Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 6:21 pm  

I felt this time it would be unfair to single out any player(s) for a poor performance. Bottom line was just the Aussies are better. It's not that our lads cocked up - I think they played as well as they could. It's just that the Aussies, particularly 1-7, are man on man better than our lads - more athletic, faster, more balanced, bigger, faster of thought.

Those Aussies out there are drawn from the best natural athletes their nation produces. Ours are drawn from the decent lads who don't play football from along the M62 corridor. The England RL team which could beat the Aussies is probably playing lower league soccer this weekend, and I struggle to see how we change that.

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 6:41 pm  

Just returned from watching that shi@@e. We have just 2 international standard players - Graham and Hall. McGilvarry on this series performance makes it 3. On past glories SB would be but not this time. Where do you start - a left centre who can't catch and a guy who can't find touch from his hands with a penalty and then doesn't learn from his mistake but does the same thing again from just about the same position! At that stage we were in the game on the scoreboard and should have had an attacking set of 6. Instead we turned it over and they scored shortly after.
As to coaching and attitude - it was all wrong in this tournament. England have built up this delusion that they are as good as Australia. In fact they are further behind than ever. Playing a conservative style rather than getting into them doesn't work when you are so far second best. To lose against NZ was abyssmal because they have been shambolic in this tournament.

The only good thing to have come out of it is that we avoided the embarrassment of going to Anfield and getting 60 put on us when Australia are playing for real. This was a dead match for Oz who looked like they had sunk a few beers last night but still strolled it in the end. One passage of play in the second half looked like an unopposed training session when Oz moved it left and nearly scored.

What have we learned from this series - nothing.

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 6:56 pm  

Dally wrote:

a guy who can't find touch from his hands with a penalty and then doesn't learn from his mistake but does the same thing again from just about the same position!

Wasn't Widdop the 2nd time, it was Hodgson.
That probably makes things even worse, that 2 players could make such a ridiculous error... 2 super duper NRL players at that.

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 6:56 pm  

You just knew it was all over when we took the early 2 points. What a joke. First time we'd got into an attacking position and went for goal - they like to talk about building pressure and patience but when push comes to shove all they are concerned about is taking an easy penalty so they don't get nilled. Either that or the self-delusion and delusions of grandeur have got so bad they need a psychiatrist to help the coach and captain.

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 6:56 pm  

This is my assessment of Bennett after the opening match against NZ and I've seen nothing to suggest I need change anything!

Bennett - I'm a Wayne Bennett admirer but I thought his whole approach from the moment he got appointed was wrong and betrayed a lack of knowledge and belief in the players available in this country. His game plan, if there was one, was too simplistic, he failed to recognise the right time to bring on Clarke who S hould have been introduced after 20 minutes when we had forced the Kiwis into all out defence for a sustained period.
Having both of the Burgess twins on the bench/field at the same time was a glaringly obvious error and I said so as soon as I saw the team. As soon as they were introduced the Kiwis took advantage of their lack of mobility and took them on with players who have power and footwork in Taumololo and Ta'Pau. The switch in momentum 25 minutes into the game was as much down to this than anything else. He seemed to have stifled any kind of interplay between the forwards which removed much of our attacking threat through a Graham, Hill and S Burgess and also allowed the Kiwis to defend in numbers on each of our ball carriers therefore nullifying another of our assets, size!
Our kicking game was poor and we played too narrow

.

Perhaps the worst thing was the absence of interplay between the forwards which completely isolated our middles and allowed Australia to dominate them.

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 6:58 pm  

The Devil's Advocate wrote:

Why do you feel the need to bring up another poster, has he annoyed you in some way?

Yes, immensely. Has he not annoyed you for the last decade + ?

The Devil's Advocate wrote:

If you're implying he will be elated with the result I think you're well off the mark. He's just probably feeling the same as many, resigned to the fact we aren't good enough & haven't been for many a year.

In reality he might be, that won't stop him trolling these boards for the next few months and then starting again when the world cup begins.

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 7:00 pm  

Dally wrote:

You just knew it was all over when we took the early 2 points. What a joke. First time we'd got into an attacking position and went for goal - they like to talk about building pressure and patience but when push comes to shove all they are concerned about is taking an easy penalty so they don't get nilled. Either that or the self-delusion and delusions of grandeur have got so bad they need a psychiatrist to help the coach and captain.

What did you think when the Aussies took the 2 points, twice ?

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 7:01 pm  

We won't beat them by playing the game their way, that's for sure.

Reduce the level of over-protection the modern player enjoys - and reduce the number of subs

Play the f****rs at Millwall, Workington, wherever - just remove them from their comfort zone and make sure the pitch is narrow and the in-goal short

Play them in January

Put the refs and touchies in front of a hostile crowd

Wane as coach

I'd pay to see that and probably enjoy it even if we lost. The current fare is simply rubbish.

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 7:01 pm  

loiner81 wrote:

Wasn't Widdop the 2nd time, it was Hodgson.
That probably makes things even worse, that 2 players could make such a ridiculous error... 2 super duper NRL players at that.

Thanks for clarifying - I just assumed it was the same player. As you say, still ridiculous though,

Re: Team to face Australia : Sun Nov 13, 2016 7:02 pm  

loiner81 wrote:

What did you think when the Aussies took the 2 points, twice ?

Why not when you know you'll run out winners anyhow?