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Round 4: COWBOYS vs TITANS (2023)

Tanah is fine. Looking at “missed tackles” in a vacuum for a halfback is just silly and tbh if you’re looking at high-level tangibles to measure a half’s contribution you’re looking at the wrong things.

Losing Foran and AJ was game over and the fact we were still remotely close is a credit to the boys attitude really. A lot of “ifs” left on the field that should’ve been converted but if we were good enough we wouldn’t have allowed them to score 24.

Onto the Bye….the amount of injuries we’re racking up is very concerning.
 
I've finally eaten after all day so not as stupid as before, Great effort by the guys and it would be hard for any team to win in those circumstances losing our two main play makers..

Massive effort from everyone. If one of AJ and Foran stay on we probably win but the issue with those two are their injury prone.

I hate to **** on refs but their were some suspect calls the whole time, even in the bunker... I

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Hail Sezer said:
Tanah is fine. Looking at “missed tackles” in a vacuum for a halfback is just silly and tbh if you’re looking at high-level tangibles to measure a half’s contribution you’re looking at the wrong things.

Losing Foran and AJ was game over and the fact we were still remotely close is a credit to the boys attitude really. A lot of “ifs” left on the field that should’ve been converted but if we were good enough we wouldn’t have allowed them to score 24.

Onto the Bye….the amount of injuries we’re racking up is very concerning.
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By 23 a lot of halves are much better defenders, There's DCE and others who are always bad, but Tannah is not close to these guys levels on attack who make up for it, even when they were young.
Most the tries are coming down that side as well, They attack him then roll through the middle, Harry Grant did it non stop and Robinson once they started rolling.
 
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We’re just going to have to be patient with our halves. 2+ years of learning from one of the best in the business should have at least one of Tanah, Toby, and Tom primed to take the reigns from 2025. Our forward pack is further ahead in development so should give them a solid foundation to play off. In the meantime, I’m just looking for week on week improvement from Tanah, which I think he showed today.
 
Waiting is all good but who for? I agree we keep Tannah for now but we're following what other teams did with recruiting a vet to team with our halves. Issue is we don't have a 10 year half in the team playing yet....

Those teams have Deardon, Ezra, Ilias, and even some of the lower clubs like Dragons who have both shown way more talent and long term potential then Tannah and they're 2 and 3 years younger.... We need to make the most of it.

We hear how good Foran is for the young halves... There's only Weaver who's probably here in 3 years.. We keep hoping for Tannah to defend, He's had a pretty good learning stint against man for 4 years now randomly and still can't, He's not some young gun.

Jake Clifford showed more then Tannah and is in England....
 
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Cowabunga said:
Waiting is all good but who for? I think we keep Tannah for now but we're following what other teams did with recruiting a vet to team with our halves. Issue is we don't have a 10 year half in the team....

These teams have Deardon, Ezra, Ilias, and even some of the lower clubs like Dragons who have both shown way more talent and long term potential then Tannah and they're 2 and 3 years younger.... We need to make the most of it.

We hear how good Foran is for the young halves... There's only Weaver who's probably here in 3 years..
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You realise how good Dearden and Mam are right? They don’t just grow on trees. Those guys have been arguably the best player in Aus for their age group since they were 15.

What’s your solution here - who would you play?
 
You can defend Tannah all you want but there was no excuse for that pass. He tries to cut out 3 players when they are already down to 12. Numbers were on our side. That was the absolute turning point of the game. In saying that, he doesn’t throw the pass intending for it to be intercepted. He obviously thought it would pay off…

Hopefully he learns from that.
 
Hail Sezer said:
You realise how good Dearden and Mam are right? They don’t just grow on trees. Those guys have been arguably the best player in Aus for their age group since they were 15.

What’s your solution here - who would you play?
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Haven't Tannah and Toby as well? Our guys played with them? We've heard all of those guys talked up forever.

I said Tannah should stay for now, I am more calling out all the talk about Foran helping guys, Is it really helping when 2 of the guys he's probably going to work in the halves with aren't long term prospects. It seems pretty clear that next year it's a shootout between them all and Weaver hasn't had his chance.

I think Toby deserves a chance like Tannah, I think he was hard done by massive, He had to against a lot of good teams early in the season and got dropped for missing a bunch of tackles, Tannah by the Warriors game was horrible but got the drop goal. We've talked about Tannah winning games at the end of the season him the job which I think is insane, We beat some bad teams when they were on holiday.

The games that earned Tannah his spot is the exact same thing that Toby did the year before with Fogarty. Toby might deserve a shot when teams are fried, Like Tannah got against teams who'd gave up and were all bottom 8.. We got flogged by Dragons and Knights at their home games in that last 5 weeks.
 
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Cowabunga said:
Haven't Tannah and Toby as well? Our guys played with them? We've heard both of those guys talked up forever...

I said Tannah should stay for now, I just am more calling out all the talk about Foran helping guys, Is it really helping when 2 of the guys he's probably going to work in the halves with aren't long term prospects... It seems pretty clear that next year it's a shootout between them all and Weaver hasn't had his chance.

I'd still think Toby is a solution despite my issues with his game, I think he was hard done by massive, He had to against a lot of good teams without Foran by his side and did better then Tannah imo... We've talked about Tannah winning games at the end of the season him the job which I think is insane, We beat some bad teams when they were on holiday

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No, they haven’t. There’s different levels for junior prospects. I actually watched them instead of relying on others “talking them up”.

I’m not trying to be rude but I think some of your opinions on Tanah are hugely lacking in perspective and understanding.

I thought Sexton was harshly criticised in general last year too but after watching him in Qcup last year and this season so far I’m not convinced he’s showing enough to warrant a call-up, IMO.
 
