Some sports sit a defender out when a team infringes in the scoring zone.

Defenders could sit on the bench until a try is scored, or their team gets posession, or until a line drop out.

By scoring zone I mean inside the 20, and yes 6 again and a defender sitting down everytime.Until an uninterrupted set of  6 is completed.

A rule like that is black and white. Except calling ths 6 again is a judgement call.

This is an alternative to a sin bin for repeat infringements which is a total lottery.

Lots of sports have smarter rules, better officials and smarter rule changes than the NRL.
I've seen sports improved by rule changes, that rarely happens in the NRL.

Why not let them complete the six they're entitled to, then if no result, go back to the penalty. A second infringement in the six become five in the bin. This would make you think twice about infringing. Unfortunately the problem of inconsistency remains.

Judgement calls need to be eliminated. It gives the referees the opportunity to influence the result of a match, which of course Annersley denies.

It is starting to look ominous now that this year is a write off but trying to be optimistic as possible.
Tigers knocking of Souths  has me thinking who apart from us are in contention for the spoon .
Your right Barrett's presses are like a broken record. I just don't listen to them anymore .

Ok just seen from Gus on Twitter that Thompson had a leg injury which contributed to his limited minutes in the 2nd half.

Vaughan and Jackson really racked up the tackles, zero misses from Jacko.

Vaughan is a big positive this season, and I hate to think how we would be going without him.

I am not a Wardell fan but with Doorey and RFM out injured we are short of 2nd rowers.

Had Topine been on the bench instead of BBO, Wardell or Stimson , we might have won the game. That is the kind selection bungle made by an attack oriented overly optimistic coach.

Topine might be coming back from injury, but we need him ASAP.

I hope the Thompson injury isn't serious, we can't afford to lose him.

Apart from game management, we don't have the quality and depth in the forwards to cover the injuries we currently have.

Still the first 50 mins was good, limited minutes from Thompson and no Topine is probably why we fell apart.

High completions, discipline and game management can navigate that type of situation, but insurance on the bench is the best bet.

We have more good young players outside the top 30 who can't play until after June. Mostly outside backs.

Aside from an experienced half we can look at the overall depth in forwards in the top 2 grades and sign some additional players with the promise of a contract for next season if they perform.
There are always guys stuck in the lower grades outside the top 30 looking for an opportunity.

Round 16 is after June 30th our draw is slightly easier at the back end of the season.
Avoiding the spoon and building for 2023 is possible with a strengthened side and perhaps a new coach.

There is no doubt Hastings has improved the Tigers.

I would have signed him, and that is the type of player we should sign.

Only a very gifted half plays ther best footy in the first 2-3 seasons.

Most halves improve their game management with experience and often their last few seasons can be their best. Sooner or later the body is no longer up to it.

So maximum experience and composure in a body with some miles left on the clock.

Everyone wants the young superstar half, that is one spin of the roulette wheel.
BBO is the only candidate and it is far too early to take the spin.

An experienced half can help younger halves, mostly by decluttering their minds.

I am sure Gus knows all this.

Who looks more lost during a press conference, Joe Biden or TBaz???…

Baz when he is Biden's age.

Very few coaches can find plan B when the off season was spent on plan A.

But Baz's winning record is resembling my golf game, I was smart enough to stop playing.

The years go by, coaches change, 3 or 4 candidates and still no closer to settling on a half. Rookie 5/8 can't  help take the heat off the half. Pick and stick, this season gone. Suggest Wakeham or looking further ahead BDO.

IMO Des inherited a fairly good team from Moore in 2012, all it was missing was a good half.

The orginal strategy of using Noddy to steer the team and mentor young halves was sound, probably better than I realised or acknowledged at the time.

Since then we have churned through experiments at half, throwing young guys in the discarding them when they failed.

At Penrith Cleary and Luai played in the lower grades but they had Jimmy Maloney for a few seasons and moved him on at the right time. In contrast, the Tigers ran with 2 young guys Brooks and Mitch Moses, I don't think that worked out as good.

BBO and Wakeham can also play 14 and have a bit more x-factor than Flanno, that is why I slightly favor them.
If we could sign an experienced half and keep all 3 for another season I would, but if one has to go, just pick one.

If next season a young half is smashing it out of the park and the experienced half is sitting in reserve grade that is a great outcome. The young half will know that there is competition for spots and the experienced half will be helping players in reserve grade.

Sure all signings are a risk, but we need to take another card, we can't sit on what we have.

Eventually things will turn, if we make smart decisions. I'm trusting Gus to do that.

For now, we should give Flanno a few more weeks and play Wakeham in 14.
If Flanno can't steer the team by say round 12, then I can't see any point in persisting with him.

If we can't get anyone else, play Wakeham from round 13 on.

A young guy called Bailey Hayward is playing halfback in reserve grade.

That is the other option, develop a young kid like him at the right pace.
Probably needs a season playing reserve grade, but make sure he is contracted in the top 30 for 2023-2025.

If the kid is good, don't rush him or pressure him, but give him some opportunities to show what he can do.

He is a gun halfback. But still very young. We need to keep him around. But he needs an experienced halfback to guide him. 

I agree 100%.

There is a 5% chance Flanno can step up, 10% for Wakeham.

My choice is Sezer who I rate at 70%.

The experienced half isn't to win a comp, it is to build the team. 

