Trent Robinson interview - SEN

[Bondicigar]

Think it's pretty clear now that Robinson wants to move back to that power running game from his forwards.

More typical of the forwards like Moa, Taukeiaho, Liu, Hargreaves & Cordner.

Not much else works , so that makes total sense

[ChookMaster]

I don't think the situation is perplexing at all, it seems pretty straight forward to me. You might disagree with the decision but to me there is a clear and very explainable rationale. Robinson wants to move back to a power running game and May doesn't fit that style so he's moved him on and will instead invest those minutes into players who more naturally fit the style he wants his forward pack to play.

I was critical of Robinson for not getting the balance right with his spine this year so I think in terms of roster management this is a step back in the right direction, there's a strong consideration around balance and cohesion.

I'm excited to see us returning back to a power running forward pack and backing strong defensive based players like Robson. It concerned me when our ethos was to recruit on attacking ability first which was confirmed by Robinson in a previous interview early this year or last year.

I think we all agreed that something needed to change if we want to compete with the elite sides so I'm not perplexed and personally having given it consideration I'm optimistic we are heading in a better direction even if we might not see the fruits of that for another 18months.

I don’t understand this excitement about the power running game. From my understanding, we’ve played this style of a long time under robbo and thought this year was our only real change in attack. We’ve adopted this power game before but if we don’t have the cattle to make this tactic effective we’re easy pickings for the opposition.

[King Salvo]

The squad is not just about now it's the future as well.

I have high hopes for the Va'a brothers coming through to NRL - if they did they may not get the game time they deserve if the established prop rotation of Collins/ Leniu / May and Whyte are available and all playing well - 1 or both could leave for more game time elsewhere.

If Walker and Sandon Smith nail down their spots as the halves combo - Where would you play Jake Elliot and Toby Rodwell when they are NRL ready - Of course no guarantee Walker and Sandon Smith will always extend so you need a plan B of having ready made replacements for that possibility including not resigning or moving on a player.

Blake Steep get's his chance as well in NRL as a top 30 player - If they retained Sitili it would be hard to see Blake hanging around if more game time is on offer elsewhere

[mightyrooster]

The squad is not just about now it's the future as well.

I have high hopes for the Va'a brothers coming through to NRL - if they did they may not get the game time they deserve if the established prop rotation of Collins/ Leniu / May and Whyte are available and all playing well - 1 or both could leave for more game time elsewhere.

If Walker and Sandon Smith nail down their spots as the halves combo - Where would you play Jake Elliot and Toby Rodwell when they are NRL ready - Of course no guarantee Walker and Sandon Smith will always extend so you need a plan B of having ready made replacements for that possibility including not resigning or moving on a player.

Blake Steep get's his chance as well in NRL as a top 30 player - If they retained Sitili it would be hard to see Blake hanging around if more game time is on offer elsewhere

Agree Salvo. It’s about the big picture and forward planning. From all reports the Va’a brothers have what it takes to be a success at NRL level and have potentially more upshot than T May.

[King Salvo]

Robbo is obviously not going to air his dirty laundry in public but it sounds pretty pathetic saying that May doesn’t fit our style. I guess he has to say something to justify letting him go. I think I’d prefer if he said we had to let him go, but I cannot reveal the reasons.

You like the big players though - May is rather small as far as a prop goes - 183 cm and 108 kg's.

Maybe having two smallish props was 1 too many for the style of game Coach Robinson want's the team to play - see below

• Whyte - 192 cm - 108 kg's
• Collins - 194 cm and 108 kgs
• Leniu - 183 and 110 kgs
• Wong - 190 and 108 kgs
• De La Salle Va'a - 198 cm and 117kgs
• Xavier Va'a - 193 cm and 116 kg's

[Thirteen]

You like the big players though - May is rather small as far as a prop goes - 183 cm and 108 kg's.

Maybe having two smallish props was 1 too many for the style of game Coach Robinson want's the team to play - see below

• Whyte - 192 cm - 108 kg's
• Collins - 194 cm and 108 kgs
• Leniu - 183 and 110 kgs
• Wong - 190 and 108 kgs
• De La Salle Va'a - 198 cm and 117kgs
• Xavier Va'a - 193 cm and 116 kg's

Yes I like big players. No matter his size May was effective. The game is so quick now that mobility for a forward is a big factor. I don’t like tiny halves.

[The Brain]

Power is the direction ..just ask Penriff

[ism22]

You like the big players though - May is rather small as far as a prop goes - 183 cm and 108 kg's.

Maybe having two smallish props was 1 too many for the style of game Coach Robinson want's the team to play - see below

• Whyte - 192 cm - 108 kg's
• Collins - 194 cm and 108 kgs
• Leniu - 183 and 110 kgs
• Wong - 190 and 108 kgs
• De La Salle Va'a - 198 cm and 117kgs
• Xavier Va'a - 193 cm and 116 kg's

May is 193cm, not 183cm. It's Taylan who's 183cm...

IMO a call has been made that we have too many big boppers who go hard in short bursts but aren't all that good at defence and go missing when you ask them to play more than 40-60 mins.

Brandon Smith kinda fits that mould too. 'Hectic' ball running in short bursts but can't provide 80 minutes of defence + clean service the whole time.

I suspect that across the park we had too many hectic ball runners and not enough defenders / support players. As such, we got a bit muddle-headed and couldn't give everybody their 'fair' share of ball.

IMO May, Leniu and Va'a were 3 large, impact forwards. We're backing more mobile forwards like Wong, Steep, Watson, Radley, Crichton, Collins and Whyte to play bigger minutes so that we're not using up all of our interchanges by subbing out guys who just wanna do 20 minute bursts (who are handy but you only need 1-2 of them).

