We were shocking and sadly Tigers are terrible and their 13 struggled to beat our 2…we only had 2 players who tried and played to their ability in Burton and JFH
The rest should hang their head in shame especially Crichton, Edwards and May who were just awful.
To make things worse we had the penalty count go our way and couldn’t even take advantage of the gifts they continued to give us
Hard to take a loss but even harder to take a loss when the team is so bad.
i liked Tago’s energy as well as Smith and Eisenhuth proved beyond any doubt to me he is a waste of space. Lenui held great hope but he runs sideways too much and spends more energy on the ground (wiggling) than he does running hard at the defence. That being said there were plenty in our squad who simply turned up and didn’t play.
Simply Ordinary Outcome
Alright, i tried to defend Eisenhuth - but now agree from now on he should be referred to as slug. Really thought we would have put up a better fight than that…
Disappointing but not unsurprising. Interestingly Burton looks a world beater in a good side but, going by last nights showing, I think he may struggle at the Bulldogs.
K.O.E NSW Cup | Full Time |
Penrith Panthers | 40 |
Tries Brendan Hands (2), Sunia Turuva, Thomas Jenkins, Niwhai Puru, Vito Tevaga, Ratu Luke Nadurutalo. Goals Kurt Falls (6/7) |
 |
Western Suburbs Magpies | 14 |
Tries Joseph Leilua, Allan Fitzgibbon, Kelma Tuilagi. Goals Jock Madden (1/3) |
PART 1: Redirecting... (Kickoff to 25th minute)
PART 2: Redirecting... (25th to 80th minute)
Due to a streaming issue by NSWRL TV this coverage comes in two parts.
The scumdogs are probably surprised that Burton is only a world-beater when he plays outside Cleary and Luai. Apart from his long kicks, I thought that he was, at best, average; poor grubbers, kicking a dropout out on the full, not finding the line with a relieving penalty, kicking the ball dead, etc.
Early in the season Crichton was in poor form at left centre. When moved to right centre (via FB) he was in great form, went to fullback and was pretty good. When Edwards returned, instead of being back at right centre, where he was killing it, Cleary put him back at left centre where he flopped again.See a pattern? Cleary can’t.- can somebody tell him?
he looked pretty good at LC in 2020, so I don’t think it’s quite that simple
I guess Fri night confirmed some things
I don’t know that any sport in the world, certainly any one that I would have any interest in would have the whole integrity/credibility impacted by having teams having to play competition matches with the best players not able to play.
We played poorly, the game was stop start, with some truly incredible rulings & the tigers played their GF & we could still have won. I can’t see that a single tigers player from Fri night would make our team, and they all will have booked their trip away for Sept.
I have been supportive of PVL, including his efforts to reduce concussion injuries thru illegal high tackles, but the referees & review committee & judiciary have lost the plot.
Fisher-Harris is the best forward in the game - bar none.
I keep coming back to this game as a few others have done but NRL is really a simple game in my opinion.
Forwards make the yards and the backs have the space and time to do their thing.
What we lacked in this game was any authority and go forward from our forwards.
The ONLY forward who did his role was JFH, the others mere either missing or looking for the “easy” yards and it just doesn’t happen.
Because we didn’t have any authority in the forwards our backs were forced into passing early, kicks in general play which were poor and a plethora of other poor choices like the Edwards kick into a defender for him to race 100m
Take out Leota, Yeo,Martin,Api and Capewell you have removed our authority.
Throw them back in for Friday night and we win convincingly in my view.
That being said i would have thought IC would have had our forwards engaged and up for the fight but Sorenson, Lenui, Eisenhuth proved beyond any doubt they are NOT starting forwards in their efforts and i believed some would have seen this as an opportunity to prove to the coach they are ready for a starting role.
Its easy to blame the backs but they had no time because we were not bending their defensive line and rattling their defence structures.
Its a concern we are so short in quality forwards, maybe short of 2 class forwards.
