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Round 24: DRAGONS vs TITANS (2024)

Hail Sezer said:
I don’t disagree but who do you pick there instead
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Who's fault is that though? We don't have anyone in the squad playing centre this year besides HSS who's injury prone. Jojo is the obvious choice but I'm not sure he'll do better there, Francis hasn't moved, JDG is back to fullback. If Des has decided Sami is a centre, I don't think thats a good choice going forward, We were playin gFermor for a while.

When the AJ stuff didn't work they should've reacted imo, We have two actual centres on the roster in HSS and BK, That's ridiculous imo.

Edit: I'm honestly wondering about how much say Des has now/will get in the roster because I don't think there's any players out there on the market to bring in over the next couple of years, It feels like this is the roster going forward with hopefully a couple of juniors like Stephenson making the jump.
 
Hail Sezer said:
I don’t disagree but who do you pick there instead
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It's not the point. You can't just let some guy repeat the same mistakes over and over again get off scot free.

But to answer your question AJ is the obvious choice at the moment. Even though he prefers right I'd pick Jojo over him any day of the week too. Being able to count to potato makes him a better left centre than Kelly by default.

Quite happy to plug a square peg in a round hole every now and then if it puts a rocket up an under achiever. Also that's just bad roster management if we only have one guy allegedly capable of playing left centre in the top 30.
 
I never really rated HSS even when he was fit & healthy for us. Offered zero in attack and for as much as people praised his D I thought even that part of his game was overrated. Schoupp was another one we scooped up because the Dogs didn't want him and he showed absolutely nothing with us either. It's definitely an issue, just not sure of any decent centres out there that we can even afford to sign since our cap is so heavily tied up in AJ, Fifi & Tino (and I can't imagine CG came cheap either).
 
Time for Sami and BK to go back to cup. Lofi is close but has more potential. We haven't had a good pair of centres for how long?

Put Jojo on the right with Big Tony on the wing and AJ on the left (even though he was a joke there last time). If AJ is going to be better at 6, play JC at left centre.

Interesting decisions on resigning Klese. Klese has to go back to the middle and put Palasia back to Cup. Liu and Pahulu softened our middle today and Klese and Verrills were found wanting at marker too often. Is that attitude? JJ and Clark tried, as Randy does but I wonder if he's burning out and needs a rest.

Kini can have the 1 as long as he wants it.

Pre-season starts now. Time to mix it up and learn what other guys can do at NRL level. Hau looks like he might be worth a call up for a few games. JAW needs one last shot at a contract. I'd have him over Klese, Palasia and a few others.
 
The Birdman said:
It's not the point. You can't just let some guy repeating the same mistakes over and over again get off scot free.

But to answer your question AJ is the obvious choice at the moment. Quite happy to plug a square peg in a round hole every now and then if it puts a rocket up an under achiever. Also that's just bad roster management if we only have one guy allegedly capable of playing left centre in the top 30.
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I’m BK’s biggest hater lol but all I’m saying is that we don’t really have a healthy adequate replacement there on the roster. HSS is injured, Jojo has gone too good on the wing, and AJ has only just come healthy.
 
The comments about our pack being small aren’t wrong but to be fair we had Tino, Mo and Beau out today. Liu and Stimson won’t be here next year and are an opportunity to bring in some honest toilers. Pillowsia is the biggest disappointment for me, just an absolute plodder with no heart.
 
AJ would be the most obvious one but he really needs a full pre-season under his belt there. And that in itself raises the same issues we've talked about ad-nauseum re whether he even really wants to put in the time and effort to transition to a brand new position outside of the spine. Not to mention Bodsy would be absolutely furious if that came to fruition.
 
Bulldogs and The Saints improvement give me hope that it can be done.
Both have a harder edge this year, particularly the Dogs.
I have seen better resilience this year so there has been steps in the right direction, but still the occasional stumble.
 
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AJ played 12 mins in that game, Des isn't without blame in a lot of this imo but seems to be given free reign, A lot of the position changes/constant moving of players isn't working. I honestly am on the fence a bit in trusting Des right now.... This season can still get really ugly with what might actually be our most difficult 3 game stretch, We can blame the players all day but he keeps picking them and there's no back up options that he's forcing in lower grades.

