Grand Final - Storm v Panthers
Our great line speed from recent weeks was no existent against the Panthers. Probably due to fatigue. But even when there was the (rare) slow play the ball, we sat back and waited for the attacking Panthers players to come to us and it just exacerbated our problems.
53 missed tackles + 27 Ineffective. We just could not wrap the ball up ALL NIGHT. Panthers had 20 offloads but it felt like more.
So frustrating.
53 missed tackles + 27 Ineffective. We just could not wrap the ball up ALL NIGHT. Panthers had 20 offloads but it felt like more.
So frustrating.
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Mstorm1999
- Squall
- Posts: 141
- Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2020 4:40 pm
I’m excited for next year. Adding NAS and Stefano will make a world of difference. We aren’t getting enough from Welch and Tui, and honestly, I can’t see them being part of our top 17 next year. Howarth will only get better, and I think Blore will have a much bigger year. It was Loiero’s first full season playing as a lock, so I think he’s only going to improve. I’m expecting Munster to have a bigger year, especially after his groin problems this season. If Paps stays healthy and fit, he’ll only gain more confidence and should continue to improve. On top of all this, the first Grand Final experience for all the younger players and those who hadn’t played in a Grand Final before will only benefit us. We have so much upside next year, and I believe next year is our year!
I wonder if our great form the last few months may have actually come back to bite us a bit. It's been a long time since we haven't the run of possession in a game, And been in a real arm wrestle being forced to defend then respond.
It just seemed as though our Fitness levels were not where Penriths were as we began to lose the contact across the field and were left with no energy when we had decent ball.
Might be reading too much into it as it may have just been a case of our middles getting dominated, an off night for a few of our key players and simply just coming up against a great team.
It just seemed as though our Fitness levels were not where Penriths were as we began to lose the contact across the field and were left with no energy when we had decent ball.
Might be reading too much into it as it may have just been a case of our middles getting dominated, an off night for a few of our key players and simply just coming up against a great team.
Stat I heard during the week leadup was Penrith averaged the most passes in the league and we conceded the most offloads. I'm sure the club knew these stats too and I hate that we didn't do anything different or change our style at all. I think if there is one criticism of Craig over the years is he's pretty straight forward with what we're going to do in big games and it can come back and bite us.yourhero wrote: ↑Mon Oct 07, 2024 3:01 pm Our great line speed from recent weeks was no existent against the Panthers. Probably due to fatigue. But even when there was the (rare) slow play the ball, we sat back and waited for the attacking Panthers players to come to us and it just exacerbated our problems.
53 missed tackles + 27 Ineffective. We just could not wrap the ball up ALL NIGHT. Panthers had 20 offloads but it felt like more.
So frustrating.
I suspect next year we may find out just how important Jarome Luai was to them.
Yes a lot of stars have left (and been more than adequately replaced) during their ridiculous reign, but he strikes me as having been one of spiritual leaders in that group, along with perhaps Brian To’o and Isaah Yeo.
He’s got his “Audi logo” (four rings) now, so the fact that he won’t win shit with the Tigers isn’t particularly relevant.
Yes a lot of stars have left (and been more than adequately replaced) during their ridiculous reign, but he strikes me as having been one of spiritual leaders in that group, along with perhaps Brian To’o and Isaah Yeo.
He’s got his “Audi logo” (four rings) now, so the fact that he won’t win shit with the Tigers isn’t particularly relevant.
The first up tackles were disgusting and only made worse by the amount of times we had players left on the ground BEHIND the play the ball.
Would it surprise anyone to know that there was 44 times where we had 1 or more (yes, more - on one occasion we had 3!) players left on the ground behind the play the ball.
I have noticed in our games all year, seemingly coached to (possibly) interfere with the first pass from the dummy half, but which I hate for the below reasons.
3 times no markers, and a couple of times only 1 marker.
Less people in the line, more defence for the remainder and more holes to run at and more metres to gain.
Weak first up contact and the inside ball, this, but not by only means, contributed to our downfall.
Position - Left right out or hung out to dry
A couple of other things
2115 minute, Panthers challenged a strip penalty against them, it was still called a strip, why did they retain their challenge?
If you select players for the team why don't you trust and use them? Laz deserved more game time than a paltry 9 minutes at the 61 minute mark. If we'd had Chan instead, was he coming on at the same time?
