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Round 4: TITANS vs DOLPHINS (2024)

Whats Doing said:
In addition to the above which I agree with, I am also of the view that the transition work from JTS through to NRL is also well below what it should be.
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I agree, especially with the feeder setup.

I also think we're in a position where the performance of the NRL side at large is impeding that process. E.g. put one of our younger guys in a side like Penrith and they'd be much more likely to show their capability as an NRL level player.

Dearden is a recent example - thrown in when the Broncos were capitulating and got written off by everyone. Anyone who'd seen him play jrs and cup knew he'd be a star in the right environment.
 
Things that really concerned me from last night was that after the first 10 minutes, we rarely won a tackle. Their technique and ours looked chalk and cheese. What has Brett White been paid for? We also play the ball far too slowly in good position or with retreating defences and look for the penalty too much. Fifita seems to look for the penalty every time. We're not the Broncos and it's not Friday night at Lang Park. Forget about the ref and just play hard.

In positives, JC and Fifita will be much better for the run. They never stopped trying and good things will come from them. JC gives us a lot in attack. I thought JJ was great for us and so was Mo until he was cooked. I still don't understand the bench rotations. Clark also made a few excellent runs before turning back into the Clark we don't want to know. Liu looked solid enough and I think he's our best 13. I think Des knows that and he started with the same middles I would have. Klese looked good on the right and I hope Des has now worked out who our best second rowers are. Randall is all blood and guts and I love him.

Our mentality stinks though. It matters less what happens with selections, recruiting, coaches - until we shake the crumple factor, we're gonna lose a lot. I don't know what can fix that other than forensic psycho analysis.
 
Mo was disappointing for me, dropped ball when we got a 6 again and then a careless head high, both which I'm pretty sure happened when they were a man down. I'm concerned that he doesn't seem to be at the level we expected him to be, I really had hopes for him to be a top 10 middle in the game but he is far off that atm.

Our bench rotation is also absolutely cooked, why is Jolliffe playing 40 straight and then not coming back on when he was one of our best? Why are we having Randall, Clark and Verrills on the field all at the same time (not actually certain if that happened last night but it definitely has in the past)? Why tf is Fermor moving to the edge and Klese the middle, when Klese's D is rock solid out there and they've built combinations, and Fermor's lateral movement is cooked. I am very very concerned about Des' capabilities as a coach in the modern game
 
Titslover said:
Mo was disappointing for me, dropped ball when we got a 6 again and then a careless head high, both which I'm pretty sure happened when they were a man down. I'm concerned that he doesn't seem to be at the level we expected him to be, I really had hopes for him to be a top 10 middle in the game but he is far off that atm.

Our bench rotation is also absolutely cooked, why is Jolliffe playing 40 straight and then not coming back on when he was one of our best? Why are we having Randall, Clark and Verrills on the field all at the same time (not actually certain if that happened last night but it definitely has in the past)? Why tf is Fermor moving to the edge and Klese the middle, when Klese's D is rock solid out there and they've built combinations, and Fermor's lateral movement is cooked. I am very very concerned about Des' capabilities as a coach in the modern game
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Yep, I feel the same way TL. The only excuse I'm giving Mo is that he was fatigued and should have come offf by then. 100% agree on the rotations with JJ and how did Stimson not get on the park in the first half?

BUT, I have to give Des the benefit of the doubt. He knows more about our great game than all of us. There's always some method to his madness ... and clearly ... it's madness!
 
We are looking under rocks for issues when it’s the rocks that are the issues. The players, not the coach, the CEO or anyone else dropped those balls, gave away penalties or dropped their bundles.
 
Quite a few positives from that game. DF, Cambell and Haas all played really well I thought. Same old negatives though. I don’t see the point of Clarke at all. His 1-2 runs a game where where gains 15-20 metre does not make up for his weak defence for me. There’s no coincidence that when he comes on we lose momentum.

Think I’m finally on the Francis bandwagon. Need a bigger body out wide.
 
Cowabunga said:
Also whatever has happened to Lofi, That man doesn't look quick at any stage on the field, For someone who's meant to be our quick athletic guy on the left, His speed doesn't look threatening at all...
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The secret is that Lofi was NEVER good. He has always and will always be nothing more than a Special Teams guy, been that way since Burleigh.
 
NZTITAN said:
The secret is that Lofi was NEVER good. He has always and will always be nothing more than a Special Teams guy, been that way since Burleigh.
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It sounds harsh but realistically this is it. He's very, very good at finishing tries and he's got home run pace. But that's where it starts and stops. If we had other OB's who were yardage machines then I could tolerate it but with the style of football we're playing (or attempting to) I just don't think he's bringing anything at all.
 
