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Round 16: TITANS vs NZ WARRIORS (2024)

What a turn around from the past fortnight! Biggest win in club history! Felt special being in the stadium for this one. First time I have ever attended a Titans vs Wahs game where Warriors fans were practically kept silent.

As always, massive praise towards Kini, JC, Fifi & Randall. All 4 always show up, show out. Props to BK & Sami for showing up and doing what was needed when the big boys were getting gassed.

AKP & Fermor have silenced all their critics. That was AKP's best game for us both offensively and defensively, and Beauy is starting to find that form again, and his defence is improving.
Foran deciding to turn back the clock with 4 Try assists & 4 Line break assists is outrageous.
Keenan had his best game for us this season today too, same with Liu (I was bad mouthing Liu as soon as he came on, then he immediately got that line break and shut me right up XD).
Verrils when being able to keep himself from being a hot head is a great dummy half.
Erin Clark, take a bow. What a bloody 180 he has taken. I used to be one of his biggest critics, but he keeps improving week in, week out, and is starting to become one of my favourites on field. His runs today were outstanding.
Jacob Alick-Wiencke is fighting tooth and nail for that contract. He is similar to Randall in that he is a very versatile player.
Not much to say about Josiah, Iszac or Stimson due to their lack of game time. I know Josiah went down with an injury, but was running down the sideline at the start of the second half to warm up. Glad Dessie didn't risk him though. Strange he didn't give Iszac or Stimson more minutes, but can't complain considering the scoreline was 66-6.

Today showed me a few key things:
- Kini & JC HAVE to be in the Spine. However, AJ resigned due to being guaranteed a spine spot. So we are sort of back to square one in fitting all 3 into the starting team. I genuinely could see a halves pairing of JC & AJ. JC has the boot on him to get us out of trouble and showed that he knows how to set up plays, AJ has that explosiveness needed to crack a game wide open, and has already proven to be a decent five-eighth. I'd have Kini at FB, AJ 6 & JC 7. Sue me.
- When Verrils is given reigns at dummy half to do what he wants and what he himself believes will work, it works. That showed today.
- Randall may be the best trade deal in the history of trade deals. The man is becoming a Gold Coast legend. He can cover halves, dummy half, lock. He can do it all.
- Our match fitness is turning out to be an advantage. By the 60th minute, we had only just used our 4th interchange. A bit of PTSD with that due to Holbrook's dumb bench rotation, but those boys were pumping out yardage like no tomorrow and rarely looked like they were slowing down.
- Typical Titans fashion to lose to teams we shouldn't lose to (Bunnies and Tigers based on form) but then go out and pump one of our bogey teams in the Warriors for our most historic win ever.

Last week was arguably the lowest I have personally felt as a Titans fan (yes, more than the phins game at Suncorp last year) due to the fact that our discipline should have been better. Dessie must have made these blokes see what god looks like and gave them the biggest and worst spray of their lives. The boys are showing signs that we can be a winning football team, it just all needs to click consistently.
 
Just watched the game. Marvelous. Unreal. Agree with everything said so far, i'll add a couple points.

- David Fifita is awesome. Is and always will be one of my favourite Titans ever, dude gets through a mountain of work every week. Threw Johnson into the front row, offloads to JC, gets back on his feet to then march up field for another 10-15 metres. Superb. Dude is a beast, thank god Billy Slater is a complete moron.

- Keano Kini plays Rugby League the same way Manny Pacquiao boxed in his earlier days. Can't explain it. Watch Pacquiao v Barrera I and you'll know what I mean. He's like a swarm of Wasps or something. Was initially worried he would be a little too small for NRL but he is pound-for-pound easily one of the most physical backline players I can remember, like if he was 6'5" he'd probably round out similar to Rabbitohs Greg Inglis if they tracked 'physicality' as a stat lol. The drop off balls to Kini out back are unstoppable, more of that please.

- Jayden Campbell looks bigger, heavier, especially up top but even his legs are filling out, was pulling off some monster shots and is more comfortable defending at 6/7.

- Kieran Foran has been a really good buy for us. He'll go down as one of my 'very happy he was a Titan' buys, plays so damn hard. He's a 7 now, that much is certain, and his defense today needs to be studied, particular his efforts on Dylan Walker.

- Erin Clark hs mastered his tempo at 13 now, knows when to slow things down and when to turn on the juice and keep the middle moving quickly, like him a lot, was wrong about him. Pahulu has been legitimate in the middle, looks awesome there. Randall aswell just shut down so many plays early on, I counted probably 3 he covered alone.

- This team is uniquely suited to solely playing at fast pace, didnt catch the Souths or Wests games, but almost all our losses have been when we get bogged down playing anything with muscle, however, leaning into our shape, short angles, quick Ptbs, shifting long, moving the ball early and often has resulted in far more success for this team.

As for the Wahs...

- Johnson is done, and his complete lack of any sort of legitimate Rugby League IQ has caught up to him for the second time in his career, 2023 was fools gold, and he's useless on the back foot. Love to see it after years of him having his way with us. Hell of a career for a Kiwi half, but I think it's time for him to learn Rugby and Japanese.

- Never, ever sign Edward Kosi, please. The guy has no idea what he's doing out there on the footy field. He's lucky we didnt score another 2 on his edge. Easily the worst player as far as feel for the game I have ever seen. Hope he enjoys Leigh where he'll be playing in less than 12 months time.
 
Rewatching that double unders play where Foz turned Keano under for those linebreaks (Verrils try/Kini second try) is just such beautiful rugby league. The lead up to it by getting Alick on that unders line over and over, conditioning the Warriors inside D to condense and plant their feet, before eventually pulling the trigger and getting Keano to change his line in the shape and cut back through that space...I could watch it all day.

Still buzzing from yesterdays win.
 
Hail Sezer said:
Rewatching that double unders play where Foz turned Keano under for those linebreaks (Verrils try/Kini second try) is just such beautiful rugby league. The lead up to it by getting Alick on that unders line over and over, conditioning the Warriors inside D to condense and plant their feet, before eventually pulling the trigger and getting Keano to change his line in the shape and cut back through that space...I could watch it all day.

Still buzzing from yesterdays win.
Click to expand...
Ya bloody casual
 
Such a good win. Especially over the wahs. Even the train driver was going for the wahs. Which really annoyed me.
Kini for full back for me. Has that x factor in bucketloads. Aj at 14th, until he gets match fit. We need cover for backs. Yesterday when sami went down I was waiting for alick to get shuffled there. Campbell has bulked up I'm sure of it. He has steadily looked better. I don't think we can underestimate the influence des has had on him. Des came out and said he was a solid five eighth and he delivers that game. Campbell has the creativity and kicking game for six or seven.
This year kini, foran, Campbell.aj 14th
Next year. Kini, AJ, Campbell. Gordon.
Looks good I think.
Randall and verrills need to be on the field at the same time. They just provide so much creativity and solid defence. Love where this team is going..
 
Great win and have watched it twice. Completely agree that the train driver should be deported and the ground announcer given life membership. It must have been spectacular sitting amongst all those cuzzies.
 
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