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The Tip Sheet celebrates a big week for Abbi Church, Kennedy Cherrington and Rory Owen with the 3 Parramatta NRLW stars earning selection NSW and QLD in the upcoming State of Origin series. Sixties and Forty20 share in the milestone moment for Abbi and Rory and cheer for Kennedy’s triumphant return to the arena.
The podcast then turns to a busy weekend of footy – even with the NRL on the bye. The Junior Representative plows on for the Eels with the Lisa Fiaola, Tarsha Gale and SG Ball Cup squads all vying for a berth in their respective Grand Finals. The girls will face the Canterbury Bulldogs in both grades while the boys take on the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Sixties and Forty20 run through the line-ups for each team and reflect upon the previous meetings this season for each grade and how that could influence each outcome this weekend.
The Jersey Flegg and NSW Cup are also taking the Rabbitohs in Round 8 as they travel to Redfern for a Saturday double-header. Both teams are well positioned inside the Top 4 coming into this weekend and have the chance to consolidate their positions against struggling South Sydney outfits.
I know it’s a bit off topic, but I’d like to commend both 40 and 60s for getting on board with Ryles and the new coaching regime, as I know of a few friends who are still bitter at the fact BA was terminated along with Gutho’s & RCG’s departures.
Right now whatever Ryles or the club does, they disagree with, such is there bitterness.
Although I was very opposed to Brad being head coach in history latter stages, I always supported the club to win as many games as possible.
Right now, and especially with new clubs on the horizon, Ryles has really taken the bull by the horns and pushed for development, and it is already proven fruitful. Iongi, Ryley Smith, Sam Tuivaiti, and to a lesser extent Kautoga and Samrani have all done extremely well. Our spine along with hopefully Galvin, who is odds on, will prove a cornerstone for the club for years to come.
Also, I really think that our defence has turned the corner with Ryles. Although we’ve been beaten by teams who’ve gotten on a roll in a couple of 40 degree games, our other matches particularly Saints Dogs and Wests we had some great goal line d. With 11 men for a period, we only conceded 4 tries against wests, 2 from kicks in that 11 men period.
Ryles’s D will be another cornerstone pushing forward. We just need to minimise some handling errors that in turn is putting unnecessary pressure on our D, but that will come.
We also no longer get easily defeated on our edges. No more wingers jamming in and giving easy tries every game.
Brads teams had good strengths some years but we still have shotty edge defence, teams like Souths, broncos, roosters stripped us for numbers nearly every game to the point we offered almost no resistance near the try line if that shifted wide on us.
The real question was how do we look with Mitch Moses in?
How good will our team look with fast backs and more athletic players in the team?
The Moses question got answered last weekend. We looked better in many areas than last year even when Moses + gutho were playing.
And the more athletic players & different conditioning see us come back to beat saints from well behind – we had not come back from that far behind in the 2nd half in several years.
Jason’s also won us the first game since 2017 (pretty sure) without Clint gutherson.
A lot of work to do – but plenty of positive signs there, and we’ve only played 1 game with our half back.
We also have finally been able to bridge pathways & rookies successfully into grade much smoother – Ryley smith + Sam Tuivaiti played barely any NSW cup games, and successfully transferred to NRL.
Not to mention every rookie who’s debuted or had a shot at first grade has came in and looked amazing.
Previously our jnrs looked poor in grade, and Sean Russel for the first time in his career is defending well out wide.
Roller coaster start, but if we are being objective there’s many positives.
The 50-60 minute mark collapse of 2024 also looks to have been fixed. I don’t see many people mentioning this. ^
Muz, I’ve had people hammer me in messages on socials after losses that the team isn’t fit. I’ve argued over that, just as I argued that they were fit last year. What makes a massive difference is the number of errors. If you keep turning the ball over, you pay the price. What Ryles and Moa worked on in defence over the preseason was the speed of the defence line movement. Both getting back and moving up. If the team is slow getting back, one of the worst things that it creates is the rushed decision making of defenders. They fall out of systems. The other thing to remember about last year was that Moses played a grand total of 8 games.
I think you are 100% spot on regarding the errors etc gassing them out.
You look at Dragons yesterday they had poor possession early and look totally gassed and got easily beaten by a 3rd last roosters team.
I would argue there’s improvements though, because even with Mitch in we did not look like a strong second half team from memory even with his inclusion.
We’ve rallied late better this year even when Mitch wasn’t playing – some good signs there. Even when we lost I thought.
Thanks Chief.Ultimately TCT is a supporter site. It doesn’t mean that we can’t be critical of the club, or the coaches or the players.
We are in the position of being able to report on what BA was doing and now Ryles and the coaching staff are looking to achieve. The thing is, it doesn’t always come together. One of the most frustrating things to navigate in the early stages of Ryles era were the matches where the team was not executing a scrap of what they trained for during the preseason. In n other games we saw flashes. That Tigers game was finally close to the identity they are aiming for.
But here’s the thing that I’ve mentioned before. In our conversations with the coaching staff over the years, we’ve had the privilege of hearing many insights and being trusted with that. In a conversation earlier this year, the comment was made, without prompting, about how there is still shit that was gets put on BA. The current coaches won’t have a bar of it. They know that there are problems to be fixed but they aren’t interested in talking garbage about predecessors. For mine, that’s a classy attitude and I’m sure they won’t mind me referencing it.
That’s great Jason & co are being respectful of the past while taking full ownership of the present, I expect nothing less from them though. He seems very respectful & professional.
Side note sixties & chiefy1: Did you see gutho play yesterday?