Titanic said:
We are looking under rocks for issues when it’s the rocks that are the issues. The players, not the coach, the CEO or anyone else dropped those balls, gave away penalties or dropped their bundles.
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I am of the view that we do need to look under the rocks as the drop balls, the ineffective tackles, the lazy defence, the forward passes all came from the fact that we were clearly fatigued early in this game and much more so that the Dolphins and in fact we have been much more fatigued than the opposition in every game this year. This directly comes from the poorly prepared fitness levels of our players including someone’s good point previously mentioned whether too much emphasis has been placed on power over endurance and speed, Wr certainly look a lot slower this year.

But the fact is we are so way off the pace in terms of conditioning for 80 minutes where we are only competing for 20 minutes when fatigued sets in which will only ever result in continued errors on both sides of the ball.

We are averaging more than 30 points being scored against us with 2 teams below us last year who have just dominated us and St George also has a new coach and as such this is not an excuse.

I don’t think I have seen a worse conditioned team than I have this year and this fatigue just amplifies the ridiculous amount of errors on both sides of the ball.

I look no further than who was responsible for the fitness program over the off season as IMO, this is the key problem for the team. You cannot drive a car if you don’t have a motor under the bonnet
 
Whats Doing said:
I am of the view that we do need to look under the rocks as the drop balls, the ineffective tackles, the lazy defence, the forward passes all came from the fact that we were clearly fatigued early in this game and much more so that the Dolphins and in fact we have been much more fatigued than the opposition in every game this year. This directly comes from the poorly prepared fitness levels of our players including someone’s good point previously mentioned whether too much emphasis has been placed on power over endurance and speed, Wr certainly look a lot slower this year.


But the fact is we are so way off the pace in terms of conditioning for 80 minutes where we are only competing for 20 minutes when fatigued sets in which will only ever result in continued errors on both sides of the ball.

We are averaging more than 30 points being scored against us with 2 teams below us last year who have just dominated us and St George also has a new coach and as such this is not an excuse.

I don’t think I have seen a worse conditioned team than I have this year and this fatigue just amplifies the ridiculous amount of errors on both sides of the ball.

I look no further than who was responsible for the fitness program over the off season as IMO, this is the key problem for the team. You cannot drive a car if you don’t have a motor under the bonnet
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It’s unforgivable that after 20 weeks of pre season we are not as fit as other clubs. How could this happen?
all the talk out of the club in the pre season has been “we have never trained harder”
Something is amiss
 
Like everywhere here I think I’m really starting to lose faith in this club. The most frustrating thing for me is we have some really good players on our roster but we don’t utilise a game plan that plays to their strengths. It started with Holbrook, but Des doesn’t seem to have changed much and it’s frustrating to see the opportunity slip away.

I’ll start with the spine and in particular the hooker/fullback positions. At the Roosters Verrills was a very creative dummy halve. His strengths are his pass, but also getting in behind the ruck and feeding Tedesco and Manu. He’s coping a bit of slack on here recently but we are predominately using him as tackle bot and feeder the our halves. At times he’ll scoot and get in behind the ruck but no one is pushing with him. The reason for that is because JC (and now AJ because we have thrown him in the centres) are playing shape so are no where near the ruck. The strength of both AJ and JC at fullback is broken play. They are wasted out the back of shape as there is not enough room.

What is compiling this problem is Boyd standing far too wide and not straightening the attack. We also don’t turn any players under to straighten the defence line. We just go side to side and wonder why we run out of room on the field. DFafita running an inside line back back against the grain would cause the defensive line to hold more and space would open outside of him. It’s also a good opportunity to get him one on one with sliding defenders. Every time the ball goes out the line it just looks like a team who are waiting around for their time to run the ball.

Our forwards also get the ball far too much in good attacking territory. Too often do we play short on the 4th tackle. We’re not a big enough side to do this as much as we do. The game has changed now so there is no real benefits of a six-again, but we need to find more variety in our attack than forwards hitting it up to the forth tackle then a bomb. Especially as our outside backs aren’t especially good under the high ball and our halves do not have good short kicking games. We have the talent, we just need to execute a game plan that plays to players strengths.
 
Well said NZfan totally agree another thing that we lack is wingers who get over the advantage line and getting the set started on the front foot, Lofi is a sitting duck when he comes out of the red zone defensive sides must love it when they see him taking a hit up he gets hammered always is rolled over which in turn slows the play the ball done for the defensive side to set
 
NZFan said:
Like everywhere here I think I’m really starting to lose faith in this club. The most frustrating thing for me is we have some really good players on our roster but we don’t utilise a game plan that plays to their strengths. It started with Holbrook, but Des doesn’t seem to have changed much and it’s frustrating to see the opportunity slip away.

