Tweet
Minichiello: Only played the first 25 mins before being replaced by RTS. Was very safe again against the high ball and picked up 2 very difficult grubbers. His returns were reasonable without being exciting. Actually stepped inside and beat Foran for his second return, you don’t see that often. Didn’t get in the way for backline movements.
Tupou: Very impressive player. Made one mistake bringing the ball out of our end the tackle after he did a crazy yet confident flick pass in front of our own posts to Oldfield for a kick return. Combined with Jennings brilliantly for his try, once he received a nice one hander from Jennings he brushed around the winger and powered over the fullback. A lot like one of his tries against the Tigers. Made some good 10+m runs coming out of our end, extra forward type stuff. Had enough pace to dive and catch a Mortimer cross field chip about 5 out from the line, which I believe was the play before the Jennings dummy half try.
Jennings: Only played 20 mins but that was all he needed to show what value he will be. Played off Mortimer for most of his time on the field. His footwork is excellent close to the line and to get metres out of DH. Defensively he was very good also. Lyon looked to have gotten around him from a scrum win but he kept pace with him and ended up getting him into touch. Also shut down DCE off the back of a break when they had numbers to the right.
Tuivasa-Sheck: Played the first 25 at right centre, coming in for runs off scrum wins. Used his footwork well but was actually very good in defence there. Was sliding very well to Matai, knew he had him for pace and was making some good legs tackles. Oldfield didn’t trust him once which caused a Ben Farrar break which was shut down by Maubs. Played 35 mins at fullback. His stepping is so good at times that teammates seem to get in the way, he had to surrender a couple of times when he’d created something to avoid an obstruction call. Wasn’t tested under the high ball much, but wasn’t caught out of position either which was good.
Oldfield: Made some decent runs in the middle but lapsed in defence for the Farrar break and dropped a beautiful two man Maloney cut out with no one in front of him. That was really his only opportunity to show his speed in attack and he missed it. Very fast to turn for kicks in defence which meant that we could cover the pass and the kick on the last. Speed on the flanks has allowed us to use these new defensive structures that we saw tonight.
Mortimer: Played well at 6 while Maloney was on the field but struggled at 7 imo. Also played hooker for the final 15 of the first half and made one clean break from DH up the middle only to lose the ball when he hit the ground. He will be very solid cover for Pearce when Origin comes around but you can tell he’s a 6 who knows his role within a good attacking structure. Still had some good moments though. Put a nice inside ball onto Liu’s chest for a clean break and would’ve scored in support but was held out with no penalty forthcoming. Put up some decent bombs that put pressure on. Was solid in defence and communicated well.
Maloney: He only played about 25 mins but it showed that his value will be immense. Organised some nice set plays with his second rowers running nice option angles. We ran a nice double block once which he probably should’ve gone out the back to Mini on but hit Maubs running a tough angle short who dropped it. He and Friend looked good together. Threw a beautiful cut out for Oldfield which was dropped cold. Sub-par kicking game unfortunately, expected a bit more here. Certainly look 1000% better with a 6 that can throw a deceptive ball and also has enough speed to take the line on.
Moa: Best on ground in his first 20 minute stint. Every hit up had ferocity and drive after he hit the line. Was not dominated in a tackle all night. Made at least 10m nearly every run. Put a few shots on in defence, really rattled the Manly halves. And came from nowhere to make a try saving cover tackle on Steve Matai. Actually I think he sprinted across from marker after Matai strolled inside Maubs off his left foot. Very impressive and he’ll without doubt get picked on the bench for the Souths game. He’s exactly what we need against their pack.
Friend: Played first 25 mins. Extremely lean now and seems to be benefiting. Took a short side run out of dummy half to create the Tupou try in the 4th minute. Didn’t take another short side run the whole he was on, simply because it didn’t really look on again, great to see he is now more selective with that play. Service was tight to his forwards, could’ve been called for a couple of forward passes tbh. Maloney seemed to have plenty of time inside the attacking 20 which indicates he was giving good service. Gave one penalty early (don’t know where this 5-0 penalty count thing is coming from) and defended well as usual. Kicked twice out of dummy half which was something I’d hoped he’d worked on. Both good kicks, especially the second one which he didn’t quite strike properly but would’ve been a 40/20 if he had’ve.
