Re: Rumours 2 : Thu Dec 06, 2018 9:28 pm  

rubber duckie wrote:

Wasn't that already said by Price weeks ago?...or did Mamo take that space??

Heard this long after Mamo signing announced. Seemed a bit odd to me as we're now in December, but time will tell.

Re: Rumours 2 : Thu Dec 06, 2018 11:02 pm  

ninearches wrote:

Love him or hate him Sam Tomkins was the most influential player in the GF ,passing, support play, positional kicking & well judged "gamesmanship" . He was the difference between the two sides.

It wasn’t just him. When Sean O’Laughlin gets the ball in hand he is pretty much as good as their 1 6 7 9 and int9 at creating time, space and quality passes. They had dangerous creative options everywhere.

We had Brown and Ratchford and that’s about it. Clark isn’t that creative and even though Brown is a half back, he created absolutely nothing in both finals.

Re: Rumours 2 : Fri Dec 07, 2018 1:42 pm  

Paul Youane wrote:

Over the that time period Wigan scored 8 tries in finals, Hull 5, Leeds 4, Catalans 3 and Castleford 1. Saints ain't even scored 1.

Doesn't seem to me we've done that bad. Can't be goal-kicking that got us there can it?

I think you are purposefully not disclosing the amount of finals they have been in (or indeed won).

2016 -> 2018

Winners
Cats - 1 final - 3 tries, won 1/1 (3 tries / final)
Hull - 2 finals - 5 tries, won 2/2 (2.5 tries/final)
Wigan - 3 finals - 8 tries, won 2/3 (2.6 tries/final)

Losers
Cas - 1 finals - 1 tries., won 0/1 (1 try/final)
Wire - 4 finals - 6 tries, won 0/4 (1.5 tries/final)


2009 -> 2015
Wire - 5 finals, 22 tries, won 3/5, (4.4 tries/final)

You cannot expect, in general, to win finals scoring < 2 tries.
This is clear evidence of our inability to score sufficient tries in finals post Briers.

Re: Rumours 2 : Fri Dec 07, 2018 2:24 pm  

I think Michael Monaghan was a bigger loss than Briers, to me he was the best attacking #9 in Superleague as he had a running, passing and kicking game.

Re: Rumours 2 : Fri Dec 07, 2018 4:59 pm  

Wires71 wrote:

I think you are purposefully not disclosing the amount of finals they have been in (or indeed won).

2016 -> 2018

Winners
Cats - 1 final - 3 tries, won 1/1 (3 tries / final)
Hull - 2 finals - 5 tries, won 2/2 (2.5 tries/final)
Wigan - 3 finals - 8 tries, won 2/3 (2.6 tries/final)

Losers
Cas - 1 finals - 1 tries., won 0/1 (1 try/final)
Wire - 4 finals - 6 tries, won 0/4 (1.5 tries/final)


2009 -> 2015
Wire - 5 finals, 22 tries, won 3/5, (4.4 tries/final)

You cannot expect, in general, to win finals scoring < 2 tries.
This is clear evidence of our inability to score sufficient tries in finals post Briers.

Point being you can't get to play in finals without some attacking prowess that you seem unwilling to acknowledge.

It also shows how tries are at a premium in finals.

I would agree we lost to Catalans due to an absence of a controlling half but in the grand final the better team won. If Roberts had been the player for us his NRL performances suggested he should have been we may well have beaten Wigan in the Grand Final but even that wouldn't have been a given with the will to defend Wigan had.

We beat Hull if our halfback hadn't got injured.

Re: Rumours 2 : Sat Dec 08, 2018 10:42 am  

Paul Youane wrote:

Point being you can't get to play in finals without some attacking prowess that you seem unwilling to acknowledge.

It also shows how tries are at a premium in finals.

I would agree we lost to Catalans due to an absence of a controlling half but in the grand final the better team won. If Roberts had been the player for us his NRL performances suggested he should have been we may well have beaten Wigan in the Grand Final but even that wouldn't have been a given with the will to defend Wigan had.

We beat Hull if our halfback hadn't got injured.

Yes fair enough, PY. Beating Saints to get to the GF 2018 was a superb performance, no issue with that.

Similarly our 23-0 win over Wigan in the QF was a very good performance too.

The best team did win in the GF and that was because their defence far outweighed the ability of our attack, and their attack was creative, clinical and timely. The creative class from George Williams (sublimely weighted kick catching out Charnley who is no mug), Oliver Gildart (running at pace in the centre channel beating a man and creating an overlap), Shaun O'Laughlin (in centre field acting like a HB switching play from left to right when he saw we were not numbered up right) and Sam Tompkins (bullet inch perfect pass to Manfredi) being the difference.

It's that attacking quality I refer to.

When you think of our 2017 attack in truth we have Ratch and Clark who are exciting players that can make an opportunity with ball in hand.

Re: Rumours 2 : Sat Dec 08, 2018 11:53 am  

Wires71 wrote:

Yes fair enough, PY. Beating Saints to get to the GF 2018 was a superb performance, no issue with that.

Similarly our 23-0 win over Wigan in the QF was a very good performance too.

The best team did win in the GF and that was because their defence far outweighed the ability of our attack, and their attack was creative, clinical and timely. The creative class from George Williams (sublimely weighted kick catching out Charnley who is no mug), Oliver Gildart (running at pace in the centre channel beating a man and creating an overlap), Shaun O'Laughlin (in centre field acting like a HB switching play from left to right when he saw we were not numbered up right) and Sam Tompkins (bullet inch perfect pass to Manfredi) being the difference.

It's that attacking quality I refer to.

When you think of our 2017 attack in truth we have Ratch and Clark who are exciting players that can make an opportunity with ball in hand.

We need somebody backing up these players to finish off any breaks.

Re: Rumours 2 : Sat Dec 08, 2018 7:01 pm  

I hope that's Austin, I said last year myler would have been great, I don't think he is a creative half at all and I simply wouldn't let him kick on our last plays but he is one of the best support runners in superleague. He'd love playing with Clark.

Re: Rumours 2 : Mon Dec 17, 2018 7:47 pm  

Morgan Smith to Salford. http://www.totalrl.com/smith-in-talks-with-salford/

Morgan Smith to Salford. http://www.totalrl.com/smith-in-talks-with-salford/

Re: Rumours 2 : Thu Dec 20, 2018 9:47 pm  

Heard we haven't spent full cap, but nobody on the radar.