Round 2 Discussion

This is that one occasion in the entire sport where it goes by the "plane" of the line rather than where your feet/body are.
Huh Oppa is offside. One foot in front of the 10mtr line. Same as if he were chasing a kick
 
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personally I think the first 2 weeks has shown that without Smith the Storm will come back to the pack ... still a quality side, but not head and shoulders above the rest anymore ...

last year there is no way they allow the Rabbitohs back into the game after leading by 22 points. i also don't think they lose that game tonight in the last 5 mins
 
personally I think the first 2 weeks has shown that without Smith the Storm will come back to the pack ... still a quality side, but not head and shoulders above the rest anymore ...

last year there is no way they allow the Rabbitohs back into the game after leading by 22 points. i also don't think they lose that game tonight in the last 5 mins

Quite likely true but lets see how they look once Grant is back and firing.
 
personally I think the first 2 weeks has shown that without Smith the Storm will come back to the pack ... still a quality side, but not head and shoulders above the rest anymore ...

last year there is no way they allow the Rabbitohs back into the game after leading by 22 points. i also don't think they lose that game tonight in the last 5 mins
In fairness they were missing Harry Grant and Dale Finucane. I also expect to see some movement around their backline as well with a few of their prospects relieving George Jennings of that wing position.

It took a fantastic performance from one of the better teams in the competition to get the win and even then they only won it off the back of some individual brilliance.

They won't be as dominant as they were in 2019, but unless something catastrophic happens they'll remain in the Top 4.
 
In fairness they were missing Harry Grant and Dale Finucane. I also expect to see some movement around their backline as well with a few of their prospects relieving George Jennings of that wing position.

It took a fantastic performance from one of the better teams in the competition to get the win and even then they only won it off the back of some individual brilliance.

They won't be as dominant as they were in 2019, but unless something catastrophic happens they'll remain in the Top 4.
I was surprised Lumelume didn't get the wing position straight off the bat
 
In fairness they were missing Harry Grant and Dale Finucane. I also expect to see some movement around their backline as well with a few of their prospects relieving George Jennings of that wing position.

It took a fantastic performance from one of the better teams in the competition to get the win and even then they only won it off the back of some individual brilliance.

They won't be as dominant as they were in 2019, but unless something catastrophic happens they'll remain in the Top 4.
Are they going to be able to keep up with this up tempo that they want to play with though?

Week 1 against souths they shot out of the gate and then looked to run out of puff.

They were going non-stop in this game... when you have CS9 he will ease you off after building a lead. Without CS9 to work and control that lead they may end up being frantic and up-tempo for 80mins every game.

Harry doesn't exactly ease off the pedal either so it will be interesting to see if they can keep this speed going all year or if someone will come in and control their tempo a bit more
 
I was surprised Lumelume didn't get the wing position straight off the bat
I wasn't, Craig typically likes to ease his young prospects into the season. In 2016 when he brought through Vunivalu he had Kennar start the year. In 2010 when Matt Duffie clearly had the higher ceiling he went with Luke MacDougall and was looking to stick with him before they got busted for the salary cap. Then after that he started giving all his prospects games to give them a head-start for 2011.

It just hasn't come up in awhile since he had Vunivalu and Addo-Carr.
 
Are they going to be able to keep up with this up tempo that they want to play with though?

Week 1 against souths they shot out of the gate and then looked to run out of puff.

They were going non-stop in this game... when you have CS9 he will ease you off after building a lead. Without CS9 to work and control that lead they may end up being frantic and up-tempo for 80mins every game.

Harry doesn't exactly ease off the pedal either so it will be interesting to see if they can keep this speed going all year or if someone will come in and control their tempo a bit more
That's where they will miss him most but they can take a lot of positives out of this game. They lost their way which caused their senior players to throw some pressure passes that didn't need to be thrown, but the way they lifted after Paulo scored was a good sign. The Storm were completely out on their feet for the majority of that second half but just kept getting numbers until the Paulo try. Even then, that try came off the back of a fairly soft penalty and a six again which just put their defence on tilt.

Their biggest challenge will be trying to find a balance with their attack. Right now they're relying too heavily on their left and some of their biggest strike weapons are being kept out of the game. Hughes in particular was effective last year because Smithy could bring him into the game with an early ball and he'd dummy to Paps or Suli before stepping back on the inside and either busting straight through or giving Smithy a quick play the ball which would lead to a NAS or Big Tino barge over play.

What Grant will offer them is some more variety around the ruck and it will allow Smith to play that middle third role where he can make those big 15m+ runs that allows Melbourne to go for those big shifts.
 
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So he fucking should, that was a dog shot.

The incident on Matterson?

Penalty was sufficient, but that's about as far as it should go. If Matterson hit the ground, and then Kaufusi made a second effort and came in with the elbow, then you can say it's suspension worthy.

It's no different to Papalii's knee on Tedesco in Origin. It's entirely accidental.
 
I've got question marks over Storm's second try.

I thought that should have gone to the video ref and I reckon it would have been called knock on if it did.
 
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