2007 NRL Thread (2 Viewers)

[Teddy Lee]

NSW needs to improve kicking game, with that should come more attacking oppurtunities. Anasta and Mullen were ordinary in that regards, Hunt difused them easily. I also think creativity in ball playing would be good, with more line breaks (I think they introduced Hoffman partly for his ability to break the line).
Defence also needs to improve, King seemed to struggle on the right wing a lot, coming in far too much. I'll be interested to see how Kimmorley does in particular. NSW will miss Mini's experience at fullback but Stewart is in good form and is a try scoring freak.

GO BLUES They can win it.

 

[HotShot]

Stewart > ownz Mini...

On that note you can really see the difference with Kimmorley playing rather than Mullen..

Buderus.. overrated..

 

[bored6]

Stewart > ownz Mini...

On that note you can really see the difference with Kimmorley playing rather than Mullen..

Buderus.. overrated..

Despite your inherent Mini bias i'll respond.

IMO Stewart is playing really well - although he doesn't seem very confident on his kick returns - crappy compared to Mini's trademark kick returns

Buderus is pretty overrated I agree but hes playing alright.

And Mullen is a fucking joke Kimmorely is going awesomely ^_^

Surely there is a better centre in NSW then Lyon.

 

[watatank]

fuck. nsw had every chance to win and they still couldn't do it!

 

[stazi]

poop.

 

[HotShot]

Despite your inherent Mini bias i'll respond.

IMO Stewart is playing really well - although he doesn't seem very confident on his kick returns - crappy compared to Mini's trademark kick returns

Buderus is pretty overrated I agree but hes playing alright.

And Mullen is a fucking joke Kimmorely is going awesomely ^_^

Surely there is a better centre in NSW then Lyon.

Mini is a joke.. honestly 'trademark returns'.. yeah mate dream on..

Everything favoured NSW, and they couldnt score in 40 minutes? In a must win match? disgraceful.. Clearly NSW lack creativity.. you saw that chip-kick from Kimmorley.. it was good, but should have been done in QLD's half, Farah you can gaurantee will come with an assist or a try in last few minutes- of all the players (apart from Benji. Bowen/thurston), in the dying seconds.. Farah will get you the try..

Buderus did jack shit apart from tackle.

 

[Dumsum]

That game was shithouse. Terrible refereeing, combined with way too many stupid spontaneous penalties given away by NSW. I reckon NSW were by far the better team out there.

 

[watatank]

the refereeing was good for nsw. they couldn't capitalise

nsw were way too predictable. buderus simply didn't do enough, what happened to all his strong dummy half runs, like in origin one? not sure if it was the game plan or what, but everything seemed to revolve around kimmorley and qld were able to defend him easily enough. still not convinced farah should take buderus' spot, but he needs to come in off the bench at the very least.

 

[HotShot]

the refereeing was good for nsw. they couldn't capitalise

nsw were way too predictable. buderus simply didn't do enough, what happened to all his strong dummy half runs, like in origin one? not sure if it was the game plan or what, but everything seemed to revolve around kimmorley and qld were able to defend him easily enough. still not convinced farah should take buderus' spot, but he needs to come in off the bench at the very least.

its crap if they select Farah for next one, he will perform brillaintly and everyone will say there was no pressure all crap.

For gods sake why didnt they kick for line..?>why did they take the tap?

 

[iamsickofyear12]

One of the most important games of the year decided by a blatantly obvious forward pass that the ref and touch judges completely missed... fucking ridiculous.

Anasta was shit. He basically didn't touch the ball in the first half and did very, very little in the second half. His official stats were 10 tackles, 6 missed tackles, 1 offload, 20 meters gained... but I don't think even that shows how shit he really was. He needs to be replaced. It doesn't matter who replaces him, as long as he is out of the side. Anyone will do. I tried to warn everyone when he was first selected by everyone insisted he was really good. This proves my point.

Kimmorley was excellent in defense and his kicking was good but he didn't do his main job which is set up tries. You can't win without points and he just didn't provide the opportunities from them.

Overall worst origin game I can remember. The only try NSW scored was soft and QLD had 1 lucky one and 1 from a forward pass.

 

[watatank]

nsw relied too much on kimmorley to do everything. it's not his fault. they should've shared the workload

 

[wuddie]

hear hear. a forward pass which robbed nsw the game. hayne needs to look back at the tape and admit that he was wrong and robbed nsw the game. if he doesn't, well someone knows where he lives.

anasta was virtually non existence in that game, my mate sworn that he didn't know anasta was in the side until the 60th minute. but we can't generalise that performance to the first game, where he did play satisfactorily. but yea, tonight's performance warrants a sack, bring back mullen.

forward pack did well, dominated in the first half. but again everything came unstuck in the 2nd half, which begs the question, does nsw know its an 80min game, not 40? mason was really good i think, he was the only one who actually took a chance and tried to load to get a try.

brett stewart has played beyond expectation. he was there for the defence, took a few high bombs and scored the only try, i bet mini would have been worrying about his spot for origin 3.

kimmorley's kicking game was great, but his attacking game has gone out the window, too much sideway movements. why would you try getting around a backline which can virtually represent australia? what happened to the little inside balls, the straight running and taking it to the line? nsw had far too many chances gone begging. with the 3 consecutive penalties nsw had late in the 2nd half, they should have really scored. the fact that they persevered with the sideway passes really summed up the game.

better luck next year, nsw.

