cattle - they just need to decide to work harder. Both of those are fixable.
Much harder to accept the reality - we have a borderline top 8 team in terms of talent, and we have a borderline top 8 coach. We're probably going to finish borderline top 8 - it's not that the players aren't trying hard enough, or that the refs are giving us a hard go. The problem with that is it's a much more endemic, systematic problem to fix - and that's hard to accept.
slotmachine
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Best post of the last 12 months.
I never said the players aren't trying hard enough, I think that's a pretty lame argument too ... the things I mention in my post all align with what you say. There are actual issues in fitness I think, coaching and tactics, but as I say, the roster is a big part of it. While our forward pack is getting rolled through each week, and our halves can't control a game, we aren't going anywhere fast.
MBQLD
Shane O'Grady
A very good post and l'd agree with most of that. I'm a little more optimistic on the last paragraph personally. My frustration with this team (l've touched on it before) is that they've just been pipped by better teams and I feel like success is reachable in the same way as looking for something you placed on the bedside table in the dark. You are fumbling around grabbing at random things, knowing full well it’s there because you saw it before the lights went out but you will get your mitt on it sooner or later. I feel the knights are looking and when they find it we will all get to see something special again. I don’t think it’ll be too far off.
I agree with James too, they seem to not be as fit as advertised but again that will surely change with games under the belt.
The winning streak last year was great at the time, but I think it has turned out to be a false dawn, in reality this season so far has shown us we are just as far from ever at being premiership contenders, and that's a very long way. 
The winning streak last year was great at the time, but I think it has turned out to be a false dawn, in reality this season so far has shown us we are just as far from ever at being premiership contenders, and that's a very long way.
Agree with you, it got our hopes up and just hid the reality that we are not a top side.
I look at a team like the warriors and say they are the real deal as they have got right back into their stride and are playing the same they did last year.
We are so off the pace it isn't funny, we look nothing like that team in the 10 game streak.
Although they're currently trailing the Dragons who we thumped, this is very true haha. Also see them lose a top front rower, they go out and quietly nab the best prop in the comp as his replacement. We get linked to everyone under the sun and usually end up with a reserve grader we hope was a hidden gem all along.
Newygirl
George Mann
Agree there’s a definite ceiling on this team with our current spine and some of the middles.
For mine the club is not cut throat (eg DSaf) or proactive enough in going after positions of need (improved since Parr arrived). It shouldn’t take 8 years from 2016 “rebuild” to still only be an above average team at best that’s ridiculous.
However, even if they can’t make a GF atm, the expectation should still be that they compete on every play. You can’t get anywhere without that attitude.
Hopefully one day soon the roster is improved enough that a GF is realistic possibility but it won’t matter if that mentality isn’t already ingrained in the club as a whole.
Look at the Storm, they haven’t been great this year but they compete on everything and managed to win 4 games they could’ve easily lost and now they’re first instead of 15th.
For mine the club is not cut throat (eg DSaf) or proactive enough in going after positions of need (improved since Parr arrived). It shouldn’t take 8 years from 2016 “rebuild” to still only be an above average team at best that’s ridiculous.
However, even if they can’t make a GF atm, the expectation should still be that they compete on every play. You can’t get anywhere without that attitude.
Hopefully one day soon the roster is improved enough that a GF is realistic possibility but it won’t matter if that mentality isn’t already ingrained in the club as a whole.
Look at the Storm, they haven’t been great this year but they compete on everything and managed to win 4 games they could’ve easily lost and now they’re first instead of 15th.
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Look, on one level, you’re right - it’s almost taboo in rugby league specifically to not acknowledge that some teams just don’t have the cattle, in a way it isn’t in other sports.
But on another - I don’t think it’s crazy to expect more from the current mob. I would honestly argue more than half the comp could be described as “borderline top 8”. I think there’s a clear best two teams - and I’d go as far as to say that the 2023 Broncos had a level of athleticism where they’d have beaten any other team in the NRL era besides the one they played against, the greatest team I’ve ever seen. I think there’s one which almost has the cattle to seriously compete with those two - the Warriors (and they are on the improve IMO). And then every other team bringing their best vs Brisbane or Penrith’s best would be lucky to keep it within 30. That’s the level of talent the Broncos have and the degree to which Penrith have “solved” how to defend in rugby league.
I think people get this, that’s why the recruitment & retention threads are so popular (and why so many of us keep a close eye on pathways/lower grades). And I think the club gets this - you don’t target a rough diamond like James Schiller if you think all you need to close the gap is a bit more effort and smarts.
But I reckon we should be at the upper end of those fringe top 8 teams, not the middle of the peloton. It’d be a lot easier to get there if, say, the guy we signed to a marquee contract when he was about the 5th best prop in the game didn’t regress into being about the 50th. Talk about whether he’s the right athletic archetype for the modern game all you want, if you’re seriously gonna tell me effort isn’t a factor in that happening with him, go watch his games from 2020-21 and tell me you still think that. I think a “what the **** happened” on that count is justified. It was still the six again era back then!
Some accountability for our highest paid forward D-Saf with at least a stint in NSW Cup is absolutely overdue. It's a no brainer.
Hasn’t happened yet. He’s the “alpha male” so can’t see him getting dropped. Stranger things have happened though
HarVeeGee13
Danny 'Bedsy' Buderus
Yeah we just want to feel like we’re moving in the right direction.
We’ve got the best player in the sport (in my opinion) and some extremely promising young players. Like if Pryce and Leo’s twin both pan out you’ve got a core group of guys - Ponga, Best, KPP, Moses Leota 2.0 x2, Pryce - which feels to me like they could be key players on a proper contender once you add in the right mix of astute signings and emerging talent. Right now is about feeling like we’ve got the right cultural building blocks in place & the club is making the right moves to help us take the next step. At least, that’s where I feel is the place my various complaints are coming from.