Hail Sezer said:
You realise how good Dearden and Mam are right? They don’t just grow on trees. Those guys have been arguably the best player in Aus for their age group since they were 15.

What’s your solution here - who would you play?
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HS, not being a smart **** here, genuinely interested in your opinion. You come across as having genuine footy iq and a great understanding of our local juniors.

Do you think Tanah has the ability (maybe not now, but in the future) to grow into a clutch NRL half. I realise Cleary is an exception and Hunt, DCE and Reynolds have years of experience on Tanah. Moses can also go missing in games as well.

Just curious if you think he is our best option going forward?
 
If I had to choose one of Tanah/Sexton it'd be Tanah by a fair margin. Sexton has a decent short-kicking game but not much else. He's just so slow and it hinders the rest of his game.
 
Hail Sezer said:
No, they haven’t. There’s different levels for junior prospects. I actually watched them instead of relying on others “talking them up”.

I’m not trying to be rude but I think some of your opinions on Tanah are hugely lacking in perspective and understanding.

I thought Sexton was harshly criticised in general last year too but after watching him in Qcup last year and this season so far I’m not convinced he’s showing enough to warrant a call-up, IMO.
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I'd rate Tannah much more if he was 20 or 21, at 23 and playing 43 games mostly a bit at 9 and still not tackling well has me concerned considering he has an NRL ready body. I absolutely rate his goal kicking but I don't see a lot of the other stuff, Even Mal called it out today on the pre show where Fifi doesn't respect him like he does Foran, To me that's a red flag if someone who you've played with for 5-6 years doesn't want to be on your side.

I don't rate beating Warriors on holiday at home when AJ and JC won it for us, Manly 7 era or Knights with a cooked Ponga in shootouts at home... It's nothing really against Tannah, I just really don't see it. His Goal Kicking is the only NRL skill I've seen. I am pretty open about it and I hope I eat my words, I just don't see it right now in Tannah,, I don't in either of the halves. He's been a 5/8th or 7 for a run of 15 or so games now and hasn't really done great. That's my perspective on him as much as he's been screwed by the club.
 
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I livestreamed the game on my phone while in a restaurant so although my commitment to this team can't be questioned, my opinion on this game certainly can.

Regardless, wasn't upset with the performance at all, tried our hardest, once Brimson and Foran went down we were ice-skating uphill, still think we were able to string some decent plays together while being pretty starchy for most of the game (obviously we were going to fall apart with a bench of two for like 40 minutes.

Not sure how we move forward without Brimson + Foz, super difficult TLT coming up but I think it's safe to say Cardiac Keano (mine btw) is ready in the emergency room.

Absolutely biggest concern is why tf are we now down 6 players in the starting 13 (Brimson, Jojo, Foran, Verrills, Jolliffe, Fermor), 3 of which are spine players, in round freaking 4 of the season already. Complete nightmare start.
 
I guess in every game there are moments on both sides that could be called "what ifs". But an intercept from an ambitious pass and a failure to pass to a free winger is very disappointing.
 
NRL 2023 | North Queensland Cowboys v Gold Coast Titans | Match Highlights
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I want to give Moe some particular praise. 126 metres from 11 carries in that first half alone. finished with 19 and 198 metres, with 70 pcm. He has shown that sparkle that he's always had for the first time this season finally. If you do look at the stats though, the effort WAS there. It is just hard to try and find that bit of an extra push when arguably your two best players go down injured. I have faith in the squad, even if we are in for another long season, I am always going to keep my faith.
 
Yes Mo earned his spot and responded to his critics who included me. As for Tannah, he’s streets in front of Sexton. It’s a pity no one else in the team can kick in general play which would help the team immensely. Has everyone forgotten that Boyd was pushed into hooker behind Taylor then behind Fogarty and Sexton. He is far from perfect but he’s the best we have right now but still a relative newbie. I thought we went pretty well except for Tamou schooling Mo, Schoupp’s tribute to Herbert and Boyd’s gift to Holmes. LKP continues to improve and he really has a set of wheels.
 
There is some harsh comments on Tanah here Sure he had one Clanger but other than that, he played extremely well. We must remember that notwithstanding that he is 23, he has not had a lot of first grade at half. Whether he is the long term option time will tell and we need to give him time this year to improve as a half and prove he is the right one long term as Sexton certainly isn’t.

Special mention to Mo who had a blinder and played like the old Mo.

JC was very good at fullback and AKP despite some errors just can score tries that others cannot due to pure speed. Certainly need to resign him.

On the downside Vuna was poor and we were dominated down the middle when he was on. Again Lui was ineffective with only 63 metres and it was just not good enough particularly when leadership was needed when the troops were down. Also he gets turtled far too often in possession.

I would be moving Stimson to prop to stiffen up the middle and bring Klese on the right edge to give us more attack on this side of the field.
 
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I thought Mo had his best half of footy in that first half for a long time. Unfortunately, he was completely gassed early in the second half and he unravelled a bit. With the injuries we had I'm reluctant to point the finger at Holbrook for that.

I thought Liu was too predictable with his catch and pass early and needed to run more to make that work.

JC is a godsend (pun intended).

Really happy for Lofi and despite calling for him to sit out before we had injuries, he's winning me over. Resign him please.

Vuna was disappointing but on last week's performance deserves another go before we think of Klese at second row and Stimson back in the middle.

We slipped back into our premeditated passing to guys in front of shooters yesterday, which i thought was behind us.

What do we do now with those injuries? JC at the back but is Sexton the stop gap on his last chance on the right and Boyd relinks with Fifita? Does Kini come onto the bench? Is Weaver the man yet?

We can beat the Dragons. We MUST beat the Dragons.
 
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