Against the Broncs they were brutal in defense for the first 15minutes or soā¦Radly going off broke their backs, they will be primed early, we need to give it to em.
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The other game that comes to mind is the magic round game against warriors last year. Should have been a walk in the park, but if you go into the game with that mentality, you can be punished.
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Teams and Match Officials have been updated.
TESLSTRA PREMIERSHIP TEAM
OPPOSITION TEAM
KNOCK ON EFFECT NSW CUP TEAM
JERSEY FLEGG TEAM
Updated NRL Team List
Panthers coach Ivan Cleary has updated his squad for the Round 2 clash against Sydney Roosters at CommBank Stadium on Friday night.
Liam Henry will play his first game of the season after recovering from a shoulder injury, replacing Isaiah Papaliāi, who has been ruled out.
Nothing short of 50 on them will do, letās be the catalyst for the Robbo sacking convos to start 
Gus Gould just walked past me at the stadium. Here to cheer on the chooks I guess.
Unfortunately this is what cruise control looks like. Hopefully Ivan will get them revved up in the second half.
A lot of basic errors in that first half. Hopefully we get them out of our game in the second half.
That was very ordinary. We wouldnāt have made that many errors in a game in over 10 years!!!
It looks like the team is still in Vegas.
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Not going to harp on to much about the whole game itself, rather just a few observations.
The āVegas Hangoverā is real.
The guys looked gassed very early into that game. I donāt feel that they had fully recovered from that trip. I think the impression people get is that they fly over there, play the game and go home. Though it canāt be further than the truth. The amount of appearance, PR and media commitment they have to do would exceed that of a regular season match.
I recalled last year that the four Vegas teams played each other in the second round (flipped of course). I mean that makes sense that all those side have the same level of fatigue, and it give them 3 weeks to recover rather than the 2 they got this year.
Combinations are going take time
We lost a fair bit of talent across the field. In the middle, in the forwards and on the edges. I fee the edges are goodā¦ Alamoti and McLean look good in their positions, though I wonder swapping Tago and Alamoti would be a good idea. The chemistry from Toāo and Alamoti last season lead to a lot opportunities down that side.
The forwards are going to take time. JFH was a big loss, and while Smith and Henry are very talented players, its going to take a little to get the mix right.
On the halves, Iām not sure Cole is the answer, but to be honest Iām not sure Talagi is either. Iām sure the wheat will seperate for the chaff eventually, but I feel the solution might be a little less orthodox, which Iāll touch on in my next point
Dane Laurie
My oh myā¦ what do we do with Dane Laurie? When he came on last night, there was a liftā¦ it started the drive towards the comebackā¦ I feel if time was on our side, we could have run the Roosters down. As much as I love Edwards, I did wish the made the decision to sideline him earlier last night, he was struggling. and I feel if Laurie was on the chase on that Roosters line break, he would have prevented that try.
What do we do with Laurie? He is too good to keep on the bench, so this lead me to what I think might need to happenā¦
It might be time for Ivan to sit down an have a discussion with Edwards about transitioning to Five-Eighth. I feel like this where Edwards next career step needs to be, much like Darren Lockyer. Then move Laurie into the Fullback position.
Iām not a coach, and Iām sure Ivan will make the right decisions, but I feel Laurie needs to be in the starting 17.
The bench were some of the best performers last night.
I thought the entire bench played well last night, there was a lot of reorganisation going on and a lot fo the Vegas starters were looking supremely gassed in the late stages.
But Liam Henry, Luke Garner, Matt Eisenhuth and Dane Laurie really shined last night, when injected they provided some stability to a very shaky team.
Commbank Stadium
My god that surface is horrible. Might need to pencil in some ankle injury prevention this season. Massive clumps coming from the ground and potholes galore. Iām not sure this is going to improve over the season.
I didnāt manage to make the game this week due to family commitments, but from talk on social media, there was some points of frictionā¦ from rail issues, to the price of concessions at the gameā¦ itās going to go some way in turning off crowdsā¦ I think they said the crowd was 12,000 and the crowd seems kind of sparse.
Hopefully this improves as the season moves on, but I not sure they will be getting the Sell Outs the club was getting at Penrith.
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There were some rail issues last night, and I know of a few people who didnāt go because of it.
I think the heat may have played a part, both with our crowd numbers, and the way we played the game.
Iāve seen people online bagging out Cole & Eisenhuth, saying they were the reasons we lost. Pretty sure they werenāt the only players to drop balls. Thought they were both reasonable, although not sure they they are anything more than stop gap measures at this stage.
Maybe it was the Vegas Hangover? Maybe it was thinking ahead to Melbourne next week? Maybe it was not paying the opposition enough respect? Maybe it was the heat? Maybe it was a combination of some or all of the above? Maybe it was something else all together?
