Player Reviews - your thoughts?

[Steakface]

Thoughts.....................

- Marty Kennedy is too soft to be anything other than a benchie at this stage. The Luke O Donnell signing to me shows that Trent Robinson has a lack of faith in Marty to be an agressor

- Jared played well..no obvious grub and seemed to make decent meters. Clearly taking the captaincy seriously

- There is not a great deal of talking going on out there aside from Mitch Pearce. Mini doesnt seem to be inspiring/leading the side unfortunately

-As soon as Moga is back / Henry or Oldfield are ready, SKD should be sent to Newtown for a stint. His attitude, as documented, has been ordinary and his application on the field is atrocious. Inglis made him look like my grandmother

-Jennings is a weapon ... that there is a real attacking centre

-RTS and Toupu look scared out there

-I miss the shoulder charge. Both sides looked tentative in this respect and it took a lot of sting out of the game.....felt a bit like Union at times

Tonight shows me what I suspected....that we have the makings of an exciting team, but we are a team with no REAL leader and we are also one good prop short, unless Tasi shows something when he comes back.

Your thoughts?

[Thirteen]

Their half controlled the game and his short kicking game was excellent. Pearce should be studying this bloke.

[Guest]

Their half controlled the game and his short kicking game was excellent. Pearce should be studying this bloke.

13 I agree - I reckon we just poach him.

[Arties Pie]

I thought SKD was a liability again this game, personally i think Mini needs to go to the wing as RTS can't cope being outside of SKD defensively. A number of times SKD went inside and the poor kid is left with 2 infront of him and thats only going to end one way, Jennings was awesome, with only that pass to Mini being the only bad point.
Friendy is still screwing around at the ruck defensively, slowing it up and giving away silly penalties. I thought Pearce's kicking game was crap, did we force one goal line drop out ?
I thought our forwards ( except for Friend ) did well against a massive pack a big thumbs up.
Souths will be hard to beat this year and i thought we did reasonably well in parts.

[Guest]

Some observations:
- SKD has improved his tackling technique - I actually saw him use his shoulder a couple of times. Apart form that he was underwhelming.
- Maubs was very good imo. has been heavily criticsed on here of late and definitely showed a lot on here why he is still in the side.
- Pearce showed glimpses of mass improvement. Found space with all his kicks just didnt have enough ball/opportunities.
- JWH is in for a massive year - he was immense. Moa was also very strong and will prove more than handy
- Jennings is electric.
- If RTS was better defensively, it could have been a different ball game but he is worth persisting with

[player 1]

Refs played excellently for Souffs. Only picking up one penalty against them in 60 minutes -that takes effort and commitment, well done.

Have you seen that Scott Woods youtube video about our chances this year (posted several times here) - he's pretty spot on. We lack one single potent playmaker. We have some good backs and forwards this year, but the "spine" positions are weak.

Mini does not break tackles, can't pass, is slow and gets in the way. Nobody is scared of him. In 2005 he could do anything from anywhere.

Maloney - an improvement on Anasta definitely, but a defensive liability

Pearce - not the go to man, and never will be. Nobody is scared of him.

Friend - tackles his arse off, but too small and slow to be a threat - makes one line break every 2 years.

Having said that, Souffs had nothing; without cheating Cummins and his mongo partner we would still have won in spite of our ineptitude.

[Ray Stehr]

Souffs had nothing; without cheating Cummins and his mongo partner we would still have won in spite of our ineptitude.

I'm glad you're not the coach.

[Guest]

mini was sound at fullback. didn't stand out, he was solid and did his job.
tupou was quiet, didn't see much.
Jennings is a weapon. poor decision making cost us a try, but he looked dangerous when he touched the ball.
skd was better than everyone is saying. he was actually quite good in defence, his execution let him down. ill give him the benefit of the doubt.
rts is not a winger. where are the w*nkers saying that he has to be in the side? show yourselves. his poor defensive reads cost let in 2 or 3 tries. if he isn't playing fullback, he shouldn't be playing at all. you can have all the talent in the world, but if you are that bad in defence, you shouldn't be there. also butchered a late try. 2nd worst on ground.
Maloney looked sharp. good to finally have a no. 6.
pearce was ordinary. started well, dropped off.
jwh was excellent, never gave up.
friend tried hard, again. he looks a lot better than last year.
moa toiled, did nothing wrong, and deserves his spot ahead of kennedy.
Guerra and aubs I didn't see much of. aubs look good a few times down the flank, with no support.
fpn was rubbish. why any coach persists with him at lock is beyond me. 3rd worst on ground.

morts was fairly useless. nothing against him, but having him come on with 15 to go and the game gone was a waste of a bench spot we could've used on a forward to match souths' pack.
kennedy was awful. disgraceful. soft. got put on his arse by burgess, and instead of doing something about it, he got softer.
sbw showed glimpses of what he could do. did nothing wrong.
arona isn't a first grader, but he did his job.

