In denial?

[mrslong]

Oh I know. Apart from 2006, you have to go back to 2002 to find a winning finals game.

2002: First week: Won
2002: Prelim final: Lost
2003: First week: Lost
2004: First week: Lost
2004: Second week: Lost
2005: First week: Lost
2005: Second week: Lost
2006: First week: Lost
2006: Second week: Won
2006: Prelim final: Won
2006: GF: Won
2007: First Week: Lost

Not exactly inspirational! :P

Yes but we have won 3 of the last 4...including knocking off the red-hot favourites the dogs after being 20-6 down at half time, then knocking off the RED HOT favourites Melbourne in the Grand Final.

We only lost last year cos we had only 1 or 2 of our top players available.

Freddy should suck on those stats.

 

[Spud]

Oh I know. Apart from 2006, you have to go back to 2002 to find a winning finals game.

2002: First week: Won
2002: Prelim final: Lost
2003: First week: Lost
2004: First week: Lost
2004: Second week: Lost
2005: First week: Lost
2005: Second week: Lost
2006: First week: Lost
2006: Second week: Won
2006: Prelim final: Won
2006: GF: Won
2007: First Week: Lost

Not exactly inspirational! :P

Yes but we have won 3 of the last 4...including knocking off the red-hot favourites the dogs after being 20-6 down at half time, then knocking off the RED HOT favourites Melbourne in the Grand Final.

We only lost last year cos we had only 1 or 2 of our top players available.

Freddy should suck on those stats.

1 or 2? Try Lockyer, Hunt, Berrigan, Carroll, Ennis, Tate, Stagg, Kemp and Taylor who broke his hand. Thaiday also played 5/8. But i agree with you.

 

[mrslong]

Dude I said only 1 or 2 of our top players AVAILABLE.

 

[Spud]

Dude I said only 1 or 2 of our top players AVAILABLE.

So you did. Accept my apologies.

 

[mrslong]

Dude I said only 1 or 2 of our top players AVAILABLE.

So you did. Accept my apologies.

icon_thumbs_u

 

[Professor47]

03/04/05 were just seasons to forget though, 03 was the season where Locky was injured and came back a game or so before the penrith clash wasn't it? Stuart Kelly on the wing? hmmmm :)

04 was horrible, same deal with the Locky injury wasn't it or was that 05? ... 05 was meant to be the better year out of the three, 10 in a row wasn't it? we were going fine until the post origin slump, but was this the year Locky got injured again? (not to mention 07)

 

[rnabokov]

Ok..

Storm - Near unbeatable. Fact. No need to discuss this.

Manly - Pretenders. The last time they beat a Top 8 team was in round 18against the Sharks. The last time they even played a top 8 team was in round 20 - and they lost against the Roosters. Manly's record against top 8 teams: Played 10, won 6, lost 4. Some of the top teams they've beaten aren't crash hot either (beat the Warriors twice, Canberra at brookie etc). Seriously, they'd had a very nice draw this year.

Sharks - Worst attacking team in the comp. Fact. If you lead them at half time THEY WILL NOT be able to chase you for points. They simple cannot score. No chance against the better attacking teams like Storm, Manly and Broncos.

Roosters - Minicheillo's return is a massive boost. However, there are questions marks over their outside backs (especially in defence) and they simple don't have a recognised hooker this year which has impacted their go forward massively IMO. They can score enough points through their kicks, they have some good forwards but IMO, defensively they can be torn apart. Only way Roosters can make the GF is if the rains in every game here on in.

Dragons - They have the wood on us and there is no reason why they can't beat us again. However, they will struggle against teams who can defend well like the Storm and the Sharks because quite simply, St George lack a lot of creativity and good defensive teams tend to frustrate them in attack and force errors.

Canberra can't win that well away and Warriors will be beaten by Storm this week so yes.

BRONCOS - We were actually the best attacking team (statistically) in the comp at the half way mark. We have key players in key positions. Hunt, Wallace, Lockyer, Ennis - And all of these players are in good form. Our forwards have the ability to move the ball around a lot which is like ice cream cake to guys like Wallace and Lockyer.....Our outside backs are tremendous, Hodges, Kemp (2nd on try scoring list) Boyd who's improved massively this year and Moon who has been quite good in the centres.

We've got the players all over, and our key players in key positions are all in form and we have the best finals coach in the business. Of course we're contenders.

If we win the comp this year it'll be due to our attack, not our defence IMO (Unlike in 2006). I truly believe, at our best, we are the best attacking team in the 8.

Well, your analysis was spot on about the Chooks, and I reckon you're right about the others.

All the Broncos have to do is tighten up the gaps we leave out wide occasionally (Hodges?), and move up in defence quicker and we're in the GF.

 

[Hamm.0]

We are not pretenders, and anyone who has spoken to me off this forum knows I how I feel about our chances this year. After last night, the Storm and Manly have us on their rader.

Question is, will it be Storm in Round 3 of finals? If this is in Sydney....I wanna go!

 

[mick]

No denying it now. The sleeping giant of 08 has awoken.

I'm hoping just one upset happens this week, which will all but quash our chances of meeting Melbourne until the big one.

We're the only team that can do it IMO.

Sharks - Can't score enough points against the Storm's defence.
Manly - Too big a hurdle to overcome mentally. They're overawed by the Storm.

Don't think any others really have much of a chance. I'm so ******** pumped after last night.

 

[Dexter]

I was super confident going into 06 and as well as we played the second half last night we still haven't put 80 mins together for months. The chooks are a very ordinary football side, so we should have handled them at least as well as we did last night.

Melb are still a dominant side, out on their own atm and injury is their biggest threat.

 

[mick]

The chooks have been ordinary, but I honestly haven't seen a team play with as much intensity all year as they did in the first half-hour last night.

 

[Dexter]

Yeah fair point Mick, they did fire up and we handled what they threw at us like a good side.

The difference between us and Melb is our mistakes. Too many turnovers for mine and we if we let them offload like the chooks did at times they will rack up a score.

To be honest I don't think we are a shitshow of beating them, lbut ike I said, an injury to 1 of their big 3 will make a difference.

Or maybe I have underestimated WB and we are heading for a perfect Storm performance and he has timed it all just right for his swansong. If anyone can do it its him [icon_pray.