NRL 2018
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@crazy-horse said in NRL 2018:
Much needed result for the Kiwis, but I do have some concerns. The Aussies had an off day and, like the Warriors always seem to do, they allowed the Aussies to score just before half time. This along with the Kiwis almost letting the Aussies snatch it at the end suggests to me this may only be a one off. Hope I'm wrong.
Maybe. I think the Kiwis especially in attack still looked a bit disjointed. They seem to have a history of taking longer to gel than Australia. I think if we played Australia again after the England tour the gap would be wider.
I think if we sorted out edge defence the gap would be wider. Once we got going with possession we wore them down so that they had to make lots and lots of tackles. (Also, I think I underrated Johnson yesterday, while I still think the forwards were massive, his short kicking kept ensuring Oz had to give the ball back to us with goal line drop outs.) That defensive effort showed in the second half and their comeback was based on going wide again.
Also, how good is Smith going to be when he regularly plays at 9.
@Sneakdefreak must still be celebrating as he hasn't posted his review yet.
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Haven't read the thread because Im lazy and Im fairly well hungover.
If anyone said they picked that result you're a fucken liar. I was absolutely blown away by the young guys. They did a Richie Blackmore and Jarrod McCracken. Young buggers hungry and plenty in the tank.
In saying that no Cronk, Slater, Smith, Munster or Inglis. Without looking atvthe aussie press today Id say that would be the focus. But who gives a fuck. Our young team beat their young team.
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@raznomore We had a few guys missing as well. No Nelson Asofa-Solomona , RTS, Harris, Foran, Issac Luke, Joseph Tapine etc along with the Tongan defectors.
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One thing I was very impressed by was the low error rate from the Kiwis.
Often in these games Kiwis gift Kangaroos tries/opportunities with soft errors. Wasnt really the case.
DWZ at fullback had a real captain's knock. Low error rate and plenty of punch when needed. Classy display.
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Smith was great, like a young Isaac Luke. How good was Manu? I've not seen him before, reminded me of a young SBW
Brandon Smith is a beauty , seen a fair bit of him here in melbourne , plays with a lot of passion , a little bit of an old school hooker in that he plays really physical
Those tries he scores from dummy half in close are a regular thing , he is like a little bull
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@raznomore We had a few guys missing as well. No Nelson Asofa-Solomona , RTS, Harris, Foran, Issac Luke, Joseph Tapine etc along with the Tongan defectors.
Not to mention no Sonny Bill, Reuben Wiki, Stacy Jones, Nigel Vagana, Vatuvei and Francis Meli
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@raznomore said in NRL 2018:
@akan004 agreed. But Foran?
I live in hope that he can get his issues sorted out.
😂😂😂😂😂
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Just watched the highlights. (I did laugh at the point where the commentator said 'good play from the Warriors', but on the whole I was pleasantly surprised at the even-handedness of it).
Bloody hell. With three disallowed tries, the Kiwis would have been livid if they had let the Aussies snatch it at the end.
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Looking back, this win was less of an upset than it felt at the time. The Aussie outside backs on paper would have been better then ours (except which ever genius thought it was a good idea to play Tom Trbojevic at centre) but any team where your halves are Hunt and Cherry-Evans is going to struggle. Cook was about the best player in the comp 2 months ago, but has been on a slide since then. That's your team pretty much fucked right there.
But those backs couldn't do much because the Aussie pack got mauled. Again, any surprise? How Woods makes rep teams i just can't work out. Both 2nd rowers are hole runners more than guys who get you over the advantage line. McGuire has actually had a pretty ordinary year. That leaves Klemmer to do the hard yards, and Frizzel off the bench.
Whereas for us nearly everyone picked was in form, and the game we played suited their strengths. And they all played above themselves.
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@mariner4life said in NRL 2018:
Looking back, this win was less of an upset than it felt at the time. The Aussie outside backs on paper would have been better then ours (except which ever genius thought it was a good idea to play Tom Trbojevic at centre) but any team where your halves are Hunt and Cherry-Evans is going to struggle. Cook was about the best player in the comp 2 months ago, but has been on a slide since then. That's your team pretty much fucked right there.
But those backs couldn't do much because the Aussie pack got mauled. Again, any surprise? How Woods makes rep teams i just can't work out. Both 2nd rowers are hole runners more than guys who get you over the advantage line. McGuire has actually had a pretty ordinary year. That leaves Klemmer to do the hard yards, and Frizzel off the bench.
Whereas for us nearly everyone picked was in form, and the game we played suited their strengths. And they all played above themselves.
Agree with most of that bar the last line. The pack played how we expect them to play and the backs did some good (attack at times) and bad (edge defence). Johnson had one of his on days. Maybe DWZ played above himself, but he was very good at the back in Denver too.
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Oh, and just on NRL stuff. How are Hasler and Jason Taylor still on the cusp of getting NRL gigs? How many times do they need to stink the joint out before clubs wake up to the fact that either they aren't very good, or the game has passed them by?
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@mariner4life said in NRL 2018:
Looking back, this win was less of an upset than it felt at the time. The Aussie outside backs on paper would have been better then ours (except which ever genius thought it was a good idea to play Tom Trbojevic at centre) but any team where your halves are Hunt and Cherry-Evans is going to struggle. Cook was about the best player in the comp 2 months ago, but has been on a slide since then. That's your team pretty much fucked right there.
But those backs couldn't do much because the Aussie pack got mauled. Again, any surprise? How Woods makes rep teams i just can't work out. Both 2nd rowers are hole runners more than guys who get you over the advantage line. McGuire has actually had a pretty ordinary year. That leaves Klemmer to do the hard yards, and Frizzel off the bench.
