Le Strange

[Matabele]

Chechin was not the only one who lost the game for us. 

Le Strange's first play (as a fresh man) was to miss the tackle for Harrison's try, then his dummy half play was absolute rubbish.  We'd have been better off if Ballin had gone the 80 today.

It pisses me off no end when fresh players come on like that and trash the effort of guys busting their guts for the whole game.  Is it too much to ask to come onto the field in the 65th minute with one's head screwed on?

 

[Nutzcraw]

Totally agree.

Ballin should have played 80 today... Easy to say in hindsight though.

 

[DSM5]

Well why doesn't he?  What is the coach thinking?  Ballin is super fit and can play the 80.  They all need hand control coaching.

 

[ads]

Kite fell off that tackle worse than LeStrange I thought.

In fact I'm pretty disapointed with Kite. He seems to be giving away as many penalties (mainly holding down) as Watmough.

 

[DSM5]

Both of them are not worth a blue jumper.

 

[Nutzcraw]

Kite has been poor all year... i mentioned this a couple of weeks ago. I hope he continues to come off the bench or get dropped. Perry and King are our starting props at the moment... King was outstanding today. I wish kite had of taken up his lead.

 

[Jethro]

Kite has been poor all year....

Maybe he is still grieving the loss of his old man.

 

[eggson]

Le Strange held on in that tackle whereas Kite fell off i thought.  Kite isn't up to Origin standard at all.  Just from watching he didn't look to make many metres, just took the ball, turned around and fell to the floor.  Hardly what you expect from a top prop.

I think because Matai went off, Le Strange was put in later than planned and he tried to do too much.

That said, we did alright in plenty of areas (and sucked in just as many), but still lost.  That's the end of it right there.

 

[Nutzcraw]

Maybe so... I dunno what it is... I wish I could fix it.

On LeStrange... even though with hindsight it would have been better to keep Ballin on.. I do remember thinking while Ballin was on that LeStrange would carve them up the middle when he got on... Wasn't to be though.. LeStrange had a pretty piss poor game and I'm sure if des had his time again he'd have stuck with Ballin.

These things happen. Pretty sure des was reluctant to bring ballin off hence he played 75% of the game... he prolly thought that lestrange could split the game open... which he sometimes can do.

 

[Chip and Chase]

.. I do remember thinking while Ballin was on that LeStrange would carve them up the middle when he got on...

I thought the same thing, unfortunately when he got on all he did was run sideways and stifle the play. Oh, and miss a crucial tackle.

 

[kingyfan]

Kite has been poor all year... i mentioned this a couple of weeks ago. I hope he continues to come off the bench or get dropped. Perry and King are our starting props at the moment... King was outstanding today. I wish kite had of taken up his lead.

Kingy has been really outstanding all year. 

How did channel 9 give man of the match to friend?  He was struggling all day to tackle our forwards

 

[Dan]

I thought Ballin was one of our best, we went flat as soon as he went off and LeStrange cam on

 

[Pearso]

The defence was poor in the leadup to that try, but why were they in that position? Because of a poor line drop out thats why.

Kingkyfan, I was bemused too when Friend was given man of the match. He got smashed trying to make tackles. he had something like 46 tackles but I'd say most of those would have been him getting knocked out of the way by our forwards.

 

[missing_something]

Kite fell off that tackle worse than LeStrange I thought.

In fact I'm pretty disapointed with Kite. He seems to be giving away as many penalties (mainly holding down) as Watmough.

Kites attitude before he fell off that tackle was poor it took him a good 15 - 20 seconds after everyone else to walk back onside before that drop out and he only just arrived at the line facing the kicker as Orford dropped the ball out - maybe he was busted - maybe he was tired but either way his body language was screaming to be replaced.

 

[DSM5]

Kite definitely needs a wake up.  Ted was better yesterday.  Maybe Kite's not wanting to play origin.  He won't, and we'll have him through those days.  Ballin needs to do what other hookers do, play the full 80.  All the other good ones do.  Choc?  what can I say, he needs to come off the bench. 

 

[Fluffy]

he was probably our worst yesterday and hasnt got the form of last year.

with orford struggling with certain parts of his game (passing to watmoughs head and 5th tackle kicking) it wouldnt hurt to give foran a run off the bench

 

[byso]

That missed tackle was Kites fault, Kingy is even killing him.

 

[DSM5]

Reading in today's papers that Kite is still favoured to get one of the prop jobs.  Qld to win.

 

[Nutzcraw]

Kite will definately get it... he was in the Aussie side.

To be fair to kite I haven't seen him play a bad game for NSW and honestly... can you name 4 other forwards you'd put ahead of him for NSW?

 

[Rex]

The defence was poor in the leadup to that try, but why were they in that position? Because of a poor line drop out thats why.

Kingkyfan, I was bemused too when Friend was given man of the match. He got smashed trying to make tackles. he had something like 46 tackles but I'd say most of those would have been him getting knocked out of the way by our forwards.

I agree that Ox is a shocking line-drop kicker, and surely we have someone with a bigger boot for line drop outs.  But attributing the try to the dropout is a bit rich.  First tackle somewhere around the 30 metre line is pretty standard for dropouts.  The defensive effort was very, very poor.

With a good fullback we most likely would not have been caught in goal, and there would have been no dropout.  Poor positioning plus being a very easy defence target ensures that Robbo is caught in-goal very regularly. Under similar pressure you'd back Wolfman out of the ingoal most times and never expect Robbo to have any chance.