Round 7 Discussion

The speed of this game is insane.
I miss rugby league.
😔
 
I wonder if the Panthers will just be considered "flat" tonight or will the Knights be given some credit for sticking it to them?
 
Where is the penalty on the interference for the kicker chase?
 
set restarts are 8 to 4 according to Fox sports website (to Panthers)
 
Two things, for anyone that missed it 10 times a game since the panthers became relevant. The panthers boy's all came through the grades together. Just for if you didn't know they actually all came through the younger grades together.

Second thing: Mitch kenny gives a shit pass from hooker which luai jumps to catch and takes above his head. Freddy "wow that pass from kenny at hooker was just unreal, great service"

I'm done.
 
Two things, for anyone that missed it 10 times a game since the panthers became relevant. The panthers boy's all came through the grades together. Just for if you didn't know they actually all came through the younger grades together.

Second thing: Mitch kenny gives a shit pass from hooker which luai jumps to catch and takes above his head. Freddy "wow that pass from kenny at hooker was just unreal, great service"

I'm done.

I know i'm not the only one to think this but we need to invest in our own ISC team again, have all our fringe players play together
 
Sooo was CHN ever formally suspended or fined for driving 2 times over the limit or just some stern words and disappointment from his coach???

View attachment 12543
CHN was only suspended for two games. Considering a large amount of NSW Cup games were called off in Week 2 he only missed one game.
I see Edwards is wearing one of those 21 jerseys @Big Pete 😉
If Matterson plays tomorrow night I'll trade Fifita out and he'll become my Patty.

On second thought I should have considered who Barnett was coming up against.
 
If Matterson plays tomorrow night I'll trade Fifita out and he'll become my Patty.

On second thought I should have considered who Barnett was coming up against.
Haha was more along the lines of coaches using the 21 jersey like they're fooling anyone that the player isn't going to play... maybe BA is going full 4D chess and using the 21 to make people like me think he's going to play.

I can see another interesting player with the 21 jersey on

1619092707989
 
CHN was only suspended for two games. Considering a large amount of NSW Cup games were called off in Week 2 he only missed one game.
I didn't even see that suspension in the media.

Did a quick search to find the below.

1619092894390


I just cannot see how he could only get a 2 match ban for being 2 times over the alcohol limit.... I would've expected 4 weeks and a massive fine on top.
 
I see Penrith were allowed to change their name tonight from the Penrith Panthers to Penrith six again. That’s all I heard tonight.
 
There's no other team in the competition that can compete with Penrith in the arm wrestle. In Edwards and To'o they have two of the best players to work it out of trouble and 'win' the set. The forwards then play off the back of it and position it easily for Cleary who kicks it into corners and they just strangle the life out of their opposition. Eventually their left hand side gets that many opportunities that they cross over but there's time where they seem well short on ideas. If that left hand side isn't humming and Cleary's kicking game isn't getting results they seem a little clueless.

The big issue is that it's a long season and there's so much footy to be played until the finals. I don't think anyone has figured them out yet but when a coach does I'll be curious to see if they have a response.

However they were far too good for a Knights team that tried all night. I just thought while they tried hard they had little to no creativity in attack and did very little to challenge the Panthers defence. It was either give the ball to Frizel or have Ponga take it to the line and throw a cut-out to Best. There was just little variation and they didn't challenge Penrith hard enough through the middle of the ruck. I would have thought this is the type of game where Connor Watson would be having a field day and really challenging the bigger men around the middle.

I'm not sure what to make of the Knights. I thought O'Brien had them on the right track but they just appear to be short 3 or 4 quality players to really cement themselves as a top team. It just seems like they've gone back to the glory days of 2009-2011 where they had their Kurt Gidleys, Akuila Uates, Junior Saus who played beyond themselves but always seemed to be in that 8th-12th range without any sign of growth.
 
There's no other team in the competition that can compete with Penrith in the arm wrestle. In Edwards and To'o they have two of the best players to work it out of trouble and 'win' the set. The forwards then play off the back of it and position it easily for Cleary who kicks it into corners and they just strangle the life out of their opposition. Eventually their left hand side gets that many opportunities that they cross over but there's time where they seem well short on ideas. If that left hand side isn't humming and Cleary's kicking game isn't getting results they seem a little clueless.

The big issue is that it's a long season and there's so much footy to be played until the finals. I don't think anyone has figured them out yet but when a coach does I'll be curious to see if they have a response.

However they were far too good for a Knights team that tried all night. I just thought while they tried hard they had little to no creativity in attack and did very little to challenge the Panthers defence. It was either give the ball to Frizel or have Ponga take it to the line and throw a cut-out to Best. There was just little variation and they didn't challenge Penrith hard enough through the middle of the ruck. I would have thought this is the type of game where Connor Watson would be having a field day and really challenging the bigger men around the middle.

I'm not sure what to make of the Knights. I thought O'Brien had them on the right track but they just appear to be short 3 or 4 quality players to really cement themselves as a top team. It just seems like they've gone back to the glory days of 2009-2011 where they had their Kurt Gidleys, Akuila Uates, Junior Saus who played beyond themselves but always seemed to be in that 8th-12th range without any sign of growth.
On the knights I just get the feeling that O'Brien is getting a little Seiboldy. He seems set on wanting to have a very structured attack, but every move he makes in someway stifles what Ponga can do with the ball.

A couple years back he moved Ponga to 6 and had him on the left. Pearce running the middle and whoever it was at the time playing fullback. Ponga's a left footer and works well with whoever is put outside him so why not... except it plants him on one side of the field and allows the defence to load up on him. So no questions for the defence to make and no way for Ponga to exploit a weak defence on the other side of the field. He also has to sit there and wait for Pearce to give him the ball.