Whereas for us nearly everyone picked was in form, and the game we played suited their strengths. And they all played above themselves.
Agree with most of that bar the last line. The pack played how we expect them to play and the backs did some good (attack at times) and bad (edge defence). Johnson had one of his on days. Maybe DWZ played above himself, but he was very good at the back in Denver too.
Don't know about that. How many on Thursday would have Issac Liu to be the best back rower on the field? Or Fisher-Harris to be that good? Or Smith to absolutely dominate? Or even JWH to have a good test (he's had a few ordinary ones). They fronted big time.
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@mariner4life said in NRL 2018:
@mariner4life said in NRL 2018:
Looking back, this win was less of an upset than it felt at the time. The Aussie outside backs on paper would have been better then ours (except which ever genius thought it was a good idea to play Tom Trbojevic at centre) but any team where your halves are Hunt and Cherry-Evans is going to struggle. Cook was about the best player in the comp 2 months ago, but has been on a slide since then. That's your team pretty much fucked right there.
But those backs couldn't do much because the Aussie pack got mauled. Again, any surprise? How Woods makes rep teams i just can't work out. Both 2nd rowers are hole runners more than guys who get you over the advantage line. McGuire has actually had a pretty ordinary year. That leaves Klemmer to do the hard yards, and Frizzel off the bench.
Whereas for us nearly everyone picked was in form, and the game we played suited their strengths. And they all played above themselves.
Agree with most of that bar the last line. The pack played how we expect them to play and the backs did some good (attack at times) and bad (edge defence). Johnson had one of his on days. Maybe DWZ played above himself, but he was very good at the back in Denver too.
Don't know about that. How many on Thursday would have Issac Liu to be the best back rower on the field? Or Fisher-Harris to be that good? Or Smith to absolutely dominate? Or even JWH to have a good test (he's had a few ordinary ones). They fronted big time.
Liu surprised me because I don't watch too much of Easts but my mate is an uber fan of them reckons he's been awesome. Fisher Harris has been good all year. Smith was awesome, agreed, but he came into this match with some Blake Gibson/Maori Jesus type hype. Agree on JWH.
I just think that is closer to the packs usual level.
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@mariner4life said in NRL 2018:
@mariner4life said in NRL 2018:
Looking back, this win was less of an upset than it felt at the time. The Aussie outside backs on paper would have been better then ours (except which ever genius thought it was a good idea to play Tom Trbojevic at centre) but any team where your halves are Hunt and Cherry-Evans is going to struggle. Cook was about the best player in the comp 2 months ago, but has been on a slide since then. That's your team pretty much fucked right there.
But those backs couldn't do much because the Aussie pack got mauled. Again, any surprise? How Woods makes rep teams i just can't work out. Both 2nd rowers are hole runners more than guys who get you over the advantage line. McGuire has actually had a pretty ordinary year. That leaves Klemmer to do the hard yards, and Frizzel off the bench.
Whereas for us nearly everyone picked was in form, and the game we played suited their strengths. And they all played above themselves.
Agree with most of that bar the last line. The pack played how we expect them to play and the backs did some good (attack at times) and bad (edge defence). Johnson had one of his on days. Maybe DWZ played above himself, but he was very good at the back in Denver too.
Don't know about that. How many on Thursday would have Issac Liu to be the best back rower on the field? Or Fisher-Harris to be that good? Or Smith to absolutely dominate? Or even JWH to have a good test (he's had a few ordinary ones). They fronted big time.
Liu surprised me because I don't watch too much of Easts but my mate is an uber fan of them reckons he's been awesome. Fisher Harris has been good all year. Smith was awesome, agreed, but he came into this match with some Blake Gibson/Maori Jesus type hype. Agree on JWH.
I just think that is closer to the packs usual level.
perhaps. It's probably also fair to say if those Aussie guys were wearing Blue or Maroon jerseys they may have been a little harder to run over.
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@mariner4life said in NRL 2018:
@mariner4life said in NRL 2018:
@mariner4life said in NRL 2018:
Looking back, this win was less of an upset than it felt at the time. The Aussie outside backs on paper would have been better then ours (except which ever genius thought it was a good idea to play Tom Trbojevic at centre) but any team where your halves are Hunt and Cherry-Evans is going to struggle. Cook was about the best player in the comp 2 months ago, but has been on a slide since then. That's your team pretty much fucked right there.
But those backs couldn't do much because the Aussie pack got mauled. Again, any surprise? How Woods makes rep teams i just can't work out. Both 2nd rowers are hole runners more than guys who get you over the advantage line. McGuire has actually had a pretty ordinary year. That leaves Klemmer to do the hard yards, and Frizzel off the bench.
Whereas for us nearly everyone picked was in form, and the game we played suited their strengths. And they all played above themselves.
Agree with most of that bar the last line. The pack played how we expect them to play and the backs did some good (attack at times) and bad (edge defence). Johnson had one of his on days. Maybe DWZ played above himself, but he was very good at the back in Denver too.
Don't know about that. How many on Thursday would have Issac Liu to be the best back rower on the field? Or Fisher-Harris to be that good? Or Smith to absolutely dominate? Or even JWH to have a good test (he's had a few ordinary ones). They fronted big time.
Liu surprised me because I don't watch too much of Easts but my mate is an uber fan of them reckons he's been awesome. Fisher Harris has been good all year. Smith was awesome, agreed, but he came into this match with some Blake Gibson/Maori Jesus type hype. Agree on JWH.
I just think that is closer to the packs usual level.
perhaps. It's probably also fair to say if those Aussie guys were wearing Blue or Maroon jerseys they may have been a little harder to run over.
Fuck Origin is all I have to say to that.
But, back to original discussion, I'm happy to agree to disagree.