Kennedy: Only played 20 minutes. Also looks super lean. Made good metres per run and probably made about 7 hit ups in his time on the field. Was getting back behind the play earlier than he was last year and looked keen to run. Would’ve liked to see him get more time to improve his match fitness cos he looked a bit buggered as he was coming off.
Cordner: Again, only played about 25-30 minutes I think. Absolute weapon this kid, he’ll push for an Origin spot this year for sure. Perfect build for a backrower. Was excellent playing left edge. Always lands on his chest due to his footwork before the line and gets a quick PTB. Made a nice half break up the left.
Aubusson: Really disappointing. This was his chance to push for a spot round 1 with Guerra not playing. He fumbled at least twice in his 25 mins on the field and got stood up by a Matai left foot step (this was called back for a shepherd, but he still should have made the tackle). His runs were pretty ineffective, probably suffered a bit from no Pearce tonight. Did save a try with a nice cover tackle on Ben Farrar down the left, knocking the ball free as Farrar tried to put a kick in I think. Showed some good pace there, but overall he’d be annoyed with himself after that performance.
Nuuausala: Pretty neutral on FPN after tonight. He made at least one handling error, but his runs were pretty good I thought. One of them involved him running over the top of Watmough who went off with what looked like a rib complaint. Mortimer made his break from dummy half off FPN’s quick PTB after this run. Offloaded cleverly at least once, hitting the line hard then turning to offload to Friend which is what we want to see instead of him backing into the defence. He’ll be in the team round 1.
Seluini: Played about 55 mins. Created some pace out of dummy half which was good to see but his passing game was atrocious. Twice he passed balls to no one that had to be recovered out the back. He’ll really have to work on this more before the season starts, it just wasn’t first grade standard tonight.
Arona: Did his job as usual. Made on handling error from memory. Looks quick on his feet and has the fastest play-the-ball in the side but I don’t know that he offers enough.
Napa: Got about 35-40 mins. Had a red hot go pardon the pun. Didn’t shirk his work and was aggressive with his tackling, put a few hits on. Looks pretty mobile in the D line, good at shutting down offloads because of his height. Juggled once but didn’t drop the pill. Wouldn’t let anyone down if he got a run this year.
Siejka: Limited opportunities with ball in hand, but looked hard to handle. Very aggressive hitting the line and looks hard to put down like Guerra.
O’Sullivan: Came on at half-time. Limited involvement. Better in defence than I remember but then again the whole team was now that they’ve been taught how to communicate with each other in the line.
Liu: Got about 40 mins I think. Played great. Ran a great hole off a Mortimer inside ball and went downfield about 40 metres. On the 5th tackle of that set Mortimer put up a cross field bomb that was batted towards the posts in the in-goal, Liu ran through and athletically got a hand to it as it bounced awkwardly. Makes good metres each run really bends the line, has a nice hit and spin close to the line and has a hand free a lot tonight. He’s pretty much playing the same role as Arona does and in my opinion is a far brighter prospect.
Rokolati: Limited involvement. Defused a cross field kick in the in-goal, slid in as it bounced and took it dead. Perhaps unnecessary but was the safe play. Running is a bit predictable, across field to the right then off the left into the line.
Langi: Came on for Friend and played 6 with Mortimer shifting to 9. Super impressed by this guy. Only kicked once which was reasonable. But his running game was filled with aggression. So strong for an 18 year old. The Dogs will certainly rue the day they let this kid go. His try capped off a great game in which he showed good passing skills and ran excellent lines for good metres. He got his try hitting the ball second off the ruck from memory and putting a right and a big left foot step on to split defenders and showed great strength to power over. It was a dominant try from I think the youngest bloke on the field. He’ll be very close to playing in the first few weeks of the comp, especially if we get any backrow injuries. Great build. Not out of his depth whatsoever.
Wells: Came on for the last 20 minutes as fullback. Hardly got to run the ball but was very good directing the boys around in the line when we were defending our own line set after set towards the end. Was always in position to help out in the tackle, and probably saved a try with his positioning at one stage. Helped shut down a manly try in the corner with great cover defence. Shame we didn’t have the ball more while he was on cos he looks a natural fullback who knows the position very well imo. Sheck could learn a lot from him I think.
Ailaomai: Another very solid performance. Really wanted a try and got close a couple of times. Made good metres up the middle wedging behind the ruck better than any of the props tonight I thought. Looks to have a good motor and really bends the line. Another who does his job very well when asked.
