Speaker 1: If you love the West Tigers as much as we do,
Speaker 1: and that's in a awful light, you'll welcome to come
Speaker 1: and join us in our discussions on the West Tigers
Speaker 1: Podcast forum. Our forum is the number one forum for
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Speaker 1: see you there soon. It's the West Tigers Podcast. It's
Speaker 1: another post lost edition of the West Tigers Podcast. We've
Speaker 1: got lots and lots of experience when it comes to
Speaker 1: doing these, but I think this is going to be
Speaker 1: a good podcast. I think it's going to be a
Speaker 1: bit of fun. Sixteen twelve, the final score against the
Speaker 1: Raiders at Campbelltown on Friday night. Nick's here, Eddie's here,
Speaker 1: and Gary's here, and let's start off with one word
Speaker 1: from there, the three West Tigers Podcast team members. I'm
Speaker 1: going to start with you first.
Speaker 2: Nick.
Speaker 1: You're standing, We're sitting in front of the Wayne Pierce
Speaker 1: Hill on the scoreboard in your background, which is very
Speaker 1: clever on zoom, and Robbie's sitting there in that famous
Speaker 1: moment drinking the beer as well, so I love that backdrop.
Speaker 1: That's very very clever. What's your one word?
Speaker 2: Thanks?
Speaker 1: Jole's very cold out here too, sitting out here, in.
Speaker 2: My words, frustrated.
Speaker 3: I was just saying before we started recording that I
Speaker 3: rewatched the game this afternoon just to freshen up a
Speaker 3: bit for the pod tonight. But we've just come so
Speaker 3: close to the last three four weeks, we keep falling short.
Speaker 3: So the last three games we've lost by four points.
Speaker 3: We had a lot of chances. Again against the Raiders
Speaker 3: on Friday night, I actually thought we had the probably
Speaker 3: run and play the first fifteen minutes or so at Cameltown.
Speaker 3: I do think we had a few things go against us.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I was just extremely frustrated for watching that game,
Speaker 3: you know, especially there were no points scored the last
Speaker 3: twenty three minutes.
Speaker 1: It was just it was there for the taking.
Speaker 2: We couldn't get done.
Speaker 1: Frustrated. I think most of us can can certainly relate
Speaker 1: to that. Hallo, Eddie, You're you vowed that you're going
Speaker 1: to have the weekend off you. We weren't going to
Speaker 1: see you. You burnt out, You've done too many podcasts,
Speaker 1: and you're here. It's good to see.
Speaker 4: Well, it's nice not to be hosting because you know,
Speaker 4: when I'm host, I have to be very professional, so
Speaker 4: that night, Joel, it might be a bit different. But
Speaker 4: it's funny. My first word, I've got two words, and
Speaker 4: my first word also starts with an F, but I'm
Speaker 4: not going to use it, so I'll just use the
Speaker 4: word torture is absolute torture, Like honestly, like it wouldn't
Speaker 4: really just be typical West Tiger's Joel, if we were
Speaker 4: to improve out a site and somehow still get the
Speaker 4: wooden spoon, like we tried to set a world record
Speaker 4: for the amount of games lost by six points, like, honestly,
Speaker 4: at least the last three wooden spoons, Joel, it wasn't
Speaker 4: really torture. It was just we were just pathetic. Is
Speaker 4: this year like his torture?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I know what you're saying. There's a lot more
Speaker 1: to talk about in regards to all of that, including
Speaker 1: a really good post that I'll share. I probably might
Speaker 1: share all of it, but it came from a person
Speaker 1: on Facebook, and I just want to share some of
Speaker 1: his comments. Gary, We've got frustration, We've got these words.
Speaker 2: What is your word? I'm just going to go with
Speaker 2: right edge, I think, with a couple of changes on
Speaker 2: that right edge, we probably win that game on Friday night.
Speaker 2: I think both Heath, Mason and Alex Afarth showed on
Speaker 2: Friday night that they're not the standard we need on
Speaker 2: that edge. So I'm hoping that's going to be something
Speaker 2: thats rectified very quickly because I think if we get
Speaker 2: that right edge right, we can be a lot more
Speaker 2: competitive down the back end of the season. So really
Speaker 2: unhappy with the performance of a couple of guys that
Speaker 2: I think probably let the rest of the team down
Speaker 2: on Friday night.
