Round 5 - Rabbitohs vs Broncos

[Huge]

Don't worry he will be gone at years end. Where were the forwards to take the hard carries out of defence and exactly how many passes did the wingers get at the end of a backline play.

KW didn't pick two frontrowers on the bench. Kennedy would have kept up the go forward. I thought we came into the game light.

 

[Allo]

I just hate this team as a whole. I love parts of it, but the bits I hate heavily outweigh it when this is the result we’re getting for 90% of the season.

Yet again, another game of one-outs, getting dominated coming out of our own end, arm-grabbing defence and just dumb dumb errors. We have no shape, there might be one tackle a set per half we have anything resembling numbers moving up together or supporting the ball carrier. It’s such a pedestrian, toothless style of play and little wonder we’re getting nowhere

I cannot stand watching Milford anymore. He is in my opinion the source of everything breaking down. As much as his kicking improved over the last few years, it’s still absolute dogshit, kicking it dead or straight to a defender and it releases any sort of pressure we may have built.

Kev needs to drop him, even if it costs him his job in the end, because it just needs to happen.

Send him back to Souths Logan, he is officially done. His attitude and effort is toxic and it affects the rest of the team.

Turps my boy did not have a good night. Wayward passes and some bad options, I mean every man and his dog knows Flegler has dickfingers and was going to drop that at the line. He needs a back up, almost every other team runs a sub for hooker, and he needs one. 55-60 of good Turps far outweighs 80 mins of ordinary Turps just to have another bench forward or half to play 10-15.

Dearden also had a shocker. He’s still a bit gun-shy at times where he stutters as he’s making his play. It’s not fooling anyone and he needs to sell his attack better. Some bad flat passes to Riki too again. I don’t know why it’s still a play we run. We did it with Gillo and it only barely worked sometimes then. Those two need to run a better play because Riki is getting jammed every time.

I’m not writing those guys (T&D) off though as they are still barely a season’s worth of games into their careers. And it’s not their fault that they’re being required to try and match your Cook/Reynolds, Smith/Munsters, Api/Clearys etc. but they are and so it needs to be worked on as best it can as quickly as it can.

We still need better bench rotation. I will not give this point up. We had Lodge, Haas and Pangai all off at the same time. What’s the point? Te’o, Asiata and Flegler did kind of ok, but they’re not at the same level. Your bench is (usually) there to help balance your starting 3. Straight swapping all of them together is just asking for trouble. Flegler needs another season in QCup and to get fit imo but is just like other players on overs, they’re almost forced to be picked just on sunk-cost. When Carrigan comes back, he takes his bench spot and plays 40mins maximum

The backs in Isaako and Coates with their hitups it’s easy to see why they get belted. They run too upright. Their centre of gravity is way up there and they get hammered. Herbie for example is head down, stay low and go through and it works.

There are so many fundamental basics that are missing in too many players. And sure they’re young and shouldn’t have been playing until probably even next year let alone season before last, but I ask what do they do in preseason and at training? How or why are these shortcomings not being addressed?

Kevvie needs to drop Milford, even though yes that means Croft, because it needs to be done. Same with Glenn. Get rid of them, send them back to QCup for training, get them out of the playing group for a couple of weeks at least.

Now dropping our two most-capped players in a team that has a lack of experience may sound a bit like cutting off your nose, but it will force the team to run the team. I said in another thread that for Turpin and Dearden (or Croft) to be effective, they need to know who’s running the team. At the moment, it’s apparently Milford, because it’s Milford and he’s seemingly undroppable, not because he’s the right person or the best person. Then you have the 3 halves situation, who guess what, are all different, so the team has to try and adapt week-on-week to who’s playing where and for 10-15 mins every week in-game.

I don’t care if we happen to lose every game for the rest of this season, I just want to see the team playing and working better, because we definitely have the players to do it. We don’t have the marquees to be relatively successful, but we do have good enough players to be better than the 1 to 3 wins we may get for the season, even with the fucked draw that we have, and better than getting ~40pts put on us every other week.