There's more questions then at the start of the season imo especially with Kini killing it and CG coming in eventually, There's no denying we've had better performances and shown some really good glimpses, SO HAS EVERYONE. There's also the exact same problems we've had for years popping up way to often now, Even in games we've won or been in we've still had periods where we tend to fall asleep.

At the end of the day we could be lower then last year despite the improvements. If Holbrook played AJ 12 mins at the end of the game today when we were down 26 or whatever nil, He'd be crucified.... Why does Des get free pass on this situation? He keeps saying good headache then keeps showing imo that he has zero plan/idea around the "issue" if AJ just played 12 mins.
 
There are a lot of good comments on individuals here but looking at the wider context It is clear that this squad is not a top 8 side and quality recruits are needed and players moved on. Particular attention is needed in the forwards and centre.
 
Everyone says BK and Sami as if they don't have 2026 deals but also have around 4 kids each and are locals with family here, Why would they leave? We've seen it with Maumalo. I know people can change club but we don't really have the cap for that imo and the players we need won't be the ones up for grab.

We're probably spending the most on forwards in the comp or close to it.... despite that heaps of fans say we need more help, doesn't make sense to me like you said WD... I know the Tino injury is big but on paper our pack is still better then most.... on paper.
 
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Hail Sezer said:
@Cowabunga i think Des gets more leniency than Holbrook because most believe he’s genuinely improved the side over the course of the season and because of that he’s earned trust
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Yeah for sure, I commented that then remembered how cooked Holbrook was haha. When we hired Des I looked into his career and to get a bit deeper and a lot of Manly/Dogs fans said that he doesn't like dropping players at all and puts to much trust in guys to do the job was his big weakness. That can be great but I think for us we've seen enough of the players.... It feels ridiculous to say due to his record and ability but as a fanbase and YOU as BKs biggest hater (I think you've got some competition sir) have seen enough of these players to know they can't be changed.

I still think it's a big discussion the AJ stuff whether the club likes it or not because it turns into a JC one which is probably more "emotional" for the club.

I really hope they can lift for the last 3 games because I am concerned we'll fall away very heavily and a lot of the good that's been done legit imo means nothing... Only the Tigers were below us last year and are still there. The other 3 were Dolphins, Bulldogs and Dragons.... They don't on paper have better squads then us yet look where they are, Way ahead of us.

Holbrook also had a worse squad then this and more players injured.... Just saying for a hottake. We are 1000% fitter, That's the one big thing I think improved. We need a win to match last years record..... Yay
 
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Cowabunga said:
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If you look at our forwards, they would be mostly recognised for their attacking skills and not their defensive ability. DF is lazy, Fermor lacks lateral movement and Mo can also be lazy in defence and doesnt hit hard in defence but rsther just wraps the defender. You look at why we get dominated in the forwards and it is staring at us in the face with 3 of our starting forwards. In fact our best forward this year has been Clarke IMO who has been all effort on both sides of the ball. He is s good impact forward as unfortunately he doesnt have a big motor to allow him to play longer minutes.

You only need to look at the Dogs pack which would be the smallest in the NRL and with only a couple of name forwards but they are all effort for 80 minutes and they compete on every tackle. Storm and Panthers who do have name players in their pack but not one of them would be considered lazy in defence and it is no wonder they are top 3 defensive teams in the comp. It is in their DNA.

We need to start recruiting players who demonstrate that they compete on every play on both sides of the ball rather than recruiting on the basis of highlight reels.

Our team seems to get more excited by scoring tries rather than saving tries and this mindset needs to change and it comes with the type of players we recruit and have defence in our DNA throughout the club and its programs from JTS to NRL
 
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Agree with everything and the 3 players mentioned, I'm not a Fermor fan but I think he's picked up his game tbh and actually hits pretty hard, Just can't read but has been doing a lot better then Dave contact wise.. 100% on Clark and it looks like he's a 44 or so min player.