 

[wuddie]

Mini is a joke.. honestly 'trademark returns'.. yeah mate dream on..

Everything favoured NSW, and they couldnt score in 40 minutes? In a must win match? disgraceful.. Clearly NSW lack creativity.. you saw that chip-kick from Kimmorley.. it was good, but should have been done in QLD's half, Farah you can gaurantee will come with an assist or a try in last few minutes- of all the players (apart from Benji. Bowen/thurston), in the dying seconds.. Farah will get you the try..

Buderus did jack shit apart from tackle.

i cannot find one thing i agree with you there.

mini was the best player on the field in origin 1, hands down. it would have a lot worse if it wasn't for him. his returns are one of the best in the league, no doubt.

how can you guarantee a player to do anything in particular? farah may be known for his instincts in a broken line play, but you can't "guarantee" him to get a try everytime, especially in origin, against qld's kickass defence. not even andrew johns could have guaranteed a win for nsw when he made his comeback in 05.

i think buderus was really constrained by the game plan, which was obviously go sideways and back. someone asked why didn't he go forward with his dummy runs, well obviously murray said not to and give it to kimmorley at the first chance. but seeing he is the capt and all, he should have taken things in his own hands and played how he saw was fit, a let down in his part. but as per usual, whatever buderus did bad in attack, he makes it up with his mountain load of tackles.

 

[bored6]

i cannot find one thing i agree with you there

+1

 

[blackfriday]

that maroons defensive line is the best ive seen since ricky stuart first took over the roosters. it was like it never ended in both directions, which makes the amount of sideways running look stoopid because they were never going to find space out wide, especially with slow outside backs like king and lyon. usually a long defensive line means there're gaps on the fringes of the ruck but im not two-time grand final coach graham murray - he knows heaps more than me.

kimmorley kicked pretty well, and you could see the difference in the metres qld made on kick returns. his distribution on the other hand...well it screams out for robbie farah to be picked. with that said buderus was nsw's best on field, he really defended well and stole heaps of metres out of dummy-half. farah probably goes sideways too much also and the maroons would shut him down relaly quickly.

i think we are too harsh on kimmorley if we blame him for lack of any attacking direction because anasta bludged off the 69 mins when he didnt have a broken hand. he did bugger all in attack and defence, and didnt even help with kicking. anasta is the sort of guy who plays to not get dropped but i hope they drop him and never welcome him back. who will take his place is another question...

 

[bored6]

that maroons defensive line is the best ive seen since ricky stuart first took over the roosters. it was like it never ended in both directions, which makes the amount of sideways running look stoopid because they were never going to find space out wide, especially with slow outside backs like king and lyon. usually a long defensive line means there're gaps on the fringes of the ruck but im not two-time grand final coach graham murray - he knows heaps more than me.

kimmorley kicked pretty well, and you could see the difference in the metres qld made on kick returns. his distribution on the other hand...well it screams out for robbie farah to be picked. with that said buderus was nsw's best on field, he really defended well and stole heaps of metres out of dummy-half. farah probably goes sideways too much also and the maroons would shut him down relaly quickly.

i think we are too harsh on kimmorley if we blame him for lack of any attacking direction because anasta bludged off the 69 mins when he didnt have a broken hand. he did bugger all in attack and defence, and didnt even help with kicking. anasta is the sort of guy who plays to not get dropped but i hope they drop him and never welcome him back. who will take his place is another question...

I agree - Anasta is underperforming considerably and its frustrating. However, there aren't many other viable options for NSW at 5/8.

 

[iamsickofyear12]

I agree - Anasta is underperforming considerably and its frustrating. However, there aren't many other viable options for NSW at 5/8.

Based on last night's performance any other 5/8 (or halfback, or center, or hooker.. basically anyone) will do. Just pick one at random from first grade.

 

[watatank]

pick mullen at five eighth where he should have been in the first place.

 

[onebytwo]

well how about bird at 5/8, its his natural position after all

 

[mat2154]

it was a crappy game, hayne couldn't ref and he didn't call up any penalties in the first half. The second half was full of markers standing next to the dummy half (buderus) and there were so many flops on the tackled player making a slow boring game of footy. Kurt gidley (if fit) to play 5/8, anasta tries hard but is not good enough for this level. Lyon should also be dropped, all he did was run sideways, i would move king back into centre (his club position) and put merritt on the wing (which the selectors definetly won't do)