We carried too many passengers, especially our halfbacks. : Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:51 am  

Far too many of our side are either too inconsistent or they are simply not good enough to take us to the next level, Michael Monaghan and Lee Briers were virtually none existent. Lee Briers is very capable but he has far too many quiet games, it was like taking on Saints without any half backs. We had the pack tonight to lay the platform but we lacked flair from our half backs, apart from one pass to the fuzzy haired cart horse i didn`t realise Michael Monaghan had been selected. I`m not a fan of Leon Pryce at 6 but at least both the Saints half backs made penetrating runs that caused us problems. Its a good job we had Micky Higham as i dread to think what the score would have been without him especially if Mr Predictable had been at 9.

Ive said before that Michael Monaghan is never a scrum half these days and i won`t be changing that opinion, IMO he turned into a better hooker whilst at Manly than he ever was a scrum half at the Raiders.

I wonder if the council has any vacancies for a bin man as maybe they could take over Matt King`s contract ?

Well done to Chris Riley for the effort and enthusiasm, its nice to see pride in the shirt. Positives as well for Gareth Carvell, Micky Higham, Ben Westwood and Paul Rauhihi, Moz was going well before the silly penalties which contributed to our downfall.

At the end of the day i think we have far too many inconsistent so called star players which means we will keep the inconsistency tag until they are replaced with better quality, i know this is just the first competetive game of the season but i saw enough tonight to have concenrns especially when our backline was no threat whatsoever apart from the efforts of Chris Riley to join the line. Our defence close to the line remains a problem especially when teams up the tempo as they seem to walk through us far too easily, 26 unanswered points has to be a concern.

: Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:56 am  

Have to agree, there was little cohesion in the performance tonight

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:43 am  

felt monas was nonexistant and out tactics were just left to right, right to left with the passing. Nothing stood out as particulary innovative in which to break saints down.

Re: We carried too many passengers, especially our halfbacks. : Mon Feb 16, 2009 8:37 am  

Rob Wire wrote:

Far too many of our side are either too inconsistent or they are simply not good enough to take us to the next level, Michael Monaghan and Lee Briers were virtually none existent. Lee Briers is very capable but he has far too many quiet games, it was like taking on Saints without any half backs. We had the pack tonight to lay the platform but we lacked flair from our half backs, apart from one pass to the fuzzy haired cart horse i didn`t realise Michael Monaghan had been selected. I`m not a fan of Leon Pryce at 6 but at least both the Saints half backs made penetrating runs that caused us problems. Its a good job we had Micky Higham as i dread to think what the score would have been without him especially if Mr Predictable had been at 9.

Ive said before that Michael Monaghan is never a scrum half these days and i won`t be changing that opinion, IMO he turned into a better hooker whilst at Manly than he ever was a scrum half at the Raiders.

I wonder if the council has any vacancies for a bin man as maybe they could take over Matt King`s contract ?

Well done to Chris Riley for the effort and enthusiasm, its nice to see pride in the shirt. Positives as well for Gareth Carvell, Micky Higham, Ben Westwood and Paul Rauhihi, Moz was going well before the silly penalties which contributed to our downfall.

At the end of the day i think we have far too many inconsistent so called star players which means we will keep the inconsistency tag until they are replaced with better quality, i know this is just the first competetive game of the season but i saw enough tonight to have concenrns especially when our backline was no threat whatsoever apart from the efforts of Chris Riley to join the line. Our defence close to the line remains a problem especially when teams up the tempo as they seem to walk through us far too easily, 26 unanswered points has to be a concern.

As ever an interesting, if a little long, post Rob.

I think we need to hold fire on looking at the 'inconsistency' point for this season, for the time being, at least until we have played more than 1 game. I take the point about inconsistency within a particular game but again, I think this falls on its booty when we are talking about 1 match, and the 1st game of the season at that.

Re: We carried too many passengers, especially our halfbacks. : Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:02 am  

Ian [77] wrote:

I think we need to hold fire on looking at the 'inconsistency' point for this season, for the time being, at least until we have played more than 1 game.

The opinion above isn`t just based on the St Helens game, Lee Briers has been inconsistent for a long while now, i`m not sure we can actually class Michael Monaghan as inconsistent because to be inconsistent you need to have shown some worthwhile form in the first place and apart from 1 game that sticks in the memory he has been utter garbage for such a high profile signing.

The same comments that i used for Michael Monaghan can be used for Matt King, Kevin Penny again is another player that is inconsistent and again thats not just based on the St Helens game either. Paul Johnson is another inconsistent performer since he arrived at the club, Louis Anderson is another that is inconsistent with his performances since he arrived.

The above doesn`t even include the inconsistent performers that are out injured like Jon Clarke, Vinnie Anderson, Stuart Reardon and Simon Grix. If you have so many inconsistent performers in your squad then you can expect nothing less than inconsistent results which is my overall point about carrying too many passengers in too many games and the same has started again in the first game of the new season.

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 11:33 am  

Have to agree with this Briers and Monaghan didnt really show up at all.

: Mon Feb 16, 2009 11:43 am  

I too wanted more from our half backs. Maybe it was tactical not to use them as in the first 50 minutes we just ran down the middle, completed 95 % of our sets (which was refreshing) and got good field position.

I try not to think about the last 30 minutes