 

[scobie]

Strangely I'm not mad, annoyed or even disgusted, I think I've transitioned to acceptance and pity, to play week in week out this badly and for so long must be truly embarrassing and soul crushing for the players and club.

I envy you. I hope I can join you shortly.

 

[BruiserMk1]

You can’t win shit without a superstar fb in the modern game. panthers are a bit different as they have so much class across the park. We need a fb so bad. I don’t like isaako but this isn’t a dig at him, he should be on the wing.

also we don’t need our hooker kicking to the corner on the 2nd tackle on a 7 tackle set. I’m pretty sure that was the dumbest play I’ve ever seen.

my god our defence is bad it almost looks worse, we have to clean house.

I couldn't believe how much space we were giving them particularly on the edges.
I was literally yelling at the TV to move up on D you muppets because I could see they were making metres and a try brewing.
Sure enough they scored their first two because of our poor line speed, numbering off and moving as one.

 

[Jedhead]

Kevvvie reckoned that was Milf’s best game of the season? I know he’s trying to rebuild his confidence and get something out of him, but I think he’s flogging a dead horse. Each and every game is a living nightmare for milf he just wants to be somewhere else anywhere but on the field.

I do wish the calls for K Hunt were louder coz we need him in there to give Milf a few weeks breather. He’s only a shell of a man at the moment. Have a look at the pictures after the game he’s totally distraught poor sod.

 

[theshed]

Kevvvie reckoned that was Milf’s best game of the season? I know he’s trying to rebuild his confidence and get something out of him, but I think he’s flogging a dead horse. Each and every game is a living nightmare for milf he just wants to be somewhere else anywhere but on the field.

I do wish the calls for K Hunt were louder coz we need him in there to give Milf a few weeks breather. He’s only a shell of a man at the moment. Have a look at the pictures after the game he’s totally distraught poor sod.

The worst part is a don’t think Kev is wrong. That is just how low the bench mark is for Milf these days. His defence was good and he hit with intent - his 5th tackle options and attack in general ranged from terrible to not bad.

 

[HarryAllan7]

Same as every week.

Some may disagree, but I don't think the issue is a talent problem. We definitely lack talent in the halves, but across the rest of the field we have a much better squad than a lot of teams sitting well above us on the ladder. Talent doesn't explain woeful defensive efforts which see opposition players either barge right over with little effort, or stroll in down the sideline untouched. Not an exaggeration - Alex Johnston jogged into the in-goal to score a try without a hand even being laid on him tonight... how that can happen in first grade football is nothing short of astonishing.
I don't care if our attack isn't clicking because we lack the spine to make it work, there is NO excuse for poor defence. You don't need superstar halves or a CS9 type hooker to defend.

I think it's half attitude and half a lack of structure - it can't just be the players not caring, scrambling and showing up for each other.. A lot of the time it genuinely looks like they don't know what they're meant to be doing or where they're meant to be in defence. We get caught out for numbers so commonly out wide that it's frankly unbelievable. This is coaching - this is making sure the players have structures and systems in place to work as a cohesive unit. Defence isn't about relying on the talent of individual players, its about creating a system whereby any average old dumb-as-rocks player can slot in and know exactly where to be and what to do and all that is required is the heart, fitness and discipline to stick to it. We either have no such system or the system is completely flawed - throw it out and start again. This should have been an absolute priority for Kevvie and so far I see very little difference from last year. Even Under 9s can mark up on an opposition player, this is as elementary as it gets.

The same is true of attack, we have absolutely no direction, no shape and no structure. There's a reason a kid like Walker can get dropped into a Roosters side decimated by injury and still look good - because their attack is structured and systematic.. players have a simple job, know what it is and just have to do their bit and the whole machine runs like clockwork. It's painfully obvious watching the Broncos that this isn't the case - we have no direction, structure or cohesion, ESPECIALLY once we concede points, then everything just falls in a heap and we panic and make it up on the spot, relying on individual brilliance to get us across the line. This is definitely a halves problem, but also a coaching problem... We should be implementing a VERY simple, basic, easy to understand system which anyone can run and execute and sticking to it - we don't have the cattle in key positions to run a complicated, Storm-esque attacking juggernaut? Fine. I'd settle for a no-frills, consistent, smart, grinding attack which at least has the team all working together rather than running around like a bunch of headless chooks. Again, Kevvie has yet to deliver any improvement on last year.