[Ray Stehr]

13 I agree - I reckon we just poach him.

Agree with this. and we should poach Isaac Luke as well.

[Guest]

on the referees, cummins wasn't bad. chris james the f*ckwit had a shocker. they always seem to have shockers when the roosters are playing. he was f*cked.

[Jacks Fur Coat]

Out of the carve up by the officials... jwh our best followed by mini.

The 3 new boys all went pretty good and will only improve

Overall no major concerns with our play.

[elo]

Mini - 5/10, played to his ability (which isn't good enough to be a first grade fullback in 2013) and was caught out of position by Reynolds a couple of times which is one area he's usually right on point with, I'd like RTS there sooner rather than later.

Tupou - 6/10, not much involvement but looked good in possession when he did get it.

Jennings - 8/10, needed to give him more ball, he gave Champion a bath 4/5 times we went his way. Bombed a try, but still worthy of an 8.

SKD - 2/10, Shaun Kenny Dumb turned up today, after being controlled and dominating in defence during the Foundation Cup he returned to his brain explosive best tonight, he panicked EVERY time Souths went his way, running out of the line, rushing in at STUPID angles, so so frustrating.

RTS - 4/10, some nice touches in possession, earned our only penalty in the first 60 minutes of the game with a half break. Had no confidence in SKD so was caught out time after time leading to his opposing winger picking up a hat-trick, not good. I want to see him at fullback and soon.

Maloney - 6/10, not much involvement but solid when he was, his 1 on 1 defence is shocking, always gets dominated and dragged along when he's forced to make one.

Pearce - 6/10, looked on fire at the start, sharp, quick flat passing at the line to both sides of the ruck, became more and more ineffective as the penalties starting mounting up against us.

JWH - 8/10, he looked really good, harshly penalised for not being square when he was.

Friend - 7/10, really solid game, very sharp at the start of the match but as fatigue sent in became ineffective, harshly penalised for a strip which clearly was not one.

Moa - 7/10, I thought he was good, he did look small out there though.

Guerra - 6/10, solid but didn't receive enough ball in good positions, a shocking penalty against him for holding the ball when Sam Burgess CLEARLY pinned his arm down, Guerra was furious at this penalty and rightly so. His defence was down on his standard, some sloppy effort.

Aubusson - 7/10, good match from Maubs, tried very hard to cover SKD's arse but boy oh boy what a challenge that is. Made a nice break but SKD was asleep in the background and missed out on a certain and easy try if he was supporting properly.

FPN - 4/10, what a frustrating player this guy is. His first stint was a disgrace, FPN thought he was a half-back, half-running to the line and popping high risk passes, so, so frustrating after the rampaging hit-ups from the second half of the Foundation Cup.

Mortimer - NA/10, didn't do much, hard to rate.

Kennedy - 4/10, ugh. Give Napa a run.

SBW - 6/10, a really solid first showing from SBW, good signs from him IMO. He did a lot of tackling and ran some smart lines, will only get better.

Arona - 3/10, a genuine reserve grader, would have preferred Napa.

[Guest]

Their half controlled the game and his short kicking game was excellent. Pearce should be studying this bloke.

The refs controlles the game

[Guest]

Jennings best on field.

SKD worst.

[Guest]

Some observations:
- SKD has improved his tackling technique - I actually saw him use his shoulder a couple of times. Apart form that he was underwhelming.
- Maubs was very good imo. has been heavily criticsed on here of late and definitely showed a lot on here why he is still in the side.
- Pearce showed glimpses of mass improvement. Found space with all his kicks just didnt have enough ball/opportunities.
- JWH is in for a massive year - he was immense. Moa was also very strong and will prove more than handy
- Jennings is electric.
- If RTS was better defensively, it could have been a different ball game but he is worth persisting with

Yeh RTS isnt a winger !!

Put mini there
And i dont think i saw mini speak to the team once in the huddle
He isnt inspiring at all