I think I need something stronger than the beers

That’s what is killing us.... these f’ken 6 again calls continue to go the other way , but we had our fair share today & we do nothing to capitalise. Yes we did try hard today & great to see Hetherington & Ogden fire up, unlike that cat Napa!!

I was happy with the effort and a lot of the defence.

The differnce was Souths put their plays together, we lapsed and lost confidence in attack.

I didn't think the ref was bad, but the penalty against Hertherington was a joke.

The team needs to keep up this level of effort and we need to drop a few players.

This ref gives a lot of six against, which probably makes him one of the most consistent

Meaney broken ribs, finally playing good footy in his best position.

I agree with Baz the best thing the club has going for it at present is our young players.

He is protective of Flanagan,  I know it isn't all his fault but our attack is pedestrian.

Good teams should defend 6 agains and good teams take advantage.

We had a great start, but lost momentum when Lewis went off.

Still apart from a few plays round 1, we don't execute well in attack.

In particular Cotric was in space a couple of times and kicked, if he just runs hard, there is some chance he beats the tackle. The first kick was ok and nearly turned into something, the 2nd kick was low percentage.

It is a chicken and egg situation at present, players are lacking confidence, that is causing errors. 

Anyway Baz seems up for the challenge, but a bit frustrated.

He isn't playing straight enough and everyone knows what is coming.

Likewise Elliott would be better off running straight, keep the inside run as the variation.

What we need is more hard straight running from our 2nd rowers and centres.
Watch Penrith, everyone runs hard. Today Hetheringon, Odgen, and  Atoni did their job.
The Newsreader ran hard at times.... sadly now injured.
Britt and Elliott were ok, no thrust fron Napa, Stimson, Waddell, Cotric and Hoppa.
Of this list Cotric has the ability.

Lets not smack everyone.  I think that wad a grand effort against what I think is a GF bound team. We did wrlk and we'll only get better.

Baz needs to bring out the Browny bitch slap...

We need a hooker and two props for next year. 

We are not that far off even though getting beat by plenty. Burton and the Fox should bring us some points if we have a hooker and a couple of hard running props to put us in position to score. 

Why do I support shit teams?
Dogs lose without scoring a point (again) and Perth Glory lose without scoring a goal.

Someone has it in for me....

The Sea eagles might be lower than us in the ladder but I think we are in bigger shit.

Sooner or later it will click for them. 
Yet for us..... I dont know where to start.
We are like a bucket leaking water from a whole bunch of holes. You plug 1 and water leaks from all the others.

Flanagan has been incredibly dissapointing. He was outplayed by Katoa who was thrust into an unfamiliar role. 

I seriously dont know where Barrett goes from here. I'm at the point where I'd prefer he was honest and blasted the players in the media or tapped players on the shoulder and told them from now to start looking elsewhere as he wont resign them.

We need a Ricky Stuart type attitude and cleanout.

Yep we need to build on our strengths and fix up our weaknesses.

It isn't as bad as it looks, even though it looks abysmal.

It is a big test for the coaches and players at the Dogs and Manly, just to stay focused, positive, keep working hard and stick to the job.

I like the idea of Jackson, Topine and Thompson keeping the middle tight.
Then try Averillo at fullback, Wakeham or Deitz off the bench.
Katoa is a better half than hooker.

The edge defence finally looked better. 
Shore up the middle  add some pace and hard running.

Your teams match the quality of their supporter. The effort was there. Looked good on the edge with Cotric making some breaks but didn't spread the ball enough. Outplayed but next week will have Thompson and Jacko back. Lack of size continues to be a problem. 

I wish Dr Marki was a Roosters supporter ...

A positive.  We are  definitely  having  a positive  effect  on the discipline  of the teams we play. They have  only conceded a total of  6 penalties in 4 games. A commendable  effort we should  be proud  of.

Today was a better effort in defensive line speed.
The problem however is that by not scoring, the pressure mounts and we are still soft on our goaline defence.

It's quite obvious we try to test the refs patience by holding players down on tackle 1, so I cant blame the refs on the 6 agains. What annoys me is that we often give away the 6 again for no reason. It's not like we are stretched and need that extra few seconds to reset our defence. We do it just to trst the ref. I blame our tactics.

Coz we arent a team that can afford to give away field territory. We should train ourselves to reduce these 6 agains to zero. Especially against the good teams that can hurt you.

