Official Match Day Thread: Roosters v Warriors

[Rooster_6]

Collins had 5 hit ups in the game

Good, his value these days is in his defensive output. No problems with him just taking play 1 or play 2 carries off set restarts and leaving the late set carries to Whyte, Steep, Leniu or Foketi who are all superior ball carriers.

[roosterchook]

Same team same errors as last year except more ageing players. We won’t improve until Robbo changes the rooster style to something that spells discipline. We can score but not win with the amount of possession we concede through errors and penalties. Not surprised by tonight’s result. We haven’t changed/improved at all. DCE is a liability. Walker’s kicks on 1st tackle are just stupid.

[SamKerrSimp]

Robson was signed before Ioelu had even debuted. Even with the benefit of hindsight I still would've signed Robson but you have to judge the club at the time the signing was made and the information they had to go off at that point. Neither Moriaty or Ioelu had debuted and Brandon Smith was very on the nose (pardon the pun).

I also don't believe the club have expensed their promising young half - Toby Rodwell. I think people just overrate Hugo Savala's ceiling. A 1yr deal for DCE is not at the 'expense' of Toby Rodwell.

Backing youth is not about never signing another player, that's an over simplification of the strategy. Where youth can't fulfil the need of a first grade position to a satisfactory level we are always going to need to look externally. Competition for spots is a healthy thing.

We've seen what Savala can do in first grade he made an immediate impact on the team. We haven't seen anything of Rodwell except for his trial form which has been woeful, if anyone is being overrated here it's Rodwell who has been anointed the saviour of this club without having done anything of note to warrant such praise. 1 year of the Manly dud might not set back the Rodwell development but neither would backing the talent of our own youngster in Hugo Savala.

When it comes to Savala it's not about his ceiling but his floor: he gives us a reliable first grade option there was no reason to throw him on the scrap heap for an old man DCE.

Ioelu didn't have to be playing first grade to be impacted by the Robson signing because Politis, Robson and Holbrook were all talking about the academy and the stack of youngsters we have ready to go an Ioelu was one of them who has taken his chance when presented it.

With the departure of Crichton at the end of the season I am positive that the club will spend on a back rower rather than going all in on Wong/Steep/Foketi

[The Marshall]

Our discipline cost us dearly tonight. Every time the Warriors scored it was off a six again or a penalty. We piggy backed them all night long. We weren’t able to defend well enough to propel them.

The defense was terrible, particularly on the edges. I

[The Marshall]

Robson was signed before Ioelu had even debuted. Even with the benefit of hindsight I still would've signed Robson but you have to judge the club at the time the signing was made and the information they had to go off at that point. Neither Moriaty or Ioelu had debuted and Brandon Smith was very on the nose (pardon the pun).

I also don't believe the club have expensed their promising young half - Toby Rodwell. I think people just overrate Hugo Savala's ceiling. A 1yr deal for DCE is not at the 'expense' of Toby Rodwell.

Backing youth is not about never signing another player, that's an over simplification of the strategy. Where youth can't fulfil the need of a first grade position to a satisfactory level we are always going to need to look externally. Competition for spots is a healthy thing.

The English footbal pundit and Liverpool legend Alan Hansen famously said “you don’t win anything with kids”. You need balance in the squad of youth and experience.

[RoosterFanNZ]

The English footbal pundit and Liverpool legend Alan Hansen famously said “you don’t win anything with kids”. You need balance in the squad of youth and experience.

To be fair he did say that about the man united team which went on to become one of the best teams of all time.

Hoping we could do the same

[Rooster_6]

We've seen what Savala can do in first grade he made an immediate impact on the team. We haven't seen anything of Rodwell except for his trial form which has been woeful, if anyone is being overrated here it's Rodwell who has been anointed the saviour of this club without having done anything of note to warrant such praise. 1 year of the Manly dud might not set back the Rodwell development but neither would backing the talent of our own youngster in Hugo Savala.

When it comes to Savala it's not about his ceiling but his floor: he gives us a reliable first grade option there was no reason to throw him on the scrap heap for an old man DCE.

Ioelu didn't have to be playing first grade to be impacted by the Robson signing because Politis, Robson and Holbrook were all talking about the academy and the stack of youngsters we have ready to go an Ioelu was one of them who has taken his chance when presented it.

With the departure of Crichton at the end of the season I am positive that the club will spend on a back rower rather than going all in on Wong/Steep/Foketi

I don't necessarily disagree with your assessment of DCE but that's kind of secondary to the argument here. Your claim was the clubs strategy around backing youth is bullshit because we signed DCE. I disagree based on the intent the club is showing around Toby Rodwell. You might disagree with the assessment and prioritisation of talent but I think the intent is pretty clear.

I have also have never heard anyone from the club say that we would stop signing players, if a position like hooker was identified as a position where we were short on top level talent the club has never said they wouldn't be going out to buy talent to close those gaps.

