Buzz reality check

[Thirteen]

In my eyes Walker is a big problem for us.

Opponents are taking advantage of Sam Walker's size and brittle defence. He has missed 19 tackles in three games.

Yet they play Sitilli next to him who’s probably missed even more.

[ConGa]

The players who played for us in the era of the "Bondi Wall" are not the players we are playing with now.

The Bondi wall is the system, developed by the coaches not the players.

[bondi.boy]

Yet they play Sitilli next to him who’s probably missed even more.

Which is another big problem for us.
If we must play both of them (they are both good in attack most of the time)...it should be from the bench...after all the big players who started the game have taken the sting out of the opposition.
A 'Bondi wall' will gaping holes in it is not much of a wall.

[The Corner Post]

mrs bb is of the same opinion...many mystifying penalties are given against us in games.
It's not our whole problem, but it sure makes us do a lot more tackling in games than we should.
It's been said by others at this site that we get penalised but the other teams don't get penalised for the same things.
Lost count of the number of forward passes Souths threw without censure.
Offside all night, players in front of the kicker coming within 10 metres of the play, one of our players tackled without the ball, his arm pulled back before the bombed ball reached him, causing him not to catch it.
Easy to steamroll the opposition when you can basically do whatever you like all game and only have to run all night and not do much tackling.
Penalty to Souths.
Penalty to Souths.
Penalty to Souths.
It was a penalty-a-thon to the victors.

True, I thought we were hard done by from the ref.
The thing is, in 18/19 the refs were against us, yet we still managed to win. That's just how it has to be with us. I cant see us ever getting the good ref calls consistently.

[The Corner Post]

We gave?
Ye olde referee did the giving, but had blinkers on to the *sins* of the rabbits.
The bob tail bunnies could do no wrong, as usual it seems.
9-2 penalty counts in favour of the bunnies are not foreign to their games.

These days you can't afford to start slowly, or you get left behind.
Winning home games is hard enough, let alone winning away games against teams that have improved.

I feel like now the rule has changed (penalties in the attacking teams 40) the refs are back to their old tricks.
Giving teams piggy backs out of their own half to get them into the game or to shift momentum.
When it was just a six again, the refs could hide it better and it had a lesser impact. I suspect that's why there were blow out score lines - the refs couldn't help out 'their' team.

[bondi.boy]

True, I thought we were hard done by from the ref.
The thing is, in 18/19 the refs were against us, yet we still managed to win. That's just how it has to be with us. I cant see us ever getting the good ref calls consistently.

No it doesn't.

"Just because it is, doesn't mean it should be" - 'Lady Sarah Ashley' movie 'Australia'.
Once upon a time in Australia, there was segregation...swimming pool for Indigenous and separate pool for others. Separate blackboards in schools.
Indigenous were not allowed to live in towns, had to live in the long grass...were not allowed to own property. There were curfews for Indigenous.
Their lot in life was managed by the govt's "Flora and Fauna" dept.

*

Women were not allowed to drink in the same bars in hotels as men...even if they wanted to.
When I left school married women were not allowed to work in many govt jobs, semi govt jobs, etc.

We must never accept biased refereeing of us in NRL matches as being "how it has to be".
Never, ever, ever.

[Billy Gunn]

Yet they play Sitilli next to him who’s probably missed even more.

That is what I don't get, why not put Angus with Walker or even Nat who's defense is so much stronger than Satili's.

[Rooster36]

In my eyes Walker is a big problem for us.

Opponents are taking advantage of Sam Walker's size and brittle defence. He has missed 19 tackles in three games.

yea you’ve convinced me mate what was your solution again? hutch at half and keighran 5/8…. I think it might work

[Thirteen]

yea you’ve convinced me mate what was your solution again? hutch at half and keighran 5/8…. I think it might work

And Radley on the wing.

[Mickie Lane]

True, I thought we were hard done by from the ref.
The thing is, in 18/19 the refs were against us, yet we still managed to win. That's just how it has to be with us. I cant see us ever getting the good ref calls consistently.

The Chooks havnt played good footy yet except for 35 minutes against Manly its not because of the refs that we are 1 from 3.
I dont know if you know any Wests Tigers supporters but if you do ask them if they think the refs are against them?

[Rooster36]

The Chooks havnt played good footy yet except for 35 minutes against Manly its not because of the refs that we are 1 from 3.
I dont know if you know any Wests Tigers supporters but if you do ask them if they think the refs are against them?

Totally agree this year only ourselves to blame

[Nigel Gaffey]

The problem with our squad is we prepare well under the guidance of all of the coach and coaching staff which makes up 50% of the job. We don't execute the remaining 50% of the plan on game day and that is match day performance.

Who knows the stats for how many games we have completed above 80% completion rate and what the outcome was? I am going to say 9/10 we win.

On another note, Robbo has become some sort of mindset guru in the way he talks to the press, saying how the players believe it's their destiny etc etc it's not manufactured, it comes from deep within blah blah blah. I don't see it in the players on the field!! not in 2022!

We are currently a one trick pony with a poor kicking game, poor completion rate and poor discipline. Defensively, any team with a quick play the ball eat us up down the middle, Cook has a field day against us every time we play the bunnies. Teams will exploit us down the middle.

We don't kick to corners and turn opposition fullbacks, because we don't have confidence in our kicking game, instead we prefer to put in the air every time to buy time for players to arrive downfield.

I hope we see a different attitude this week because the cows will have that in spades on Sat night. Will be interesting to see how we go with Robbo not there and how tough our leadership group really is

[bondi.boy]

yea you’ve convinced me mate what was your solution again? hutch at half and keighran 5/8…. I think it might work

Hutch played well at half last season
Keighran is listed in his club profile as a 5/8.
Trent played Walker off the bench last season, with some success.
Keighran can kick goals from the sideline, he won't get them all but he'll get some.

[bondi.boy]

And Radley on the wing.

Indeed.
He might be able to stay on his wing and tackle Johnston-ilk.
Nobody else we have does.

[ism22]

The Bondi wall is the system, developed by the coaches not the players.

IMO one issue with the Bondi Wall could be that it's worked for a decade but people are starting to get used to it. Also, the rules have changed. Examples...
- We used to always be able to diffuse grubbers. Now people expect us to do that, so they've adapted their tactics accordingly.

- Since we're known to be able to defend 10+ sets on our tryline, teams seam to have developed tactics to pin us there... defending valiantly, but going nowhere. You can only do that for so long... and it kills your attack if you get tired.

- Teams seems to know what our tackling style is and play for penalties. Souffs are a CLASSIC!!! Early on some dude didn't even try to tackle, he just threw his arms up and said 'OOOOH REF!!!! THAT WAS A PENALTY!!!' I'd go as far as to say that (like touch - where a guy I work with who plays for Australia says this is DEFINITELY a tactic)... you try to put players into positions where they are technically offside so that they're not allowed to defend you (he says most ex-pro League/Union players can't make it in touch as it's a different tactical game). IMO teams have worked out ways to get our scrambling defence penalised and it frustrates us because we're not grubs, we're toilers! A lot of coaches look for shortcuts to shut down our scrambling defence and I think some have been successful (guys like Bellamy are the kings of hacks/shortcuts). IMO we might need to re-think our approach. Cautiously though as it WORKS... just our attack's utter bullshyte right now!