Houston, we have a fitness problem

[Ryan]

You sound like you know too ryan.

We aren't stuck in the days of 'Go easy the players read the forums' are we?

Cough up buddy!!! 😀

No point...it would only burn me...

 

[DSM5]

It's not as if we lost tonight.  The Cows got into the 'throw the ball around at any cost' game in the second half and we just attempted to go up the middle, mainly from our own try line.   The off-loads are what nearly caught us tonight but we hung on and won.  It would be an interesting stat to see just how much of the ball we had in the second half, but our defensive effort was good.  It was interesting to see Stewart miss a few tackles tonight.  That just shows the effort of playing two high pressure games in a week.      

 

[fLIP]

Dont just think about the cowboys game guys.

How many times have we been run down / hung on to a win this year?

 

[Ryan]

For the record...Rodney is one of our fittest forwards imo...always runs hard,, and at gaps right until the last second. I'd definitely say my favorite forward in our team now. Lyon being the back.

 

[Biscuits]

its a momentum thing. Momentum is hard to stop in the 20th minute let alone the 60th. Its experience, discipline and injuries etc that is costing us the momentum of the match

 

[Ryan]

True Biscuits mate - also, I thought our discipline was much better tonight. We gave away a heck of a lot less penalties.

Generally, that's what tends to shift momentum.

Not trying to be a broken record, but I thought the momentum shifted when we were up 24-6, attacking their Lyon, Hodko threw a pass the Bailey, who dropped it cold.

We score there....and it's game over, and they give up imo.

 

[codewana]

Not trying to be a broken record, but I thought the momentum shifted when we were up 24-6, attacking their Lyon, Hodko threw a pass the Bailey, who dropped it cold.

Their Lyon, huh? 😛

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

All the games we have been run down, it is no coincedence that we also see very little ball and no penalties in those 2nd halves. I don't understand how game after game we can hardly get a call in the 2nd half

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

How horrible is it when we're 30 minutes out from full time and you know for certain we won't score another point.  It has been happening a lot this year.  We just run out of gas, options and ideas.

It is moderately horrible. But it's not too bad because we also know we are usually about 20 in front and our guys are going to defend with a lot of ticker 🙂

 

[TokyoEagle]

No Stewart, Wolfman, Perry, Foran, and Lyon going off injured just before the comeback. That's a lot of cattle to be missing and a wealth of experience. How would some other teams go if they had losses like that.

How good did young Whare go on debut, was in the right spot at the right time last night.

Again, apart from his pass in that 1st try, Bailey had another shocker. He was a big contributer to the NQ comeback late in the game, he has worse hands than Choc.

 

[Utility Player]

It was interesting to see Stewart miss a few tackles tonight.  That just shows the effort of playing two high pressure games in a week.     

What two games would that be?

 

[Guest]

Look at the table tonight....we are in 2nd place, despite the Parra game, despite the injuries and despite Bailey. We are looking good for a 1976/78 2nd year repeat.

 

[Guest]

BTW....what's wrong with the Clock on this forum?

 

[byso]

Fitness must be an issue, we can see how teams lift against us in the final 20 mins as they know they have a big chance of catching us.

The dropped balls an errors are inexcusable imo

 

[Chip and Chase]

There were a couple of guys backing up from Origin. We had a big boy returning from injury who needed the run. We lost a player early in the second half which loaded up the interchange rotation. And in Des's post match interview he mentioned something about a bit of illness in the camp, which could have been a flu or virus or something, which would have taken the edge off those affected.

 

[Dan]

Umm what clock? You need to set it to your specific timezone under your profile

 

[DSM5]

UP, sorry I was mistaken about the two games.  I also wasn't aware of his viral attack before kick-off. 

 

[Canteen Worker]

The issue for our team is mental.  It isn't fitness. We have to be tougher. It also has to do with the belief of other teams that there is an issue - they lift as they believe they can run us down. We need the harder heads to take control and learn to slow the game down. In the end we have to keep looking for points rather than shutting up shop. Momentum is another thing and we have to learn to scramble a bit better when it is against us. I see no reason for panic and with a bit of luck, a bit more composure and a tad more steel we could be undefeated this season. No team has dominated us and we are likely to be right up there. With our finals experience we will be very hard to beat in the semis!!

 

[Bradza]

I think the people that think there is not a physical issue here are dreaming. It has happened multiple times and almost in an identical manner. While there are many contributing factors (penalties, errors, getting shy in attack etc) the fitness of the players and decision making under fatigue have to come into question.

Given Des's background and focus on science I am keeping faith that there is some kind of end of year tapering plan in place. Next week will be the half way mark of the comp rounds so it would be good to start seeing some gradual improvement in this area over the next month.

What concerned me the most in the last 20 mins on Saturday was our inability to make solid dominant tackles on tackle 1,2 & 3 after a good kick. They were chasing the kicks ok but instead of having the Cowboys within their 30 or 40 they were constantly shrugging off tackles and getting a roll on very early in the set. As a consequence just about every set finished with either an attacking kick from the cows or a threatening running play where we were at sixs and sevens on the edges. The positional changes and missing players explain some of the defensive mix ups but they don't explain the ineffective tackles early in the count - that is fatigue/fitness.

Yes they were gutsy against a pretty much full strength Nth Qld side at home but they were also very lucky to get away with the two points.

 

[Dan]

With all the injuries we may see a a Hopa JR debut.

Though I think if Foran is fit we will see a backline of

Farrer
Robbo
whare
Bailey
T-rex

Foran
Hodko

If Foran is not fit, we may see something like

Hoppa Jr
Robbo
Whare
Farrer
Williams

Bailey
Hodko

Not outstanding but not terrible with either option