NRL Fantasy 2022 Part 54 - Hail the Cow! No.4 in the charts, number 1 in our hearts!

Qld game plan was fantastic. Reminded me of that old series that Qld ran out Price and Petero so Blues counter by going super mobile with Watmough, Bird, Luke Lewis constantly changing directions around the middle. Qld replicated this with Cotter, Carrigan and Collins. Blues middles simply weren't up to the task and need to be more mobile for next game.
Blues lacked the game breaker you can just throw the ball to and have somethines happen ala Tommy or Latrell
I think that's the worst kicking game I've seen Cleary have in 3 years. Everything was just a little off. Not high enough or just too short or just too long. Credit to the kick pressure
Back 5 - Kotoni looked like he had the Latrell game plan of 8-10 quality touches in good ball but don't worry about putting in the work coming out of trouble. Wighton was among Blues best. Wingers did their job. Teddy was didn't get as many touches as he does for the Roosters but was always lurking
Forwards -
Martin was solid but didn't have the impact someone like Frizell or Angus would. Stays in the 17 but off the bench for mine. Paulo was the worst player in either pack for mine. Gave away quick play the balls or half breaks multiple times not shutting the gate. Tariq maybe didn't quite do enough on the edge. All the rest did their job and should get another crack

I'd be tempted to run something like

Teddy
Tupou
Latrell
Wighton
To'o
Luai
Cleary
RCG
Cook
Haas
Frizell
Murray
Yeo

Hynes
Martin
Angus
Matterson

Freddie will probably swap Tupou for Addo-Carr and run it back

Chucky wrote:
No chance.
Penalty for sure but nothing else.

The biggest thing I took out of tonight is that Rabbits21 has lost his crown as the most biased supporter.
Congratulations to the Bludger.
The new king.

Oh Yeah.
I'd like to thank L-Jimmy for playing along.
Whenever SOO is on - please don't take my rants as being representative of my state of mind.
#IstillhateMunster

To'o isn't getting the same go forward early in the sets he normally gets

Hastings still in a moonboot via his instagram. Sell for me.

Mr. Clean over here coming out unscathed from the shitposting

Enjoyed the game though. Figured it'd be a tough series after watching Carrigan, Cotter and Tino ripping in this year. First time in a few years I wasn't scoff-laughing at Qld's forward pack.

Seemed obvious a month or so ago that DSaifiti should be dropped for Klemmer. I think Rhino said it back then too. Freddie loves him a petty grudge though.

Hard to justify dropping Angus and JAC now too. Don't think JAC would've moved the needle though.

Painful to watch Qld's forwards lift after the first try and ours just seemingly go through the motions. Need some changes there for Game 2, and a standard backline change for a returning Latrell at CTR and Hynes utility.

Enjoy it you Qld pricks

Finger Puppet Mafia wrote:Still don't understand Crichton as an interchange player. Worked out well as a Centre got injured, but if that didn't happen, where and when do you play him.

I think the tactic was for Wighton to take the bruises in the opening 25 then come off and be used as a bench utility. Wighton was so good in the first 25 that plan had to go out the window.

One place where Freddie really struggles as a coach is bench rotation. Never seems to know how to use his 14 and regularly plays middles in stints that are too long or too short. This is a big part of why Bennett had him beat as a week in week out club coach

mrbrownstone wrote:Saw a couple of posts questioning Kaufusi's place earlier in the night. Couple of interesting stats on him. He had, by far, the fastest play the ball speed of anyone per NRL's stats - 2.6s. Next closest were Carrigan at 2.77 and Haas at 2.83. Capewell, Coates, Wighton, and Sims were the only others below 3s.

Also made the second-most tackles for QLD - 40 with 2 misses, only behind Cotter's 51 for 5 misses.

Not suggesting he was best on ground or anything close, just didn't see anything to suggest he wasn't still up to it at this level either.

Great post, backed up with good evidence, I will eat my words as someone who questioned him.