Then he dumped that move and let Ponga do what he wanted back at fullback, which was successful... until he had another genius idea to keep Ponga at fullback but limit him to the right side of the field with Mann on the left at 6 and Pearce controlling the middle.

It made absolutely no sense other than "Pearce defends on the right and I need a 6 on the left so Ponga can take the right".

I just don't understand why he wants to limit Ponga to one side of the field... Ponga is like Turbo in that he is potent on either side of the field but he needs to be given the ball and the freedom to pop up wherever... as a coach you should want him everywhere!!

The only team that I've seen that really plays as a complete spine completely fluid across the field is souths. Reynolds runs the middle of the field and Cody pops up either side as second receiver with Latrell also able to chime in (although they seem to have shifted to Latrell being more of a focal point this year). They also then have Cook to take advantage of any quick ptb's.

It moves away from the garbage split halves and allows the 6 to be a serious second receiving threat... and then adds the fullback (who is basically the modern five eight). Cody is the piece that truly makes that spine though.

I'm surprised that more teams haven't tried to copy it... and it was why I was very excited to see Milf pop up on the opposite side of the field in Round 1, because it felt like we might try and use Milf in a way that would seriously compliment what he can do (basically allow him to be a fullback in attacking zones)... but Kevvie appears to have shelved that and told the players to play zero risk conservative football, which is fair enough when players drop the ball cold on simple passes.


But getting back to the knights, clearly their biggest issue is finding a 6 that complements the spine... and potentially O'Brien will have to start thinking about finding a 7 as they only extended Pearce for 12 months and he was somewhat on the outer before signing that deal.

I think he looks a little lost at the moment and I don't suspect he's a coach that can push a team into a GF at this stage. His first year was all about defence and the knights followed it and played for him, but I think he's dropped that standard somewhat and has decided to focus on getting an attacking structure that he likes.
 
I though Newcastle probably played as good as they could play without ever threatening Penrith's line.

They never really got a chance to crack Penrith's line and put on any points mainly because I think they didn't have that potency early on in the set through their outside backs.

As Pete was saying, you get a big winger or 2 to make a few metres early in the set it really sets the standard and by play 4 or 5, the opposition is at your mercy, only a bad kick will let them off. The Newcastle backs probably couldn't set up their sets of 6 well enough to get some momentum in the grind and as such Penrith were able to line up their forwards and bash them all night long.
 
On the knights I just get the feeling that O'Brien is getting a little Seiboldy. He seems set on wanting to have a very structured attack, but every move he makes in someway stifles what Ponga can do with the ball.

A couple years back he moved Ponga to 6 and had him on the left. Pearce running the middle and whoever it was at the time playing fullback. Ponga's a left footer and works well with whoever is put outside him so why not... except it plants him on one side of the field and allows the defence to load up on him. So no questions for the defence to make and no way for Ponga to exploit a weak defence on the other side of the field. He also has to sit there and wait for Pearce to give him the ball.

Then he dumped that move and let Ponga do what he wanted back at fullback, which was successful... until he had another genius idea to keep Ponga at fullback but limit him to the right side of the field with Mann on the left at 6 and Pearce controlling the middle.

It made absolutely no sense other than "Pearce defends on the right and I need a 6 on the left so Ponga can take the right".

I just don't understand why he wants to limit Ponga to one side of the field... Ponga is like Turbo in that he is potent on either side of the field but he needs to be given the ball and the freedom to pop up wherever... as a coach you should want him everywhere!!

The only team that I've seen that really plays as a complete spine completely fluid across the field is souths. Reynolds runs the middle of the field and Cody pops up either side as second receiver with Latrell also able to chime in (although they seem to have shifted to Latrell being more of a focal point this year). They also then have Cook to take advantage of any quick ptb's.

It moves away from the garbage split halves and allows the 6 to be a serious second receiving threat... and then adds the fullback (who is basically the modern five eight). Cody is the piece that truly makes that spine though.

I'm surprised that more teams haven't tried to copy it... and it was why I was very excited to see Milf pop up on the opposite side of the field in Round 1, because it felt like we might try and use Milf in a way that would seriously compliment what he can do (basically allow him to be a fullback in attacking zones)... but Kevvie appears to have shelved that and told the players to play zero risk conservative football, which is fair enough when players drop the ball cold on simple passes.


But getting back to the knights, clearly their biggest issue is finding a 6 that complements the spine... and potentially O'Brien will have to start thinking about finding a 7 as they only extended Pearce for 12 months and he was somewhat on the outer before signing that deal.

I think he looks a little lost at the moment and I don't suspect he's a coach that can push a team into a GF at this stage. His first year was all about defence and the knights followed it and played for him, but I think he's dropped that standard somewhat and has decided to focus on getting an attacking structure that he likes.
The Ponga at five-eighth experiment was actually overseen by Nathan Brown. As the story goes Kalyn Ponga and Mitchell Pearce approached Browny with the idea and instead of laughing it off Brown went along with it. End result they had a horrific start to the season and only started to turn things around when they got their spine in order. It was a sign that Brown had done all he could really do at Newcastle and it was time for a change.

I'd have to keep a closer eye on them but right now it just seems like the team has grown stale. They're still using the same formations from 2018, the players have gotten older and they need to come up with some more tricks.

Interestingly they only used 16 players last night and even then Brodie Jones only got 15 minutes. If I was looking to make changes the bench would be the best place to start.
 

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