Our play the balls took more than 30% longer than the Storm. This is a recurrent stat, but last week was the worse. We surely need to identify the problem, correct it or highlight it if the problem is external. It is not the reason we were beaten, but imagine the difference if the stat was reversed.

Burton is a great free spirit and should not be tied down by designated duties. Even without their halves Penrith didn't do this. We should cop the tip to get maximum value.

The Storm were wrestling us well and getting away with it.

Maybe our players need to fight harder for a quick ptb.

Not sure what you mean here.

Burton is the one to take long kicks and bombs, a half has to pass the ball.

Flanno can take goal kicks, provided that he works out in the 7.

I remember how he went last season a lot of that was a lack of confidence.
I hope his confidence is fully rebuilt,  Penrith isn't an easy game.

This is a gamble that might work out brilliant, average or a disaster.
I am hoping for brilliant and in reserve grade his confidence seems to be back.

Further to PTB Times. Stats from storm game show: Total PTB - Storm 129 dogs 136. Kicks  17 both teams. Total tackles close to 300 each. From that we can eliminate storm getting more players in the tackle so taking longer to peel off.
The responsibility to release is the defender's, usually in accordance with referees call. No player from any team lays down after release. The ref allows  a delay after he calls release to allow players to retreat the 10. The ref does not enforce the PTB in accordance with the rules.
It needs investigating. Is there any validity in the suggestion that the lower teams are treated more harshly?

He can also help with general play kicking.

They are allowing more wrestle and that favors teams that have spent years practicing it,

Run harder and win the collision that sometimes means fewer tackers.

Somehow the Storm slowed us up at the start of sets, we couldn't do that to them.

I agree on the grubbers and Wakeham.
Just came home and tune into NRL360 to find out Flanno is in the team.

Barrett may as well held a gun to his own head and pulled the trigger on his coaching career.

I'm appalled.

It's at least 50% our problem.
The rest is ref perception.

They know we are notoriously slow, so they follow suit and allow more time to tacklers to slowly get off us.

It's not something that we can equalise quickly. We can do our bit to submit to tackles facing forward so we can get up and play the ball quicker but changing the perception to the refs and the general public needs a long term fix

Rubbish, he kicks nearly as late as Hodkinson use to. 

He is a charge down waiting to happen.


..and that's IF he even catches the ball....

Storm could have slowed us down another 5 or 6 seconds per tackle, and we still wouldn't have had a plan on what the next play needed to be.

I just hope Flanno plays well.

Wakeham can influence a game from dummy-half.

Maybe Baz thinks Wakeham and Burton don't combine well.

But against the Storm, Wakeham made some good tackles, did a few good kicks and threw some good passes, he tried to run, with limited success but apart from Duffty and TPJ none of our players made an impact running the ball.

I am not sure if our attack was bad or the Storm defence was just too good. The attack was the same as most gsmes this year. 

All we did wrong was force a few plays when we should have tried for a repeat set.

Off a slow play the ball with a well set defence it is hard to have a good plan.

The best play is a hard runner hitting a hole off 1-2 passes.

Throwing the ball wide and throwing long passes are begging for an intercept or to be thrown into touch.

Burton sitting back waiting to kick isn't  the answer. We need to mix it up.

Even with a plan PTB speed, especially a differential of > 30%, is significant.

This 360 mob are unbelievable.  Going on about duty of care to Flanagan. Of the 3 contenders he is the oldest and most experienced. He's  not a just 18 rookie like Sam Walker wasm but no criticism  there.

Are they suggesting he shouldn't be picked for first game back against the Panther???...

That's a lot of the problem in the game. The referees will let some teams go on with their tackles forever and others get pinged before they have even completed the tackle. I'm not blaming refereeing or our loss but I am saying their timing can and will control the flow of the game.

Definitely agree that Wakeham did everything expected of him.

With regards to the combination with Burton..
Against the storm , Wakeham took the ball to the line and passed late to Burton. Burton effectively played like a centre, or abit like Foran does (relatively flat) and with the defence in his face.

Everyone seems to cut Burton alot of flack and point the finger to the halfback, but im alittle annoyed with his game at the moment.

He isn't playing your regular 5/8th role. He isn't playing a deep centre role either. It's basically the Foran role. To do it successfully though, you either have to be abit deeper or have hard running backrowers next to you to keep the defence from ganging up on you when you get the ball. This is how he played in the centres with Penrith with Kikau running off him.

He can do that next year with Kiks here but this year he needs to do something different coz Waddell doesn't offer the same benefit.

Either that, or he plays centre and Averillo and Wakeham can play halves. 

He cant park himself on the left if he wants to play in the halves

I'm glad you're not the coach...this is the sh!t dead careers are made of!

You can still have a plan to engage the defenders, turn them in, confuse them.

It's not about trying to score off every play, but you need to have each play set you up for a short or longer term strategy.

We did it in the past with offloads in tackles (90s) or chain passing at the line (2012).

Gang tackling has come a long way since then so it's not easy to offload effectively in tackles. Certainly not the Robert Relf round the corner type pass from the nineties. Gang tackles these days lock the players arms to prevent it. So we can't try to go down that route.

Chain passing, as was done in 2012 might be a possibility and might just provide some uncertainty in the defence line.

The other things I can think of which we don't seem to do atm, is outside-inside passes or early cut-out passes, or simply diagonal runs.

Any of these moves try to move the defence around and cause chaos in the defence lines. We seem to not do them or not do them enough.

Another play that can assist in keeping the defence from rushing, is an early chip kick, cross field kick or even a grubber behind the line.

There are a number of plays that can be done to confuse a defensive structure and we simply aren't smart enough to know them, train for them or even execute them. It makes me wonder what exactly we do at training????

Where is Zef?

Im curious on his thoughts on:
* Burton
* JMK
* Picking Flanagan

It is up to our coaches to decide if they think a player is ready.

If anything the Chooks threw Flanno in, then discarded him.

We have let him rebuild confidence in reserve grade and are giving him another shot.

If it works out the 360 mob might look like even bigger gooses, but as they have zero credability that is hard.

Marki and I should do 360, I can turn up pissed and talk total crap as good as anyone.
Marki can throw in the odd comment on Hawthorne to see if the audience is awake.

Why? 

From the highlights, both halves in Flegg look really good.

It’s the start of all our problems. And it’s been that way for years. We need to be running over the advantage line and getting to our feet much quicker. It also would help if we had a hooker that was screaming at the ref and his teammates. The Storm held us down all game. They out wrestled us. It’s pretty simple. 

I saw Zef has posted but I reckon his time off here may have been spent doing his own research into articles about the Pentagon releasing info re UFOs having sex with and impregnating humans... If they're progressive aliens they were probably impregnating males...

To think, only 12 months ago UFOs didn't exist... And anyone who suggested they might was a antiearth, undemocratic, right wing, traumatised child, grandmother killer...

That  starts with the hooker, and it is partly attitude and habit.

This is why I don't think JMK is a good option for starting hooker.

I am glad Reed is coming next season and Kicks.

I am still a bit surprised Cook isn't getting a shot.

Coz I value your opinion.

Seems from your responses that our current predicament is a case of "it is what it is".

Here's another one I forgot to add....

Your thoughts on Barrett?

Like you, I feel TBaz is changing the wrong deck chairs. 

Our problems in the opposition 20m zone is at hooker, not halfback. Add to this, not enough players (forwards) running in numbers, or into holes and often being flat footed. 

JMK has played better individually, but hasn't played any better for the team. Barrett should have kept the halves and changed the hooker