We can go to market for any players we want and throw money at anyone - the problems on the field won't improve until we implement some real structure on both sides of the ball.

 

[the_next]

Milf has been terrible but is that the cause of the team being trash or a result of the team being trash?

- Pointless midfield bombs.
- Giving away a seven tackle set just when we started to get in the arm wrestle.
- Getting tackled on the fourth a few times.
These are not the fault of those around him, that’s the fault of Anthony Milford being lazy and uninterested.
His time is up at the Broncos, the sooner he is dropped from the 17, the better.

 

[Allo]

Kevvvie reckoned that was Milf’s best game of the season? I know he’s trying to rebuild his confidence and get something out of him, but I think he’s flogging a dead horse. Each and every game is a living nightmare for milf he just wants to be somewhere else anywhere but on the field.

I do wish the calls for K Hunt were louder coz we need him in there to give Milf a few weeks breather. He’s only a shell of a man at the moment. Have a look at the pictures after the game he’s totally distraught poor sod.

In the end, he only has himself to blame. He has no drive to improve, no will to compete, no humility to accept or ask for help, but still has the ability to cash that cheque.

Is it his fault the club hasn’t helped with a quality halves partner? No it isn’t, but when you’re sucking up almost a million bucks a year of a limited budget, there’s an expectation that you earn it. Surely anyone else would feel some kind of obligation to at least try and prove that perceived worth.

If he wasn’t enjoying his football, he could ask for a release to go to a club willing to make him happy on the field. But no he didn’t do that. I hope he’s learning that money doesn’t equal happiness, assuming he even cares about the football side anymore or is just numb to it

 

[Galah]

Back to defence, I keep harping on about it but line speed and a single line moving together......where is it? Why isn’t it the only thing we do at training, or is it? I haven’t seen a glimmer of hope yet and I thought it was going to be the first thing to improve this season. It puts pressure on every aspect of this team, they squeeze the ball to tight try and force plays, don’t play heads up footy because they know they’ll leak points.
When roosters and storm players gets asked about training all they talk about is defence.

I don’t like how kevie is picking his bench and using it, But surely he’s got them working defence defence defence. At this point I’m convinced even though there are some good bones to this team for whatever reason they don’t gel at all. We need to start looking at the “money ball” approach.

God damn we need a 9,7,1.

I’d also like to see flegler fucked off bring Kennedy and bullemor in, two no nonsense players in the middle that both run hard and tackle hard. “With their shoulder” a novel idea I know.

 

[Jedhead]

In the end, he only has himself to blame. He has no drive to improve, no will to compete, no humility to accept or ask for help, but still has the ability to cash that cheque.

Is it his fault the club hasn’t helped with a quality halves partner? No it isn’t, but when you’re sucking up almost a million bucks a year of a limited budget, there’s an expectation that you earn it. Surely anyone else would feel some kind of obligation to at least try and prove that perceived worth.

If he wasn’t enjoying his football, he could ask for a release to go to a club willing to make him happy on the field. But no he didn’t do that. I hope he’s learning that money doesn’t equal happiness, assuming he even cares about the football side anymore or is just numb to it

It’s a fucked way to go into a weekend as well. Does anyone have Lachlan Murdoch’s email address I’ll personally email him and tell him he needs to get rid of Morris and co.

 

[broncsgoat]

- Pointless midfield bombs.
- Giving away a seven tackle set just when we started to get in the arm wrestle.
- Getting tackled on the fourth a few times.
These are not the fault of those around him, that’s the fault of Anthony Milford being lazy and uninterested.
His time is up at the Broncos, the sooner he is dropped from the 17, the better.

