Round 15 Discussion

[Big Pete]

Friday
7:50pm - South Sydney Rabbitohs vs Gold Coast Titans

Saturday
5:30pm - Melbourne Storm vs North Queensland Cowboys
7:30pm - Cronulla Sharks vs Wests Tigers

Sunday
4:00pm - Parramatta Eels vs St George Illawarra Dragons

 

[Big Pete]

Norman will be a lot better for the run on Saturday. He got it wrong against the Cowboys, trying to play around them and not through them. Arthur was vocal about it and the team will return to the style that suits them. Expect a lot of carries from Semi Radradra, he was inexplicably quiet in Darwin.

Dragons have been poor the past couple of weeks. They were sloppy against Wests and Canterbury and need to respect the ball more. The game-plan against Parramatta is pretty simple, run traffic at Moses, force him to make a decision and you'll catch him out eventually. The Cowboys had plenty of success running the ball around the fringes and Granville was great at getting his forwards over the advantage line, McInnes should follow his example.

Storm/Cowboys is interesting when you consider the amount of experience missing due to representative duties. Storm are missing 1110 games due to rep commitments, North Queensland 685. Harris' selection in the centres manifests Melbourne's intent, low risk, play out your sets football. They will look to dominate the ruck, play through the Cowboys and challenge Laybutt and Bowen close to the line. North Queensland will return serve by testing out Scott in defence. Lowe loves to get his hand on the football and will bring Granville into the game with his carries. Tough game to predict, but could go a long way for both sides. North Queensland got a lot of confidence out of an Origin affected games against Wests & St. George in 2015, Melbourne haven't had a lot of success in these fixtures, they've only won 1 of their past 6 clashes without their Origin players.

 

[Broncs_Fan]

Storm/Cowboys is interesting when you consider the amount of experience missing due to representative duties. Storm are missing 1110 games due to rep commitments, North Queensland 685. Harris' selection in the centres manifests Melbourne's intent, low risk, play out your sets football. They will look to dominate the ruck, play through the Cowboys and challenge Laybutt and Bowen close to the line. North Queensland will return serve by testing out Scott in defence. Lowe loves to get his hand on the football and will bring Granville into the game with his carries. Tough game to predict, but could go a long way for both sides. North Queensland got a lot of confidence out of an Origin affected games against Wests & St. George in 2015, Melbourne haven't had a lot of success in these fixtures, they've only won 1 of their past 6 clashes without their Origin players.

This week is as weak as I have seen Melbourne for a long time with their Origin outs and injury.

 

[Big Pete]

Gray is out of tonight's clash against the Gold Coast Titans. This should give Taylor an easy kicking target, I wonder if Don can switch sides to exacerbate the weakness?

Speaking of Gold Coast backs, I would like to see Neil Henry give Phillip Sami a shot at fullback. He has been a stand out in the U20s and given the lack of alternatives I believe it would be in the Gold Coast's best interests to give him a taste.

Chuck Zillman on the bench in place of Pettybourne with a view to play him at five-eighth when the game opens up and the Titans give themselves half a chance.

 

[Big Pete]

No Sam for the Rabbitohs, that's a huge loss and they'll miss his productivity.

Don is out for the Titans, Sami comes in. I'm excited to see how the youngster handles first grade.

 

[ZTop]

Why is William Zillman wearing stripey socks

 

[Super Freak]

Oh my god the Rabbitohs are so awful.

 

[Waynesaurus]

Massive crowd!

 

[Browny]

It's a graveyard atmosphere

 

[ZTop]

Are the players wearing the socks of their junior clubs?

 

[Super Freak]

Burgess is awful, as well.

 

[ZTop]

Burgess is awful, as well.

His runs tonight look motivated, did a 10-15 metre run before

 

[Super Freak]

What a ridiculous penalty.

 

[Super Freak]

The hooker bombed that initially.

He had a big gap to go straight through and score.

 

[Super Freak]

How on earth could someone bomb that?

All he had to do was put a hand on the ball.

 

[Super Freak]

Johnston was a big hog at fullback for the Rabbitohs.. Walker has been no different.

He bombed a couple of golden opportunities against the Broncos due to not passing to his outside men.

 

[Super Freak]

Lol Rabbitohs..

Oh how could you be playing so shit against a depleted side..

 

[Waynesaurus]

It would appear we knocked the stuffing out of the Rabbits last week.