Shammersly will explain why it was the right call  on Monday..

I didn't think TPJ got involved nearly enough in the first half. He seems to struggle in this regard sometimes. Maybe he got a rocket at half time.
I also think someone got in Burton's ear at half time. Big kicks straight to Tedesco on the full aren't much value. Better after half time.

Kicking is easy in RL nowadays isn't it.

What the win does is build team spirit and confidence.

The coach and players know that there is plenty to weork on.

But a lot of NRL games come down the the team that wants it more.

Execution and cohesion should improve, get down their end and give Duffty early ball is one good option.

We definitely almost got screwed tonight .
How the hell idiot  ref did not see that forward pass and the obstruction was let go .?
No doubt about it the officials had been told to get the Roosters home. They just could not let the foot over the line go .  Karma is a b...th.
Well played boys and Lord Gus must had got right up them during the week . 

The forward passes. The lost balls going backward only for the Chickens. But that knock on before the Tedesco try was the blatant one. Cum stains was right in front of it and ignored it. 

We won because we dug deep. Even with the calls against us we got a win. Great for team spirit. 

We needed a confidence boost.

After a sequence of losses the first win is the hardest to get.

Comp is pretty even except for the top 2 and we have played both of them.

The same level of effort and a bit more polish will give us a good chance most games.

Yep the Chooks had 14 players on the field most of the game.

The Cowboys have some seriously  good youn talent.

NP: It's the Greek here mate...what are you doing to us.
PV: Sorry mate...you know we never want the Buldlogs to win but sometimes s**t happens.
NP:Why the hell was Cummings ref...you know we paid for Gerry boy.
PV:Normally yes but we used him a bit too well against Souths...gottta make it look a bit fair dinkum. Besides he let that knock on from Crichton go and Keary's pass for the second was so damn far forward. It should never have had to go as far as it did if your bloke had smaller f****** feet. He let go a check on Burton which would have been a penalty in any other game. And Tupouniua was offside every dam play put not penalised once.
NP:I still would rather had Sutton.
PV:Go away ...Cummings gave you a Grand Final FFS.
NP: Not happy Jan!!

Steve... so that's what it's like being a fly on the wall!

Actual and factual mate. Still can't believe they let that check on Burton go on that no try....penalty every single damn game except this one.

Oh what a beautiful morning!!!…

You were great as a child star in the sound of music, lederhosen really suit you. 😁

Steve, actually it is the second time an obstruction has been overlooked. Funnily enough it was also against the Bulldogs. If the NRLol think they are fooling anyone then they are out of touch with reality.

And to the contrary mate...how many times have we been robbed when one of the opposition has changed course to collide with one of our decoy runners going through and we have been penalised...definitely not the case with the collision with Burton

Off the bottom of the ladder!!!…

Credit to Flanagan, his defence was outstanding last night and has been since he came back. Read somewhere he went 20 from 20 and some of them were vital against big blokes.

Cooper Cronk said once the best way for players, particularly halves, to get their confidence back was just to concentrate on getting their defence right and everything will come off the back of it.

Hope he’s right.

Take out Teddy and the forward passes, the Roosters attack was no better than ours.

We did defend well Flanagan and King did very well.

Most teams in the NRL are going wide far too often.

Our attack improved marginally, Flanagan definitely the best option for 7 at this stage.

BBO not getting much game time or having much impact.

Klemmer and the Knights fully deserving of the spoon position.

Yeah he's been good in defence but that's not a ticket for him to be off the hook in attack.
He atrocious.

Im hoping Gus is only playing him to increase his value and plans to find a halfback for next year.

The issue I have is the Averillo - Burton problem.
Clearly Avo is a better 5/8th than he is a centre and clearly Burton is a better centre than a 5/8th.

Burton obviously wants the bigger bucks that come with a halves contract but how far can we kid ourselves that he's not?

Averillo is pretty good playing most positions in the backline.

Next season Schoupp and Kiraz might be competing strongly for the centres.

I can also see Tola competing strongly for the fullback position.

Add Maroney and Kicks we have a good starting forward pack.

The young halfback who played in reserve grade seems to have potential.

We might have a lot more competition for places than we have had for at least 5-6 seasons.

I am not as desperate to sign a half as I was a week ago. That isn't just the win, more the way we earned the win.
And also young Hayward the reserve grade half, having a very promising young player changes our options.