Speaker 1: Steve, he's currently in the Middle East. He's very brave
Speaker 1: to be in the Middle East. His word was accountable
Speaker 1: and accountable around Sayfath and Mason, saying they shouldn't be
Speaker 1: picked again next week. My word is physicality. It's got
Speaker 1: to be. If we don't win the collision, we can't
Speaker 1: win football games. So in saying that, in the second half,
Speaker 1: I thought, led by Latu Feintu defensively, we actually started
Speaker 1: to win the collision a little bit and we looked
Speaker 1: at a better team aside from what Latu brought to us
Speaker 1: in his offense. I've also got I've also got bench
Speaker 1: because I thought the bench was the use of the
Speaker 1: bench was poor. But my word, and I've got to
Speaker 1: give Snake from the West Tigers podcast for him a
Speaker 1: little bit of credit for this, because he actually mentioned
Speaker 1: this word or these two words in another post, but
Speaker 1: I've stolen them for my one word, and that is
Speaker 1: killer instinct. And that is I think that this club
Speaker 1: and maybe certain members of the football team don't have
Speaker 1: a killer instinct. And I've got a couple of examples
Speaker 1: of that. Do we'll go into that now or do
Speaker 1: you want to continue on with one word, so we'll
Speaker 1: do the one. We'll do killer instinct then, okay, so
Speaker 1: just not ruthless enough. So I've got this example here.
Speaker 1: We're thirty one minutes in now, I think probably we'd
Speaker 1: all agree that after thirty one minutes the West Tigers
Speaker 1: have been pretty much bashed up. We were down sixteen nil,
Speaker 1: the Raiders were winning the forward battle. We were hanging
Speaker 1: in there, right, So we finally get some ball down
Speaker 1: on the Raiders line. Now that they've been bashing us up,
Speaker 1: they've been you know, lots of little dirty things, head
Speaker 1: butts and all sorts of things. They're that sort of team.
Speaker 1: But Corey Hawsber tries to steal the ball from Terrell May.
Speaker 1: He gets penalized but ends up with the ball on
Speaker 1: the ground.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So we're thirty one minutes and we've got nine minutes
Speaker 1: before halftime. We've finally got the Raiders puffing and panning
Speaker 1: on their line, putting some pressure on Sorell puts his
Speaker 1: arm down and he helps Corey Hawsber up off the ground.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: So I know that's only a small thing. But a
Speaker 1: couple of minutes later, five minutes later, paul A gets
Speaker 1: across the line. He's held up. He goes back to
Speaker 1: the ten but he doesn't have the ball. The ball
Speaker 1: is on the ground over near the try line. Not
Speaker 1: one raider picks it up, Not one raider kicks it
Speaker 1: to him. They just ignore the fact that the ball
Speaker 1: is on the ground. And what does he have to do.
Speaker 1: He has to go and walk over and pick up
Speaker 1: the ball himself, walk back to the ten meter line
Speaker 1: and play the ball right, Which means both times the
Speaker 1: raider's got a chance to have a little bit of
Speaker 1: a breather reset recover. And there was one more example there,
Speaker 1: and that is around the same time we get a
Speaker 1: I think we've got a penalty and Leui and Appy
Speaker 1: come together on the I think it was the twenty
Speaker 1: meter line and have a little meeting with like four
Speaker 1: minutes to go in the half, and the Raiders are
Speaker 1: puffing and pending. They've done a lot of defense and
Speaker 1: they just sit and have a little like mother's club
Speaker 1: meeting to talk about what they're going to do. So
Speaker 1: I think we lack at different times that killer instinct,
Speaker 1: that ability to do what needs to be done no
Speaker 1: matter what. Yeah, does anybody agree that if your competitor
Speaker 1: is down on the ground and he's this is a
Speaker 1: guy that's been bashing you, that you shouldn't be helping
Speaker 1: him up off the ground. In that situation with nine
Speaker 1: minutes to go where we've got some ascendency, we're down
Speaker 1: sixteen nil. I think that killer instincts is missing. And
Speaker 1: some people would say, well, maybe we don't have that
Speaker 1: killer instinct off the field as well, Like look at
Speaker 1: the Lachland Galvin situation where we sort of rolled over
Speaker 1: and got the money and didn't really get much out
Speaker 1: of it. I don't know, Eddie, killer instinct. Do you
Speaker 1: think it's something that's missing of putting a team to
Speaker 1: the sword of you know, being bastards and just getting
Speaker 1: the job done.
