NSWCUP Penrith Panthers v Canterbury Bulldogs 29/8 2:00pm1 JFLEGG Penrith Panthers v Canterbury Bulldogs 29/8 12:00pm1 WNSWP Penrith Panthers v Cronulla Sharks 29/8 4:00pm1
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Channel 9 (Channel 90 HD / 91 SD) [LIVE] Fox League (Channel 502) [LIVE] Kayo Sports[LIVE] NRL Live Pass[LIVE] ABC Sydney 702AM [LIVE] 2GB Sydney 873AM [LIVE]
(1) NSW Cup, Jersey Flegg Cup & Women’s NSW Premiershipto be played
IC has gone with Cole. He doesn’t often get it wrong, so I’ll go with Ivan.
Watched much of the Cup game last weekend & Talagi didn’t do much to push his case, particularly in defence. Although the last quarter was played in darkness - what a joke!
A bit down on our best squad, we need a good performance across the park & from the bench. The dogs will be desperate with their season on the line.
The equation remains the same - win our last 2, and then 3 more wins to get the prize.
I have my own thoughts about Talagi vs Cole. But I haven’t coached 4 premierships in a row. So, my thoughts are probably not worth s**t. In Ivan we trust.
Starting to think in the absence of Cogger, Ivan just wants a semi-reliable body to not be an exploitable defensive weakness, and let Cleary play and Edwards to step up
I think we should be clear here, it’s not Blaze’s defense as such, he will always put his body on the line, he is one of the hardest hitting 5/8’s in the game when he gets it right 1 on 1. The problem is, and this would be IC problem with him, is his defensive reads are woeful which impacts the team structure. I’ve said it before, he is too energetic which causes him to rush and make rash decisions, in time he will slow and the game will be easy for him, but now…O’h Dear !
These are all personal opinions, but I said in another post/thread that Cogger also has a tendency to rush up and put a hit on, just as much if not more than Blaize. Case in point: he’s on the sidelines for 3 weeks as a result of going high in said rush. Coggs also misses a lot of tackles. The difference though is the impact to the defensive structure is not as obvious or significant. His misses still often impact the opposition, slowing them down and allowing cover to arrive.
You are right though, Blaize’s reads are problematic and has an impact on the structure. That is what Joey (i think?) was quite critical off a few weeks ago in a video breakdown.
I also agree with you on the rush and rash decisions, you can see that in attack too. There’s been more than 1 instance in recent months where we needed steady pressure and Blaize pushes a pass direct to the opposition defence. It does look like he needs to slow down with those.
At the start of the season I tipped Blaze to have a blinder of a year, expecting a full pre-season with NC would bring out the elite player. Unfortunately, he hasn’t recognized what the importance of structure is in the team environment.
At the end of the day he turned 21 at the start of this year. He came to the panthers aged 19? He’s young and (hopefully) has a lot of growth and improvement in him. We need to temper expectations at such ages, let them ply their trade in cup and gain that maturity and experience. I always feel a bit uncertain about the next big thing, because maturity and application plays arguable an even bigger part.
The other item with such a young talent is the impact of hype and ego. Th Not saying this is Blaize though. Unfortunately we’ve had some misfires with Cole and Trent in recent years who wasn’t able to go on and step up.
I’d argue we have a number of players who are very good at the craft due to hard work and application, rather than some bucket of talent.
We’re seeing a number of clubs chop and change players in the halves throughout the season. Bears + PNG + NZ#2 (?) doesn’t help that either; we’re drawing further into the player pool and need to ensure pathways are available and broadened to keep the talent high in the NRL. Otherwise we’re (generally across the NRL) going to be tapping further into youngsters before they would otherwise be ready.
Unfortunately for Blaize though, contract negotiations weren’t underway a month or two ago and his position has gone multiple steps backwards since then. Now Coach IC is very reserved on talking about Blaize, so if I was to make a guess, it’s that we won’t see an extension.
I agree with the sentiments of pass pushing and rushing… we are not good at it… and we shouldn’t be.
The game plan is simple. Keep composure, level headed, dominate field position and apply pressure. Points will flow form it. Trying to play catchup with 30 minutes left on the clock is a poor tactic and you can see teams that do it in the NRL rarely will chalk up a win.
I think that you’ve hit the nail on the head, Steve. The scumdogs have a good team on paper, more than adequate to win against us. We need to return to our strengths, as you alluded. Composure, no dumb passes, no fuckups in the play-the-ball, patience, no brain explosions (somebody go and hide Edwards’ angry pills). It’s worked for 7 years now, even with the NRL-driven ransacking of our talent pool. We saw it in the fist 30 minutes last week, and for much of the Rorters game. We live in hope.
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Kayo Sports [LIVE] 
NRL Live Pass [LIVE]
ABC Sydney 702AM [LIVE] 
Saturday 29/8 2:00pm
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