What was wrong with Tui, has his single stint on the field been questioned / explained?
The stats suggest we had overall quicker play the balls, my eyes did not see that.
2115 minute, Panthers challenged a strip penalty against them, it was still called a strip, why did they retain their challenge?
If you select players for the team why don't you trust and use them? Laz deserved more game time than a paltry 9 minutes at the 61 minute mark. If we'd had Chan instead, was he coming on at the same time?
What was wrong with Tui, has his single stint on the field been questioned / explained?
The stats suggest we had overall quicker play the balls, my eyes did not see that.
Position - Left right out or hung out to dry
As far as game plans go it looked like we would run at Cleary all night (haven't learnt from 2019), 5 tackles and kick. Problem with this is we were,
A; Rarely deep enough for an attacking kick that would give our wingers a chance to compete,
And
B; The kicks were too short.
No wonder Dylan gets so many easy return metres.
I'm always a fan of a 4th tackle grubber (when appropriate) but never does it happen, or if it does it's from way too far out.
I reckon the old dog needs to learn a few new tricks.
A; Rarely deep enough for an attacking kick that would give our wingers a chance to compete,
And
B; The kicks were too short.
No wonder Dylan gets so many easy return metres.
I'm always a fan of a 4th tackle grubber (when appropriate) but never does it happen, or if it does it's from way too far out.
I reckon the old dog needs to learn a few new tricks.
Position - Left right out or hung out to dry
Given that he did so much work it is little surprise that Harry was the biggest culprit being behind the play the ball (at least) 10 times with Alec running him a close second.
Maybe most surprising, Tui, for his very limited time in the field - and at the start of the game too, found himself behind the play 4 times.
Position - Left right out or hung out to dry
Panthers retained challenge because vision of strip was deemed to be inconclusive.Bullucked wrote: ↑Thu Oct 10, 2024 4:42 am A couple of other things
2115 minute, Panthers challenged a strip penalty against them, it was still called a strip, why did they retain their challenge?
If you select players for the team why don't you trust and use them? Laz deserved more game time than a paltry 9 minutes at the 61 minute mark. If we'd had Chan instead, was he coming on at the same time?
What was wrong with Tui, has his single stint on the field been questioned / explained?
The stats suggest we had overall quicker play the balls, my eyes did not see that.
Finally brought myself to watching the game on tv today 1 week later after game attendance. Obviously hurting, the longest in 35 years following the game I’ve ever had to wait before feeling ready to watch the telecast after attending a game live where the team I supports gone down. The member cruise before the game was awesome, I'd encourage anyone who gets the chance to do it to attend. Was such a great vibe with a good few hundred supporters on board, 90s classics and unlim food/drink. Few ex-players floating about, giving it to the panther supporter cruises on the water also heading in - was a stunning sunny day.
Thought I'd give it a bit and let it all settle down and watch the telecast calmly before trying to give a well-considered non emotive thought on here, you always get a better idea how the game went on the tv compared to live attendance.
It’s a funny one because I feel like so much disappointment comes with so much optimism more than any other time with the club. I genuinely feel like we are deserved favorites for the comp in 2025. Without tooting my own horn too much I predicted storm panther gf with panther to win before a ball was kicked this year by about 10 points. Sat my bias aside all year and always thought Panthers would win it in a tight one. I called the fb’s being the difference and I do genuinely believe if you swap papas with Edwards, and we had Nas playing then we are a better than even chance in that game. It’s still disappointing when we were obviously in with a good chance and a moment or two different and a bit of luck and it could have been different. Anyway, hopefully another good prediction for 2025 is on the way!
