**Official** NRL 2010 thread

[howardj]

Jury Retires

They're not old, they're just considering their verdict teehee

 

[Ausage]

Funnily enough I read today that if Henjak gets the sack by Brisbane, then Ricky Stuart will take over as coach.

You think Wallace is a bad halfback now. Wait till sticky gets a couple of years with him.

 

[howardj]

Stick fires every halfback under his charge.

No halfback is good enough for him.

By contrast, with Soward for example, Bennett put his arm around him and gave him confidence.

 

[Ausage]

Finals Week 3

morgieb 4
Burgey 4
Ripper 4
Hirricane 4
Brumby 4
Ausage 2
Craig 2
Mister Wright 0

Most people get the Saints victory, and only a few miss the Titans Roosters result.

morgieb 9.3
Burgey 9.3
Brumby 8.2
Ripper 8.2
Ausage 5.1
Hirricane 5.1
Craig 4
Mister Wright 2

Overall

Burgey and morgieb look to be on a collision course with a tied top spot, but a correct pick from either Brumby or Ripper could see them sneak over the line. At the bottom Kyle takes up spoon position. Remember the last round is worth 4.

Grand Final

Dragons vs Roosters

 

[BoyBrumby]

Always tip the Dragons come what may, but if I didn't I'd have to have a serious think.

 

[morgieb]

Dragons

 

[Burgey]

Roosters.

And not just to be different to Morgie re. the tipping. Won't be shattered if the Dragons get up, but hoping Brian Smith can get a comp under his belt.

Contrasting styles of play. Should be a good one. I'd be a lot more confident were Bennett not coaching Saints.

 

[Julian87]

Convincing argument. All three teams beat them this year. I think their last few weeks is clouding your judgement of them tbh.

Take nothing away from them. They're peaking at the right time, and deserve to be where they are right now.

Agree with Kyle ftr.

All 3 teams may have beaten them but all 3 teams are now dead and buried.

My judgement isn't 'clouded' I just know a good footy team when I see one. I also know that those other 3 teams weren't in the same class, mainly due to them being extremely lacking in certain areas of a team make up....Titans; backline other than Prince, Panthers: a star player/gamebreaker and a pretty terrible/over rated front row, and the Tigers: worst halfback in the comp, average front row, ordinary fullback and the worst halfback in the comp.

 

[Julian87]

Stick fires every halfback under his charge.

No halfback is good enough for him.

By contrast, with Soward for example, Bennett put his arm around him and gave him confidence.

That's completely irrelevant considering Soward's not a halfback.

 

[Ausage]

All 3 teams may have beaten them but all 3 teams are now dead and buried.

My judgement isn't 'clouded' I just know a good footy team when I see one. I also know that those other 3 teams weren't in the same class, mainly due to them being extremely lacking in certain areas of a team make up....Titans; backline other than Prince, Panthers: a star player/gamebreaker and a pretty terrible/over rated front row, and the Tigers: worst halfback in the comp, average front row, ordinary fullback and the worst halfback in the comp.

Actually, all three teams were the worst performing teams this year which says something about the Roosters consistency. I only said clouded because they were at stages of the season complete rubbish.

Our problems aren't the one's you listed imo Our problems are our gamebreakers never get enough ball in space due to a lack of impact in our forwards when Pritchard isn't firing. Our attitude in defense was rubbish in the second half of the year too. Lewis, Jennings, Gordon and Pritchard are gamebreakers when they're on. Petero is slightly overrated in his twilight, but Grant was great this year, and is underrated if anything.

And your assessment of Robert Lui is kind to Jeff Robson

Anyway we're going around in circles. Agree to disagree on the Roosters.

 

[Prince EWS]

Stick fires every halfback under his charge.

No halfback is good enough for him.

By contrast, with Soward for example, Bennett put his arm around him and gave him confidence.

 

[Craig]

Brett Stewart has been found not guilty.

 

[Burgey]

That's completely irrelevant considering Soward's not a halfback.

He was at the Roosters iirc.

 

[Mister Wright]

Dragons.

 

[howardj]

That's completely irrelevant considering Soward's not a halfback.

You're a bright spark, aren't you? I said back when he coached him.

Here's the others:

Jonathan Thurston, Ben Hornby, Paul Green, Joe Williams, Craig Wing, Luke Phillips, Justin Holbrook, Brett Finch, Brett Firman, Jamie Soward, Josh Lewis, Grant Rovelli, Brett Kimmorley.

 

[Julian87]

You're a bright spark, aren't you? I said back when he coached him.

Here's the others:

Jonathan Thurston, Ben Hornby, Paul Green, Joe Williams, Craig Wing, Luke Phillips, Justin Holbrook, Brett Finch, Brett Firman, Jamie Soward, Josh Lewis, Grant Rovelli, Brett Kimmorley.

Soward's problem at The Roosters was that he was playing out of position.

 

[Julian87]

Our problems aren't the one's you listed imo Our problems are our gamebreakers never get enough ball in space due to a lack of impact in our forwards when Pritchard isn't firing. Our attitude in defense was rubbish in the second half of the year too. Lewis, Jennings, Gordon and Pritchard are gamebreakers when they're on. Petero is slightly overrated in his twilight, but Grant was great this year, and is underrated if anything.

Your gamebreaker needs to be in 1, 6, 7 or 9. Or a couple in that combination. See:

- Roosters: Carney and Pearce.
- Dragons: Soward
- Tigers: Marshall and Farah
- Titans: Prince
- Raiders: Campese and Dugan

They were the other 5 teams left in the competition 2 weeks ago. Out of the 6, Penrith were almost guaranteed to lose because of this problem IMO. And I'm still convinced if Campese wasn't struck down by the footy gods that Canberra would have probably knocked off the Tigers as well.

I'm all for having attacking guns in the three quarter line but they're not true gamebreakers in the sense that they're going to win you games in a finals series.

Just on the front row at Penrith... Reckon Grant is over rated now. Played pretty bad in the finals and has had 1 good season. The rest let them down. Were absolutely dominated by 2 of the better front rows in the comp (Canberra and the Roosters). McKendry has potential but isn't at a great standard yet and though Bell is under rated his good work is rather spasmodic.Add to that the fact that the backrow don't make many metres and they couldn't really put it with the big boys IMO.

 

[Julian87]

Oh and I do rate Luke Walsh tbh. He's not the problem though, the lack of a decent five-eighth is. The bloke playing 6 for Windsor > Burns. If I were Elliott I'd be trying to find a creative attacker at five-eighth even from reserve grade. An Albert Kelly or a Ben Rogers perhaps.

 

[Burgey]

Store these names in the memory bank for Monday:

Jonathon Thurston, Willie Mason, Ryan Tandy, Aaron Payne and Adam Blair and the manager Sam Ayoub

 

[Prince EWS]

Oh and I do rate Luke Walsh tbh. He's not the problem though, the lack of a decent five-eighth is. The bloke playing 6 for Windsor > Burns. If I were Elliott I'd be trying to find a creative attacker at five-eighth even from reserve grade. An Albert Kelly or a Ben Rogers perhaps.

Yeah fully agree with that - they've signed up Taumata for next year who's a player I've always been greatly sceptical of but, if he is going to make a fist of first grade, it'll be in the role you're speaking of.