Pearce and Maloney

[Ray Stehr]

Pearce is a solid first grade halfback but he lacks the nouse of the great halves. he's good for a couple of poor decisions a game. Maloney has a far greater footy brain, we'd be near unbeatable if we had a Cronk, DCE or Thurston. As far as Penrith goes, like the Tigers, Titans, Eels and Warriors they are pretenders.

[Andrew Walker]

On Gould's comments I smell a rat....
- Gould is the Panther's general manager
- Panthers are currently top of the table
- Panthers are a chance this year
- Gould knows the Panthers have to beat us to take the title so he is trying to throw as much doubts into our players minds as possible. At our best Gould knows we cannot be beaten by the Panthers

Well said Hence his role as a nine commentator should be made redundant immediately

[Guest]

Yea, I checked the Panthers and their lofty position as a workmate loves claiming his June premiership. 50% of their games played for 6 wins have been against 3 teams.

Titans
Raiders
Knights

They have had a soft draw. They must have a tough run into the finals.

[Guest]

They have had a soft draw. They must have a tough run into the finals.

We have lost to the dogs, manly, souths, eels and been smashed by the cows.

We have beaten broncs luckily, drags, a weakened dogs and storm, belted the eels without peats , raiders, depleted sharks and depleted tigers.

We have had a very fortunate draw and are well off the pace from last year.

I am seeing positive signs but have a lot of improvement needed.

[stsae]

We have lost to the dogs, manly, souths, eels and been smashed by the cows.

We have beaten broncs luckily, drags, a weakened dogs and storm, belted the eels without peats , raiders, depleted sharks and depleted tigers.

We have had a very fortunate draw and are well off the pace from last year.

I am seeing positive signs but have a lot of improvement needed.

Or you can look at it differently.

As the top 8 stands we have played 8 games against the other 7. Winning 4 and losing 4.

We have had 8 of our 13 games so far away. We finish with 7 home games, 4 away. And 2 byes.

Of the current top 8 we have to play Penwiff and Souffs at home, womanly and Tigpies away.

The other 7 games are from sides out of the 8 as it stands.

Notably there are only ever one, maybe two at most, changes to the 8 from this point each season.

We are also on top of the For, 4th in the Against, with the best differential.

One win off the lead.

I believe we are going better than the media are reporting currently. We have a favourable run home in terms of teams we play and home games.

Injuries will again have a big say from here on in.

[ROC181]

Or you can look at it differently.

As the top 8 stands we have played 8 games against the other 7. Winning 4 and losing 4.

We have had 8 of our 13 games so far away. We finish with 7 home games, 4 away. And 2 byes.

Of the current top 8 we have to play Penwiff and Souffs at home, womanly and Tigpies away.

The other 7 games are from sides out of the 8 as it stands.

Notably there are only ever one, maybe two at most, changes to the 8 from this point each season.

We are also on top of the For, 4th in the Against, with the best differential.

One win off the lead.

I believe we are going better than the media are reporting currently. We have a favourable run home in terms of teams we play and home games.

Injuries will again have a big say from here on in.

Last year we had 6 shut outs I believe to none this year. As champions, everyone including media and other fans, expect us to be performing better and understandably otherwise everyone is quick to write us off, including some of us. We're either foxing and not wanting to give much away, or haven't hit our stride yet or perhaps we're just not trying hard enough and never will, well for this year.

[Parkway_Drive]

Last year we had 6 shut outs I believe to none this year. As champions, everyone including media and other fans, expect us to be performing better and understandably otherwise everyone is quick to write us off, including some of us. We're either foxing and not wanting to give much away, or haven't hit our stride yet or perhaps we're just not trying hard enough and never will, well for this year.

The funny thing is that the bookies have us clear cut favourites to win the comp.

[stsae]

Last year we had 6 shut outs I believe to none this year. As champions, everyone including media and other fans, expect us to be performing better and understandably otherwise everyone is quick to write us off, including some of us. We're either foxing and not wanting to give much away, or haven't hit our stride yet or perhaps we're just not trying hard enough and never will, well for this year.

Whilst I don't disagree with what you've said mate, there are many ways to look at our season.

Shut outs are really for us fans and bragging rights. Our defence overall has been fine, especially considering how many penalties we give away and our poor completion rates more often than not. Besides there is always time to complete a donut or two before it's all over.

