Round 24 Discussion

[ZTop]

I've been flicking over to the Bledisloe cup. The difference in officiating is AMAZING! In Union the ref has complete control of the game. If he calls a player over for a word they listen to him , nod, and say "yes sir". He calls it as he sees it and as I see it and every one of the blokes playing respects him and every decision he makes.

Well I was watching the game but it was embarrassing to watch us get smashed

 

[JayPee]

That play the ball is somehow a penalty lol dear oh dear. Get it all out now sutton

 

[I bleed Maroon]

Why the **** did I tip these busted asses?

Ahwell, at least we'll get a chance to end their season

 

[bb_gun]

Well done to the Cowboys for hanging in there and winning the second half, lesser teams would have bowed out and lost by millions.

 

[JayPee]

We win both of our last games if we can can get through without an injury. Got to have hope

 

[bb_gun]

We win both of our last games if we can can get through without an injury. Got to have hope

Yeah well done mate, despite my hatred of Paul Green, he's really instilled a winning culture within that team. Despite their outs the Cowboys are still a team to fear in any match.

 

[Big Pete]

Good try to finish off the night.

As disappointing as this season has been for the Cowboys, they can take a lot of positives moving forward to 2018. Morgan has improved tremendously as a player and I'd dare dare say he's been the best five-eighth all year with Cameron Munster trailing. In addition, Corey Jensen, Patrick Mago, Shane Wright, Enari Tuala, Kyle Laybutt, Te Maire Martin will take a lot out of that experience and will be ripe to play their part in what should be Thurston's swansong.

It's disappointing, but the Cowboys would have come to grips with this season after the Test match. As soon as JT's shoulder started giving him issues that was it for 2017, so everything that has followed has been a bonus.

Not sure what to make of the Sharks performance. They had great success having their ball-players challenge the Cowboys through the middle and then they just kept playing laterally and gave the Cowboys too much time to replenish their line. Next week is the key for them, if they can trounce the Roosters like they did earlier in the season, you never know.

 

[Accept]

Good try to finish off the night.

As disappointing as this season has been for the Cowboys, they can take a lot of positives moving forward to 2018. Morgan has improved tremendously as a player and I'd dare dare say he's been the best five-eighth all year with Cameron Munster trailing. In addition, Corey Jensen, Patrick Mago, Shane Wright, Enari Tuala, Kyle Laybutt, Te Maire Martin will take a lot out of that experience and will be ripe to play their part in what should be Thurston's swansong.

It's disappointing, but the Cowboys would have come to grips with this season after the Test match. As soon as JT's shoulder started giving him issues that was it for 2017, so everything that has followed has been a bonus.

Not sure what to make of the Sharks performance. They had great success having their ball-players challenge the Cowboys through the middle and then they just kept playing laterally and gave the Cowboys too much time to replenish their line. Next week is the key for them, if they can trounce the Roosters like they did earlier in the season, you never know.

Excellent post as always, Pete. It is great reading an unbiased post when it comes to analysing other clubs.

 

[Sproj]

It's a shame because Sutton came up with a great on Hampton, but that Maloney penalty was rubbish. Add it to the list of 2017 referee howlers.

Speaking of howlers, add Taumalolo to the list of HIA exploits. What a farce, if the Cowboys don't receive a please explain, every team is going to make a farce out of it.

Well if nothing was done about Croker's knee HIA or Stimson's one (or pretty much pick a Storm game this year), nothing will be done about any of them.

 

[JayPee]

Cheering for the dogs today and not sure which way I want the penrith game to go. Probably beneficial for us if the panthers win and just knock the raiders out of contention for good. Would then need them to knock off the dragons again the week after. Such a tight race

 

[JayPee]

Also any chance of you blokes winning against Parra and then playing with dinner suits on against us up at townsville to help us out haha.

 

[Super Freak]

Well if nothing was done about Croker's knee HIA or Stimson's one (or pretty much pick a Storm game this year), nothing will be done about any of them.