Regardless, I think this will be the worst we play all year.
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Now having calmed back down and back to earth (and gods own country rather than Parramattaš), and having ranted about my game day experience (see the other thread), I can provide my comments on the game;
Missed the start, but belive we scored a soft try - did this play into our teams heads, thinking the Roosters were going to be a walk in the park? As I and others said before the match, beware the wounded roosters - they have had form in this regard over many years, regardless of the team names on paper.
We were missing our āattacking defenceā. It never appeared in the game. We played like the Tigers. Was it hangover from the grand final like buildup and game in Vegas, having the wrong mindset going into the game, the heat and humidity (which was quite oppressive).
Hard to judge individual performances, although a thought Kenny gave it his all in his usual no-nonsense way. We should have challenged his ālost ballā which was a very obvious strip.
Aside from Yeo, and to extent Martin (untill he was gassed) everyone else needed to douse themselves in WD40 rather than Lynx, such was the rust on display.
The roosters were certainly pushing the envelope with regards contact to players in the air, it happened l most every kick reception (I remember one on Edwards where they took his legs out while In the air), and another were our player was held back from competing. Only once did we get a penalty (which the challenged unsuccessful).
Cleary certainly was thinking the maths in the closing stages, his last goal however was a bit silly as he let the clock run down. Itās one thing to ātrust our systemā, and another to over believe the hype. I think he got that mix a bit wrong last night, and just needs to focus more on game management over the whole 80 minutes.
I am not too harsh on Cole myself, heās what 21? Played a handful of first grade games. His defence is ok, so has a good foundation to build on. Remember Cleary in his first season?
I think the reason the bench looked good had to do with the heat, humidity, and in Laurieās case coming on fresh against tired opposition. I wouldnāt be making any big changes, aside from maybe Papaliāhi in for Huth. I thought Huth went ok though. I agree the wings and centre combos need work, they appeared to be swapped for this game, itās kind of the weakness of having 4 players who can play both sides of the field.
In all, not too worried, itās only round 2. This game will likely be an exception rather the rule.
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I have one huge concern with this idea and itās something I see almost every game Edwards is not playing FB. It doesnāt matter if it was Laurie or Critter or Turuva.
Laurie came on relatively fresh to the game and when Roosters backline scored in the corner, Laurie was at FB casually jogging over to the sideline. He was a good 2 passes behind the ball.
A fit Edwards would have been sprinting to keep up with the ball and been a part of the tackle. Stop the try? We can never say with certainty in this particular instance, but I guarantee Edwards would have been there competing. History has shown time and time again he saves a lot of points.
But gee, last night was rough.
Iām not too phased yet. I think it was last season we reached about round 12 or so and I thought we were way too rusty and not improving enough to win the title.
Itās round 2, thereās plenty of time.
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If memory serves correctly, we originally recruited him as a young 5/8. Unfortunately for him the Cleary/Luai combination was already seriously good, even in the juniors, and his best way in was to make a fist of another position, which ended up being fullback.
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I think all of these. And the fact I put the mocker on us by going to the game on the bus. I have previously committed to never going on the supporters bus again after losing every time I take the bus. But for my own selfish convenience I took the bus and look what happened 
I actually was very nervous about the game. Whilst it seemed a W was there for the taking, I had a feeling that we would not be at our best, and that the chooks would play better than expected.
We werenāt very good against the gummies giving up a lot of points, and the pattern continued with so many errors and giving up way too many points this week. In the first half we held them to low metres on each set, which I think they planned for. Their plan was to put up short bombs from around the 40m, forcing our back 3 to come forward to take the kicks, and chase & cause as much pressure as they could - it worked with a number of errors. Unfortunately our defence this time was unable to work as we are used to & points were leaked.
The good news is that we have been pretty poor in the first 2 games, are 1-1, and whilst there are concerns expressed about our attack, we have scored enough points to win 3 games. We were terrible in many ways, but came within a foot of perhaps taking the game to golden point. We will get our defence in order and then we will see the familiar pattern return.
Onwards & upwards.
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Dylan Edwards is set to miss 2-3 weeks with a groin injury picked up in the clash with the Roosters.
Obvious replacement would be Dane Laurie.
as with SHF 
I saw alot of timing issues in our game. Although you appeared prepared, the training paddock is not the reality of the contest. Have faith that in time we (and SHF) will get to a point of comfortability and the game plan will flow as expected.
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Your memory is not failing you! In the off-season I watched a Flegg grand final from 2014 or 15. Cleary was fullback, Edwards 5/8 and May 1/2. Leota was at prop. Sonny Luke on the bench, Jerome not in the 17.
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