We have lost only JAC while Souths have half their team out.

NRL couldn't possibly have much more to give us a leg up in this one.

Let's just play better, take the points and move on.

$$$

I could say there is a common theme for players you don’t want… and it really ain’t $$$…

The idea of getting a player like Tino is to get us on the front foot… cos we have no grunt up front…

Your constant claims that Teams don’t need to win the forward battle to win games are asinine at very best…

Even though a dead rubber… It will mean a hell of a lot to blokes like Big Red…

Still no answer on who Mock would sign that is actually available huh???… 

Marki reminds me of the "TK" crowd. They all want instant success but don't realise that the mess that previous boards and coaches have left us in is no quick fix and it may take years to repair. Where it may have taken 5 years in the past it may now take 7 - 10 because the NRL keep adding more teams into the mix reducing the capability of a club to rebuild efficiently or effectively.

I don't  see it as being about us or Souths. More about  how the game is run. 

I'd agree if we were fielding a full strength first grade side, but ⅔ of our team are cup quality, so I would say we are on an even keel with this one. Let's gauge our performance from here.

Hey Marki, what do you say..... no tries off kicks or lucky bounces.

I am happy just to have a win.

Not that happy with the last 20 mins, we played like a side that has forgotten how to win.

Flanno off the bench didn't seem to work.

Hopefully this gives the players some confidence.

Avo good at fullback, at least in attack.

Reserve grade had another good win, hopefully some players pressing for NRL selection.

Reasonably happy with the 3 guys on debut, showed some potential, defence a bit lacking at times but probably no worse than Allamotti.

You know even less about footy than I thought you did.

Tino is exactly what we need, his price is becuase many clubs know a player like Tino increases their chances of winning.

Lol. No. But to be fair to Marki. He does have some good ideas. He just fails to understand why they wouldn’t work. 

Tino would be at the top of my shopping list just after Haas. Ideally both would be perfect. 

Toby Sexton. The ideal halfback for us currently. I hope he gets better, because he has the potential to be great. It’s fantastic to finally see a halfback run deep into the line. I can’t remember a halfback at our club doing that for years. I wanted him to partner Burton years ago. There is a long way to go, but I get the feeling we have found our halfback. 

Yep, about time we moved away from just kick and hope.

I love the difference Sexton has made. He just goes to the line and then slips the pass to Burton who then has his inside defender late to shuffle across and the outside defenders getting pulled in.

It's only a fraction of a second or afew metres but it makes the world of difference. Good turnaround by the Dogs.

My night ended up 1 from 2 having gone to the Giants vs Hawks game next door, before the Dogs game. Now onto SOO3 and hopefully a Qld sweep

For mine, without pen and paper, the NRLol needs to have a 3 week break with something along the lines of… Men’s  origin Friday, Ladies Sat 530… Sat/Sun NZ, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, PNG and even, if needed  a ‘rest of the world team’ tests, and a 2-3 week 7s tourney for the rest… plenty of tv fodder.. this crap about stopping the ‘momentum’ of the NRLol is absolute crap…
Fvcking ‘innovators’ huh???… Come up with your crappy rule changes each year (or week) but can’t do anything that would actually benefit the game and comp…

dman, I am picking up from listening to other coaches that even they think the competition goes too long. What do they expect when the NRLol are adding more teams. V'Landys has absolutely fúck all idea if the thinks that diluting the elite players pool and lengthening the season is a recipe for success. The fans can see the results, and it's ruining the game.

Yes, we have been playing without a proper halfback since Noddy got injured.

I watched a bit of our 2012 Semi win over Souths, the team was great, but I quickly lost count of the number of times the halves bungled the play.

Even in 2012, it was very odvious that the lack of a decent halfback was costing us. Now over 10 years later we finally have a solution.

Out of Tino and Haas I prefer Tino,  we will be lucky to get one of them. Dragons apparently after Thompson who I assumed is on a higher salary than his availability deserves.

I don't think that the Dragons are actually that short of middle forwards, not as short as we currently are.