Midfield bombs because he’s sick of his driving kicks not being chased

Every kicker in the game gives away 7 tackle sets

People want him to run more and he gets tackled on the fourth as a result, surely Wunderkind can get a couple of kicks away even though milf is the primary kicker

 

[theshed]

- Pointless midfield bombs.
- Giving away a seven tackle set just when we started to get in the arm wrestle.
- Getting tackled on the fourth a few times.
These are not the fault of those around him, that’s the fault of Anthony Milford being lazy and uninterested.
His time is up at the Broncos, the sooner he is dropped from the 17, the better.

I like it when he hammered a low kick straight into the back of the defender and gave them the ball on our 35m line.

 

[Kooly87]

Milf has been terrible but is that the cause of the team being trash or a result of the team being trash?

This is honestly the bit you just don't seem to grasp. I'll try and say this as plainly as possible.

The genuinely elite players may have trash games. They may have a run of trash games. They don't have entire trash seasons though. Even when things are going to shit around them they stand up and give a good account of themselves more often than not.

Thurston did it for years at the Cowboys. DCE has done it for Manly. Milford just cannot do it though. He simply doesn't have that next gear. He can be incredible at times, but that's almost always when the team is rolling up the field and he gets to play off the front foot exclusively.

Years ago when the Knights were at their lowest point he had a game against them where he looked like he was playing against a Queensland Cup side because he's that good when everyone around him is making it easy for him. He just doesn't do that against Melbourne or the Roosters though because while he could previously make a hapless outfit look like shit, he simply cannot compete with the genuinely gun teams or genuinely gun players. He couldn't then and he certainly can't now.

He's the very definition of a flat track bully, only these days even on a flat track he's looking like shit too.

 

[the_next]

Midfield bombs because he’s sick of his driving kicks not being chased

Every kicker in the game gives away 7 tackle sets

People want him to run more and he gets tackled on the fourth as a result, surely Wunderkind can get a couple of kicks away even though milf is the primary kicker

This is what I don’t get about “wunderkind”, the kid is 20. Played what, <10 games?
Probably on 1/8th of million dollar milfords money? Yet he is expected to come into a wooden spoon team and lead the team to victory?
If there was a bloke sitting next to me on a million dollars and had been for the past 3yrs, seen as a senior/experienced player in the squad I’d be looking at him to lift us, but he has failed (for years now) to do so.
I do not understand how anyone can any longer defend Milford.
Apparently his game last night was his best all year, and he was still atrocious.
Pretty much every good mind in the game is now even saying Milford has given up.
Honestly, he will be lucky to get 300k from a club next year.

 

[calsy]

Love Milford, ‘What’s this, some effort plays have got the boys fired up. I better put a stop to this. I’ll take the tackle on the 5th and kick it dead in the in goal. That should snuff out any motivation and hope... I wonder if my paycheck has gone in before the weekend.’

Kev, ‘Best milf game in a while’.

 

[theshed]

This is what I don’t get about “wunderkind”, the kid is 20. Played what, <10 games?
Probably on 1/8th of million dollar milfords money? Yet he is expected to come into a wooden spoon team and lead the team to victory?
If there was a bloke sitting next to me on a million dollars and had been for the past 3yrs, seen as a senior/experienced player in the squad I’d be looking at him to lift us, but he has failed (for years now) to do so.
I do not understand how anyone can any longer defend Milford.
Apparently his game last night was his best all year, and he was still atrocious.
Pretty much every good mind in the game is now even saying Milford has given up.
Honestly, he will be lucky to get 300k from a club next year.

Dearden has had 20 games. I’ve seen glimpses of off the cuff skill and he got a bit agro for a period last night which fired the team up for 10 minutes - if he can play like that all the time he might be something special but he is making a lot of errors and poor decisions. The worst imo was when Milford was tackled on the 4th and Dearden stood around twiddling his thumbs while Turpin was trying to find someone who wanted to kick, eventually giving it to Isaako for his horrendous bomb.

 

[rnabokov]

Same as every week.

