We also lost rd 1 in 2013 in a poor performance

[4 the all in brawl]

For me the Cowboys and the Storm are the benchmark but we have more improvement in us with the squad we have.

Hopefully Keary will be back next week and in a couple of weeks the attack will start to click.

I thought Manu has learnt to tackle and Fergo was our best.....

I am excited by Radley, I just hope Robbo uses him better.

Yes, we were poor yesterday, but

Some good signs....

[Chris]

I don't think we were bad. Infact, I think the Tigers were actually quite good. Cronk had some good touches, his 40/20 in particular was class. Fergo was outstanding, the forwards need to step up a bit. Tedesco was obviously pretty nervous, but he'll grow each week and we'll be better when Keary is back.

Yes, disappointing in Round 1 but let's see how we progress over the next month.

[IRoosterManI]

We lost in 2013 against a pretty strong Rabbitohs team who went on to be be a top 4 side... Tigers wont even make the 8 imo

[4 the all in brawl]

We lost in 2013 against a pretty strong Rabbitohs team who went on to be be a top 4 side... Tigers wont even make the 8 imo

Fair points,

But we were beaten by 18 and SBW was very tentative in that game. Perhaps Teddy had that sort of game yersterday, I actually thought Cronk was pretty good.

Our dummy half rotation is a worry (Friend also should not be captain) and Napa needs a rocket up his arse.

Cordner will be better for his first hit out and Keary will be back.

A much improved showing against the Dogs if it happens makes for more optimism. I am not going to write us off after rd 1.

Our forwards are the problem but apart from Napa who wont be dropped yet as we dont have a prop beating down the door yet. But I hope the Silly Farmer and Collins kick on as I heard they were good for the Roos yesterday. Dummy half is also, Friend has seen his best days in 2013 and that is now an age ago

I would like to see Butcher in the 17 soon, Matto has never really inspired me and is now too slow to play in the halves (which King Salvo has been advocating) and possibly the edges too. He has bulked too much and should be just over 100kgs and not nearly 110kgs. I think he has bulked up a bit extra to handle playing in the forwards, but, if he had more mongrel he wouldn't need that extra bulk which has slowed him imo.

Toops to the bench he looked lost out there yesterday lol.

Contrary to what most on this forum thinks, Toops is not the problem, he was one of our best last year before the groin injury....

[Frozen Chook]

The last two premierships we won we didn't exactly jump out of the box, in 2002 we lost 4 in a row after winning the opening round and really we weren't in anyone's minds that we would win the comp, sitting down at the bottom of the table going into round 6.

[Mad_Rooster_in_GraceLand]

For me the Cowboys and the Storm are the benchmark but we have more improvement in us with the squad we have.

Hopefully Keary will be back next week and in a couple of weeks the attack will start to click.

I thought Manu has learnt to tackle and Fergo was our best.....

I am excited by Radley, I just hope Robbo uses him better.

Yes, we were poor yesterday, but

Some good signs....

Good to see some real objectivity on here dude.

[Mad_Rooster_in_GraceLand]

The last two premierships we won we didn't exactly jump out of the box, in 2002 we lost 4 in a row after winning the opening round and really we weren't in anyone's minds that we would win the comp, sitting down at the bottom of the table going into round 6.

Yes man, we will have some more poor performances this season man but as long as we win 16 or so we should end up in the top 4.

[Rooster_6]

I remember being more optimistic coming out of the 2013 game, maybe it's because expectations were lower but I just didn't feel like we showed anything at all last night.

At the moment the biggest positive I can find is... surely that's the worst we'll play all season. Tedesco & Cronk will only get better.

I thought Cooper Cronk was quiet and needed to get his hands on the ball more so we could get some more expansive distribution.
I thought Tedesco was very poor, he stayed so central all game and we barely saw him get any ball on the edges in attack.
I didn't see anything new from Jake Friend, still making too many tackles and making poor decisions under fatigue.
Our centres combined took had 9 runs in the game.
I thought our style of play was far too rigid given the talent we have on the edges.
Our forwards played as individuals not as a pack.
Blake Ferguson was the only individual who showed any signs of progression from last year.

In 2013 we showed huge signs of progression, felt like we really regressed from 2017 last night.

End of the day it's only one game and it's a different level of expectation that we carried into this game but I think anyone would be lying if they said our first hit out wasn't at the least a little bit concerning.

Just found my post after Round 1 2013, definitely a lot more optimistic and positive.
http://www.thechookpen.com.au/vb5/fo...erformance-but

[Johnny73]

I am an advocate for the 20/20 rule with Friend and Garvey. Friend does the hard yards for the first twenty then Garvey runs around tiring players at the end of both halves.