Speaker 4: Well. There were some interesting points you brought up there,
Speaker 4: and I can't say I noticed them when I was
Speaker 4: having my bourbon and cope on Friday night watching the game.
Speaker 4: But from my cricket coaching perspective, Joel, we have a
Speaker 4: thing called the spirit of cricket and that's basically judged
Speaker 4: by the umpires at the end of the year and
Speaker 4: they give you a rating out of ten for your
Speaker 4: spirit of the game. You know, walking when you get
Speaker 4: out and blah blah blah. I always say to the boys,
Speaker 4: if we ever win that award, I will not be
Speaker 4: coaching this team again. So, long story short, you cannot
Speaker 4: win with a team of nice guys. So I don't
Speaker 4: know about the whole killer instinct thing, but you need
Speaker 4: someone with a little bit of mongrel. You need different dynamics.
Speaker 4: It's like this podcast. You need someone to be a
Speaker 4: little bit of a prick like me. So I agree
Speaker 4: with a couple of those things. If Terrell may help
Speaker 4: pick him up off the floor, don't do it. Ricky
Speaker 4: Stewart coach, team certainly wouldn't.
Speaker 2: But I can't disagree that at times we do lack
Speaker 2: a bit of a killer instinct. I don't only think
Speaker 2: they're massive examples of it, especially Leui and Happy. You're
Speaker 2: having a little bit of a chat about how they're
Speaker 2: going about it, Benjim Robbie used to do it all
Speaker 2: the time. You'd see them getting a little hard after
Speaker 2: a penalty and kind of plan out the play. So
Speaker 2: that's not something that's unusual. But I don't think there's
Speaker 2: any doubt that at the moment we lack that killer
Speaker 2: instinct that get us overline. I think Nick mentioned it
Speaker 2: that there's no points scored in that down the back
Speaker 2: end of that game, and that the game was there
Speaker 2: to we won. The game was one hundred percent there
Speaker 2: to win. But I think we're kind of in a
Speaker 2: similar spot right now to where the Bulldogs were two
Speaker 2: years ago, where they had a bad season that first
Speaker 2: season with Shialdo and they lost a lot of really
Speaker 2: close games and just didn't know how to get over
Speaker 2: the line. I think we're stuck in that a little
Speaker 2: bit at the moment. Now. Hopefully over the coming months
Speaker 2: that improves a lot, because you can't deny that we're
Speaker 2: in the fight in the game, but we're just not
Speaker 2: getting the job done at the end, and whether that's
Speaker 2: down to personnel or our players still not knowing what
Speaker 2: to do to close out that game. I think it's
Speaker 2: going to be seen over the next month.
Speaker 3: I actually think Canberra were playing a bit grubby at
Speaker 3: times during that game, and I actually wondered at some point,
Speaker 3: I think it was during the first stulf whether they
Speaker 3: were going to lose someone to have bin. I actually
Speaker 3: missed the head butt. I saw it replayed. I think
Speaker 3: it was after the game. I think I saw a
Speaker 3: snippet on X about that, which is grubby play. That example, Joel,
Speaker 3: that you were talking about with Fania, you know, failed
Speaker 3: to pick up the ball for that set restart or
Speaker 3: that played a ball that was actually reefed out in
Speaker 3: the back by one of the Raiders players it away, Yeah,
Speaker 3: which was annoying and I was waiting for a penalty
Speaker 3: for that when it didn't come.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, there was a lot of niggle.