Maybe I’m missing something but it looked like what we saw towards his ending at parra. Those miraculous try saving moments from great defensive decisions look to have slowed down a bit. Watching him yesterday (he has been great this year), but I could not help but feel long term we made the right decision. Younger players are the future of the game and I feel like we will be flying once all our younger players get 25-50 NRL games experience. Especially Iongi. We got a good one there. There’s indications he could be a future elite player.
I think the time has officially come that we leave BA in the past. I was a neutral on being a supporter of BA because he did some great things for the club but also had his moments of failure. The 2022 grand final
Was his best ever achievement but ultimately was the start of his downfall. I think everyone can agree change was needed and I think ryles is refreshing but we all know the job is just bigger then just ryles.
In the glimpses weve seen so far we are fitter. We are still making errors but we are now able to defend errors better (still room for improvement).
Defence in and around our posts is a concern. We were unable to defend errors and penalties. Never could we defend when down to 11 or 12 men can anyone remind me when we did that? I honestly cannot remember a time we did.
We don’t fade at the 50min mark as we have the
last few seasons. Early errors and poor defence does fatigue badly late in games but to always fade at around the same point each game shows fitness is a big factor.
It’s not a criticism of the previous coach as methods and strategies move on every year. If you stay the same you are going backwards. We had to get fitter. Mitch even said so in one of his interviews commenting on the sessions.
In boxing they tell you about championship rounds in NRL the championship rounds are 60-80min –
we were hitting the 50min and folding like a
garden chair too often. Not to say we won’t do it
again but it seems less likely given the glimpses we’ve seen.
While it’s only early days and only 1 preseason. Well be in a better position next year and fitter again.
I posted this once before, but it speaks a thousand words…we were always suss when good ball players moved it wide but gradually after GF 2022 I had started to see our middle get shaky. One game I noticed Hopgood was the only forward who had gotten back 10 and ready to defend but because he was one defender with space around him he got stepped(by a known stepper)we got busted and conceded a long range try. My fellow posters piled on to Hopgood, so I got the replay up on Kayo and sure enough there were big names gassed, flat footed or straggling, completely embarrassed by fast play and quick thinking, but Hopgood got the bake. Hopgood would never say it, but I reckon he’s glad some new thinking and new blood is on the rise.
Agree BDon,
Hopgood makes tackles and attempts tackles. Some have been guilty of not attempting a tackle so therefore it doesn’t count as missed. They are often slow to get back which also is not a stat up for discussion at the Monday reviews. If you watch tries against us we will often see those slower/unfit players n the background.
The game with 6 agains and constant repeat sets has made it largely a fitness and who can hold the ball style of game, that’s the current Meta of NRL football it seems.
Panthers still have the grinding and fitness but the sheer lack of experience is costing them possession and them tiring the players and making the defence fail.
Like us they have a lot of new young blokes errors are high, giving away easy ball, then too much pressure and they can’t hold on.
I think once we can hold the ball and compete set for set like last week with Moses we start to win games.
The biggest difference was obviously the kicking game but our competition rate etc was far better than any time this year i believe.
As a result we didn’t get too gassed, we could defend decent, and had energy to also attack due to lower errors & less tired as a result.
Fellas did you see panthers tonight? They are absolutely toast.
They’ve got clearly and yeo and Edwards out there and manly easily beat them.
I could swear manly was unable to beat panthers for years it seems like.
Did you see it? They actually might be worse than us – because they’ve got their half back in there and still look awful.
Manly had ultra high completion rates for Most of the game and killed them.
Can you believe how far they’ve fallen off? I hope we finish above them + beat panthers ass this year…
So Blaize Talagi can see what he is missing out on after leaving the mighty eels. Haha
Actually even funnier: I feel eels will finish above Newcastle and panthers possibly, if Moses stays healthy,
Then Boods, Blaine. even Isaiah Papalii (all former eels) can feel some wrath for leaving our mighty eels 🤣
Yeah Muz, I didn’t watch Panthers but I noticed courtesy of the bye we are now 16th and Panthers 17th. Our F&A is worse. But for now its all good.
The Panthers big names have all played a lot of football 5 full seasons Semis, including GFs, Origin and International games, club challenges. All have leg injuries except Yeo and Martin who both tackles themselves to a standstill. Basically exhausted.
The really miss Fish, Taruva, Luai and as you say the new guys errors and missing tackles is unlike Panthers. I think Cleary is love sick and missing Mary lol.
The reign is about to end lol.
They are in a rebuild it looks like tbh
I think they’ve over played their hand here by having such faith in inexperienced players
That and also like you mentioned those key players playing a huge amount of football
Their best times might even be behind them, it’s hard to imagine clearly gets a lot better from here
What is there to prove for him? He’s won several premierships at a young age + his love is over seas
How much hunger can you sustain after already achieving all of if?
No doubt they still work super hard – but it will be taking a major mental toll on them now being stuck at dead last
Yep, watched it Muz. Manly completed 90%/ 5 errors…Panthers 74%/10. With DCE, Turbo, Haumole working with that sort of discipline, Manly will trouble most teams. I had the feeling that the Panthers were strapped on the rack with a big bloke in a leather mask slowly turning the ratchet.
Bdon it looks like nearly every game especially now with the rules if any team has poor possession due to errors they have nearly no chance, much like parra in each game before Moses came in to settle us down and organise.
Manly can complete at a high % while having a very strong attack as you know, but to be honest the old panthers team would have put points and pressure on them. The current team due to inexperienced players isn’t able to handle the ball or execute well enough to force a team like manly to go back into their shell.
It’s all good news us tho Bdon – we are no longer last. Haha