PRE-GAME Round 11 - Roosters vs Broncos

[I bleed Maroon]

Politis on the phone to his lackey Vlandal on Wednesday:

 

[BooKhaki]

Fair enough. For some weird reason I thought Arthars was beside Oates. I originally thought
8.Lodge vc
9. Turpin/Levi
10. Kennedy
11. Hass vc
12. TPJ (C)
13. Asiata
With Piakura on the bench, Croft left out, but realised that Asiata was probably more of a like for like replacement for Glenn.

But could you imagine Hass and TPJ both running at the halves? Robinson would probably have nightmares about it with their injury list.

Yeah I'd rather not take our best player out of his preferred position. Haas on an edge is a terrible idea. We would miss all his work through the middle, and he would be found out defensively as his lateral movement has been poor.

 

[Fitzy]

Would anyone be against Asiata at 6... he’s level headed and a good leader and I was quite impressed with him at 6 at the cows

 

[Accept]

Would anyone be against Asiata at 6... he’s level headed and a good leader and I was quite impressed with him at 6 at the cows

This guy is so far from first grade standard, it is nauseating. No wonder the Cowboys didn't want him nor anyone else except a last placed team on a bargain basement deal.

 

[theshed]

This guy is so far from first grade standard, it is nauseating. No wonder the Cowboys didn't want him nor anyone else except a last placed team on a bargain basement deal.

Yeah he’s been a huge disappointment and my expectations weren’t high to begin with. I thought he’d just do a job but he hasn’t even done that. He looks completely lost, especially in defence.

 

[007]

This game is very winable.

 

[Huge]

I'd like to see Gamble and Croft working as a team. I think they could handle a basic structure with a heavy forward based thrust. The old bash them till they stop coming strategy. I really really would like KW to instruct his guys to slow down the 5th tackle play instead of the mad rush we always see. If the intention is to hoist a bomb, which is 90% of the time there's absolutely no upside to rushing.

Why not get your chase team in place, your kicker protected by a couple blockers and take your time pinpointing your kick placement? The defence will be stationary, forced to stand and wait and everyone in your team on the same page.

I just hate seeing rushed 5th tackle options and realistically, no defender should be able to even get close to the kicker but time and again, our kicker is rushed and therefore often ineffectual.

 

[Huge]

Yeah I'd rather not take our best player out of his preferred position. Haas on an edge is a terrible idea. We would miss all his work through the middle, and he would be found out defensively as his lateral movement has been poor.

I don't see how it would affect his hitups. No matter what number is on his back or what his proposed position is (he could have a 7 on his jersey) it won't change his power, post contact metres or overall metres.

In defence and where he stands, sure but if Lodge, Kennedy, Haas and TPJ are shoulder to shoulder it won't make much difference who stands next to whom. I know lateral movement becomes more important the further out from the centreline you stand but we could just view it as four big motherfuckers in a line keeping the middle tough.

Anyway, I do appreciate that this is just your opinion

 

[Fitzy]

I don't see how it would affect his hitups. No matter what number is on his back or what his proposed position is (he could have a 7 on his jersey) it won't change his power, post contact metres or overall metres.

In defence and where he stands, sure but if Lodge, Kennedy, Haas and TPJ are shoulder to shoulder it won't make much difference who stands next to whom. I know lateral movement becomes more important the further out from the centreline you stand but we could just view it as four big motherfuckers in a line keeping the middle tough.

Anyway, I do appreciate that this is just your opinion

Im sorry I disagree with your viewpoint on this one I think he should be kept where he is dominating. To be honest our edge defence and a lack of any decent spine players is what hurts us not our forward pack. Also a lack of speed in future years. Only thing i could possibly say is Riki learns how to catch and they all act a bit smarter at times (e.g. Lodge, flagler and sometime TPJ). I understand we all want to win now but i think if we stay resilient and build for next year when we get reinforcements and hopefully that list improves over the coming weeks. We'll be fine only are we should probably fix now is the 6 jumper cause I'm not keen to watch us chuck anyone we have used in there, they are all shithouse. Karmichael Hunt is next up and if he doesn't work we really need to get ourselves a short term 6.

 

[Fitzy]

This guy is so far from first grade standard, it is nauseating. No wonder the Cowboys didn't want him nor anyone else except a last placed team on a bargain basement deal.