I’ll start with the spine and in particular the hooker/fullback positions. At the Roosters Verrills was a very creative dummy halve. His strengths are his pass, but also getting in behind the ruck and feeding Tedesco and Manu. He’s coping a bit of slack on here recently but we are predominately using him as tackle bot and feeder the our halves. At times he’ll scoot and get in behind the ruck but no one is pushing with him. The reason for that is because JC (and now AJ because we have thrown him in the centres) are playing shape so are no where near the ruck. The strength of both AJ and JC at fullback is broken play. They are wasted out the back of shape as there is not enough room.

What is compiling this problem is Boyd standing far too wide and not straightening the attack. We also don’t turn any players under to straighten the defence line. We just go side to side and wonder why we run out of room on the field. DFafita running an inside line back back against the grain would cause the defensive line to hold more and space would open outside of him. It’s also a good opportunity to get him one on one with sliding defenders. Every time the ball goes out the line it just looks like a team who are waiting around for their time to run the ball.

Our forwards also get the ball far too much in good attacking territory. Too often do we play short on the 4th tackle. We’re not a big enough side to do this as much as we do. The game has changed now so there is no real benefits of a six-again, but we need to find more variety in our attack than forwards hitting it up to the forth tackle then a bomb. Especially as our outside backs aren’t especially good under the high ball and our halves do not have good short kicking games. We have the talent, we just need to execute a game plan that plays to players strengths.
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Very good summary
 
Hey NZF, you mentioned that there is not much benefit getting a six again call. I’m not sure if I am a fan of the repeat set rather than a penalty. Reason being (it happened in this game) the ref ruled 6 again in our favour only Metres out and the very first hit up we dropped the ball (may have been Mo). There is no advantage. Going back to the old way of giving a penalty (which won’t happen) would stop a lot of teams being off side knowing there maybe points scored against them. i.e. Option for 2 points or go for try. I think there should be an advantage played in this type of situation, ref rules 6 again in your favour, you fluff it 1st tackle so ref awards penalty. JMO
 
Sorry Shamus I didn’t explain what I meant there. I actually meant to say a repeat set (i.e. from a drop out) as we don’t have the players to win a short drop out. Sexton was leading the comp in repeat sets for us but we would never get the ball back as we had no idea how to compete for a high ball, or simply were not tall enough.

But I do agree with you regarding that rule. Nothing worse than getting a repeat set and the next play we drop the ball. In all fairness though, we seem to make that mistake more than most.

LG completely agree with you there. I was the biggest critic of Sami until recent times for the same reason. While it’s very exciting watching Lofi score tries, which does put bums on seats, his all round performance needs to improve. I’d like to see him head back to Cup to improve on certain aspects of his game. He’s not a write off yet but at this point in time a think we need size out wide.
 
Great quality post, NZF. Very well explained.

I hope Verrills can go back to cup and build some desire for the game. When he comes back, I'd love to see him build a relationship with JC or Kini at the back - Smith/Slater style. I also remember Cronk standing pretty close to the ruck with all those try-scoring plays, as all the best halves do. At least one of our halves needs to be thereabouts.

For the time being, Randall is competent enough but our halves have to take control. The biggest problem is possession though. None of this matters if we keep dropping the ball, loose carries, poor kicks, etc.
 
Whats Doing said:
I am of the view that we do need to look under the rocks as the drop balls, the ineffective tackles, the lazy defence, the forward passes all came from the fact that we were clearly fatigued early in this game and much more so that the Dolphins and in fact we have been much more fatigued than the opposition in every game this year. This directly comes from the poorly prepared fitness levels of our players including someone’s good point previously mentioned whether too much emphasis has been placed on power over endurance and speed, Wr certainly look a lot slower this year.

But the fact is we are so way off the pace in terms of conditioning for 80 minutes where we are only competing for 20 minutes when fatigued sets in which will only ever result in continued errors on both sides of the ball.

We are averaging more than 30 points being scored against us with 2 teams below us last year who have just dominated us and St George also has a new coach and as such this is not an excuse.

I don’t think I have seen a worse conditioned team than I have this year and this fatigue just amplifies the ridiculous amount of errors on both sides of the ball.

I look no further than who was responsible for the fitness program over the off season as IMO, this is the key problem for the team. You cannot drive a car if you don’t have a motor under the bonnet
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It’s interesting because there’s being underdone in fitness and there’s being overdone aswell. Looks to me like the boys went from one extreme with Holbrooks just play footy philosophy to the other with des’s notorious training from hell regiment. The offseason is meant to give you just enough ticker to last 5-7 minutes straight without a stoppage but if you overdo that you run the risk of fatigued muscles. Especially if des is flogging them throughout the week without the proper recovery analytics
 
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