As has been pointed out above there is definitely improvement in us. Mstorm99 is on the money. For a start I think the Dally m medalist was severely hampered and struggled to get as involved as usual and getting around the ground, this has been born out by his withdrawal from the Kiwi squad. I know there was big worries coming out of the roosters prelim for Jahrome and it was all kept quiet going into the gf and he wouldn’t of played any other week. To have your best player hampered like this is huge. Fair enough Cleary had the same but I feel like a leg injury is worse for the teams main running threat player than a shoulder that can still get the job done for a half. Munster will be better after his operation and will burn from this and have a big year in 25 I feel. Watch out. Our back row is awesome, all 3 will improve further next year, particularly Blore. It will be up there with the best back row in comp imo. I’m going to put my hand up (I know I’m not alone in this), I got it wrong on Loiero, guys a beast and is on an upward trajectory. Basically the teams enforcer now, and has cut the errors out of his game. While on that vein, not the only one to get it wrong on Meany either, I think he’s our right center going forward for sure now, the back half of the year he showed he’s up to it and thankfully Bellamy persevered because he’s very solid at the least, and I’d imagine one of the best blokes culture wise in the organisation. I thought he had a very good gf, although was surprised to see 8 missed tackles in the stats, I thought he held his gloves up defensively out there against a very dangerous panther left edge. Howarth is now on the upward trajectory and looks like there’s a high ceiling where he can get to if he works hard. Warbrick can still get better, and coates I think wasn’t at his absolute best due limited gametime.
Harry- Is the best hooker in the game and came a long way on field and consistency wise then where he was at early in the year. This is his new minimum benchmark now the way he played out the last month and we need it. I still think there’s improvement in him to, he can be a bit frail defensively at times although he’s a workhorse, he missed a few at important stages and got bumped off by a few of them massive panther middles which started their momentum on numerous occasions in the match. His leadership has been absolutely outstanding. He did seem raw and shy about the role early in the year, but I think you can really see how he has grown into the role and taken It on more and more to lead the team as the season wore on, you can just see the players look up to him and he is the right man for the job, very impressive in his messaging and interviews, we have a long term captain as good as any.
One thing that I remember as a massive concern early year and last year reading the forum here and I think we all shared here was concerns about our middles. As the year wore on I think we came to realise we weren’t as bad off as we thought with Loiero and King really having great seasons and getting their jobs done and Nas starting to find some form towards the back end. In saying that, the test was always going to come against the Penrith pack in a big game and was probably what we had all been envisaging with those concerns and I think it eventually played out that way as the biggest difference between the teams. Nas was a big loss imo, however, I still think Pen win. Unfortunately our depth there is very limited and we have some guys redlining at their limit doing a good job, but aren’t forwards that are going to go out and dominate a big game. I think we lost it in the middle with our first up contact. Too often bumped backwards and as others have said our markers left sprawling behind play the ball; struggling to get back onside and panthers getting momentum off the back. We just couldn’t get that control in the ruck we had for so long in Smith era, it was purely just bigger stronger men that we couldn’t handle. I think The club recognized we just don’t have the cattle to match them in that area and went with mobility and leg speed to try to counteract it which was the right play as it was probably our only way to a win if it worked but always had potential to backfire and I think it did a bit when we had harry and Wishart in the middle together when that game was in the balance second half. Yeo, Leota, and JFH were devastating, as usual, and has been the case in all their gf wins.
I think we have improvement in this key area coming but the club needs to be smart how it handles it. Welch and Tui are past it imo, move them on, free up some cap, and go to market for one more quality middle and we are looking really good. I thought Tui was good in his initial stint and was strange how he didn’t come back on but I’d imagine it was to go with the smaller forward mobility idea late game trying to crack them that way. He is serviceable but to be fair there’s only probably one or two games this year you’ve thought- that’s a great front rower. He is very middle of the road. Welch come on and tried his guts out, but he is so sloppy now in the ruck and just looks a long way behind fitness and mobility wise, after about 5/10 minutes he is really out on his feet, I think about 5 mins into his first stint Penrith went through a real good patch in the game when he was just running around like a gassed headless chook. I can’t imagine its slacking off in training or mental application from Welch, so it must be his age has caught up to him and the speed of the game, or his body letting him down. Its been a bit strange with him how he had that time off for no real disclosed reason and rumors of him going to Bris, my gut says it’s time to move him on - father time and his repeated acl’s have caught up.
