its a little sad watching this…unless we change what we are doing this mob who are almost playing with Taylor will lap us
Mistakes, poor choices, errors, penalties …mmmmmm
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absolutely dreadful from start to finish.
The ironic thing is that was almost our best performance this year.
Titans certainly turned up to play. Not sure exactly I can put my finger on this loss, definitely discipline and penalty problems, maybe patience?
If Maloney leads the comp with in goal repeat sets, why aren’t we capitalising and deneying teams possession?
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its structure and patience, and you add in errors and penalties its reflective of a side without any sense of a game plan and or game management
I ve been banging on for ages about game management and how the great teams do it, like Storm and Roosters.
This is going to be a long ugly season and just watch the leaks from within the club this week.
As far as our energy, ball movement & attack is concerned, I thought it was our best game this year. Unfortunately missed tackles, along with stupid errors & penalties killed us.
Oh my, I was sort of numb at the end of the game, and it was not the beer as I only had a couple 
I do no know what to make of it all.
We overall made less errors, although a couple were crucial. Our defence was ordinary, and yet teams are scoring most of their tries from kicks. We scored 24 points against a very poor team, and managed to lose. And in scoring 24 points we actually looked very clunky in attack - poor options & timing inhibited our attack.
Fisher-Harris was again our best & a heavily marked Billy was right up there.
I don’t have the answers, but clearly an off-season was wasted & our preparation needs a step-up. It’s as if they just expect that we will win…
a point you made sort of sums up the mess we are in…you score 24 points yet you get beaten
That says a lot about the other mobs defence but says more about us.
Prior to last night we had the second worst attack in the comp and of all teams just ahead of the Titans and they scored more then us last night
We either took our eyes or effort out of defence and switched to lets score points yet we couldnt execute that strategy and essentially were terrible on both sides of the ball.
And our season is worse then the ladder suggests imo…our 2 wins were the Knights game which could have gone either way and the Tigers win was a nothing more than a miracle
We play Sharks this Thursday at Shark Park and they will be no pushovers.
Where do we go from here?
Mansour looks like he has just signed a 10 year contract and wants to avoid any sort of effort or contact.
RCG is worse, cannot remember his last break or last forward he actually hurt and the penalty rate from him is terrible.
Maloney is a mixed blessing and sure he can be creative but can be be destructive as well but in the halves defence if the forwards aren’t controlling the play by their effort its hard for the backs to get the room to weave magic.
Whare is out of his depth but is saved by the fact we don’t have another quality centre in the club and i would have been thinking of moving Yeo there but he has now picked up a long term injury
Can Cleary change what is happening…that is the question and the mark of a great coach.
I personally doubt he would ever be a great coach and maybe is one of those guys who just does enough to be a NRL coach as opposed to being a lower grade coach. We will see.
With the Yeo injury i would now draw a line in the sand with this mockery of 6 Captains…appoint 1 and live and die by that choice but at least from a Coaching perspective its a decision and maybe this divestment of responsibility with so many Captains has diluted the authority of a Captain and the leadership role both in a victory and in a defeat.
I just see no one taking any ownership of our form…sure they are saying the right things to the media but the right things are not happening in a game.
For the last few years under Hook we played harlem football, sure we leaked some points but boy could we score some
Now we are leaking points and lack the ability to score them at a rate required because we are devoid of options.
I do note we have gone back to the midfield bombs which were a hallmark of the previous Cleary era…and appears all we have.
No sweeping backline moves, now magical set plays, NO power running by forwards at forwards to break down defences.
At face value where we sit today…signing Cleary to keep Cleary seems like a good idea which has badly backfired.
Only 1 person who can change that perception…lets see what Cleary the coach does this week.
On the bright side September is looking free at the moment.
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Noticed today that Tim Grant was rested from todays game. Might have to do with the short turn around for next week’s game against Cronulla.
I expect he will be named in the starting squad on Tuesday.
watched the reserve grade yesterday. Not much to get excited about there. The played just like 1st grade - errors, penalties, poor options & poor defence, and got lapped by a team that gave up 50 last week.
I fear there is a serious issue within our club. Good players are playing badly & possible options are not playing any better.
Only way is up!
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Certainly not the case. The Magpies had 3 players with almost 500 games experience dropped in at last notice.
- David Nofoaluma (105 NRL Games)
- Chris McQueen (158 NRL Games)
- Elijah Taylor (160 NRL Games)
Their squad was heavily stacked and all three of them contributed greatly to the win. Tim Grant was a late scratching for the Panthers, we had Luai backing up and we are drawing heavily from this squad for first grade. That’s before you even mention the Brent Naden sin binning.
I agree there were plenty of errors and penalties in that Canterbury Cup game, but it has not been reflective of their season thus far.
I think you are grasping at straws Steve. OK, it was not the exactly same team as last week for Maggies, with some old stagers playing for them, but we were poor, and on that display I don’t see a single player knocking down the door for 1st grade. The way our guys played, looked very similar to how 1st grade are playing - errors, ill-discipline, poor defence, lack of option in attack. The magpies #6 must have had redbacks on him.
All that said, my comment was not to knock our players themselves, just to point out that the way the played, looked very similar to how the big boys are playing.
Hoping for a big improvement all round.
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this is a question which i keep asking myself more broadly …and goes to some questions about dropping players.
For a club which has reputedly the largest junior league in the world…we sure have a dearth of great talent knocking on the door of first grade
For example who would be a first choice centre if Blake or Whare get hurt?
Indeed one could argue we have been “burdened” by some lengthy contracts like Whare and a few others.
Isaiah Yeo would’ve got the nod but he’s currently injured.
I made the suggestion we were light on for centres before Xmas.
You are right, development seems to have hit a snag don’t it.
Yet we bring in the likes of Winterstein. What’s goin on?
Do you think we have salary cap issues even after May and
his winger mate have hit the skids?
Haven’t watched the game yet, too scared after missing it Fri night lol, but have been told by many how bad we were.
This is simply an attitude issue, that stems from bigger issues within the organisation. If our chiefs cannot find and fix the problem, we are in for a world of pain this year! 
At the moment, most likely Malakai Watene-Zelezniak, Brent Naden or Brian Too
Folau imminently available. 
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That is if he is happy to earn The “Tyrone” wages lol
i believe your alternates proves my point…MWZ is let’sface it not a first grader, Naden has had more starts than anyone and Too is a winger and untested at NRL level.
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