Australia VS New Zealand

[Kimlo]

26-24, NZ hold on for an upset victory.

Great to see Mal lose.
Go Tonga next week!

 

[I bleed Maroon]

Hunt with a deep bomb with Aus needing to score to win the game...

I'm convinced he shanked the kick. He meant to go cross field but the ball hit the outside of his boot

 

[Kimlo]

Shaun Johnson MOTM.

 

[Wolfie]

Has there ever been a coach who has ridden on the back of one team like Meninga? Guy got carried by one of the great Origin teams of all time and suddenly he's this master coach who is worthy of coaching the Kangaroos.

Great player but one of the biggest coaching pretenders of all time.

I think Mal is a fantastic rep coach. He handles the players well, they respect him and he pulls them all in the same direction in the short time they have together. Players at the top of their sport dont really need much coaching, the time isnt there to do it and Mal has always left that side of things to others.

I dont think he would make a great NRL coach though. Dont think he has it in him.

 

[Unbreakable]

Ben Hunt MOTM for the Kiwis, god that bloke is just a dog shit footy player isn't he.

64 minutes, 0 attacking stats, 2 runs, 7 metres, 1 game losing kick.

He must have nudes of somebody important, that's all I can think of as to why he keeps getting picked in rep teams.

 

[ZTop]

The commentators were absolutely disgusting tonight. Could we not have an unbiased commentary team. It ruined the game for mine

 

[Dexter]

Has Mitchell done nothing but eat since the GF? he looked flabby around the guts.

 

[Morkel]

The commentators were absolutely disgusting tonight. Could we not have an unbiased commentary team. It ruined the game for mine

The constant Mitchellbation?

Hunt was blamed for knocking it on from the pressure pass he received, which ultimately led to NZ starting their scoring spree. But no one seems to think Mitchell’s cold drop was a problem. Gus just said that it was a symptom of him still being young. That may be true but instead of us potentially being back in front, we immediately conceded two more tries and the game was over.

 

[ZTop]

The constant Mitchellbation?

Hunt was blamed for knocking it on from the pressure pass he received, which ultimately led to NZ starting their scoring spree. But no one seems to think Mitchell’s cold drop was a problem. Gus just said that it was a symptom of him still being young. That may be true but instead of us potentially being back in front, we immediately conceded two more tries and the game was over.

Well I had foxsports coverage and it was nz commentators

 

[Wolfie]

The constant Mitchellbation?

Hunt was blamed for knocking it on from the pressure pass he received, which ultimately led to NZ starting their scoring spree. But no one seems to think Mitchell’s cold drop was a problem. Gus just said that it was a symptom of him still being young. That may be true but instead of us potentially being back in front, we immediately conceded two more tries and the game was over.

He is one of the most overhyped players going around with the channel 9 team.

 

[winslow_wong]

Hopefully this also exposes mal meninga as the spud coach we all know he is. Wouldn’t be surprised if he suddenly resigns after a few more losses happen.

 

[Accept]

Hopefully this also exposes mal meninga as the spud coach we all know he is. Wouldn’t be surprised if he suddenly resigns after a few more losses happen.

That's a little harsh. Mainstays such as Cronk, Slater, Smith, Inglis and JT were not in the lineup, Keary gets knocked out early and they still lost by only two points in enemy territory. I'm not sure how Mal cops any of the blame for the defeat.

 

[Fatboy]

Team of mostly NSW muppets. Hahaha!

 

[winslow_wong]

That's a little harsh. Mainstays such as Cronk, Slater, Smith, Inglis and JT were not in the lineup, Keary gets knocked out early and they still lost by only two points in enemy territory. I'm not sure how Mal cops any of the blame for the defeat.

Exactly that. He rode his way to glory on the back of those mainstays. The greatest qld team ever assembled all happened to come together in the same era and mal took full advantage of it to boost his profile. Let’s see how he goes without them.