Henry: One silly dropped ball trying to get a penalty I think. Made decent metres each run but really didn’t show much. Still comes out of the line too much at centre.
Martin: Charged down a Manly kick that they got six again from. Made a half break towards the end but got pulled down. No real mistakes in attack or defence. Played about 30 mins after playing 60 mins of the NYC game so a big effort from him.
Overall, it was hard to fault too many players tonight. As a team we were all over Manly. Dropped balls kept them in the contest but they had no answer to our defence. When they went wide and seemed on the outside of our centres we didn’t panic, kept sliding, let the sideline do its job and made sure that the inside men were working hard in cover just in case. Manly tried to grubber behind the line but we had too much speed on the wings and they were turning easily to cover. They certainly missed Watmough’s punch up the middle and the uncertainty that the Stewart brother’s create for their outside men to play off, but I think that was countered by the fact we were missing our main playmaker in Pearce and our best player in SBW.
Every member of this team looks fitter this year and that is credit to Keegan Smith who looks to have done a great job. We look to have gotten rid of lazy players and poor defenders because the coaching staff has known all along that we have the players to replace their attacking abilities. It would have actually been interesting to see how SKD went tonight in defence. RTS was great in that area while at centre but Robinson seems to have implemented a very definite structure in defence that might allow poor defenders a bit more leeway without breaks being made. The amount of communicating going on tonight was three-fold to what it was last season. Something else that was new that I noticed tonight was that when Manly would get a penalty and a kick for touch we would drop 3 players back on the side line, one 20 in front on the kicker, one 30 and one 40 or 45. Just thought this was very interesting and something I'd never seen before.
His coaching was certainly evident in attack. While Maloney was on the field we had formations that the players had obviously trained for, we looked slick and the front men looked hungry for the ball, not like they were simply decoys. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jason Taylor has had a lot to do with this new offense. When Pearce comes back the left side will be even more electric and SBW will be our decoy for these plays that were being run tonight, and that is going to give a hell of a lot of space for SKD and RTS to work in. Don’t be surprised to see Maloney playing right side with SBW and Pearce being the left side playmaker running with Jennings. Also, I think two halves on one side will be back in vogue for us at times this year with Maloney acting as the sweeper, Pearce the playmaker and Mini a straight running decoy or support.
For those that have bothered to read this far I really hope this has given some good insight into how the team played tonight for those that couldn’t make it to Gosford.
Tupou: Very impressive player. Made one mistake bringing the ball out of our end the tackle after he did a crazy yet confident flick pass in front of our own posts to Oldfield for a kick return. Combined with Jennings brilliantly for his try, once he received a nice one hander from Jennings he brushed around the winger and powered over the fullback. A lot like one of his tries against the Tigers. Made some good 10+m runs coming out of our end, extra forward type stuff. Had enough pace to dive and catch a Mortimer cross field chip about 5 out from the line, which I believe was the play before the Jennings dummy half try.
Jennings: Only played 20 mins but that was all he needed to show what value he will be. Played off Mortimer for most of his time on the field. His footwork is excellent close to the line and to get metres out of DH. Defensively he was very good also. Lyon looked to have gotten around him from a scrum win but he kept pace with him and ended up getting him into touch. Also shut down DCE off the back of a break when they had numbers to the right.
Tuivasa-Sheck: Played the first 25 at right centre, coming in for runs off scrum wins. Used his footwork well but was actually very good in defence there. Was sliding very well to Matai, knew he had him for pace and was making some good legs tackles. Oldfield didn’t trust him once which caused a Ben Farrar break which was shut down by Maubs. Played 35 mins at fullback. His stepping is so good at times that teammates seem to get in the way, he had to surrender a couple of times when he’d created something to avoid an obstruction call. Wasn’t tested under the high ball much, but wasn’t caught out of position either which was good.
Oldfield: Made some decent runs in the middle but lapsed in defence for the Farrar break and dropped a beautiful two man Maloney cut out with no one in front of him. That was really his only opportunity to show his speed in attack and he missed it. Very fast to turn for kicks in defence which meant that we could cover the pass and the kick on the last. Speed on the flanks has allowed us to use these new defensive structures that we saw tonight.
Mortimer: Played well at 6 while Maloney was on the field but struggled at 7 imo. Also played hooker for the final 15 of the first half and made one clean break from DH up the middle only to lose the ball when he hit the ground. He will be very solid cover for Pearce when Origin comes around but you can tell he’s a 6 who knows his role within a good attacking structure. Still had some good moments though. Put a nice inside ball onto Liu’s chest for a clean break and would’ve scored in support but was held out with no penalty forthcoming. Put up some decent bombs that put pressure on. Was solid in defence and communicated well.