Agree on the poor ref calls but this is something we just have to work with.
All this being said its better to lose this game and reset the invincible mindset on such a long winning steak and give the coach the opportunity to bring a few back to earth about their efforts.
Its what we take out of this loss which is important for me to see in coming weeks, and i couldn’t care less where we finish in the 8, its what happens on GF day which counts
Hopefully this loss gives many a chance to reflect on a loss and what is required going forward.
We have to remind ourselves we had 8 missing and 7 through SOO selection, not injury or suspension and if you take 8 of your first squad at any club they would struggle and winning has become an expectation even for us fans.
Maybe it hurt more through poor execution we lost, and the “systems and processes” we believe were in place failed.
My view is some players failed and the Cronulla game now has much more importance to see what we learnt from the loss.
A league is currently playing without its best players, who are playing World Cup qualifiers at the moment. To be fair, Covid messed up the qualifying schedule & season though.
Other clubs have had, or still have, large gaps in their playing squad. When that is due to injury, it tends to happen progressively, and the team can adjust over time, gradually integrating replacements. Our problem was having 7 + 1 players removed in one go, and that is much harder to accommodate.
There is so much chatter in league circles about the high contact crackdown. But, seriously, it seemed to me that two of the early penalties against us were for finger contact that wouldn’t have wiped the vegemite from a kid’s mouth.
The forward passes seemed to go unnoticed or ignored, but the whole forward pass determination (which hinges on the principal of relative motion) is the basis for a whole discussion in itself.
One of the things that most surprised me was the Liddle try; I was absolutely confident that the “Forbes Ferrari” would run him down with room to spare, but he wasn’t within cooee. Is Staines carrying a hamstring injury, did he just give up or is he not so fast after all? Maybe we need to bring back Scott Sadler.
Just need to comment on the bunker ruling of no-try for us early in 2nd half. Seems tigers have found a way to defend a bomb without risking 6 again.
Defender moves into position to block chasers & makes no attempt to catch the ball. Any contact from chaser, the one actually making an attempt for the ball, is deemed interference on the blocker & a penalty.
Cost us the lead at that point & who knows what would have then happened.
Kikau’s left edge is just that. Do you think Crichton is cramped left side as a result of Kikau’s lines.
On that left edge i was surprised that Edwards never really got involved in any plays. Even something as simple as chasing in a kick, or contesting a mid field chip. The forwards werent going forward, but at the same time the Tigers gave away that many penalties - a lot of our guys didnt need to make metres.
Assuming API (as 18th man) doesnt play, he should back up on Friday. How many more players back up? maybe Martin as well from the bench? It wouldn’t surprise me if we’re still missing 5-6 players for that Sharks game.
Tyrone May should NEVER play half again, he was way to slow with his delivery. What I noted from the game was our edge forwards didn’t have any trust in our playmakers, it was a return to the ugly Luke Walsh days, passing metres before the line and making the ball carrier a sitting duck.
Refereeing… 
They have to enforce the rule of lay down your off for 3 minutes, Daine Laurie was an embarrassment to Rugby League and should have been sent to the bin for bringing the game into disrepute.
I was a bit surprised by the Penalty Try late in the game with Rob Jennings knocking the ball out and it being ruled a high tackle.
Firstly, it was clear he was trying to dislodge the ball (of which he did), at the position it was the only viable play left, and it was on the ground, I am amazed that it was even considered an high tackle.
Somebody on the panel on Fox League had made a good point, would that have been a penalty try on Round 1 of this season? I don’t think it would have.
I didn’t have a problem with it as such, the current rules suggest it was the correct decision.
My issue is, they are using the rules to suit themselves, Leilua layed down as did Laurie and 1 other, each one of them should have spent 3 minutes on the sideline at separate times. I wonder if they lay on the ground uninjured if they know they will be on the sideline for 3 minutes…it’s a long time to think about what the coach will say if a try is scored against you next set of 6 !
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