Disappointed fans are well advised to follow Gus on Twitter, he isn't promising a quick fix, but he debunks a lot of groundless negative rumours.

You are on the money Micko.
The way to develop these young guys is to have a calm experienced half in the team that is the alpha half while these guys play second fiddle without the key playmaker pressure.

When they are ready to outshine your experienced half consistently, you know that your exp half has served his purpose and the transition has worked.

We could have done it with Benji Marshall in previous seasons but didn't see any value in it. Same with Adam Reynolds  Can still do it with a Pearce, Sezar type player. Could have even gone with a Chad Townsend but the club was banking on Burton taking off on his own and it has backfired so far. In a couple of years, Ben Hunt will be that available player and with his value certain to plummet it will be interesting if we even consider it or turn a blind eye with our current trial and error approach

Spot on.
Another that comes to mind but not sure if he's keen to return Down Under is Gareth Widdop

He can give the team mascot a quick once over before they run on. Pearce is of course (and thankfully in case anyone has a total breakdown in logic) unavailable. Listing players like Sezar, Pearce and Widdop is ludicrous if only for the fact they are contracted elsewhere. It seems the mentality of why don't we go and get "such and such" or why didn't we get "such and such" is still rife. Admittedly I keep saying the same thing about Paige Spiranac as a golfing partner but that is about as close as some of the "if only posts" that still haunt the BDP

Take them as examples of what we think is needed. Hastings was one of the candidates.
Being contracted elsewhere isn't a total show stopper these days.

The young halves might come good at anytime, or we might be having this conversation in 3 years time.

There was a total fade out of "game management" and defensive intensity last 30 mins against Broncos.
To win more frequently we need to solve both problems.

Mostly we need to develop local young talent, occasionally we need experienced players to give them more support.

Reserve grade had a good win with a lot of young players.  Most of the solution is coming through the lower grades.
But if we had a reliable experienced half in the lower grades, they would already be playing NRL.

Yeah Steve, who we have is all we've got, and we just have to make do. Next round us round 8 and everyone (especially TK) is slitting their wrists. It's actually funny watching people have a meltdown over something out of their control. Our next great halfback will come out of lower grades and they don't need experience to help them, the older halves are the same as Jacko... the modern game has passed them and those learning their trade in the juniors are the future. Just sit back, relax, and watch the rest of the season unfold, I feel a few surprises are going to unfold.

Just reading posts in another site and a very sensible post came to light. Now people have been complaining that Jacko is being used in a role for which he is not suited, and looking at our gameplay they are correct. Barrett contracted Asiata for that role and covid fvcked us over. Baz has built his whole gameplan around a ball playing lock and we don't have one anymore, so Barrett may have been on the right track after all but circumstances derailed him. Let's just see what he can do to salvage the next 8 rounds.

I'd love for us to get Paige....
But back to the topic at hand.... we keep telling ourselves that players are unavailable, and even when they do become available, we find other excuses such as Flanno is good enough or we have plenty of young halves in the lower grades, or the price is too high.

Same BS everytime.

Time to change the mentality and cap spend.

You either believe your spine should be the highest paid players in your team, or you don't.

We've proven how successful you can be (not) when you do what we do....

Yeah but Asiata waa gone before December from memory.

Poor excuse if we need 12months of training to play a certain way. It's unnatural for JJ to play this role, so him going back to play his normal role shoukd be a breeze.

Tigers probably got Hastings cheap, and IMO he is making a big difference to their team.

We have Reed coming in the 9 next season, that will make a big differnce.

Fans are just expressing our opinion on how to improve the side that is being constructive, simply calling the team rubbish is destructive. The only other alernatives are, praise the side even when they lose a game they should have won, or say nothing.

We know that the club isn't searching the BDP for suggestions, so our comments make no difference anyway.

Training incorrectly is as useful as not training at all. I have heard (off the grapevine) that a lot of the players are doing too much weight training and not enough cardio/stamina/ endurance training and looking at our performances that is pretty well on the money.

Jacko playing the Yeo role isn't our only problem or perhaps even the biggest problem, it is just the most odvious problem.

I wouldn't even call it a total failure, more like 25% success, 50% neutral, 25% failure.
But given those stats we do it far to much.
With more practice Jacko might even improve, his defence can't be questioned and is important.

Watch the Parra /Newcastle game highlights, Reed was bossing Newcastle and put multiple players over for simple tries. We don't score many tries like that, it isn't just the dummy half, but the dummy-half is part of it.

Vaughan, Tommo, TPJ and a few others are capable of making the runs to score the tries. 

Something in our fitness looks a bit off, but there were multiple causes of the last 30 against the Broncs, we have attempted to list some.

Having lots of problems also means lots of opportunities for improvement.

This season the patches of our best footy have been good, mostly good enough to compete with most teams.
It is more frustrating becuase in some ways we are close, but the end results are not landing.

Or just go back to the original rules. Give a penalty when a player is offside. If the same team continue to be offside three times put them in the bin. It’s that easy. 

I remember thinking how important Asiata would be when he signed. He is more than capable of playing that role Baz wants of his 13 and could have been a revelation for us.  Kasiano would have been another one who could do it. I am very surprised Topine hasn’t been given a shot. He is the only other forward in our team that could do it. 

Quite happy to go with the old rules enforced