Some may disagree, but I don't think the issue is a talent problem. We definitely lack talent in the halves, but across the rest of the field we have a much better squad than a lot of teams sitting well above us on the ladder. Talent doesn't explain woeful defensive efforts which see opposition players either barge right over with little effort, or stroll in down the sideline untouched. Not an exaggeration - Alex Johnston jogged into the in-goal to score a try without a hand even being laid on him tonight... how that can happen in first grade football is nothing short of astonishing.
I don't care if our attack isn't clicking because we lack the spine to make it work, there is NO excuse for poor defence. You don't need superstar halves or a CS9 type hooker to defend.

I think it's half attitude and half a lack of structure - it can't just be the players not caring, scrambling and showing up for each other.. A lot of the time it genuinely looks like they don't know what they're meant to be doing or where they're meant to be in defence. We get caught out for numbers so commonly out wide that it's frankly unbelievable. This is coaching - this is making sure the players have structures and systems in place to work as a cohesive unit. Defence isn't about relying on the talent of individual players, its about creating a system whereby any average old dumb-as-rocks player can slot in and know exactly where to be and what to do and all that is required is the heart, fitness and discipline to stick to it. We either have no such system or the system is completely flawed - throw it out and start again. This should have been an absolute priority for Kevvie and so far I see very little difference from last year. Even Under 9s can mark up on an opposition player, this is as elementary as it gets.

The same is true of attack, we have absolutely no direction, no shape and no structure. There's a reason a kid like Walker can get dropped into a Roosters side decimated by injury and still look good - because their attack is structured and systematic.. players have a simple job, know what it is and just have to do their bit and the whole machine runs like clockwork. It's painfully obvious watching the Broncos that this isn't the case - we have no direction, structure or cohesion, ESPECIALLY once we concede points, then everything just falls in a heap and we panic and make it up on the spot, relying on individual brilliance to get us across the line. This is definitely a halves problem, but also a coaching problem... We should be implementing a VERY simple, basic, easy to understand system which anyone can run and execute and sticking to it - we don't have the cattle in key positions to run a complicated, Storm-esque attacking juggernaut? Fine. I'd settle for a no-frills, consistent, smart, grinding attack which at least has the team all working together rather than running around like a bunch of headless chooks. Again, Kevvie has yet to deliver any improvement on last year.

We can go to market for any players we want and throw money at anyone - the problems on the field won't improve until we implement some real structure on both sides of the ball.

My take on this is a bit different, and a lot of what I am saying has been posted often. I reckon Kevvie does coach structures, shapes, and defence etc.. It's just that the side isn't within cooee yet of having the confidence and thus composure under pressure to implement what he coaches.

I don't think the players are dumb, it's just that they do dumb things as soon as consistent pressure is applied either by a well organised, rushing defence or swiftly executed, well organised attack. This explains why we did well against the Dogs, who like us can't apply or respond to consistent pressure. However we simply can't handle the pressure against the better teams like Souths last night. The players panic, bunch, make poor decisions, structures fall apart, execution goes to shit, and then the players hang their heads after the confidence is bashed out of them. It's largely the same as last year.

This side is simply too raw and inexperienced yet to handle what the top side dish out - top sides who largely have settled rosters with a quality spine and good kicking games. A few stars don't hurt their chances either. Mitchell last night terrorised us. Reynolds led Souths really well. They played the new rules to perfection, as will the Panthers next week.

When Souths applied the blowtorch in defence, cutting down our time to react and execute our attacking shapes, that was it. We lost all composure.
Those young kids simply panicked when a wave of slick fast and well executed attack was launched at them. Our edges lost shape, players were too slow to react and tries were easily let in.

There's no fix for this other than the side staying together and just focusing on doing the basics as well as can be. Keeping the side settled will go a long way to help the process. The poor recruitment over the years is really really exposing us.

I also don't think this can be blamed on any one player, and, what is bloody obvious as we all know, is that we have no proper leadership out there to help the kids keep it together, and last night they just lost it, as they will again next week. BUT, what I did see last night was a definite improvement in our middle defence. In patches, we actually rushed the attack and we pressured them and their plays broke down.

This year is going to be a long, slow painful process of learning to handle pressure, maintaining composure and then slowly we will see things improve. However, with only 1 genuinely experienced playmaker and no genuine captain, it's going to take a long time.