It seems as though the uproar about those three clubs being fined at the start of the season has made the NRL scared to punish anyone else.

 

[Big Pete]

The Cowboys are in with a shot, by rights they should have lost the past two encounters against Brisbane but managed to chalk out a win. That says to me they've got a mental edge over Brisbane and infront of a vocal Cows crowd I can see another close game between two teams. It's just a shame the NRL lacks common sense and booked it for a Thursday - what an absolute croc.

Brisbane don't have the best record when it comes to Round 26 either. They trailed the 15th placed Roosters by 14 points last year, only putting them away in the final stages of the game. They lost back to back games aganst Melbourne in 2014 and 2015, putting up a decent fight without ever being on top in either game. In 2011 Manly threatened a massive boil over, crossing the try line three times in a short space of time only for the third try to be denied. Brisbane came back, but after losing Hoffman and Thaiday it was a bittersweet win. In 2010, the Broncos had to beat Canberra by a certain margin, instead they lost and a late try made the scores look a lot closer than it was. In 07, they conceded the most points in club history in one of the worst halves of football in club history. From 2000-2005, they only managed to win one Round 26 game (2001) with the other being all demoralising losses. Parramatta came from behind to win in 05, Craig Gower toughed it out to lead Penrith to a 46-20 win, a near reserve grade Dragons outfit beat Brisbane in the final minutes to continue their run of losses, the Bulldogs hung on to win 25-18 and the Roosters flogged Brisbane 28-0 to throw a wobbly into the Broncos finals campaign.

I think the Broncos will use the Cowboys game to give themselves an opportunity to get the monkey off their backs but there's cause for some optimism there for Cowboys fans.

 

[Broncs_Fan]

Penrith will be dangerous in the finals imo.

 

[Big Pete]

Penrith have reverted to the type of football I expected them to play. Power through the ruck, get through your sets and trust your strike players. If Penrith could have maintained that through out 2017, they would have easily been a Top 4 side. Now it's just a question of whether they can maintain that for the full 40, their first half was one of their best performances so far of the season, can they go on with it?

Canberra are a frustrating team to follow. They can ruck it up with the best of them and they have the talent to blow games wide open, but they let themselves down on the basics. Twice they could have had Penrith under pressure and on both occassions they just let Edwards & Mansour race up-field and turn the tide on the Raiders. Their attack also doesn't look right and it seems like they keep playing for Wighton or hoping for Leilua to pull off a miracle play. They've always looked their best when they've had Hodgson run out of dummy half and had Austin backing his running game. It's amazing how they've gone away from that in recent times.

 

[Unbreakable]

What a disgrace.

They should've gave him a season membership and upgraded his seats.

 

[Broncs_Fan]

What a failure of the season by the Raiders. They have no excuses. Just a poor season. Ricky Stuart no where to hide.

 

[Big Pete]

And there you go, after playing quality football in the first half, the Panthers follow it up with an ill-discipline second half and nearly give it away. While the game ultimately came down to Taylor's knock on in the fleeting seconds, the game was essentially decided when the Panthers were able to repel wave after wave of attack and Papalii came up with a loose carry right on the Panthers line. Had the Raiders scored then it would have been game over.

Instead it took a moment of perseverance and confidence from the Panthers and Tyrone May who has a habit of scoring tries, took the Raiders on through the middle and scored the match-winner. It was a great piece of play from May and to give credit, good coaching from Griffin. Penrith desperately needed to score, Katoa wasn't going to be the dummy half to get them over the line and May produced the goods. I always like it when a coach is rewarded for backing young talent instead of playing tried and tested options.

Also have to give props to the Panthers last tackle options. They've usually been criticized in this department, but in the second half they were on song and did very well to earn repeat sets. That play where Cleary feigned the kick, only to give the ball to Moylan was a real shock and while it didn't result in a try, it basically led to the Tyrone May match-winner.