Pre-season

[Foordy]

good to get that first game out of the way. it was always going to take more than a pre-season with no games to get rid of the Seibold era muscle memory.

while it wasn't the result we wanted there was plenty to take away from tonight's performance in particular the first half.

• Turpin was my MOM by a long way really impressive performance from him.
• Nui was much improved on last week and looked good in the center performance.
• Isaako, while he still has a bit to work on, looked like he was capable of holding down the fullback position until Walsh is ready (he's not yet). I would consider having him revert to the old behind the line defensive positioning when we are defending our line, rather than the more modern fullback defends in the line positioning made popular by Boyd.
• Croft looked much better than last year, hopefully Kevvie has had a similar effect on Milford who has a much higher skillset starting point than Croft, although i think Croft may have the better work ethic.
• our defence showed more starch and resilience than last year and we were actually able to defend multiple repeat sets against us; i'm not sure we defended a single oone last year.

some negatives as well

• we let the second half get away from us
• Kennar was disappointing, he is usually much more solid than that hopefully it is a once off.
• our outside back depth.
• Dearden looked to lack a bit of confidence

all in all, Kevvie and his coaching team have us moving in the right direction and has a good platform to build on. IMO, a spot in the 6th-10th place chasing pack is where we'll finish this year

p.s. I wonder if it was a coincidence that we fell apart defensively when Glenn, Riki and Turpin all left the field together at half time

 

[Fitzy]

After the trials:

• Isaako wing or gone. Concrete boots is the bain of this kid. Dropped balls & too slow defence positional play.
• Somehow get Walsh up to speed and replace Isaako with him.
• Carrigan back to 2nd row with Glenn.
• Front row to ONLY consist of Lodge, Haas, TPJ and Fleg.
• Back row to ONLY consist of Carrigan, Glenn, Teo, Asiata and Oates.
• Teo to start at lock for now - Asiata needs two hard weeks of only cardio.
• Carigan & Teo to left side defence, put Croft or Deardon inside them, either can play as a wide defence extra centre.
• Kennar gone.
• Croft to steer. Deardon somehow given a bowl of confidence before he plays next.

You forgot the point about nobody take any notice of you the fact you think teo and Oates should be anywhere near that side is worrying