Here’s the good news; NAS will come back and at his best is still great. Valeepu looks good and is very effective in his time on the field, for me it’s just building his endurance, aerobic capacity , mobility which will come and we have a very good front rower there. Lisati, while I only saw that one game out of him looked terrific and you’d imagine after a full off season will be in our side and doing well next year. Utokamanu, surely Craig works his wanders there. I think that is a real important one for us, and if he can turn into a premier prop in the game we are going to be bloody tough to beat. I’ve only seen glimpses of it so far, and do wander why the club went so hard for him in particular, but I’m happy to put my faith in Craig and the club that they’ve identified their man and know what they are getting and the fact they went so hard he’s going to be special for us. So all in all, Nas, Uto, Lisati, Valeepu all in and having great seasons, Welch and Tui moved on and maybe finding one more good middle singing, along with further Loiero and Blore improvements, I think we will have a pack that can match any in the comp for sure, and importantly after a few season without it, blow a game and ruck wide open a bit like Penrith did to us in the gf at times. Factor in losses to Penrith of JFH and Lui, and I think we are a real good chance at redemption. It doesn’t just happen though as Broncos and Parra have shown, we need to double down on our efforts and work even harder to ensure we are there again. I’m confident in the culture, Craig and leadership at the club, that’s what we’ll do, as we’ve always done. Lets hope injuries are kind, we’ve not had a great run.
My biggest concern is still Pappa. Still can’t remember the last time a team won a gf without a top 3ish type fb in the game who is a huge run threat. He did OK in the gf, he got lucky on that stripped ball call in the first half for mine which I think he lost and dropped a bomb which are minor issues, but again for me, rarely troubled Penrith defensively and really did appear a middle of the road serviceable fullback. He was well outplayed by Edwards, the Australian and 4 time premiership fb. I wander what may have happened if we committed to Sua for the whole year and he was match fit, the game was tight, does he blow it open on a couple of occasions? He may of just as easily got over awed and made a heap of errors and and cramped up at the 60 minute mark 2bf. I wander how the games go’s if we had a 2020 gf papa on the park. pappa made some great defensive plays also, to his credit. I just think if we had say, Ponga, walsh , teddy , Edwards in our team we are almost certainties next year if everyone stays fit, where as with papa, its more like a very tight run thing and there’s definitely a not insignificant chance we are all going to be disappointed again this time next year. Anyway, those other fbs don’t grow on trees, and I’m not sure sua is fully ready yet and still have some doubts there, so I’m not sure what the answer is, we probably need to persevere, I just hope they don’t go to crazy on his contract as he is nowhere near a million dollar player anymore for mine, and he’s still good knock away from career over and us being left in a very bad place imo.
On the contentious calls. At the ground I was happy with the Howarth no try as I only saw that second angle from down the ground with his arm under. The next day getting off the plane in Cairns I had a heaps of messages from mates saying we were robbed and saw that screen shot from the touch line of what looked like the ball on the ground and was ropeable and have been all week. Watching the game live last night the first few rewinds I was still convinced, but just couldn’t make sense of going to that second angle where it looked like his arm was under it how the two went together. I tried my hardest to take my purple goggles off and must have rewound that thing 50 times at least. I now believe (not with 100%) certainty it was a no try. What I thought was the ball and I think a lot of people got caught out with in that first angle from touch is actually Howarth’s arm. The similar color of arm and ball and the crease made by his arm gripping the ball really tight Is a bit of an illusion I think that has tricked many. That crease between the arm and ball actually look like what I thought was advertising/pictures/print on the ball itself (Westpac/Steeden text/image), but having gone backwards and forward between the two shots I now see that is his arm crease and the very slight color differential between the arm and ball on that first view. Might be an argument for removing print on the game balls, but that will never happen. Anyway, happy not the right word, but I don’t think we were robbed by that call. As yourhero said, Klein going up no try was utter bs with the view he had, and I wander if bunker would of overruled. Probably not, and then the game is different, but then we are probably the ones getting lucky and Penrith are livid.
I didn’t realise at the ground re. the Sorenson take from kick off but I do believe his foot was in the air watching on the oled at home, and I think we should have got the ball back on the attack there. At the same time there was a split second in it and very hard for on field officials’ and even for bunker to overrule in an instant before play resumes. Bad luck indeed, but probably can’t go to hard on the officials. Pap never should of kicked it so close. I don’t remember a heap of other bad calls either way but as said I do think Pap lost the ball first half on that Penrith challenge rather than got stripped, so maybe evened out.
At the game live I felt like Klein was doing his usual sh%t and killing us in the 6 agains, particularly in that first half after the Harry try piggy backing them back in. I can now see that more of them were fair enough after watching the game, but I do feel like there were a couple of questionable ones as always. Look, in any case, I have made peace in my mind that the better team did win on the night, (unlike 06 where I will forever believe we were robbed) and those calls were not the reason Penrith won. They looked the better team for the majority of the 80, particularly in the middle, and their spine outplayed ours. In fact, across the park opposite numbers between the teams I’m not sure we won many matchups, maybe harry against Kenny? Then again, Kenny was great defensively.