Speaker 3: Would I help Corey Hawsbro up if he was on
Speaker 3: the ground, Probably not, But he's heavier and bigger than
Speaker 3: I'm so I wouldn't be able to pick him up anyway.
Speaker 3: But I get what you're saying. Very frustrating. Yeah, maybe
Speaker 3: we needed to play with a bit more mongrel.
Speaker 1: It could be right, Yeah, I mean, do they look
Speaker 1: like a team that's willing to do anything to win?
Speaker 2: I can't fold their effort.
Speaker 1: I think that ef it's there, but it's that five percent,
Speaker 1: it's that little bit extra.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't think reaching your hand out to a
Speaker 2: guy really changes that a lot. I watch a lot
Speaker 2: of NFL and pretty much every play as players picking
Speaker 2: opposition players up off the ground, they have a lot
Speaker 2: more stoppages. But this was a stoppage in the game.
Speaker 2: I don't I'm not too concerned about that. What I'm
Speaker 2: concerned about is our inability in that last fifteen minutes
Speaker 2: to get the job done on a game that was there.
Speaker 2: We got closer number of times to getting over line
Speaker 2: and taking the lead in that game. But that's where
Speaker 2: the issue of rises for me was our inability to
Speaker 2: just f secute in those key moments towards the end
Speaker 2: of the game to finish off the raid. Aside that
Speaker 2: wire coming over the.
Speaker 4: Top of interesting discussion across the board. Job because I'm
Speaker 4: a believer that in a lot of sports you play
Speaker 4: somewhat in the personality of your head coach, and that's
Speaker 4: not necessarily a bad thing because there are different personalities
Speaker 4: in different ways. So you can see Ricky Stewart sometimes
Speaker 4: his team's implode when he goes on those press conference ramps,
Speaker 4: but there's certainly a grubby team and they're in your
Speaker 4: face team for eighty minutes. Benji's got a different style,
Speaker 4: but obviously it has to translate to some more wins.
Speaker 1: What I remember about Benji as a player was that
Speaker 1: he seemed to be one of those people that wanted
Speaker 1: to be everybody's friend. Yeah, so you know every time
Speaker 1: he was having a little chat with your opposition, or
Speaker 1: he pat someone on the bum or give him a
Speaker 1: like he didn't. He was flashy and he wanted to win.
Speaker 1: But he also comes across as being somebody that I
Speaker 1: think maybe that personality in the team is not quite
Speaker 1: as hard edged as it need be.
Speaker 2: Do you think he's Royce Hunt's friend at the moment, But.
Speaker 1: I think Royce Hunt is a situation that is an
Speaker 1: obvious one, you know, like if Royce Hunt's just not performing,
Speaker 1: then he's in the right place. I'm not saying in
Speaker 1: regards to team selections. I'm talking about it in terms
Speaker 1: of that of that hard edge killer instinct, you know,
Speaker 1: do do whatever it takes kind of mentality, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's just worth observing. I think I
Speaker 1: think Benji's a great guy. I had. I went to
Speaker 1: a function long time ago and I was at the
Speaker 1: same table, and as compared to the other first grade
Speaker 1: player who I won't name, you know, he was really
Speaker 1: he really made good conversation and he came across as
Speaker 1: a really interesting and interested person. And I'm not having
Speaker 1: a go at him, but you know, maybe maybe with
Speaker 1: the assistance that he's got, maybe there's just something missing.
Speaker 1: We talk a lot about attention to detail. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: just a little bit of an attitude thing as well.
Speaker 1: So I don't know, have it think about it. Let's
Speaker 1: have a look at the one words admissions from the
Speaker 1: West Tigers podcast forum. Barrow's word was closer closer to
Speaker 1: a good win, but also closer to a fourth spoon.
Speaker 1: Mickey b His word was save ath. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: save Farth and a couple of others. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: during this podcast crocodile rollers word was cursed. I asked
Speaker 1: the crocodile roller if he meant the ground or the
Speaker 1: team didn't come back so it could be anything, could
Speaker 1: be any any number of things. Lorenzo fainus was Lorenzo's word,
Speaker 1: all three look damaging. He says, if Latu plays eighty minutes,
Speaker 1: we win that game. I tend to agree with that.
