Official match day thread: Roosters v Saints

[Jacks Fur Coat]

2025 and still blaming Dom Young’s deficiencies on a guy that’s in Japan.

Your missing the point, the King was talking about last year when your "guy" was not in Japan.

[SamKerrSimp]

Nope Dom is Good - at the Knights 43 tries in 51 games - 80% tackle efficiency too

You can see why Coach Robinson wanted him - but what does he know

Best tries from Dom Young’s historic 2023 NRL season: 2023 Highlight Reel | NRL on Nine

Some of the "duds" tries for England in the last World Cup in 2022 - 11 tests for England and 18 tries - yeh must be a "dud" to play International Football

Every Dom Young Try at the RLWC2021 - played in 2022

Who cares what Young's tackle efficiency is when all his lazy arm grabs that miss completely and running out of the defence and missing his man aren't counted in those numbers. He makes 80% of the 3 tackles a game he makes, big deal.

Another ZERO EFFS GIVEN is for the tries scored in the world cup, he scored 4 tries in a game against the might of Greece sign him up Robbo! You know how many he scored against Samoa in the semi final? A big fat ZERO, but let's have a look at the highlights of that game shall we?

First two tries England concede we get Young's famous impression of a witches hat in defence and the 4th try is off Young's customary move running off his line and missing the ball carrier leaving an overlap that the opposition take advantage of. England lost in golden point, pick any of those tries that cost England the game. Also note that not a single English try saw him involved in any meaningful way in the build up and they all went left except for the little kick that went nowhere near the wing.

Don't give me this BS of his try scoring tallies when the above counteracts every try he scores which is only ever finishing off a play anyway.

[Rooster_6]

You’re missing the point, the King was talking about last year when your "guy" was not in Japan.

You’re missing the point, we’re in a 2025 pre-season game thread, if ‘my guy’ was to be blamed then why did we just witness the same issues again?

[Jacks Fur Coat]

You’re missing the point, we’re in a 2025 pre-season game thread, if ‘my guy’ was to be blamed then why did we just witness the same issues again?

I understand the threads topic, but you replied to his comment that was reviewing 2024, with references to 2025. We'll move to your point then - it's only one trial game, patience grasshopper. He's obviously coached to come in, but his execution isn't the greatest granted. But he's still 'relatively' new to the game and has scope for improvement.

[Inflictor]

Harsh on Whyte for that try IMO, Leniu gets caught overchasing which is caused by Va'a not pushing up into the line and getting caught on his heels. That is never Whyte's tackle to make. Sure some of your elite defenders there might be making a cover tackle but not your primary yardage carrier.

Can you show me the images/video of Flanno's try and explain to me why Whyte had nothing to do with letting the try in?
Maybe also show me the 3-4 similar efforts last year and why he wasn't to blame there either.

[Rooster_6]

I understand the threads topic, but you replied to his comment that was reviewing 2024, with references to 2025. We'll move to your point then - it's only one trial game, patience grasshopper. He's obviously coached to come in, but his execution isn't the greatest granted. But he's still 'relatively' new to the game and has scope for improvement.

I never said he didn't have scope to improve but I don't believe for a second anyone coached him to make the defensive decisions that he made last night, no one is suggesting he should jam in on a 3 on 3 situation, that's rugby league 101.

My concern is there's a pattern of behavior, you say it's one trial. I say it's been his whole career. If he could fix his defence I think there's an argument to be made to overlook other parts of his game where he struggles such as yardage and decision making in attack given his athleticism but combined together he's just too much of a liability as it stands for me.

[Rooster_6]

Can you show me the images/video of Flanno's try and explain to me why Whyte had nothing to do with letting the try in?
Maybe also show me the 3-4 similar efforts last year and why he wasn't to blame there either.

And I was critical of those missed tackles that he made last year that lead directly to tries, I made multiple posts at the time. In fact I used it as the reason as to why I thought Robinson had been resistant to give him more game time when plenty on here wanted to see him play more.

My concern in that play is Va'a gets caught well behind the line, trying to take a play off which is just part and parcel of his development. Those kind of errors at this level will rarely go unpunished.


Cook plays out the back to his first receiver on a hitup shape, Whyte marks his man who is DeBellin who runs the hitup decoy in this case, you can see the space Spencer is going to be worried about on his outside because Va'a hasn't pushed up into the line. Emre Guler the 10 is going to run and unders line back at Whyte who needs to peel of DeBellin and pick up Guler.




You can see Whyte now has eyes on Guler, Spencer has shifted too far to his left because he's concerned about that space on his outside shoulder (over chased) as Va'a still hasn't made it into the line which means the spacing between him and Whyte is too big and simple dummy brings them undone.