[<ME>]

I remember being more optimistic coming out of the 2013 game, maybe it's because expectations were lower but I just didn't feel like we showed anything at all last night.

At the moment the biggest positive I can find is... surely that's the worst we'll play all season. Tedesco & Cronk will only get better.

I thought Cooper Cronk was quiet and needed to get his hands on the ball more so we could get some more expansive distribution.
I thought Tedesco was very poor, he stayed so central all game and we barely saw him get any ball on the edges in attack.
I didn't see anything new from Jake Friend, still making too many tackles and making poor decisions under fatigue.
Our centres combined took had 9 runs in the game.
I thought our style of play was far too rigid given the talent we have on the edges.
Our forwards played as individuals not as a pack.
Blake Ferguson was the only individual who showed any signs of progression from last year.

In 2013 we showed huge signs of progression, felt like we really regressed from 2017 last night.

End of the day it's only one game and it's a different level of expectation that we carried into this game but I think anyone would be lying if they said our first hit out wasn't at the least a little bit concerning.

Just found my post after Round 1 2013, definitely a lot more optimistic and positive.
http://www.thechookpen.com.au/vb5/fo...erformance-but

Robbinson has direct impact on the ‘ongoing’ shortcomings bolded above. He, Trent, takes the football out of footballers..

[Mickie Lane]

I am an advocate for the 20/20 rule with Friend and Garvey. Friend does the hard yards for the first twenty then Garvey runs around tiring players at the end of both halves.

Bit hard to do that since Garvey has left the club. I think Friend on for 15 then Radley.

[Rooster_6]

Robbinson has direct impact on the ‘ongoing’ shortcomings bolded above. He, Trent, takes the football out of footballers..

I don't believe that to be true at all, we played a very expansive game for the past 5 years and I think players like James Maloney, Roger Tuivasa Sheck & Luke Keary all played their best ever seasons as a direct result of that. To say he takes the football out of these guys I think is misguided.

Yesterday was the 2nd fewest touches Latrell Mitchell has ever had in a game of NRL. That's not an 'ongoing shortcoming'

The part I do agree that seems to be an ongoing issue is the forward pack. At our best '13-'15 these guys would hunt as a pack in defence and attack. I think I saw a total of 3 passes between the forwards yesterday, there as far too much one out running and I can't recall an occasion where we hunted as a pack in defence at all. Any inspiration or intimidation in defence was coming from individuals trying to change the game.

End of the day I think we need to give them at least 5 rounds to settle into their structures and pattern of play but these are definitely going to be interesting talking points over the next month to see how they address these issues.

[Guest]

I think the difference with round 1 in 2013 was that we had so many new players with a new coach that it was bound to take some time to get in to the groove of things. Yesterday afternoon we had 10 of the 17 blokes playing who played in the round 1 game the previous year and only James Tedesco and Cooper Cronk were playing their first ever game for our; compare that to the round 1 in 2013 with 4 high profile debutants and a few youngsters like Tuivasa-Sheck and Tupou as well as the context of the opposition we played against, South's were a hamstring tear away from making the grand final the year before and would go on to win the premiership the season after.

Optimism is a good thing to have but I personally can't draw any relations between round 1 of 2013 and yesterday afternoon.

[King Salvo]

I don't know if Robbo has 5 or 6 weeks to hope the combos gel - if this is the game plan he is hoping will do this then he is sadly mistaken - they could be 0 for 5 or 0 for 6 by that stage - you have a backline for a reason not just to make up the 13 required to be on the field - Use it (The backline) or Lose it (The match). Freddy was spot on when he said he was really disappointed with the Roosters game as they threw nothing in attack at the Tigers despite having two quality attacking backs in Latrell and Fergo - I think Fergo needs to be moved to centre for attack- they can play both sides in attack and have Tedesco chiming in on either side with of course support players backing up any break made

[King Salvo]

I think the difference with round 1 in 2013 was that we had so many new players with a new coach that it was bound to take some time to get in to the groove of things. Yesterday afternoon we had 10 of the 17 blokes playing who played in the round 1 game the previous year and only James Tedesco and Cooper Cronk were playing their first ever game for our; compare that to the round 1 in 2013 with 4 high profile debutants and a few youngsters like Tuivasa-Sheck and Tupou as well as the context of the opposition we played against, South's were a hamstring tear away from making the grand final the year before and would go on to win the premiership the season after.

Optimism is a good thing to have but I personally can't draw any relations between round 1 of 2013 and yesterday afternoon.

Chalk and cheese between the two games - no excuses for yesterday performance and the worry is that this game plan will be ongoing under Robbo- Does not seem to have faith in the backline or a plan to play attacking footy - This grind them down stuff will eventually grind me down too.