Speaker 1: I thought he was really, really good. Mike's word was happening.
Speaker 1: The Luaye and Latu combo works, but he says from
Speaker 1: that performance on the rich O meet, it was poor,
Speaker 1: which is not quite at the bottom, but one up
Speaker 1: from the bottom place Seek and destroy. Who's new to
Speaker 1: the West Tigers podcast Forum Welcome? Their word was Latu
Speaker 1: the future, much better than Galvi than ever was Tiger
Speaker 1: Tragic fifty six.
Speaker 2: Help.
Speaker 1: Our offense needs help, Our team selections need help, our
Speaker 1: coach needs help, and not from old boys. And our
Speaker 1: supporters were They're beyond help.
Speaker 4: Agreed, Agree well.
Speaker 1: Cambra Tiger his word was moments, some little moments cost
Speaker 1: us dirty reds inches an inch or two away from
Speaker 1: winning yet again tiger'sman Latu. We were a better team
Speaker 1: and attack and defense when he was on the field.
Speaker 1: Nat Mac seventy eight Challenge, we wasted ours again. They
Speaker 1: used theirs very well. Tigertown SFS also went for Latu
Speaker 1: LFC Tiger details. We don't take care of the small
Speaker 1: details in elite sport. That's the difference and Mac Tiger
Speaker 1: come back. I'm sick of them. Play the best people
Speaker 1: and we will win. I'm going to just ask about
Speaker 1: Latu faint now, am I? Am I wrong to say
Speaker 1: that Locke is a more difficult and more taxing position
Speaker 1: to play than five eight. I think most people would
Speaker 1: agree with that, Gary.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, one hundred percent. Yeah. And I know where
Speaker 2: you're going with it is, if you can play sixty
Speaker 2: minutes at lock, why can't you play eighty minutes in
Speaker 2: the halves? And I tend to agree with that. I
Speaker 2: find it interest The defensive workload he got through the
Speaker 2: other night was quite big. I'm hoping and I'm expecting
Speaker 2: on Tuesday that we see that he's named in the
Speaker 2: halves for that game because what he's providing on the
Speaker 2: field is fantastic. One thing I was I think watching
Speaker 2: him play on Friday night kind of showed me what
Speaker 2: the plan was with the Adam Randoms approach. He is
Speaker 2: bulked up that there's no doubt that Latu Fenu is
Speaker 2: a lot bigger than he was earlier. In the preseason.
Speaker 2: Definitely last year he was a lot bigger and I
Speaker 2: thought he handled that role in the middle really well. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so I think it's clear that the club was looking
Speaker 2: at Adam Rounds to come in and play half back,
Speaker 2: with Latu taking on that lock role. So but I agree,
Speaker 2: if you fully Joel sixty minutes at lock, I think
Speaker 2: we would have been better just playing him eighty minutes
Speaker 2: in Mars.
Speaker 1: Where's the logic in that, Eddie, I don't I just
Speaker 1: can't see how you can work that logic out. Even
Speaker 1: forgetting minutes restrictions. This guy is supposedly, like I think
Speaker 1: all of us fans are sitting here saying, Wow, this
Speaker 1: guy can really really play, and he looks to be
Speaker 1: ready to form a combination with Leui and be one
Speaker 1: of our harvest moving forward. Why are you flogging him
Speaker 1: at lock? It makes no sense.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but the context, Joel, I mean, who else is there?
Speaker 4: We just got rid of our other five eighth and
Speaker 4: you say you get rid of minutes restrictions. But if
Speaker 4: it's real and they're trying to ease him back from
Speaker 4: a hamstring, maybe he can't play eighty minutes. So that's
Speaker 4: all they're left. The fact that Mason was paddling after
Speaker 4: twenty minutes, they thought, we've got to get him out there.
Speaker 4: We're going to get both of these boys on the field.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I'm struggling to think of another club I
Speaker 4: could be wrong, just off the top of my head
Speaker 4: that would throw a nineteen or twenty year old regularly
Speaker 4: in at Lock, Like, I don't think that's good for
Speaker 4: your development. Well just on LA two like only small
Speaker 4: sample sizes, but two things I love in footballers. He
Speaker 4: looks tough and he's got a high IQ. So I've
Speaker 4: been super impressed with him the last month. And yeah,
Speaker 4: I don't want to see him playing Lock for the
Speaker 4: rest of the year. But he certainly didn't let us down.