Now a Radley, Collins or a Butcher in Whyte's position below is probably making an attempted cover tackle in that position... not sure if they're going to make it because that's a lot of space to cover (TV is deceptive) so you could argue you want more from Whyte but reality is if you're going to carry a big forward like that they're just not going to be making those kind of cover tackles. The root cause of the try and the easy fix was Va'a not moving up into the line. Spacing of your middle forwards in defence is just too crucial if you're going to carry big forwards, otherwise you're asking too much of them.

[King Salvo]

Domenic Elliot Young

Not sure why people have nit pick to find even the most minor flaw in a players game. - As Big Jack Gibson often said "you don't have time for a committee meeting out there "

As I have said previously many a time Dom only started playing league at 16 and has come a long way in 7 years one has to say.

It's not like here in Australia when kids start playing at 7 or so and when in their early teens can be signed by a club and enter a clubs academy and then onto junior reps receiving all the training and development under the sun - then onto senior reps and NRL/NRLW if good enough.

A long apprenticeship for a player is be NRL ready and even to be NRLW ready nowadays as the Roosters also have Female Academies for 14/15/16 year olds ( Sydney Roosters and Central Coast Roosters) along with Junior reps-Senior Reps.

Dom achieved that feat of playing NRL in 4 years despite his late start to the game - played 6 NRL games in 2021 - at 19-20 Later that year-2 ESL games at 17 and 18 ( 2019/2020) - Quite an achievement for an apparent "dud" - ESL/NRL/International/Test Footy for England.

Stills

It doesn't show clearly if Robert Toia was in the Right Centre D position or was coming across in D on this play - If Toia was in the Right Centre D Position then he was either slow to move up and or to react as he is clearly behind both the inside and outside defenders giving the Dragons centre that extra time

It's a problem with the Roosters 20 / goal line defence - this watch and wait - backpaddle - slide - instead of up and in your face as Penrith are famous for - you need to decrease the time your opponents has not give them extra time.

Dom took the initiative to shut down the play seeing the potential danger - It won't always work of course - damned if you do and damned if you don't

Did the Dragons score though - No - They scored not long later when Flanagan dummied his way through some very ordinary goal line defence to say the least.

[Rooster_6]

Domenic Elliot Young

Not sure why people have nit pick to find even the most minor flaw in a players game. - As Big Jack Gibson often said "you don't have time for a committee meeting out there "

As I have said previously many a time Dom only started playing league at 16 and has come a long way in 7 years one has to say.

It's not like here in Australia when kids start playing at 7 or so and when in their early teens can be signed by a club and enter a clubs academy and then onto junior reps receiving all the training and development under the sun - then onto senior reps and NRL/NRLW if good enough.

A long apprenticeship for a player is be NRL ready and even to be NRLW ready nowadays as the Roosters also have Female Academies for 14/15/16 year olds ( Sydney Roosters and Central Coast Roosters) along with Junior reps-Senior Reps.

Dom achieved that feat of playing NRL in 4 years despite his late start to the game - played 6 NRL games in 2021 - at 19-20 Later that year-2 ESL games at 17 and 18 ( 2019/2020) - Quite an achievement for an apparent "dud" - ESL/NRL/International/Test Footy for England.

Stills

It doesn't show clearly if Robert Toia was in the Right Centre D position or was coming across in D on this play - If Toia was in the Right Centre D Position then he was either slow to move up and or to react as he is clearly behind both the inside and outside defenders giving the Dragons centre that extra time

It's a problem with the Roosters 20 / goal line defence - this watch and wait - backpaddle - slide - instead of up and in your face as Penrith are famous for - you need to decrease the time your opponents has not give them extra time.

Dom took the initiative to shut down the play seeing the potential danger - It won't always work of course - damned if you do and damned if you don't

Did the Dragons score though - No - They scored not long later when Flanagan dummied his way through some very ordinary goal line defence to say the least.

Robert Toia made the one on one tackle, there was nothing wrong with his positioning. Young needs to trust his inside man.

[Inflictor]

Rooster_6 play the whole video. The last two shots shows Whyte hardly made an inch from when Flanno got the ball to when he passed him. Thinks Leniu has him and makes no attempt to help out. Va'a might have made an error but Whyte had the opportunity to make a much better effort. Although this was a trial and the 1% are not always there he did the same thing 3 or 4 times last year in our quarter. He floats. They come to him he is ok but frequently makes little effort to close a gap. Too much emphasis is put on his attack which is great but FM he needs to improve his defence and I can't see it happening the way he's gone the last couple of years.
We'll agree to disagree on this one.

[Bates]

Dom tends to ball watch and is easily pulled out of shape. He needs to count the numbers and trust his inside man. The above image is a perfect example! 3 on 3 and he jams in on Holmes when we had the numbers to defuse the threat.