I just based it purely on his carry the ball impact, doesnt seem to make many post contact metres. But if he's doing all the above, that probably doesnt matter that much, as someone has to do that nitty gritty work!

multiple.scoregasms wrote:
I think that's the worst kicking game I've seen Cleary have in 3 years. Everything was just a little off. Not high enough or just too short or just too long. Credit to the kick pressure

Cleary kicks struggled because I don’t think there was a single time one of the forwards were set up as blockers at the PTB in comparison to JFH/Panthers forwards doing it almost every set

Camo123 wrote:

Cleary kicks struggled because I don’t think there was a single time one of the forwards were set up as blockers at the PTB in comparison to JFH/Panthers forwards doing it almost every set

Yeah I thought the same. Doesn't feel right to say out loud that our forwards should've been blocking and protecting Cleary, but yeah they should have been doing that among other things

Camo123 wrote:

Cleary kicks struggled because I don’t think there was a single time one of the forwards were set up as blockers at the PTB in comparison to JFH/Panthers forwards doing it almost every set

Yeah this is one of the things that go unnoticed by the casual fans and the media. It's why you can't just roll out a team of all stars and expect to win. It's also why I expect Panthers and probably Storm at full strength would beat both origin teams that ran out last night

I reckon on the Cleary kick struggling front, it makes a big difference playing Origin vs a club match where the kick pressure can be a little heavier and later in State of O without giving a penalty, whereas in club matches they are way more likely to ping you for it.
It's why he get's way more time for the Panthers on his kicks than we saw last night IMO

rhinoceroo wrote:If Latrell isn't back, wouldn't be totally amazed if Freddie does something left-field* like putting Hynes at centre.

*dumb

Nah. If Latrell is fit he'll be in. He's a thug, but when wearing the Blues jumper, he's our thug. He'll be keen to get his grub hits in on Munster.
#thuglife #trellmunstercatfight

multiple.scoregasms wrote:Qld game plan was fantastic. Reminded me of that old series that Qld ran out Price and Petero so Blues counter by going super mobile with Watmough, Bird, Luke Lewis constantly changing directions around the middle. Qld replicated this with Cotter, Carrigan and Collins. Blues middles simply weren't up to the task and need to be more mobile for next game.
Blues lacked the game breaker you can just throw the ball to and have somethines happen ala Tommy or Latrell
I think that's the worst kicking game I've seen Cleary have in 3 years. Everything was just a little off. Not high enough or just too short or just too long. Credit to the kick pressure
Back 5 - Kotoni looked like he had the Latrell game plan of 8-10 quality touches in good ball but don't worry about putting in the work coming out of trouble. Wighton was among Blues best. Wingers did their job. Teddy was didn't get as many touches as he does for the Roosters but was always lurking
Forwards -
Martin was solid but didn't have the impact someone like Frizell or Angus would. Stays in the 17 but off the bench for mine. Paulo was the worst player in either pack for mine. Gave away quick play the balls or half breaks multiple times not shutting the gate. Tariq maybe didn't quite do enough on the edge. All the rest did their job and should get another crack

I'd be tempted to run something like

Teddy
Tupou
Latrell
Wighton
To'o
Luai
Cleary
RCG
Cook
Haas
Frizell
Murray
Yeo

Hynes
Martin
Angus
Matterson

Freddie will probably swap Tupou for Addo-Carr and run it back

This.
You should be one of the NSW selectors.

The Bludger#2 wrote:
This.
You should be one of the NSW selectors.

Get Freddie on the line and I'll do my bit for the state

For me I thought it was weird re the reporters getting up & close to the coaches box & interviewing the coaches during the game but most off putting was the Tedesco interview as the team was running out for the 2nd half because Tedesco was focussing on the 2nd half then he has to give an interview & doesn't run on the field with the team.
Haha I bet if Bellamy was the nsw coach there would be no way they would interview him in the coaches box.

Rabbits21 wrote:

I strongly disagree. Cook made 56 tackles none missed and had 14 runs for 96 metres behind a beaten pack. He also helped set our first try up with a very good pass and in second half put Teddy into open space. Yea he had one poor error where he threw the ball away that was poor but cmon man we had many worse players than him out there. Api wouldn’t have a made a difference misses more tackles and doesn’t run much.

As for those saying Trell will play origin 2 he won’t Souths are ruling him out of our clash with Dragons next week and JD said he won’t be playing origin 2.

I knew Staggs wasn’t the answer tbh in this arena and S. Crichton shirks to tough yakka you can all call me bias I’ll wear it but I think Campbell Graham would’ve been a better pick as he’s good in defence and won’t shirk the tough yakka.

Also Sims and Martin should be dropped for Angus and Frizell for mine. Klemmer seems out of favour but he’d have given us good go forward.

The real question we want the answer to Rabbits is did you or did you not go and sit in a cold stadium surrounded by heaps of other people whilst batting a bad cold/flu coughing your lungs out??