Speaker 4: In fact, the elevators when he came on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to go on that point about the after twenty minutes,
Speaker 2: how much Mason was struggling, I think the decision should
Speaker 2: have been made then to take Mason off and play
Speaker 2: Lato in the halves for the rest of the game.
Speaker 2: I found it quite an interesting decision, and I guess
Speaker 2: that they just stuck with what was the planned pre
Speaker 2: game to put Lartu in at five eight when maceon
Speaker 2: and was struggling from the outset of that game, and
Speaker 2: we saw him struggling defensively. But that right side attack,
Speaker 2: that's been probably our strongest part of our game this season.
Speaker 2: It floundered with him playing in that role on the
Speaker 2: right edge, and Buller had a really poor game as well.
Speaker 2: But I think Mason being on that right edge contributed
Speaker 2: to Buller not being what we usually see from him
Speaker 2: on that right edge as well. So I think the
Speaker 2: decision should have been made after twenty minutes to take
Speaker 2: Mason off and put Latu onto that edge. But he
Speaker 2: made a real goal of that lock role. He was
Speaker 2: making yards with the ball in hitting the ball up defensively,
Speaker 2: he was incredibly sound in the middle of the field.
Speaker 2: So I thought he was excellent in that lock role,
Speaker 2: and I can see why the club would be looking
Speaker 2: at him as an option for that. The thing is,
Speaker 2: I think I think he's best what for us right
Speaker 2: now is in the halves, and and I've said earlier
Speaker 2: I want to see him picked in the halves on
Speaker 2: Tuesday for Friday night.
Speaker 4: Is it good for him? No? Long term Gary locks
Speaker 4: are running around in the competition, No.
Speaker 2: There's not. And right now it's the hardest place to
Speaker 2: play on the field because you've got to have that
Speaker 2: ball skills, but you've all got also got to be
Speaker 2: a threat running the ball. The best locks, that best
Speaker 2: ball playing locks are so good as a ball playing
Speaker 2: option because they are a danger of running the ball.
Speaker 2: They are a danger if you don't commit two three
Speaker 2: defenders to them, that they're going to drive straight through
Speaker 2: the middle of you. That's what you see with a
Speaker 2: guy like Asia let you go, and that's what we're
Speaker 2: seeing from Latu on on Friday night. He was a
Speaker 2: threat running the ball as a ball hit ups and
Speaker 2: I don't agree with it, but I can see why
Speaker 2: they're thinking it, and I could see why that would
Speaker 2: work if you had a guy like Reynolds in the side.
Speaker 2: But for me, we've got to get him into the halves.
Speaker 2: I think it's better for his long term development, and
Speaker 2: it's easier on his body, on a body that has
Speaker 2: already shown that he is a little bit injury prone.
Speaker 1: If you if you're running him on to strengthen the
Speaker 1: team in defense. Positionally in defense, then we weren't getting
Speaker 1: busted up the middle. We were getting beaten out on
Speaker 1: our right edge. So I don't I don't understand the logic.
Speaker 1: I don't understand why you can't make an agile decision
Speaker 1: on the run and say Mason and save Farthur's struggling
Speaker 1: save Farthurd got caught with. I think it was an
Speaker 1: elbow in the eye. We've got it. We've got to
Speaker 1: strengthen that position.
Speaker 3: Like I just I don't get it, Nick, I was
Speaker 3: just going to say, I was going to touch on Lato.
Speaker 3: Eddie said he's got high IQ and he's tough, which
Speaker 3: he is. But and Gary, you touched on his running game.
