All NRL Games [Round 23, 2025]

Coates is the best winger in the NRL . His positional play is perfect. His aerial skills are sublime his timing is always excellent and his defence is strong. He just quietly goes about his business every week being exceptional. He's the blueprint of the modern winger. I'm a fan.
 
I wonder how 3 players did there hamstrings in one game... maybe Madge's crazy and intense training methods :wondering:
Bellamy. I don't know how, but it has to be the Dark Arts of Craig Bellamy.

Seriously, if he could come up with a way - through sorcery, animal sacrifice or otherwise - of conspiring with the Melbourne groundkeepers to inflict serious injury on his opponents without injuring his own players, he would. (I was going to say "he'd do it in a heartbeat" until I realised he doesn't have a heart.)
 
That said… I would have him on our wing any time of day before Saab. The guy knows how to compete and catch a ball.

Also helps having halves who are better at short kick bombs. You watch where the ball usually comes down when kicked for Coates as opposed to the kicks Saab gets.

Coates basically just gets to jump, catch and fall down to score. 90% of the bombs Saab gets to go for end up 5 metres inside the field of play and not in the in-goal. And most of them are kicked by DCE. He's a good long kicker but his shorter kicking game often sucks like a $2 hooker.

Of course there is also the fact that Coates has a much safer pair of hands than Saab.
 
Must admit I'm enjoying watching the Panthas, they are now such a well oiled machine with a lot of moving parts,
it's like watching football chess, they are always 2 moves ahead of the opposition. Also there 5/8 Talagai, wow, what a player, came from the lowly Parra , now look at him now.
 
Must admit I'm enjoying watching the Panthas, they are now such a well oiled machine with a lot of moving parts,
it's like watching football chess, they are always 2 moves ahead of the opposition. Also there 5/8 Talagai, wow, what a player, came from the lowly Parra , now look at him now.
Ivan Clearly looks to have done a Moneyball thing, studied the game tapes over and over, and then built a team and method of play all designed to play a form of rugby league that the referees and current rules will give the greatest advantage to.

There's many examples of this with Penrith, from knowing when to do roll balls to everything else, but another is knowing that when the referee calls "Held!", that's your signal to immediately fall over to the ground with the ball carrier, as the referee won't ping you as they think you had started pushing in that last second before he called "Held!". Just practice and practice to not be obvious and the refs will leave you alone.

Dinosaur pure footy guts and effort coaching like Hasler and Toovey is no good anymore.
 
Ivan Clearly looks to have done a Moneyball thing, studied the game tapes over and over, and then built a team and method of play all designed to play a form of rugby league that the referees and current rules will give the greatest advantage to.

There's many examples of this with Penrith, from knowing when to do roll balls to everything else, but another is knowing that when the referee calls "Held!", that's your signal to immediately fall over to the ground with the ball carrier, as the referee won't ping you as they think you had started pushing in that last second before he called "Held!". Just practice and practice to not be obvious and the refs will leave you alone.

Dinosaur pure footy guts and effort coaching like Hasler and Toovey is no good anymore.
Great insight.
 

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1 Raiders 24 19 0 5 148 44
2 Storm 24 17 0 7 212 40
3 Bulldogs 24 16 0 8 120 38
4 Broncos 24 15 0 9 172 36
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7 Panthers 24 13 1 10 107 33
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11 Eels 24 10 0 14 -76 26
12 Cowboys 24 9 1 14 -146 25
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