That's why I don't get all the talk about packs and the smallest when the Dogs have the best defence after Panthers who are smaller then our pack to..... Most of the comp on top have smaller or as big packs as us... It's not an exscuse. It's Lofi whos the big issue making 80m a game or whatever, that can't happen even with his tries scored in the modern game.

Bigger props aren't going to stop our edges getting ripped apart, I think you mean the opposite with your last sentence to hahahhaa. We can also shit on BK all day rightfully, He's also a big reason the left side has scored tries... Not an excuse for him being trash but that left side looked bad without him...
 
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Cowabunga said:
Yeah for sure, I commented that then remembered how cooked Holbrook was haha. When we hired Des I looked into his career and to get a bit deeper and a lot of Manly/Dogs fans said that he doesn't like dropping players at all and puts to much trust in guys to do the job was his big weakness. That can be great but I think for us we've seen enough of the players.... It feels ridiculous to say due to his record and ability but as a fanbase and YOU as BKs biggest hater (I think you've got some competition sir) have seen enough of these players to know they can't be changed.

I still think it's a big discussion the AJ stuff whether the club likes it or not because it turns into a JC one which is probably more "emotional" for the club.

I really hope they can lift for the last 3 games because I am concerned we'll fall away very heavily and a lot of the good that's been done legit imo means nothing... Only the Tigers were below us last year and are still there. The other 3 were Dolphins, Bulldogs and Dragons.... They don't on paper have better squads then us yet look where they are, Way ahead of us.

Holbrook also had a worse squad then this and more players injured.... Just saying for a hottake. We are 1000% fitter, That's the one big thing I think improved. We need a win to match last years record..... Yay
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Yeah big time, and a lot of these guys actually look and play in pretty good shape... I can't remember what year it was but one of the Holbrook years the team all had sloppy rigs and they were gassed after 20, the former is the most unacceptable thing IMO.
 
Cowabunga said:
Agree with everything and the 3 players mentioned, I'm not a Fermor fan but I think he's picked up his game tbh and actually hits pretty hard, Just can't read but has been doing a lot better then Dave contact wise.. 100% on Clark and it looks like he's a 44 or so min player.

That's why I don't get all the talk about packs and the smallest when the Dogs have the best defence after Panthers who are smaller then our pack to..... Most of the comp on top have smaller or as big packs as us... It's not an exscuse. It's Lofi whos the big issue making 80m a game or whatever, that can't happen even with his tries scored in the modern game.

Bigger props aren't going to stop our edges getting ripped apart, I think you mean the opposite with your last sentence to hahahhaa. We can also shit on BK all day rightfully, He's also a big reason the left side has scored tries... Not an excuse for him being trash but that left side looked bad without him...
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The Lofi discussion is interesting. We have had the big yardage winger in Marzhew and now the speedy flash. I think I would go with Lofi.
Two Jojo’s would be ideal.
 
Whats Doing said:
If you look at our forwards, they would be mostly recognised for their attacking skills and not their defensive ability. DF is lazy, Fermor lacks lateral movement and Mo can also be lazy in defence and doesnt hit hard in defence but rsther just wraps the defender. You look at why we get dominated in the forwards and it is staring at us in the face with 3 of our starting forwards. In fact our best forward this year has been Clarke IMO who has been all effort on both sides of the ball. He is s good impact forward as unfortunately he doesnt have a big motor to allow him to play longer minutes.

You only need to look at the Dogs pack which would be the smallest in the NRL and with only a couple of name forwards but they are all effort for 80 minutes and they compete on every tackle. Storm and Panthers who do have name players in their pack but not one of them would be considered lazy in defence and it is no wonder they are top 3 defensive teams in the comp. It is in their DNA.

We need to start recruiting players who demonstrate that they compete on every play on both sides of the ball rather than recruiting on the basis of highlight reels.

Our team seems to get more excited by scoring tries rather than saving tries and this mindset needs to change and it comes with the type of players we recruit and have defence in our DNA throughout the club and its programs from JTS to NRL
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