Maloney: He only played about 25 mins but it showed that his value will be immense. Organised some nice set plays with his second rowers running nice option angles. We ran a nice double block once which he probably should’ve gone out the back to Mini on but hit Maubs running a tough angle short who dropped it. He and Friend looked good together. Threw a beautiful cut out for Oldfield which was dropped cold. Sub-par kicking game unfortunately, expected a bit more here. Certainly look 1000% better with a 6 that can throw a deceptive ball and also has enough speed to take the line on.
Moa: Best on ground in his first 20 minute stint. Every hit up had ferocity and drive after he hit the line. Was not dominated in a tackle all night. Made at least 10m nearly every run. Put a few shots on in defence, really rattled the Manly halves. And came from nowhere to make a try saving cover tackle on Steve Matai. Actually I think he sprinted across from marker after Matai strolled inside Maubs off his left foot. Very impressive and he’ll without doubt get picked on the bench for the Souths game. He’s exactly what we need against their pack.
Friend: Played first 25 mins. Extremely lean now and seems to be benefiting. Took a short side run out of dummy half to create the Tupou try in the 4th minute. Didn’t take another short side run the whole he was on, simply because it didn’t really look on again, great to see he is now more selective with that play. Service was tight to his forwards, could’ve been called for a couple of forward passes tbh. Maloney seemed to have plenty of time inside the attacking 20 which indicates he was giving good service. Gave one penalty early (don’t know where this 5-0 penalty count thing is coming from) and defended well as usual. Kicked twice out of dummy half which was something I’d hoped he’d worked on. Both good kicks, especially the second one which he didn’t quite strike properly but would’ve been a 40/20 if he had’ve.
Kennedy: Only played 20 minutes. Also looks super lean. Made good metres per run and probably made about 7 hit ups in his time on the field. Was getting back behind the play earlier than he was last year and looked keen to run. Would’ve liked to see him get more time to improve his match fitness cos he looked a bit buggered as he was coming off.
Cordner: Again, only played about 25-30 minutes I think. Absolute weapon this kid, he’ll push for an Origin spot this year for sure. Perfect build for a backrower. Was excellent playing left edge. Always lands on his chest due to his footwork before the line and gets a quick PTB. Made a nice half break up the left.
Aubusson: Really disappointing. This was his chance to push for a spot round 1 with Guerra not playing. He fumbled at least twice in his 25 mins on the field and got stood up by a Matai left foot step (this was called back for a shepherd, but he still should have made the tackle). His runs were pretty ineffective, probably suffered a bit from no Pearce tonight. Did save a try with a nice cover tackle on Ben Farrar down the left, knocking the ball free as Farrar tried to put a kick in I think. Showed some good pace there, but overall he’d be annoyed with himself after that performance.
Nuuausala: Pretty neutral on FPN after tonight. He made at least one handling error, but his runs were pretty good I thought. One of them involved him running over the top of Watmough who went off with what looked like a rib complaint. Mortimer made his break from dummy half off FPN’s quick PTB after this run. Offloaded cleverly at least once, hitting the line hard then turning to offload to Friend which is what we want to see instead of him backing into the defence. He’ll be in the team round 1.
Seluini: Played about 55 mins. Created some pace out of dummy half which was good to see but his passing game was atrocious. Twice he passed balls to no one that had to be recovered out the back. He’ll really have to work on this more before the season starts, it just wasn’t first grade standard tonight.
Arona: Did his job as usual. Made on handling error from memory. Looks quick on his feet and has the fastest play-the-ball in the side but I don’t know that he offers enough.
Napa: Got about 35-40 mins. Had a red hot go pardon the pun. Didn’t shirk his work and was aggressive with his tackling, put a few hits on. Looks pretty mobile in the D line, good at shutting down offloads because of his height. Juggled once but didn’t drop the pill. Wouldn’t let anyone down if he got a run this year.
Siejka: Limited opportunities with ball in hand, but looked hard to handle. Very aggressive hitting the line and looks hard to put down like Guerra.
O’Sullivan: Came on at half-time. Limited involvement. Better in defence than I remember but then again the whole team was now that they’ve been taught how to communicate with each other in the line.