Speaking of good teams.....
The loss to Broncos just goes to show how much pressure this team has put itself under. We played penrith before it, and Souths and Storm after it. These are probably the top 4 teams of the comp. We could easily be 0-5 next week.

Had we beaten the Bronx, we wouldn't think much but losing all 5 games is demoralising.

Just saw the press conference.
Barrett seems to be deflecting with excuses still  but at least the seems to think he knows what is needed to fix the attack.

The problem is.... knowing what the problem is and being able to change the way they play are 2 completely different things.

I cant wait till this team gets a second player with footy brain. It will double our intelligence. 

Right now Meaney seems to be the only one out there with a brain.

Baz said there is no quick fix.
Most of the teams at the top of the table have experienced coaches who have been there a few seasons.
They set standards and adapt the squad as needed.
We don't yet know if Baz is in that class, the only way to find out is to give him 3 years.

With the changes at board level and coaching and the poor squad Pay had mostly due to SC issues, it is a rebuild from ground zero. I did hope that we would be going better, but this is reality.

The Storm will be even harder to beat than Souths.

What we want to do, is make them earn their points, and show some improvement in attack.

My assumption that that players are not getting it right in attack, then panicking and taking bad options in the 2nd half of games. It seems like a lot is wrong, no surprise that the coach can see it, when we can see it.

Moving Meaney to fullback was the right move shame that he got injured. This shows me Baz reacts to what he sees and tries things.

Looks like a grind of steady improvement this season. We need to work on all areas. If the defence is tight that takes some pressure off the attack, if we throw some attack at the opposition that drains their energy and they throw less attack at us.

You are right, the Broncos game was an opportunity for a win. The Storm have Grant, Finucane and some other good player coming back in. It will be tough. 

Barrett and co trying to sugar coat it a bit .. Let’s face it the fans have been Gaslighted  . These players have been signed on good money so they should adapt to any situation.. this takes time to gel does not cut it .. Either the team is poorly coached or managers  are very good in sales.

I don't  quibble about the penalties we concede. I only point out that our opponents seem to improve their  discipline when they play us

I think there was very little targeted recruitment  this year. Two of our higher profile recruits, Flanagan and Allen, basically fell into our lap after being dumped by their clubs. They were opportunistic recruits as opposed to targets. Only time will tell if this was good luck or not.

I think both Flanagan and Allen will prove to be good signings.... my concern is that Cotric is listed at Centre, plays part of the game at centre, yet is shunted to the wing.... at Canberra his carries were fantastic to get the Raiders set off to a strong start, so far nothing has clicked for the kid at Belmore. 

The coach and players are probably disappointed and expected to be going better.

They had the off season to prepare, but so far the other teams have simply had better players.

Edge defence was sloppy in the trial and rounds 1-3 , attack was good round 1.

Young players are simply inconsistent.

The handful of older players we do have are getting close to the the end of their career, good games get further apart.

Flanagan and Allan are specalist in their positions, Flanagan is young, he is either going to turn out to be really good or he will never make it. Allan is a dependable reliable player.

I am not seeing much evidence the coach and recruitment team got it badly wrong. I am seeing many cases of players making dumb decisions the team lacking confidence and team work.

I think we will look like a much better side after our first win, the problem is getting that win. But it could come at anytime, when we least expect it, but probably not against Melbourne.

The only problems I see that mean we go nowhere this season are.
1. Baz needs to keeps picking poorly performing players due to skiny squad depth, injuries, suspensions.
2. The team confidence and energy levels are sapped and they become a rabble.

We need players who are winners and competitors by nature, who work hard for a win.
IMO Jackson, Elliott,  Hetherington, Thompson and Topine can provide that energy, I would be keeping all 5 in the side but giving Topine the occasional rest.
We need players who can break the line Schoupp and Doorey are my picks. 
With the Newsreader injured, Averillo should be fullback.we should at least try that option.

Reckon he is one of only about 2 who look like they could go places....seemed to work well with Allan yesterday but didn't go there enough

....you got your wish years ago.

Well I can at least enjoy the rest of this Easter Long Weekend in peace... after yesterday’s bloodbath, I won’t be watching many games if any. 

There's  2 game styles the storm play.
They can play the Bulldog-like grind (at which point we might stand a chance) or they can play the expansive style (at which point they'll blow us off the park).

Most importantly, they are quite good at switching between styles, while we cant even master the 1 style we have been trying for the last 5 years.