Oh yeah a player who had half the comp after him including the one he was at and it was to lock down the Lock position (pun not intended) which he hasn’t... and he’s a shit ton better than any other option we got

 

[Huge]

Im sorry I disagree with your viewpoint on this one I think he should be kept where he is dominating. To be honest our edge defence and a lack of any decent spine players is what hurts us not our forward pack. Also a lack of speed in future years. Only thing i could possibly say is Riki learns how to catch and they all act a bit smarter at times (e.g. Lodge, flagler and sometime TPJ). I understand we all want to win now but i think if we stay resilient and build for next year when we get reinforcements and hopefully that list improves over the coming weeks. We'll be fine only are we should probably fix now is the 6 jumper cause I'm not keen to watch us chuck anyone we have used in there, they are all shithouse. Karmichael Hunt is next up and if he doesn't work we really need to get ourselves a short term 6.

Fair enough but I hardly see how it stops him as you say 'dominating'. It's not his defence where he's dominating, in fact many on here call him soft in that department. That being the case how would giving the really hard yakka to Kennedy and Lodge make him less effective?

I'd rather see Lodge wind up and run hard on tackle one, Kennedy on tackle two, Haas on three and maybe slip a pass, TPJ on four, maybe slip a pass and how knows Bull or Riki or one of our backs, hell why not another gorilla like Oates on 5th, doesn't matter, just use our bazookas up the guts until we win the right to start thefancy stuff.

 

[Sproj]

This game is very winable.

We won’t be given a chance. We’d need a lot of help from the refs just to be competitive and we don’t receive help from the refs. If this stupid crackdown continues, you can be sure Teddy’s army roles will have half our team sent off.

 

[Hoof Hearted]

I think the cowboys showed last night that the roosters are very beatable but for some reason we can’t seem to execute a game plan. Maybe Kevvie needs to simplify it even more. Like send your big men to run over Walker in attack. Also let’s kick to the corners and not down the middle.

 

[Fitzy]

Fair enough but I hardly see how it stops him as you say 'dominating'. It's not his defence where he's dominating, in fact many on here call him soft in that department. That being the case how would giving the really hard yakka to Kennedy and Lodge make him less effective?

I'd rather see Lodge wind up and run hard on tackle one, Kennedy on tackle two, Haas on three and maybe slip a pass, TPJ on four, maybe slip a pass and how knows Bull or Riki or one of our backs, hell why not another gorilla like Oates on 5th, doesn't matter, just use our bazookas up the guts until we win the right to start thefancy stuff.

I don't see Kennedy as a starting prop personally. He's a good fresh bench player and I definitely don't think he's good enough to make one of the best if not the best (him and paulo) move to the edge.

 

[Huge]

I don't see Kennedy as a starting prop personally. He's a good fresh bench player and I definitely don't think he's good enough to make one of the best if not the best (him and paulo) move to the edge.

Err, that's not what I suggested though is it? That's misrepresenting my view. There's absolutely no reason why Kennedy cannot start a game though. He did last year and performed quite well. The suggestion isn't to displace Haas who I rate as a great in the making, no it's more to spread our power game and to use the less athletically blessed on the basic grunt role.

Kennedy and Lodge can do the hard stuff, blunt the opposition and that action serves to keep Haas fresher and therefore more dangerous for later in the match.

 

[Kimlo]

As it stands right now I'd be putting Haas to lock for the rest of the year playing 65-80 minutes and giving Kennedy more minutes.

Flegler is not a lock's asshole. He provided absolutely nothing. We won't win games if that's our #13.

Get Kennedy starting, Flegler to come off the bench. Right now IMO Kennedy is genuinely a better player than Flegler so he should be starting.

 

[Huge]

As it stands right now I'd be putting Haas to lock for the rest of the year playing 65-80 minutes and giving Kennedy more minutes.

Flegler is not a lock's asshole. He provided absolutely nothing. We won't win games if that's our #13.

Get Kennedy starting, Flegler to come off the bench. Right now IMO Kennedy is genuinely a better player than Flegler so he should be starting.

I've watched big Rhys carefully as you know and imo he is only good for 25 mins before he possibly could become a liability in defence. I'd start him and Lodge with Haas at lock or second row. After 20, switch Kennedy and Lodge out, move Haas back up front with Flegler and bring Bull on to partner TPJ. Naturally that would be dependent on where we'd started Haas. I just love the idea of not wasting Haas on mindless early hitups. I think we'd get a better quality output and possibly a few nice offloads from Haas if he wasn't expending so much energy against fresh opposition.

That said, my boy Rhys has a nice offload in him so I wouldn't expect him to totally shelve that even as a starter. I might ask that he doesn't do it inside our 20 though

 

[Sproj]

Surely if you aren't putting Haas to 13, you have to go with Asiata in all honesty, I mean isn't that why the guy was bought to the club?