The Game

[Roosterfarian]

Iku is our new SKD (rocks and diamonds). Can find the line and meterage is good but those bombs are killing us!!

[Steakface]

Dunno what’s going on with JMoz….Injury, retirement looming…

definitely something is off?

Bloke is old.

He is 34 years old and in the outside backs in 1st grade.

He can't compete with the quicker and more agile outside backs these days.

We have to accept that. I'm sure he has. He uses his experience and footy smarts to compete these days rather than sheer speed/agility.

2022 will be his final year in the game,for sure.

[BUDDY]

for me the team needs to be something along the lnes of this for next week.
1. teddy (self explanatory)
2. tups (enough said)
3. billy smith (for me a little overhyped by the pen, but had a good game and jmoz has been poor last few weeks)
4. manu (i would like to see him utilised in the same way turbo did for origin. roaming almost like a second fullback.)
5. iku (gets a pass by default, still strong in attack and does the hard runs, just unsafe under high ball)
6. keighran (just give this man a shot)
7. walker (worried everytime he is tackled but he has shown that he is the future half for us)
8. jwh (oh captain my captain)
9. verrills (his forward passes are infuriating but he's still quality)
10. baker (likes to get his hands on the ball. future forward. origin potential)
11. crichton (the reason we won on the weekend, game changed moment he came on)
12. sitili (for me hes best utilised as a bench plaer to come on and run at tired legs but still a very strong player.)
13. rads (self-explanatory)
14. hutchison (begone lam)
15. nat butcher (a very solid bench player)
16. liu (a very consistent player)
17. egan (needs to put on a few kilos but has potential)

I think Butch has earned a starting position. We can't let teams get a 12 point head start and expect us to fight back. That 6 again on the last tackle that Sitili gave away which led to a try p!ssed me off no end.
Sitili is great in attack but useless in defence. Bring him on after 20-25 minutes is probably best suited for him.

With Teddy back and Smith having had a couple of good games it is time Jmoz had a couple weeks off to refresh himself. Looks like he needs a rest.

[gragra]

Unless Fitzy can fix Sammy's goal kicking, Keighran has to be in the side for his goal kicking alone. That would push Drew to the bench. Sitili's missed tackles means he is best coming off the bench also. JMoz at the moment is just going through the motions. Smith was strong in defence, enthusiasm and deserves his spot. In reality unless they can all go to another level they will just be competitive but notbe going beyond week 2 of the semis.

[Mickie Lane]

Unless Fitzy can fix Sammy's goal kicking, Keighran has to be in the side for his goal kicking alone. That would push Drew to the bench. Sitili's missed tackles means he is best coming off the bench also. JMoz at the moment is just going through the motions. Smith was strong in defence, enthusiasm and deserves his spot. In reality unless they can all go to another level they will just be competitive but notbe going beyond week 2 of the semis.

Reality is there are 4 possibly 5 teams better than the Chooks who will go to another level. For the Chooks to finish 5th or 6th is a very good result under the circumstances.

[Mickie Lane]

I think Butch has earned a starting position. We can't let teams get a 12 point head start and expect us to fight back. That 6 again on the last tackle that Sitili gave away which led to a try p!ssed me off no end.
Sitili is great in attack but useless in defence. Bring him on after 20-25 minutes is probably best suited for him.

With Teddy back and Smith having had a couple of good games it is time Jmoz had a couple weeks off to refresh himself. Looks like he needs a rest.

Who do you start in the backrow if Sitilli is on the bench? I dont think there is anyone better.

[Rooster90]

Who do you start in the backrow if Sitilli is on the bench? I dont think there is anyone better.

Butch, for his defense alone.

You can't have Sitlli defending next to Walker & Morris on current form, that's just asking for 50 point thrashings.

[BUDDY]

Who do you start in the backrow if Sitilli is on the bench? I dont think there is anyone better.

Like I said. Butch has earned a starting spot. Tightens our defence in that first 20-25 minutes. His taking on the line has improved heaps this year too.

[milanja]

Verrills is taking a while to find any form either, hutch was very good, especially to get us back in the game in the first half.

[Dr. Voodoo Man]

Reality is there are 4 possibly 5 teams better than the Chooks who will go to another level. For the Chooks to finish 5th or 6th is a very good result under the circumstances.

I think only 2 teams. Souffs or Parra ain't much.

[Teddy]

I really do hope you mean in defence

The defence is great, always talking to each other making great tackles, how about that low tackle Sitili made on a barnstorming Scott Drinkwater great one on one defence absolute mismatch.

Attack Gee wizz bring back Pearce please.

[ROC181]

How good was Ika.
Since I know that the Chooks are not on the level of the top 4 sides I always feel that they could lose to who ever they are playing. so to win on Saturday was pleasing for me.
Smith, Manu, Hutch & Lam at dummy half all played good.
I would love to find that thread on Goal Kicking & read those posters posts saying goal kicking is not that important. Thats another thing just like you cant win the comp without 2 crack halve you cant win the comp with 3rd & 4th string goal kickers.

Many just want to stick it to him because he dropped 2 bombs, one that IMO was caused by a cows player falling in front of him ( IMO on purpose) just to prevent him from getting to the ball. As if our wingers, apart from BMOz, have never dropped bombs. Toups has dropped many for us and some at critical parts in the game. Iku did a lot of good work in defence and certainly in attack. I also think that just because he doesn't come with the 'gun' tag, like Suaalii, some are looking for any excuse just to get Suaalii to be in the team.

It will be interesting to see what Robbo does next week with Teddy coming back and who he takes out of the backline.
And yes I also agree Hutch & Lam played well in their roles though we still need a kicker on the side.

[BraveTheWorld]

I was super happy with both Butcher's, Smith and Hutchison. And about 80% of Ikavalu.

Keighran has got to be in the 17 somewhere, unless Billy Smith is going to be in the side each week and doing the kicking (his last attempt looked pretty good). We're not a good enough side to be only getting 4-points from every try, and Walker can miss them from anywhere at the moment.

As usual I thought the officiating was abysmal. Just multiple incorrect calls for both sides, and a horrible feel for the game. I'd really love to not have Klein referee any of our games.

With the absolute truckload of injuries and retirements, I can't bring myself to criticize the team too much. They're doing a genuinely phenomenal job to be where they are on the ladder. Only the Storm would be able to match our results under similar circumstances. Any other team would be just about playing for the spoon.

[Cockadoodledoo]

I actually think Lachy Lam looks a lot more comfortable at dummy half than he is at 5/8. Through one pass which was a bit high risk after a try which was dropped but otherwise gave good service and had a few runs. That said we need Keighran in there somewhere as the goalkicking is a massive issue.

[Johnny Tobin]

Happy to get any win given our current injury situation.

Most alarming thing from the game was JMoz's defense and how often he was exposed by anyone with speed/footwork.

He's on the wrong side oft he field. But I agree he's going like a busted.