How many sides have gone back to back recently??? Really expectations are unrealistic. If Melba or womanly haven't been able to complete a double over the last 8-9 years as the only other sides who have won a comp since 06, I don't see why the expectations are so high on us???

We entered the season vastly differently to last. 16 players at the WC, they didn't return to training till after Xmas, the 9s, the WCC then straight into a title defence. It's noticeable blokes like $BW and JWH have only really started to look like they're hitting their peak fitness in the last month. Last year we trained for 5 months and hit the season running.

I don't believe we are foxing or not trying hard enough. We are on top of the For and right up in the Against, best differential, IMO you can't achieve those figures in either scenario.

Look at the Cowplods game. At 1/2 time we missed one tackle, but they scored 5 tries. That is one of the most bizarre stats I've ever witnessed. You don't bust your arse and miss one tackle in a 1/2 and get 5 tries put on very often, if ever. Thankfully GFs aren't played at Townsville. And that sorta bounce of the ball won't get you there. Hard work will. And missing 1 tackle in a 1/2 of footy is bloody hard work.

Every team has generally improved. That's what I believe everyone's underestimating. Last year we were a new side with a new coach. This year every team we play have a years video on us, they are obviously better prepared than last year. And the obvious factor of beating the reigning premiers. It's definately a motivation.

I'd understand the criticism if we didn't win last year, if we didn't have an almost non existent pre season, if we were getting belted every week, if we weren't showing the differential we are, if we weren't a win off the comp leaders, if we weren't improving every week, if we had been decimated with injuries or if we still had Bwaiff.

We have a good run home, lots of home games, minimal rep players, $BW and Baloney especially are really hitting some form after a slow start, very few injuries (touch wood) and are even managing to draw the odd penalty count. We still don't allow soft tries up the middle, teams have to really work us over with repeats and penalties then shift the pill side to side before we either crack or they need to kick and pull a Thursthead out of their arses.

Sure there is plenty of room for improvement. We haven't put 80 mins together often enough. Our handling at times has been shithouse. Some combos still aren't where they should be.

Really we are in a great position to roll home now, grab a top 2 birth and give ourselves every chance of making another GF.

I'm unsure as to what people expected??? 50-0 every second week??? 13 weeks without a loss??? Donuts every second week???

Just not realistic when you look at the season so far. And nowhere near as bad as many seem to be making out.

TBH I'm more relaxed watching us play each week compared to last year.

It's up to the boys now to put it together. I'm gonna back them.

[Salvatori Grubber]

Well done. Another quality post on this thread.

Warriors away and Manly away will be very interesting. Win those two and we may just win the Minor Premiership again.

[Guest]

Well done. Another quality post on this thread.

Warriors away and Manly away will be very interesting. Win those two and we may just win the Minor Premiership again.

I am glad you left out the above mentioned posters name, the words Quality and Backwards should never be mentioned in the same sentence!

oops what have i done?

[Johnny.]

I am glad you left out the above mentioned posters name, the words Quality and Backwards should never be mentioned in the same sentence!

oops what have i done?

Stsae likes to eat Quality Street.

[Salvatori Grubber]

Stsae is an enigma, wrapped in a coat of chocolate, wrapped in some pretty foil, contained in some cardboard packaging, with Quality Street printed on the front.

[Parkway_Drive]

Yak's posts are gold medal winning masterpieces while backwards musings are usually of tin or bronze quality with an occasional 0ld Gold moment.

[Johnny.]

Stsae is an enigma, wrapped in a coat of chocolate, wrapped in some pretty foil, contained in some cardboard packaging, with Quality Street printed on the front.

Cockroach Cluster, Spring Surprise or maybe Crunchy Frog.

As you know that's an entire frog that has been coated with chocolate, using only the finest baby frogs, dew-picked and flown from Iraq, cleansed in finest-quality spring water, lightly killed, and then sealed in a succulent Swiss quintuple smooth treble cream milk chocolate envelope, and lovingly frosted with glucose.

[ROC181]

Stsae is an enigma, wrapped in a coat of chocolate, wrapped in some pretty foil, contained in some cardboard packaging, with Quality Street printed on the front.

You just put me off chocolate but that's some crazy imagination.