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Round 1: WESTS TIGERS vs TITANS (2023)

Was the perfect game of bend don’t break. Refereeing was completely against us today and we found a way to win. Defence looked great! The silly (and potentially game changing) errors that continue to plague us the last 10 years are still there but I think the titans of old would have folded. Some work to do but let’s drink in a round one win. Cheers boys
 
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So proud of the effort and heart from the boys in defence, as others have said all momentum and possession was against us, not to mention we only got 1 6 again and 1 penalty, but we still found a way to get it done. So encouraging to see Fifita doing the dirty work, and I think he will have the best season of his career next to Foz (praying hes okay.) Was so impressed by all our recruits and in particular pleasantly surprised with Stimson and Schoupp, they were both animals in D and I would keep Stimson on that right edge.

Cheers to a great start to the year lads!
 
Stimson was massive and Schoup did very well. Our right side defense was great.

Fifita put in a big effort and having outside Foran will unleash him this year.

Overall great defensive effort all round particular with the ridiculous one sided reffing so hats off to Brett White.

Interesting to see Mal in the coaches box.
 
What a awful start! I felt like I was going to have a stroke.
Schoup hits hard in defence and is very physical. Him and Naden use to play together at the dogs and I think they got into a push and shove before. I would like to see schoup bring that intensity into the next game.
Foran is such a good player. Multiple times he put shots on and ran into the line. Hope he’s ok.
You could see once we got a quick play the ball verrils helped keep the momentum going.
 
All the new recruits made a big difference dogs gonna regret letting schoup go he's got that dawg in him always wants to dominate his opposing center so strong in defence
 
I have to be honest, Boyd struggled defensively again and he really doesnt bring enough to the table offensively to justify carrying him and his inability to read to play in defense. I hate to say it because the bloke seems like a great guy with a good team first attitude.
 
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hungryjacks said:
I have to be honest, Boyd struggled defensively again and he really doesnt bring enough to the table offensively to justify carrying him and his inability to read to play in defense. I hate to say it because the bloke seems like a great guy with a good team first attitude.
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I thought his off-ball contributions, getting to spots on the field, consistency with how sets are playing out was solid. That’s what you need a halfback to do when he’s not directly involved in where the ball is going and his role was muted with Fifita shifting to the left and our lack of good-ball.

I agree he’s got some defensive things he needs to improve on but he’s doing enough to persevere with in the 7 IMO.
 
hungryjacks said:
I have to be honest, Boyd struggled defensively again and he really doesnt bring enough to the table offensively to justify carrying him and his inability to read to play in defense. I hate to say it because the bloke seems like a great guy with a good team first attitude.
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He wasnt spectacular but there is enough there to like and its a new halves combination for him to work towards. He will improve as the games wear on but yeah he needs to stick on his tackles more. Where he is a massive asset is that hes an exceptional goal kicker which is what we need with how close the games are these days
 
Hail Sezer said:
I thought his off-ball contributions, getting to spots on the field, consistency with how sets are playing out was solid. That’s what you need a halfback to do when he’s not directly involved in where the ball is going and his role was muted with Fifita shifting to the left and our lack of good-ball.

I agree he’s got some defensive things he needs to improve on but he’s doing enough to persevere with in the 7 IMO.
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His goal kicking has been massive for us and he's still a better defender then Toby right now, I would've liked him to switch up the kicking a bit more as it got predictable for the Tigers but that's stuff he'll work on, It's also why I really like having Stimson with him, He protected Tannah.
 
Can't forget how good his running game was against the dolphins when we were playing on the front foot. Still made some solid try saving tackles on his own line a couple times. The 2022 titans would've lost that game the minute we went up 18-2 like the time we were up 24-0 against the Broncos and lost. Good signs early on that we could hold on and get the win with foran off. Boyd will get better the longer the season goes the more time him and Foran play together
 
Tigers lost it we didn't win, looked very average against a **** storm of a team. When we play a real team we will get shown up, we have no attacking creativity.
 
A lot of things to like from the game. Our defence, line speed (thanks Joe) and kick chase were much improved with room for further improvement but it shows we're on the right track.

We're surely not going to start so poorly against every other team and there were some clangers that we can avoid easily. The ref was atrocious but we're used to it. I think it's after the Sam Mac try - the ref looks absolutely gutted to have to award it. But as one of the smaller clubs, we'll always battle to get 50/50s or even some kind of rub of the green. From the way we've been reffed since we were contenders, it's obvious that the NRL think we're there just to make up the numbers. Some early wins can help turn that around.

In attack there's heaps of good stuff to come. I loved that scrum play for Brimmo's try - an oldie but a goodie. Foran is going to do wonders for Fifita this year and Schoupp, Jojo, Clark and Verrils are just warming up. I thought Clark was quieter than expected but he's going to be great for us. You could also see some good signs around the ruck with Verrills to Liu to Mo? for good metres and as that sharpens, it will translate to line breaks.

We're also playing a makeshift centre in Sami with a rookie outside him, so that left edge will only strengthen from now. One or two training sessions with the second rowers in place and they both shone. There's good stuff to come.

Sure the Tigers were less than but we only have to beat what is in front of us. If we start well, we should be too much for Saints. I also like it when what we have to work on during the week is made obvious from the last game. Hunt will target Sami and Lofi with his kicking game and Suli will run at them with every chance. It'll be a good test for them. Also looking forward to Sua and Fifita coming together.
 
Yes to all that MT and although the reffing was atrocious he was a rookie in front of the most intimidating of all home venues AND we prevailed. I thought it was a particularly good season starter. Wests didn’t lose it, we knocked them off their game and even tried how many times to invite them back with not one, not two but FIVE rubbish mis-starts.
 
If Marzhew was still out on that right edge we would've probably lost by 12. Big, big difference.

Think this game had tons of indicators about where we're at, lots of pressure defensively, the tide was very much against us for most of that game, a hungry Wests team, definitely feels like that was a game top 8 teams win in gritty fashion and we did just that.
 
I was at the game at Leichhardt Oval last night and had almost front row tickets near the middle of the field, I can tell you I have never seen so many Titans fans at an away game (there still wasn't many fans compared to the Tigers, but we had a lot more than previous years). The fan base also held there own in the cheering session, bogans and booze what else would you expect.

What I was most impressed with was how many times I saw Foran give Fifita a spray for not getting into defensive position fast enough.

All round I think our goal line defense was pretty decent, and in general we didn't shy away from contact whilst defending, we are still letting in too many metres in the middle of the ground but defense has improved drastically from last year (so far).

Also happy with how much faster we were forming attacking structures compared to the Tigers, everyone was in position a lot faster. In saying this the Tigers looked absolutely gassed by the 30min mark. So I am hoping our preseason conditioning has paid off, only time will tell but we looked a lot fitter than the Tigers.
 
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