[King Salvo]

May is 193cm, not 183cm. It's Taylan who's 183cm...

Not according to this

https://www.zerotackle.com/players/terrell-may/

[Easts75]

Until he can somehow figure out how to be competitive with the Storm and the Panthers I have zero interest in what Robbo says....I'd prefer to see results.

Absolute dribble regarding May. We have no one in our squad who offers what May does or plays the minutes he can. Mind boggling decision but just add that to our embarrassing retention and recruitment over the last few years

FFS Dane Gagai said 'nah,I'm good thanks'

[mightyrooster]

Riff and Storm play the slow patient game. Well Panthers moreso. The key is to have forwards that run hard and make big metres where they can then control field position and wear down the opposition. May did not show this in his game. He would plod into the line slowly, turn his back to the defence and look for the offload. We need to control the middle and dominate field position.

[Rooster_6]

It’s a balancing act and I agree the spine was off but this has nothing to do with May with the spine! Collins isn’t a power runner either! If you go to far the other way and try and have to many Spencer’s you get guys gassed after 15 min! Our front row will be very weak around origin time with only Whyte there and maybe young Vaa bros or butchers
my other thoughts are how do we have no $ to buy anyone?
spencer and Whyte are not defensively strong either at times

we had plenty of well highly paid players who underperformed last year and didn’t step up when required - so I just find it hard to call out one first year first grader on minimal money who plays different to others and many here believe was our best front rower this year

jwh wasn’t on the field, Collins got smashed and Leniu was gassed after 4 runs

but anyway feeling 2025 maybe the year of blooding a few new guys then going all in for 2026 with a similar side plus a recruit or two like Robson who is a step in the right direction for sure

Yes balance is the key, you can't just run with a full blown pack of power running forwards. Even at our peak we still had Mitch Aubusson and Jake Friend doing a lot of the dirty work off the ball. Those who have been on here long enough will remember the beating these two used to cop so it almost feels like a right of passage for Collins and Nat..

For this reason there will always be a role for players like Collins, Robson and Nat Butcher to play. But none of these players will get in the way of the style we want to play, they will just go about their work where as TMay is a 15+ carry per game prop forward and will by default have a significant say in the way the side plays.

[Rooster_6]

Totally agree R6. Those stats you brought up the other week about his average run metre gain are pretty damning. To be fair they would bump up slightly if you counted metres made after an offload. But he was clearly always a one-pace prop. His tackle efficiency is really high because he has such a big engine and is a naturally strong guy. One thing I noticed at the back end of the year and in particular when he played for Samoa was that on a few line breaks he would be the one at fault and wouldn’t even lay a hand on the runner. That doesn’t go down as even an ineffective tackle yet is so meaningful to the result. That’s the drawback of middles that are one-paced like that. They sometimes don’t have the acceleration when they really need it.

If he doesn’t suit the playing style then why would you carry him for 2025 as a prop who would chew up big minutes in turn restricting the minutes of Whyte, Wong, Steep, both Va’a boys who all have more punch and explosiveness than May does. He obviously sees them as the future and the more of them that we can get to crossing the 50 game mark in 2026 then the better our chances will be that year. Everyone on here would be livid if those boys showed more promise this year and then left the club because their path was blocked.

May works for the Tigers because they have no other decent props. Klemmer is a plodder, as is Twal. Seyfarth is decent but would probably not make our bench. Pole is probably their only middle with any impact. Of course he’s going to do well at the Tigers. But he’d have to change the type of player he is for me to be disappointed by his release in a year’s time.

I think offloading is a really interesting facet of the modern day game and I'm not sure there's any side who's been able to build a successful game plan on the back of being a high offload team.

In theory an effective offload should act like an extra tackle but from what I've had explained to me by people much closer and intelligent on the game there is no statistical evidence that suggests theres any benefit to the attacking side who throws an effective offload such as a noticeable increase in yardage or points scored on offload sets vs non-offload sets. Typically it's more often an outcome of the physical dominance of one side and therefore often mistakenly drawn as correlation for a successful style of play than a causation.

A good power running game is as much about the powerful running as it is the high tempo of a set and the theory is that an offload creates unstructured play which typically slows down the tempo of a set as the team is not set in structure to play fast.

I think Whytes defence was much worse than Mays so I don't think that played much of a role but you are right both had some very clean misses last year where they just didn't show up in spots they should've.

[King Salvo]

Until he can somehow figure out how to be competitive with the Storm and the Panthers I have zero interest in what Robbo says....I'd prefer to see results.

Absolute dribble regarding May. We have no one in our squad who offers what May does or plays the minutes he can. Mind boggling decision but just add that to our embarrassing retention and recruitment over the last few years

FFS Dane Gagai said 'nah,I'm good thanks'

You mean the Panthers - Storm were no match for the Panthers in the GF who didn't need to get out of second or third gear to beat them - Only the Storms defence kept the score board close. -People lump Strom in with Penrith in being at the same level but there is also a gap between Penrith and Storm

Have to wait and see as I rate the Va'a brothers and Blake Steep to make their marks in the NRL - Whyte and Wong to get more game time and be regulars in the 17 and maybe the run on 13? - Wong was playing prop in NSW Cup and racking up big metres and minutdes so not sure if he will continue in this role or not.

Round 1

Starting Forwards

Collins
Watson
Leniu
Crichton
Radley
Whyte

Interchange from

Moriarty - Dummy Half
Wong - Prop/Second Row
Nat Butcher - Second Row/Lock - possibly prop if required
Egan Butcher - Second Row
De La Salle Va'a - Prop
Xavuer Va'a - Prop
Steep - Second Row/Lock
Foketi - Second Row

[Bondicigar]

Are we trying to reinvent the wheel?
Now Robbo wants powerful running forwards.
genius