Speaker 3: He's so quick and explosive. Like in the second half
Speaker 3: you made that that breakout of nowhere where we were
Speaker 3: throwing the bullet aut the back of a bit of
Speaker 3: second phase play and he saw an opportunity to run
Speaker 3: and he nearly got through. He just needed I think
Speaker 3: you had Polly off his inside hip. It just wasn't
Speaker 3: close enough. He couldn't get a pass to him. But
Speaker 3: that was a very close opportunity where we went to score,
Speaker 3: which would have got us level and probably in front.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I just love the way he plays. He's
Speaker 3: only really starting out with this, but similar to his predecessor,
Speaker 3: very smart IQ, good footy brain, really good running game,
Speaker 3: but does it with a bit more speed and explosiveness,
Speaker 3: which I really like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really that acceleration.
Speaker 1: Nick.
Speaker 2: He'll get the ball standing quite flat footed, shape the
Speaker 2: play outside and then just take off. And for a
Speaker 2: guy that carries the size that he's carrying, especially now
Speaker 2: that he has really good acceleration, and for me, that's
Speaker 2: probably his strongest point, that he's strongest attribute at this
Speaker 2: point is that he can just accelerate so quickly and
Speaker 2: take advantage of tiring defenses. I thought he was fantastic
Speaker 2: the other night, and I really can see big ups
Speaker 2: to the Louis Latu combination in the halves. I think
Speaker 2: it's got potential to be something that's that's great for
Speaker 2: a number of years into the future.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I've written here in my notes, so we
Speaker 1: looked a different team with Latu at five eight, and
Speaker 1: the combination with Loui was very promising. Eddie, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm not sure you said you've got something that you
Speaker 1: want to have a little round about, but I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if this is it or not, but I'm going
Speaker 1: to go fishing just to touch. I'm going to have
Speaker 1: a little round about the and maybe this come back
Speaker 1: comes back to killer instinct. How little pressure we placed
Speaker 1: on the debutante winger. Yeah, he's the coach's son, but
Speaker 1: he's been running around in your South Wales Cup for
Speaker 1: three years. He got a rails run the whole game
Speaker 1: with no real pressure placed on him at all.
Speaker 4: It's interesting because I mean it's probably that sort of
Speaker 4: thing leads us into a debate that we've been sort
Speaker 4: of having, or a discussion we've been having on the
Speaker 4: podcast a lot this year, which is the strength of
Speaker 4: the weaknesses of Benji Marshall. And I think one of his,
Speaker 4: perhaps he's weaknesses at the moment, is the tactical side
Speaker 4: or the game plan things like and I'm not a
Speaker 4: football coach, you know, like I watched the game as
Speaker 4: a fan. But the thing that's interested me a few
Speaker 4: times when I've heard the opposition coach when we're playing
Speaker 4: them interviewed pre game is they've described the side as unorthodox.
Speaker 4: To me, is that a paraphrase for talented but disorganized?
Speaker 4: Like That's that's sort of what I think it is.
Speaker 4: It's a strength to come from behind every week and
Speaker 4: play start playing ad lib footy and offload the ball
Speaker 4: and all of a sudden, you know we're losing these
Speaker 4: games by four points. But interestingly, of all these these
Speaker 4: last four games, we never led once against Canberra, against
Speaker 4: sous and against there was another one in there. I
Speaker 4: think Penrith was the only Penrith was the only game
Speaker 4: where we led for about twenty minutes. I'm not going
Speaker 4: to say it's easy to play when you're behind, but
Speaker 4: it's because the pressure is off. The other team switches
Speaker 4: off a little bit. You know, they're sixteen to eight
Speaker 4: and in front. Whatever, we get a couple of tries
Speaker 4: and all of a sudden we're back in it. But
Speaker 4: that shouldn't cloud the fact that our starts are poor.
Speaker 4: We do look disorganized. We had If I went through
Speaker 4: all the team stats for this game, you're like, how
Speaker 4: on earth did we lose? We had eight more sets
Speaker 4: and can We had fifty five percent possession run meters
Speaker 4: over four hundred run meters. So we're actually lots of
Speaker 4: lots of effort and lots of good things, but the
Speaker 4: Polish is not there at the moment.
