NRL 2023 Season

This Panthers/Dogs game is going to be ugly.

 

Luke Keary’s inability/reluctance to develop into more of an organiser in the back half of his career has been the most frustrating part of the last 2 wasted seasons. Watching him take a back seat to Sandon Smith after we dropped Sam Walker to develop his organisational skills is fucking dull.

And it’s sad because before his ACL the bloke was elite and will probably never get the full respect he deserves.

 

Have Brisbane made it into a good ball set tonight without a leg up penalty from Atkins?

Adam Reynolds will be kicking bombs from the 40m line all night against Penrith if they meet up in the finals… awesome? I struggle to see it.

 

yeah i reckon it might be time to put him out to pasture tbh. he's lost that step of pace and doesn't create as much as a 6 anymore, but he has a mediocre kicking game (especially long) and doesn't fit our need for a 7. it's been frustrating

 

It's hard to be salty when you support a team has been undeniably shit all year.

I just think in yardage, especially transitions Brisbane weren't and aren't very good. Their back 5 are pretty average without Oates and there's an over reliance on Haas to take multiple carries a set.

Mam doesn't really know how to structure a short side raid to get cheap yardage and Walsh is always looking for the killer ball which is fine in good ball attack but not when you're looking for some cheap yards down an edge when the oppostion has you boxed in, which we saw twice last night as he threw over the touch line in his own half.

They won't get the same cheap field position against the Panthers and if their transitions are as poor as they were last night there'll be a few kicks inside their own 30. I think Brisbane's attack is up to it, I don't think their defence is far off but I just think in general play set to set they'll get shown up.

 

If we had a mate in the bunker they would've called Reynolds dive for what it was.

The offside call was a joke, given some if the tries they overule with less evidence that was a howler. No chance JWH's should've been a sin bin. Perfect example of fans going soft.

 

I asked a question at half time, don't be so precious. 6-0 penalty count to start the game and all 20 points scored off the back of a penalty and Brisbane didn't have one inside 20 that wasn't on the back of a penalty.

I think it's a fair question to ask when debating whether Brisbane have the yardage game to go toe to toe with a side like Penrith.

 

I was never for the head high crack down just like I was never for the shoulder charge ban and I've always been an advocate for keeping players on the field unlesss absolutely necessary to not ruin the contest although I have slightly shifted my thoughts on that after seeing seeing most sides handle going down to 12 pretty well.

I've always said it's sad seeing players play penalties like the Haas one where the whole team has a carry on (same as the Butcher tackle around the legs) then you've got wingers like Daniel Tupou getting up after copping a shoulder straight to the head with no carry on. Fans should be booing that shit, not advocating for sin bins. It's the worst part of supporting soccer and it's been creeping into our game for the last decade and it's so deeply embedded in now it doesn't even get checked by the fans anymore they just double down.

I think that's had as much of an impact on the fabric of the game as the shoulder charge bans and head high crack down.

 

"Over corrected" is an odd opening statement of support.

It's the same as the shoulder charge banning, I would of been fine had they started sin bining and banning blokes who hit players high with a shoulder charge but we over corrected from doing nothing on shoulder charges to the head to just flat out banning the technique all together.

Same as the high tackle, we went from zero sin bins to a ridiculous amount. I have no problem with them sitting blokes down in the bin for high tackles but they over corrected. Haas coping some part of a bicep that's tucked into the defenders body just ain't it. That does not by default mean I supported the ridiculous crack down but I'm fine with where the leniency seems to sit at the moment as neither JWH or Carrigans hits were worthy of sin bins and neither player had to leave the field... play on. Stop the carry on.