Solid

[Kiwi Eagle]

Disappointing final scoreline tbh, but it was a pretty good performance all round

Standouts - Stewart, Matai, King and Hopoate for me

The whole forward pack was tireless, Stewart and Watmough especially throughout the entire 80. King set a great platform up front and Kite followed his lead

Halves - both solid again and both showing good signs going forward

Hoppa was brilliant again at the back, is fearless under the high ball and really attacks it, and his timing in coming into the backline improves every week

Matai, a lot want him in the pack, but you can move him. Runs fantastic lines, has great footwork, hits hard out wide as well. What a couple of weeks he has had. Lyon was sensational in defense and cut down a lot of their plays, his best match of the season

We look so, so good in attack this year, the big scores aren't coming but if we keep up this style of play, they will. The moves look slick and every player is organized and playing their roles perfectly

Defensively we are a great unit, I know we let in a couple late, but after the hammering from the clowns in pink and the amount of defence we had to do, it was understandable. I like our ability to lift a gear in defense, happened around the 50th minute tonight and the line speed and contact is incredible

The less said about the muppets in pink the better, have the game no flow and didn't ref both sides equally, and made it a bit of a boring spectacle as a result

 

[TokyoEagle]

Am sure the boys took the foot of the pedal at the end there and weren't putting their bodies on the line as the game was in the bag. Matai didn't even try to stop Tahu for his try.

 

[Narly]

If Bret comes back next week I'd have him at full back when we're attacking and Hoppa when we're defending. Hoppa under highball was very impressive tonight.

 

[Masked Eagle]

If Bret comes back next week I'd have him at full back when we're attacking and Hoppa when we're defending. Hoppa under highball was very impressive tonight.

Hoppa is good under the high ball, but Snake isn't too bad in that department either. The one aspect of his game though which is better is kick returns. Snake never really seemed to back himself to make a bust on a kick return and usually looked to get to his winger so they can go from dummy half but young Hoppa is dynamic in that department.

 

[codewana]

KE - nice summation.

ME - I think Stewart used to return kicks like that but improved dramatically after SOO. I think we might be forgetting how good he was because we haven't seen him at his best for a while.

 

[Masked Eagle]

KE - nice summation.

ME - I think Stewart used to return kicks like that but improved dramatically after SOO. I think we might be forgetting how good he was because we haven't seen him at his best for a while.

His kick returns might have improved but it was never a strength of his game.

 

[Berkeley_Eagle]

yeah Kiwi agree with all you said
I just got home and that game was so disappointing to watch as you said those Muppets in pink were shocking, they seemed to ref just one side, the scoreline didnt indicate how far ahead of penrith we are, they are headed close to the spoon as far as I can see

 

[Chip and Chase]

A lot of whistle blowing.... some justified, some pedantic. Still we need to learn not to give the muppets an excuse. A few too many errors as well. Luckily Penrith were pretty insipid tonight....gee they have really dropped from the side that finished 2nd last year.

I think the one thing that we are really lacking to round out this side, is some spark out of dummy half. Ballin is solid, but there aren't a lot of threats or variation in his armoury.

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

Can't disagree with your ballin point, I was meant to put that in the main post. Defensively he is great, attacking wise, awful may be too strong a word but it isn't flash

 

[ManlyBacker]

Ballin pacing himself for the full 80 must be a factor. He was quiet the first 20 then took control back end of the first half. He did 43 tackles which was second only to Glenn on 46. His passing was crisper from DH than any others that took it on. It would be nice to have that Stranger impact off the bench and let him put a bigger effort in for around 55 mins.

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

The thing that kinda summed his attack up for me MB, was when hoppa made that break. His focus should have been quick, fast ball to the other side of the park, instead he played for a penalty which we didn't get and then took a poor run from dummy half

 

[ManlyBacker]

Yeah KE. I used to say that sticking with Ballin for 80 was ok as he is one of the fittest players in the game. But no longer as I agree his attack is way down and that is a good example of wrong options.

 

[Chip and Chase]

You can't fault Ballin's service from dummy half, his passing is crisp and direct. He does spend too much time with his arms in the air trying to get penalties, which is a momentum killer at times. Defensively he is sound, it's just that it would be nice if he had a few trick shots up his sleeve to give us that extra option.

 

[blue_mountains_eagle]

I really think Matai is back to his best, he is running like he was in 08, what about smoking Joe, he is killing it! BIG WELL DONE KINGY, he has been on fire, all this talk about Snowden is really over the top, give me Kingy in this form anyday

 

[Darren]

Ballin makes 40 odd tackles each week and plays 80 minutes!! He doesn't make a couple of runs, fair dinkum, Kiwi, you get out there and pick every right run in the heat of the moment. Easy watching it from the television screen! He allows Des to keep 4 interchange players on the bench. That Penrith supersub came on last night and did less than Ballin. Matai goes in at dummy half and makes huge gains. Cameron Smith is the only one who can do this and he costs 500 grand. Ballin is composed and is an absolute workhorse. That defence last night was 2007/2008 stuff, better than the 60 minute stuff we were previously known for.

 

[lloydy]

It's a good feeling watching the boys looking so happy on the field at the moment. It is all starting to fall into place, going along nicely, not on fire, just easing into the season nicely.

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

Darren, he offers no spark at all from dummy half, his running game has gone backwards, and his kicking game has gone nowhere

Defensively, he is great, just in attack I think he has stagnated the past couple of years and our young halves need a bit more from him in that area

 

[Masked Eagle]

I'm not as concerned about Ballins lack of attack now as I was earlier in the year. Thats because of the emergence of Foran in particular. Without stating the obvious, he is really blossoming with the playmaking responsibilities and really peforming above levels I thought he was going to capable of, at least for a few years. Because he is going well that doesn't leave as much of the pressure of orchestrating the attack to DCE which means that Ballin being able to help out isn't as important. Would it be great if Ballin had the attacking skills of a Smith, Farah or Luke? Of course it would be, but our attack is functioning OK with good crisp service to our halves giving them more time to run the plays. That being said, opposition coaches are no dummies and rest assured they'll be putting a lot more time into trying to work out our young halves, I look forward to seeing how they cope with it.

 

[Darren]

with Glenn, DCE, Foran doing the ball playing and Matai in at dummy half I imagine Des is telling him to hit these guys first. His passing is crisp and the boys are hitting the advantage line. Very rare we drop balls from his passing. The ones I can remember was matai to buhrer so pretty good stuff from dummy half. I do agree that the Stranger partnership[ was awesome but we don't have anyone like that. Seu Seu didn't step up, nor maybe Liam??

 

[Daddycool]

The Panthers aren't as bad as everyone has been making out. They threw plenty at us last night.. but the defense was outstanding.