Last year we lost two centres and replaced with Rob Toia & Billy Smith. In the middle we lost JWH, Tupouniua & Terrell May and as a result Nafahu Whyte, Blake Steep & Salesi Foketi all got significant minutes in First Grade.

I get you don't like DCE but that doesn't make the clubs strategy around pathways & youth all of a sudden bullshit. There is a very genuine level of commitment from the club to prioritising internal development, you just hold a difference of opinion on one player.

As for Gus Crichton's second row position can we focus on filling the right edge first that still hasn't had anyone's name on it since Aubusson retired.

[caz]

how you view the game depends on whether you're a half glass full person or not. there's a lot to unpack and it's clear this glass is both half full and half empty

[Chook2]

But he was part of that young group of players that Politis and Robinson were talking up in the 2024 off season around the time of the Robson signing.

I'm not against Robson I like him so including him is a bit of a stretch but it's still somewhat valid.

Yes but we need more then just youth and potential
even DCE would have been talked about before savala had made his debut and even in our top 30
Good sides have the right balance of experience and youth and without burning players on expectation early giving them an extra year in nsw cup isn’t a bad thing
tbh Ioelu wouldn’t have made his first grade debut unless injuries struck which have! He looks promising but not there yet
plus you need to get to 95% of the cap and need depth
currently we look short on the larger middles, our edges are questionable and our outside back depth is a worry

[Chook2]

At some stage Trent must look in the mirror and try to see how Bellamy or Cleary work their team
still play to structure
Get the simple basics right, hold the ball, win the possession and territory battle through completions, and fix up the penalaties
most teams won’t be able to hold out against you
maybe robbo has been to nice and let the players just play

there must come a time when you realise being the most error riddled and penalised team this makes if farking hard to compete

Yes it’s only round 1 but these simple things don’t look like they will be fixed any time soon

[HDTONE]

Sad thing is we have very good squad.

We could've walked away with the 2 points last night and it's not just DCE. Very poor discipline, some iffy calls and poor attacking decisions seen us get swamped.


Still that game is gone, but for years we've seen poor discipline, pushed passes, lack of respect for possession.....these are the small things that are crucial and MUST be fixed.

[Bates]

Wong must play right edge. N Butch is too slow and placed the defensive line under loads of pressure last night.

The channel between DCE and N Butch will be the one that's constantly targeted unless it's fixed!

[Lockie]

There’s not a team in the competition that won’t be licking there lips at the prospect of coming up against our forward pack . Yes they work hard but they just won’t scare anyone. They got manhandled last night and the six agains and penalties came from the frustrations of that .
On top of that Robbo as per usual presented a side to kick of the season whose attack looked like they only just met each other . The guys been great for this club but I’m so sick of the way he coaches and prepares this side .

[SamKerrSimp]

The English footbal pundit and Liverpool legend Alan Hansen famously said “you don’t win anything with kids”. You need balance in the squad of youth and experience.

And the team he was aiming that comment at famously won the league and FA cup double that season lol Hansen has been mocked for 30 years over that comment and will get mocked for another 30

[SamKerrSimp]

I don't necessarily disagree with your assessment of DCE but that's kind of secondary to the argument here. Your claim was the clubs strategy around backing youth is bullshit because we signed DCE. I disagree based on the intent the club is showing around Toby Rodwell. You might disagree with the assessment and prioritisation of talent but I think the intent is pretty clear.

I have also have never heard anyone from the club say that we would stop signing players, if a position like hooker was identified as a position where we were short on top level talent the club has never said they wouldn't be going out to buy talent to close those gaps.

Last year we lost two centres and replaced with Rob Toia & Billy Smith. In the middle we lost JWH, Tupouniua & Terrell May and as a result Nafahu Whyte, Blake Steep & Salesi Foketi all got significant minutes in First Grade.

I get you don't like DCE but that doesn't make the clubs strategy around pathways & youth all of a sudden bullshit. There is a very genuine level of commitment from the club to prioritising internal development, you just hold a difference of opinion on one player.

As for Gus Crichton's second row position can we focus on filling the right edge first that still hasn't had anyone's name on it since Aubusson retired.

Considering DCE was the last signing the club made of course it's all I can hang my hat on for now but I'm glad you mentioned the middle forward rotation because you conveniently left out the $800k marquee signing that's only good for coming off the bench for 30 minutes that has been burning a hole in our salary cap and forward rotation minutes that any number of promising young forwards at the club could be taking oh and then there was the massive David Fifita deal that he thankfully back flipped on.

I stand by my comments and we will see more big name signings this year and next in positions we already have young talent in.

I'll make another bold prediction: Rex Bassingthwaite won't be the guy to replace Teddy when he finally calls it a day we'll sign an established fullback from somewhere else.