I don’t think it was from lack of trying. They boys busted their asses and were just outplayed , that’s all we can ask for. Did we produce our absolute best football? Probably not, but we had a few niggles injury wise, and Penrith’s attack was clunky at periods also. I do feel it was close to the best we can play however, it's probably in our top 3 performances of the season, and any other team we win the gf. It's easy to say you played bad when you lose, but credit to Penrith, we were outplayed. We are getting a bit of a reputation for not getting the job done in deciders which is disappointing, it would all be a bit easier to digest if we got the titles in 2006 and 2016 which were very winnable games. For our continued excellence - we are a bit short on titles.
Well team, that’s the final chapter in the 2024 novella for me. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading. A lot of dribble, but I find it cathartic to get it all out with some likeminded followers, I know I’m still hurting, and will be for a while. I love this team and wish it were different. It’s been great to chat with you all this year on here, will see you in 2025, I reckon if we get a good trot with injuries, we might have a very different feeling this time next year.
Thought I'd give it a bit and let it all settle down and watch the telecast calmly before trying to give a well-considered non emotive thought on here, you always get a better idea how the game went on the tv compared to live attendance.
It’s a funny one because I feel like so much disappointment comes with so much optimism more than any other time with the club. I genuinely feel like we are deserved favorites for the comp in 2025. Without tooting my own horn too much I predicted storm panther gf with panther to win before a ball was kicked this year by about 10 points. Sat my bias aside all year and always thought Panthers would win it in a tight one. I called the fb’s being the difference and I do genuinely believe if you swap papas with Edwards, and we had Nas playing then we are a better than even chance in that game. It’s still disappointing when we were obviously in with a good chance and a moment or two different and a bit of luck and it could have been different. Anyway, hopefully another good prediction for 2025 is on the way!
As has been pointed out above there is definitely improvement in us. Mstorm99 is on the money. For a start I think the Dally m medalist was severely hampered and struggled to get as involved as usual and getting around the ground, this has been born out by his withdrawal from the Kiwi squad. I know there was big worries coming out of the roosters prelim for Jahrome and it was all kept quiet going into the gf and he wouldn’t of played any other week. To have your best player hampered like this is huge. Fair enough Cleary had the same but I feel like a leg injury is worse for the teams main running threat player than a shoulder that can still get the job done for a half. Munster will be better after his operation and will burn from this and have a big year in 25 I feel. Watch out. Our back row is awesome, all 3 will improve further next year, particularly Blore. It will be up there with the best back row in comp imo. I’m going to put my hand up (I know I’m not alone in this), I got it wrong on Loiero, guys a beast and is on an upward trajectory. Basically the teams enforcer now, and has cut the errors out of his game. While on that vein, not the only one to get it wrong on Meany either, I think he’s our right center going forward for sure now, the back half of the year he showed he’s up to it and thankfully Bellamy persevered because he’s very solid at the least, and I’d imagine one of the best blokes culture wise in the organisation. I thought he had a very good gf, although was surprised to see 8 missed tackles in the stats, I thought he held his gloves up defensively out there against a very dangerous panther left edge. Howarth is now on the upward trajectory and looks like there’s a high ceiling where he can get to if he works hard. Warbrick can still get better, and coates I think wasn’t at his absolute best due limited gametime.
Harry- Is the best hooker in the game and came a long way on field and consistency wise then where he was at early in the year. This is his new minimum benchmark now the way he played out the last month and we need it. I still think there’s improvement in him to, he can be a bit frail defensively at times although he’s a workhorse, he missed a few at important stages and got bumped off by a few of them massive panther middles which started their momentum on numerous occasions in the match. His leadership has been absolutely outstanding. He did seem raw and shy about the role early in the year, but I think you can really see how he has grown into the role and taken It on more and more to lead the team as the season wore on, you can just see the players look up to him and he is the right man for the job, very impressive in his messaging and interviews, we have a long term captain as good as any.