I think adding more teams will generate more talent over time. We need a team in Perth, another in New Zealand and a northern based team representing PNG could even be worth looking at. We need more juniors playing. And W.A. Is ideal. As is New Zealand. We desperately need to increase participation. 

Yes. If we had Noddy in 2012 we would have won the comp.  Hasler changed our whole style making forwards play in the halves because our halves were so shit. 

That's  the problem,  adding more teams does just that, adds more teams  but does not increase the talent pool. Redcliffe  was already an NRL area so talent pool diluted not expanded. Storm a classic example of a wasted opportunity. Something like half a dozen true Melbourne  local NRL players in 25 years.

We looked much better with Toby in the halves and Avo at fullback.

Avo at fullback should have been tried earlier. 

Short term Sutton is probably out next game.

If we can strengthen the forwards we have the spine and outside backs to be competitive.

Sutton off injured was a factor in the late run by Souths. We need to forget Flanno and the 2 hooker roation until we have a bigger forwards pack.

Talent is partly a matter of scouting and development.

We have been doing that for 2-3 years, some good talent in the lower grades.

Enough talent is a simply a matter of having enough clubs doing development.

Often the weaker clubs just have too many young players, or are missing depth in particular positions.

In just about any era 2-3 clubs are well off the pace.

The NRL hasn't developed the game much in Vic, SA and WA. For example I doubt that there is a well developed junior competition.

Often young talented atheletes can play multiple sports well, there is always competition amoungst sports. In that area league needs to be able to give young players a good offer.

The NRL should start by working out the idea competition in terms of teams and rounds. Whatever that number of teams is, all teams employ 30 or more players, and all should be in the business of developing talent.

The talent of the players has little impact on the quality of the game and the level of entertainment. Our game against Souths was an example of that. Both teams were fairly weak, but fairly evenly matched. Players with talent stood out in an entertaining game. Had either side come up against a full strength Panthers side, it would have been a boring one sided contest.

Panthers have developed most of their talent, Warriors and Dogs are trying to follow a similar formula.

Bugger…

Batsmen did their job, looking good.

The bowlers might have got wickets, but they didn't score enough runs.

Or as Dr Marki would say, we are too reliant on taking wickets to win games, we need to play a smarter game and stop trying to get wickets with the ball, perhaps we can try juggling or handball?

Adding teams in areas where there is potential to have higher junior numbers is important. Without a team in Perth means most kids don’t have a path to the NRL. A club in any area creates more interest in the sport and should bring money to invest in junior teams. If the game doesn’t expand it will not grow and support will dwindle. One way to grow the game is to grow the junior pathways. It’s why we should have kept teams in Adelaide and Perth and why we should have them in the future. 

Growth is not only just about player participation.
Growing fan bases and revenue streams is equally important. 

Having the Storm in melb has opened up the game to the 2nd biggest city in the country, so it's obviously been a good move for the game. 

When Uzzy makes runs he is still a batsman, he has never bowled a ball in test cricket or kept wicket that I am aware of. Besides the side needs 1 specalist batsman.

Everyone else in the top 7 is a bowler when they make runs, and a batsman when they don't. 

Makes it easy to complain about the batsmen.

Grub is officially retiring in reserve grade for 100th and final time.

That will get a good crowd in for reserve grade at Belmore, Grub will be pumped and so will the fans.

With BBO back, Toby arriving and Flanno playing hooker / 14, not much need for grub now. He did come in handy for a few games and probably helped the young guys.

It is a bit of a joke that we don't have a true national comp, just about every other major sport has one. AFL, soccer, basket ball?, netball.

The other thing that we could do is go to say 20 teams and have 19 rounds, playing each team home / away alternative years. They can split rounds with a 5/5 split of games over 2 weeks if they need to keep TV games up.

Or have a 3 week rep break in the middle of the season.

With only 9 home games they perhaps need to add some extra games in to make membership more appealing.
Odviously go to 18 teams first. Then plan to add Perth and Adelaide a few years down the track having given some players in those areas a pathway to reserve grade in advance.

It will also add to TV revenue.