Burton and Flanagan do need to improve their short kicking, I was fairly happy with most other parts of their games.

In particular, we were no throwing the aimless long passes that we were last season, Dufty is the man to throw the long pass.

Marki, with that "Burton is a better centre" comment, your credibility is flung straight out the window. Penriff just used him as a makeshift centre last year because they wouldn't release him early. The thing is he killed it for them and as a result a lot of people think he'd be better at centre. He played most of his juniors at half and has never experienced extended periods of yhe position in first grade. Averillo is a good utility and would make a handy 14. Plus if the Dogs forced him to play centre I very much doubt he would his activate contract option for 2024.

I know ODF.
Im just worried he just doesn't get involved in attack like a 5/8th should. Even Flanno at least positions himself in the middle of the park and he is shit.

Burton simply plants himself in the left centre spot. JMK is not smart enough to find him and pass to him, and he just keeps looking for forwards.

If Burton wants to get himself an upgraded deal, he needs to get his hands on the ball more and to do so, needs to move infield.

At the moment, Averillo is 10 times the 5/8th that Burton is. I'd like to see him change this.

I am seeing some improvement in the current players.

We also have some very good young halves 1-3 years away from NRL.

Winning the comp is probably the young halves.

I think we should have a team good enough to make the 8 next season.

Winning the comp is possibly from 2024 onward.

Burton is improving, so is Flanagan, this season and next season are all about preparing for the future.

I am happy if we avoid the spoon this year, the jigsaw is slowly coming together, but some of the pieces are in the lower grades. We don't want to rush players who might be our long term halves pairing.

I am talking about Hayward and Rajab, who I hope will be the reserve grade halves pairing next season.
We will then see how good they are, and how well they combine.

I am not ruling out the current players improving, I expect to make the 8 next season.
I am also not ruling out Burton or Averillo being a long term 5/8.

We have a lot of good young players who can play multiple backline positions, like Averillo, Casey, Tola, Kiraz. We also need to see what the young gun from Fiji can do.

After round 10 we can give some young players a few more opportunities to play NRL.

HD, what you've table below is a fair plan.

The issue I have however is that if you look at our trys from this year, you have the majority being from individual brilliance (JAC, JMK) or Luck trys (Wakeham, JMK etc)

Not many are constructed trys. In fact the few constructed trys we have scored have generally included Dufty and yet this is a player that is not in the mix to be resigned.

That's my concern. The club is still pining its hopes in discovering the next big thing but not dealing with the actual problem in attack.

I honestly feel we need to make a big play at Ben Hunt. He should know his next contract will be for around 600-700k and he is definitely worth that coin, just not 1M. We need him to show the rest of our halves how to demand the ball, we need him to nurture them and we need him to captain the team. 

This season use the weapons we have, JAC and Naden are good at taking intercepts, keep doing that even if it isn't risk free.

TPJ and King are good at offloading, we need to make more use of the offloads.

Dufty is good a passing at the attacking end.

The next few weeks we play teams who are not defending as well as the Storm, Panthers, Souths, Broncos and Roosters. Our attack might look better.

Still plenty to work on and improve.

My optimistic  plan possibly opens a premiership window of 2025-2035, the bigger the window, the more chances.
If we did get Hunt, the window might be 2023-2025, but we can say goodbye to Hayward, and like Thurston we might regret that.

It is a shame I can't quite see us winning a comp before Jacko retires, it might happen, but we will need some luck.

The next time Ben Hunt’s off contract he’ll be 34, he’s not a long term or even mid term solution and we can’t afford short term ones. As HD said we’ll have our kids looking to play NRL in ‘24 and we don’t want to be blocking their path.

I’d take Ben Hunt now for two years but there is no now for two years.

Gus is vey confident our long term half is in the club and I don’t think he’s meaning anyone who’s been tried so far, BBO maybe the possible exception but he needs to show something this year and next or be forever 14 if he stays.

I think you’re missing the point. Flanno is building a nice combination with Dufty and Burton. He is the link man to those two. He is digging into the line and passing. There is little more he should be currently doing with the game plan Baz us using. He is defending better than any half in the comp. Soon he will be able to play some off the cuff forty. But for now he should continue building combinations. 

We are still building combinations. We have played the top five teams from last year. The attack will come once the defence is in order. The team needs confidence. Changing things does not help. Keeping our spine together does.