They should be doing these defensive drills countless times with a number of different scenarios until it sinks in and becomes instinctive. Eg. 3 on 3. 3 on 2. 3 on 1. There's a set defensive shape for all these scenarios which will increase your likely hood of the desired outcome. It's not Rocket science but Young is having trouble comprehending it.

[Rooster_6]

Rooster_6 play the whole video. The last two shots shows Whyte hardly made an inch from when Flanno got the ball to when he passed him. Thinks Leniu has him and makes no attempt to help out. Va'a might have made an error but Whyte had the opportunity to make a much better effort. Although this was a trial and the 1% are not always there he did the same thing 3 or 4 times last year in our quarter. He floats. They come to him he is ok but frequently makes little effort to close a gap. Too much emphasis is put on his attack which is great but FM he needs to improve his defence and I can't see it happening the way he's gone the last couple of years.
We'll agree to disagree on this one.

Va’a “Might’ve” made an error?

Come on.. I can respect your take on wanting more from Whyte even though I’ll agree to disagree but to pretend Va’a only might’ve made an error when he’s clearly clocked off on the play lacks consistency in your expectations.

[King Salvo]

Who cares what Young's tackle efficiency is when all his lazy arm grabs that miss completely and running out of the defence and missing his man aren't counted in those numbers. He makes 80% of the 3 tackles a game he makes, big deal.

Another ZERO EFFS GIVEN is for the tries scored in the world cup, he scored 4 tries in a game against the might of Greece sign him up Robbo! You know how many he scored against Samoa in the semi final? A big fat ZERO, but let's have a look at the highlights of that game shall we?

First two tries England concede we get Young's famous impression of a witches hat in defence and the 4th try is off Young's customary move running off his line and missing the ball carrier leaving an overlap that the opposition take advantage of. England lost in golden point, pick any of those tries that cost England the game. Also note that not a single English try saw him involved in any meaningful way in the build up and they all went left except for the little kick that went nowhere near the wing.

Don't give me this BS of his try scoring tallies when the above counteracts every try he scores which is only ever finishing off a play anyway.

Same as your Kerr then just finishing of a play in scoring a goal after being passed the ball - no big deal

Nope first two tries Dom was staying on his wing and marking the opposition winger which some folk on here are critical of him not doing - Dom can't win either way it seems - 4th try as anyone can see Dom was up against 3 opposition players - mmm were the other defenders to leave Dom marking 3 - made a decision to close down the play which I said sometimes doesn't work but damned if you do and damned of you don't - the covering defence was too late to stop the try in any case .

Tell us all what would you would do if marking 3 opposition players then as Dom was?

Coach Robinson had been keeping a close eye on Dom and fortunate for the Roosters Mrs Robbo's French dinner won him over as Sam Burgess had him as a Souths Signing.

Dom is Good

[Bates]

Domenic Elliot Young

Not sure why people have nit pick to find even the most minor flaw in a players game. - As Big Jack Gibson often said "you don't have time for a committee meeting out there "

As I have said previously many a time Dom only started playing league at 16 and has come a long way in 7 years one has to say.

It's not like here in Australia when kids start playing at 7 or so and when in their early teens can be signed by a club and enter a clubs academy and then onto junior reps receiving all the training and development under the sun - then onto senior reps and NRL/NRLW if good enough.

A long apprenticeship for a player is be NRL ready and even to be NRLW ready nowadays as the Roosters also have Female Academies for 14/15/16 year olds ( Sydney Roosters and Central Coast Roosters) along with Junior reps-Senior Reps.

Dom achieved that feat of playing NRL in 4 years despite his late start to the game - played 6 NRL games in 2021 - at 19-20 Later that year-2 ESL games at 17 and 18 ( 2019/2020) - Quite an achievement for an apparent "dud" - ESL/NRL/International/Test Footy for England.

Stills

It doesn't show clearly if Robert Toia was in the Right Centre D position or was coming across in D on this play - If Toia was in the Right Centre D Position then he was either slow to move up and or to react as he is clearly behind both the inside and outside defenders giving the Dragons centre that extra time

It's a problem with the Roosters 20 / goal line defence - this watch and wait - backpaddle - slide - instead of up and in your face as Penrith are famous for - you need to decrease the time your opponents has not give them extra time.

Dom took the initiative to shut down the play seeing the potential danger - It won't always work of course - damned if you do and damned if you don't

Did the Dragons score though - No - They scored not long later when Flanagan dummied his way through some very ordinary goal line defence to say the least.

Toia's alignments are spot on!

Holmes attacks the ball with speed which makes Young panic. Dom then jams in which creates an overlap. Blind Freddy can see it. It's clear as day in the image above!

[SamKerrSimp]

This guy just will not ever admit to being wrong, by the time Luai puts Lafai over to score it's a 2 on 1 overlap because Young is on the ground 15m away instead of sliding he's literally an English SKD