Liu: Got about 40 mins I think. Played great. Ran a great hole off a Mortimer inside ball and went downfield about 40 metres. On the 5th tackle of that set Mortimer put up a cross field bomb that was batted towards the posts in the in-goal, Liu ran through and athletically got a hand to it as it bounced awkwardly. Makes good metres each run really bends the line, has a nice hit and spin close to the line and has a hand free a lot tonight. He’s pretty much playing the same role as Arona does and in my opinion is a far brighter prospect.
Rokolati: Limited involvement. Defused a cross field kick in the in-goal, slid in as it bounced and took it dead. Perhaps unnecessary but was the safe play. Running is a bit predictable, across field to the right then off the left into the line.
Langi: Came on for Friend and played 6 with Mortimer shifting to 9. Super impressed by this guy. Only kicked once which was reasonable. But his running game was filled with aggression. So strong for an 18 year old. The Dogs will certainly rue the day they let this kid go. His try capped off a great game in which he showed good passing skills and ran excellent lines for good metres. He got his try hitting the ball second off the ruck from memory and putting a right and a big left foot step on to split defenders and showed great strength to power over. It was a dominant try from I think the youngest bloke on the field. He’ll be very close to playing in the first few weeks of the comp, especially if we get any backrow injuries. Great build. Not out of his depth whatsoever.
Wells: Came on for the last 20 minutes as fullback. Hardly got to run the ball but was very good directing the boys around in the line when we were defending our own line set after set towards the end. Was always in position to help out in the tackle, and probably saved a try with his positioning at one stage. Helped shut down a manly try in the corner with great cover defence. Shame we didn’t have the ball more while he was on cos he looks a natural fullback who knows the position very well imo. Sheck could learn a lot from him I think.
Ailaomai: Another very solid performance. Really wanted a try and got close a couple of times. Made good metres up the middle wedging behind the ruck better than any of the props tonight I thought. Looks to have a good motor and really bends the line. Another who does his job very well when asked.
Henry: One silly dropped ball trying to get a penalty I think. Made decent metres each run but really didn’t show much. Still comes out of the line too much at centre.
Martin: Charged down a Manly kick that they got six again from. Made a half break towards the end but got pulled down. No real mistakes in attack or defence. Played about 30 mins after playing 60 mins of the NYC game so a big effort from him.
Overall, it was hard to fault too many players tonight. As a team we were all over Manly. Dropped balls kept them in the contest but they had no answer to our defence. When they went wide and seemed on the outside of our centres we didn’t panic, kept sliding, let the sideline do its job and made sure that the inside men were working hard in cover just in case. Manly tried to grubber behind the line but we had too much speed on the wings and they were turning easily to cover. They certainly missed Watmough’s punch up the middle and the uncertainty that the Stewart brother’s create for their outside men to play off, but I think that was countered by the fact we were missing our main playmaker in Pearce and our best player in SBW.
Every member of this team looks fitter this year and that is credit to Keegan Smith who looks to have done a great job. We look to have gotten rid of lazy players and poor defenders because the coaching staff has known all along that we have the players to replace their attacking abilities. It would have actually been interesting to see how SKD went tonight in defence. RTS was great in that area while at centre but Robinson seems to have implemented a very definite structure in defence that might allow poor defenders a bit more leeway without breaks being made. The amount of communicating going on tonight was three-fold to what it was last season. Something else that was new that I noticed tonight was that when Manly would get a penalty and a kick for touch we would drop 3 players back on the side line, one 20 in front on the kicker, one 30 and one 40 or 45. Just thought this was very interesting and something I'd never seen before.
His coaching was certainly evident in attack. While Maloney was on the field we had formations that the players had obviously trained for, we looked slick and the front men looked hungry for the ball, not like they were simply decoys. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jason Taylor has had a lot to do with this new offense. When Pearce comes back the left side will be even more electric and SBW will be our decoy for these plays that were being run tonight, and that is going to give a hell of a lot of space for SKD and RTS to work in. Don’t be surprised to see Maloney playing right side with SBW and Pearce being the left side playmaker running with Jennings. Also, I think two halves on one side will be back in vogue for us at times this year with Maloney acting as the sweeper, Pearce the playmaker and Mini a straight running decoy or support.
For those that have bothered to read this far I really hope this has given some good insight into how the team played tonight for those that couldn’t make it to Gosford.
Comment