One thing that I remember as a massive concern early year and last year reading the forum here and I think we all shared here was concerns about our middles. As the year wore on I think we came to realise we weren’t as bad off as we thought with Loiero and King really having great seasons and getting their jobs done and Nas starting to find some form towards the back end. In saying that, the test was always going to come against the Penrith pack in a big game and was probably what we had all been envisaging with those concerns and I think it eventually played out that way as the biggest difference between the teams. Nas was a big loss imo, however, I still think Pen win. Unfortunately our depth there is very limited and we have some guys redlining at their limit doing a good job, but aren’t forwards that are going to go out and dominate a big game. I think we lost it in the middle with our first up contact. Too often bumped backwards and as others have said our markers left sprawling behind play the ball; struggling to get back onside and panthers getting momentum off the back. We just couldn’t get that control in the ruck we had for so long in Smith era, it was purely just bigger stronger men that we couldn’t handle. I think The club recognized we just don’t have the cattle to match them in that area and went with mobility and leg speed to try to counteract it which was the right play as it was probably our only way to a win if it worked but always had potential to backfire and I think it did a bit when we had harry and Wishart in the middle together when that game was in the balance second half. Yeo, Leota, and JFH were devastating, as usual, and has been the case in all their gf wins.
I think we have improvement in this key area coming but the club needs to be smart how it handles it. Welch and Tui are past it imo, move them on, free up some cap, and go to market for one more quality middle and we are looking really good. I thought Tui was good in his initial stint and was strange how he didn’t come back on but I’d imagine it was to go with the smaller forward mobility idea late game trying to crack them that way. He is serviceable but to be fair there’s only probably one or two games this year you’ve thought- that’s a great front rower. He is very middle of the road. Welch come on and tried his guts out, but he is so sloppy now in the ruck and just looks a long way behind fitness and mobility wise, after about 5/10 minutes he is really out on his feet, I think about 5 mins into his first stint Penrith went through a real good patch in the game when he was just running around like a gassed headless chook. I can’t imagine its slacking off in training or mental application from Welch, so it must be his age has caught up to him and the speed of the game, or his body letting him down. Its been a bit strange with him how he had that time off for no real disclosed reason and rumors of him going to Bris, my gut says it’s time to move him on - father time and his repeated acl’s have caught up.
Here’s the good news; NAS will come back and at his best is still great. Valeepu looks good and is very effective in his time on the field, for me it’s just building his endurance, aerobic capacity , mobility which will come and we have a very good front rower there. Lisati, while I only saw that one game out of him looked terrific and you’d imagine after a full off season will be in our side and doing well next year. Utokamanu, surely Craig works his wanders there. I think that is a real important one for us, and if he can turn into a premier prop in the game we are going to be bloody tough to beat. I’ve only seen glimpses of it so far, and do wander why the club went so hard for him in particular, but I’m happy to put my faith in Craig and the club that they’ve identified their man and know what they are getting and the fact they went so hard he’s going to be special for us. So all in all, Nas, Uto, Lisati, Valeepu all in and having great seasons, Welch and Tui moved on and maybe finding one more good middle singing, along with further Loiero and Blore improvements, I think we will have a pack that can match any in the comp for sure, and importantly after a few season without it, blow a game and ruck wide open a bit like Penrith did to us in the gf at times. Factor in losses to Penrith of JFH and Lui, and I think we are a real good chance at redemption. It doesn’t just happen though as Broncos and Parra have shown, we need to double down on our efforts and work even harder to ensure we are there again. I’m confident in the culture, Craig and leadership at the club, that’s what we’ll do, as we’ve always done. Lets hope injuries are kind, we’ve not had a great run.
My biggest concern is still Pappa. Still can’t remember the last time a team won a gf without a top 3ish type fb in the game who is a huge run threat. He did OK in the gf, he got lucky on that stripped ball call in the first half for mine which I think he lost and dropped a bomb which are minor issues, but again for me, rarely troubled Penrith defensively and really did appear a middle of the road serviceable fullback. He was well outplayed by Edwards, the Australian and 4 time premiership fb. I wander what may have happened if we committed to Sua for the whole year and he was match fit, the game was tight, does he blow it open on a couple of occasions? He may of just as easily got over awed and made a heap of errors and and cramped up at the 60 minute mark 2bf. I wander how the games go’s if we had a 2020 gf papa on the park. pappa made some great defensive plays also, to his credit. I just think if we had say, Ponga, walsh , teddy , Edwards in our team we are almost certainties next year if everyone stays fit, where as with papa, its more like a very tight run thing and there’s definitely a not insignificant chance we are all going to be disappointed again this time next year. Anyway, those other fbs don’t grow on trees, and I’m not sure sua is fully ready yet and still have some doubts there, so I’m not sure what the answer is, we probably need to persevere, I just hope they don’t go to crazy on his contract as he is nowhere near a million dollar player anymore for mine, and he’s still good knock away from career over and us being left in a very bad place imo.