 

[Kyall]

The problems with the team-
1.Hunt should never have been picked at all, he adds nothing. They use the excuse of Keary getting injured early but we were meant to have perfectly good replacement so bullshit.
2.Turbo is a great player but no way he is a centre should of left him on the wing and Roberts should have been centre.
3.Defence was good to some extent in the first half but as soon as 2nd half came we stopped moving up and just sat back waiting.
4.This is a hard 1 for everyone but Mcguire should never have been run on lock and was lucky to get picked in the team. There is a big difference between lock and prop no matter what anyone says.
5.The 17 players that got selected may have been right but all used terriblely.

 

[Alec]

Yeah, Hunt was terrible, but I guess they had no choice in how to use him. The original plan probably wasn't him replacing Keary.

 

[Accept]

Exactly that. He rode his way to glory on the back of those mainstays. The greatest qld team ever assembled all happened to come together in the same era and mal took full advantage of it to boost his profile. Let’s see how he goes without them.

Even Mal has admitted that he isn't much chop as a coach. But they keep hiring him and paying him six figure sums and he's not silly enough to knock it back. Some posters place way too much value on coaches, there is only so much they can do. In all my years of watching RL, Wayne Bennett is the only coach that I would rate as pure quality, the rest are just space cadets.

 

[Big Pete]

Couldn't have asked more from New Zealand. They controlled possession brilliantly and their interchange of passing put the Australian defence under sustained pressure. I don't think I've seen a team earn so many repeat sets through their passing game before.

It was a testament to their ability to engage the defence, time the pass and present structures that gave their ball carriers options.

Defensively their forwards aimed up and pulled a Roosters on Melbourne. The Australian backs had their work cut out for them and they struggled to win the play the ball coming out of trouble.

If you were a New Zealand fan, you'd have to be ecstatic with the performances of Watene-Zelezniak, Smith & Manu. Everybody knows what Johnson is capable of, but for years he's had to play the lone hand. The emergence of DWZ, Smith & Manu on the world stage was one of the most pleasing things and if they can maintain that standard, NZRL won't be in the doldrums for long.

The game was there to be won for the Australians inside the opening 10 minutes of the second half. That try to Gagai right on half-time should have been a pivotal moment, but Australia struggled to put New Zealand away.

There were a few factors that stood out to me. When you're in the position Australia found themselves in when they were forced to defend set after set and finally had some football, it's important to make the most of it. That's where they needed to bring Klemmer & McLean back onto the field to win that middle for Australia and give their halves more time. Having Woods, Trbojevic and Frizell all on the field at the same time made it easy for the New Zealand defence.

As an aside, I was stunned Frizell didn't come on for Kaufusi. Felise was heavily targeted in defence and barely had any petrol in attack. Under Bellamy's structures, Kaufusi is one of the most potent backrows in the game but for pure ability, I was surprised Mal resisted the urge to play Frizell.

The other was the general lack of direction. If you look at a player like Cameron Smith, what he does incredibly well is get the ball into positions where the halves can attack from. With Cook, the Australians rarely found themselves in those positions and it made their attack much easier to read.

That had a flow-on effect to the halves who appeared lost and out of ideas. Hunt was utterly uncomfortable on the left-hand edge and didn't want to know about Cordner, Mitchell or Holmes despite them being the Kangaroos most potent option. Cherry-Evans had the luxury of playing on his preferred side but outside of the lead-up work to the Gagai try didn't offer much guidance. Sure, he played a role in the Kaufusi try that gave the Kangaroos a chance but it was a fortunate ricochet than any individual piece of brilliance.

Despite all the issues, Australia only lost by two points. I thought there were a lot of positives to take out of the performance, particularly in defence. Despite having a mixed evening, I thought Mitchell produced some wonderful pieces of play and I'd be extremely surprised if he doesn't go onto have a long and prosperous career in the green and gold. That set-up for the James Tedesco try was unbelievable play from him and Valentine. Everybody saw it coming and there was nothing New Zealand could do.

Brilliant.

Australia can take a lot out of that performance and I can't wait to see how they play against Tonga.