The Finals thread: (week 1)

[mave]

And you can’t really say it was massive, not even sure about contact, Young thought it was funny, then decided to throw himself on the ground, it’s a poor look for the game and the individuals involved in milking penalties, not excusing Walsh’s brain explosion, pretty stupid, wonder if the match review committee will take any action?

Slap on the wrist with a wet lettuce....it's what the fans want.
And also what Greenburgs daughters netball team wants.

Carrigan will get a week though.

 

[XV-1]

Do you know what I was more interested in to tell the truth??

Jamal Fogarty's piss poor game management when Canberra got to a 28–12 lead. Very reminiscent of Manly's collapses in the past couple of years. A 16 point collapse too......

He was pretty ineffective from about 60 minutes in.

To rub salt into the Fogarty and Raiders choke, Fogarty missed the easy conversion to take Canberra to 30.
They would never have been beaten then.

I really hope Fogarty improves his game mgt when he gets to Manly and does not kick goals as he has choked a couple of times now recently

 

[TheSoaringEagle2023]

The buck stops with the coach... Under Ricky they've made the finals in 2016, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2025... and missed the finals the other 6 seasons he's been there as coach. They've got plenty of players who've been there for multiple finals campaigns.

Partly true. My point being that they have a few first timers who havent played finals footy like Weekes, Strange, Stuart,Smithies,etc that has been their first time being there. Compared to the Broncos. Not saying the buck doesnt stop with Ricky.

 

[wombatgc]

Faders have really blown this. Poor game management from Fogarty.

Me, too. Was desperate not to see Matty Johns. Turns out that was a bad move!

lol. I do that too, as soon as the commentators are done I can’t hit the off button soon enough!

 

[HoldenV8]

Reminds me of someone

That was the point.....

 

[wombatgc]

They were both correct calls by the bunker. You can’t follow through and make contact with a players legs when he attempts a field goal (we’ve been on both sides of this), and Jed Stuart clearly made contact with the ball that went forward into the Brisbane player.

…and who cares if Canberra were celebrating the win? The bunker has to review dangerous contact when attempting a field goal and has to review the match winning try.

Clearly? I think not.

 

[Scorpio]

Do you know what I was more interested in to tell the truth??

Jamal Fogarty's piss poor game management when Canberra got to a 28–12 lead. Very reminiscent of Manly's collapses in the past couple of years. A 16 point collapse too......

He was pretty ineffective from about 60 minutes in.

All of those points came via Brisbane picking apart the right edge defense of Timoko and Stuart, they were all at sea. Fogarty was on their inside, but in the line break that Walsh makes for his try, Timoko doesn't come up with him so the defensive line is staggered, making the gap for him to sprint through.

He missed a conversion and a field goal attempt, but I'm not putting this result on him.

 

[wombatgc]

So headbutts are now legal.

That should be fun in the next brew ha ha between players.

Just run in , massive head butt on your opposite number and nothing happens.

Bring it on.

And Carrigan nearly smashing Smithies head off his shoulders. I couldn’t believe Hudson Young copped 10. But it’s the Telstra NRL anything goes finals series, so the MRC are already holidaying in Bali.

 

[HoldenV8]

To rub salt into the Fogarty and Raiders choke, Fogarty missed the easy conversion to take Canberra to 30.
They would never have been beaten then.

I really hope Fogarty improves his game mgt when he gets to Manly and does not kick goals as he has choked a couple of times now recently

TBH I think that under pressure, Garrick is probably more reliable even though Fogarty's career % is higher than Garrick's (79.18 vs 76.40). I'd still rather Garrick be the goal kicker next year and just let Fogarty be the general kicker and goal kicking backup.

Truth be told, most of us in here probably got spoiled by having Matthew Ridge kicking when we were growing up. And the other truth is that no Manly goal kicker has really stood up to his consistency since. They might score more or as many points like Killer and Garrick have, but neither had or has had Ridge's "Superboot" accuracy.

 

[wombatgc]

You do realise Walsh got binned, yeah?
So, not legal.

He got binned for retaliating. There was no mention of headbutt by Klein, otherwise he ‘should’ve been sent. And we can’t have our superstars not being allowed to play in the finals.
But once again Klein had to be the star. Four minutes in, and he calls the dodgy penalty on Starling.

 

[davohan123]

The one thing today showed

How far we have fallen as a club we are years away from the top sides

Absolute finals classic that game will be hard to beat that game

Week 2
Raiders vs sharks
Dogs vs Panthers

Raiders Panthers win

Week 3
Storm vs Raiders
Broncos vs Panthers

Storm win
Broncos

Storm vs Broncos GF
Storm win

That's how I see it playing out

 

[Wombat64]

Lets sign Nate Myles, if head butts are the new thing next season.

The cxnt was so bad for us that even with his massive melon if he deliberately tried to headbut someone he'd miss .....

 

[The Who]

…and who cares if Canberra were celebrating the win?

I, as a lover of rugby league for 65 years, care. I feel for the players and fans of Canberra who, like me and thousands of others watching, saw Canberra win that match -- not once but twice. We used to have a sport that gave you instant gratification. Now there is no joy, knowing some clown in a box hundreds of miles from the action has the ultimate power to ruin the moment.
But you want to celebrate a Bunker decision 3-4 minutes later? A decision we know will be incorrect as often as it is right?
We now have a sport where the 34 players and on-field officials have less input into a victory than one person in a bunker.

 

[TheSoaringEagle2023]

I, as a lover of rugby league for 65 years, care. I feel for the players and fans of Canberra who, like me and thousands of others watching, saw Canberra win that match -- not once but twice. We used to have a sport that gave you instant gratification. Now there is no joy, knowing some clown in a box hundreds of miles from the action has the ultimate power to ruin the moment.
But you want to celebrate a Bunker decision 3-4 minutes later? A decision we know will be incorrect as often as it is right?
We now have a sport where the 34 players and on-field officials have less input into a victory than one person in a bunker.

The bunker has taken the heat off the on field refs. I have a theory as to why I believe it was introduced and I could be wrong. The thing is you have a drop in quality of refs, due to the pressure of being a ref even at a local level. Who would want to be a ref at a grassroots level, when people on the side-lines are baying for blood when an incorrect decision is made when it can become outright dangerous. I don't think the enthusiasm for reffing has improved as time has gone on, so its probably likely that its too hard to find grassroots ref who can meet the standard. With the bunker there's almost a Teflon accountability.

 

[HK_Eagle]

Just a small point I wanted to raise from watching that game today. If you get a player, or players, sent to the bin, you should still have to pack a full compliment of a scrum (6), and lose any out wide advantages. It was ridiculous to see the donkeys pack a four man scrum and still have full attacking potency.

 

[HK_Eagle]

And yes… Klein was diabolical with his narcissism coming to the fore today. Some horrible decisions both ways today.