On the contentious calls. At the ground I was happy with the Howarth no try as I only saw that second angle from down the ground with his arm under. The next day getting off the plane in Cairns I had a heaps of messages from mates saying we were robbed and saw that screen shot from the touch line of what looked like the ball on the ground and was ropeable and have been all week. Watching the game live last night the first few rewinds I was still convinced, but just couldn’t make sense of going to that second angle where it looked like his arm was under it how the two went together. I tried my hardest to take my purple goggles off and must have rewound that thing 50 times at least. I now believe (not with 100%) certainty it was a no try. What I thought was the ball and I think a lot of people got caught out with in that first angle from touch is actually Howarth’s arm. The similar color of arm and ball and the crease made by his arm gripping the ball really tight Is a bit of an illusion I think that has tricked many. That crease between the arm and ball actually look like what I thought was advertising/pictures/print on the ball itself (Westpac/Steeden text/image), but having gone backwards and forward between the two shots I now see that is his arm crease and the very slight color differential between the arm and ball on that first view. Might be an argument for removing print on the game balls, but that will never happen. Anyway, happy not the right word, but I don’t think we were robbed by that call. As yourhero said, Klein going up no try was utter bs with the view he had, and I wander if bunker would of overruled. Probably not, and then the game is different, but then we are probably the ones getting lucky and Penrith are livid.
I didn’t realise at the ground re. the Sorenson take from kick off but I do believe his foot was in the air watching on the oled at home, and I think we should have got the ball back on the attack there. At the same time there was a split second in it and very hard for on field officials’ and even for bunker to overrule in an instant before play resumes. Bad luck indeed, but probably can’t go to hard on the officials. Pap never should of kicked it so close. I don’t remember a heap of other bad calls either way but as said I do think Pap lost the ball first half on that Penrith challenge rather than got stripped, so maybe evened out.
At the game live I felt like Klein was doing his usual sh%t and killing us in the 6 agains, particularly in that first half after the Harry try piggy backing them back in. I can now see that more of them were fair enough after watching the game, but I do feel like there were a couple of questionable ones as always. Look, in any case, I have made peace in my mind that the better team did win on the night, (unlike 06 where I will forever believe we were robbed) and those calls were not the reason Penrith won. They looked the better team for the majority of the 80, particularly in the middle, and their spine outplayed ours. In fact, across the park opposite numbers between the teams I’m not sure we won many matchups, maybe harry against Kenny? Then again, Kenny was great defensively.
I don’t think it was from lack of trying. They boys busted their asses and were just outplayed , that’s all we can ask for. Did we produce our absolute best football? Probably not, but we had a few niggles injury wise, and Penrith’s attack was clunky at periods also. I do feel it was close to the best we can play however, it's probably in our top 3 performances of the season, and any other team we win the gf. It's easy to say you played bad when you lose, but credit to Penrith, we were outplayed. We are getting a bit of a reputation for not getting the job done in deciders which is disappointing, it would all be a bit easier to digest if we got the titles in 2006 and 2016 which were very winnable games. For our continued excellence - we are a bit short on titles.
Well team, that’s the final chapter in the 2024 novella for me. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading. A lot of dribble, but I find it cathartic to get it all out with some likeminded followers, I know I’m still hurting, and will be for a while. I love this team and wish it were different. It’s been great to chat with you all this year on here, will see you in 2025, I reckon if we get a good trot with injuries, we might have a very different feeling this time next year.
Yanjarra
No dribble at all, very well reasoned and considered.
Some posters are worth reading more than others, yours are very much in the former category
Here's to next year, onwards and up
No dribble at all, very well reasoned and considered.
Some posters are worth reading more than others, yours are very much in the former category
Here's to next year, onwards and up
Position - Left right out or hung out to dry