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Speaker 2: I think it comes down to a couple of things
Speaker 2: that I think one of it's game planning. I think
Speaker 2: we're spoken about a lot this year. I've spoken on
Speaker 2: my opinion about our shape, and I don't think our
Speaker 2: shape was real. I think it went backwards on Friday
Speaker 2: Night to what we're seeing earlier in the season. But
Speaker 2: there's a comment in the State of Origin game by
Speaker 2: one of the commentators I can't actually remember who said it,
Speaker 2: when they were speaking about Lui, and they said that
Speaker 2: New South Wal's attack looked a lot more frantic this
Speaker 2: game than it did before. And I think that's part
Speaker 2: of it. I think Loui is a guy who who
Speaker 2: who likes to try his hand, and things seem a
Speaker 2: little bit more frantic and rushed when he's playing. And
Speaker 2: it worked really well at Pendrick because they'll play they
Speaker 2: have such a strong structure around that he's breaking out
Speaker 2: of that structure and that frantic gives them the point
Speaker 2: of difference to that side. At the moment, I think
Speaker 2: our side has has that all over it. And I'm
Speaker 2: not blaming Luai for that. I just don't think we're
Speaker 2: the structure around that so he can make best use
Speaker 2: of that. And to me, and I'm not going to
Speaker 2: sit here and say we need to move on from
Speaker 2: Benji Marshall, that's a last thing thought in my head.
Speaker 2: But I don't think we put the repetition into those
Speaker 2: sort of what plays and those shape plays that a
Speaker 2: lot of other sides do that in the off season.
Speaker 2: That then allows Lui to play out of that structure,
Speaker 2: and that's where you get your attacking difference. And we
Speaker 2: may never do that, and Benji may be able to
Speaker 2: get away to get this work. And at times our
Speaker 2: shape looks really good. It's just not consistent enough. And
Speaker 2: I think that comes down to repetition, repetition, repetition.
Speaker 1: Garry Jerome is very different.
Speaker 3: He plays differently to you know, Brandon Wakem, Lukebrooks, whoever
Speaker 3: else we've had at six and seven over the years
Speaker 3: since Benji. Benji was the last one that played with
Speaker 3: that sort of if you want to call it frantic
Speaker 3: or ad lib attacking style.
Speaker 1: When Appy came.
Speaker 3: To the club, it took the boys a year to
Speaker 3: figure out how to play with that be or the
Speaker 3: best part of.
Speaker 2: A full season.
Speaker 3: Remember, we'd run out of dummy half, you know, at speed,
Speaker 3: and it took everyone forever to figure out that they
Speaker 3: had to keep up with him and run off his
Speaker 3: hip because he was going to create these opportunities. I
Speaker 3: just wonder whether we need someone like Latsu to settle
Speaker 3: into the halves alongside Jerome. And I know you're talking
Speaker 3: about structure, and I think you're right, but maybe we
Speaker 3: just need a little bit more time for the team
Speaker 3: to figure out how to play with Jerome and how
Speaker 3: to play with his style.
Speaker 2: I think that's definitely part of it, Nick, because if
Speaker 2: you watch Laui play, what he'll do is he'll go
Speaker 2: to his left hand side that he loves to do,
Speaker 2: and when something's not on, he'll come back, so he'll
Speaker 2: step back in and quite often he'll look for all
Speaker 2: pass and he did it from your South Wales the
Speaker 2: other night. He's done it a number of times for
Speaker 2: us where he froze a little bit of a while
Speaker 2: pass back into the center of the field. That's kind
Speaker 2: of how he plays, and I think at the moment
Speaker 2: we're getting to a spot where where players aren't quite
Speaker 2: where he wants them to be when he goes to
Speaker 2: that left hand side, and I think that's improving. We
Speaker 2: saw the really nice line that do He ran a
Speaker 2: really nice line to hit a gap when he passed
Speaker 2: back inside to twelve, and Sam feyn who ran a
Speaker 2: really nice line and just about busted through as well.
Speaker 2: So I think that is improving. But I do think
Speaker 2: those connections are going to take a little bit longer,
Speaker 2: and I think he'll be much better having someone like
Speaker 2: Latu Feynu playing next to him than definitely than Heith Mason.
Speaker 2: And I think I think Latu Feynu is going to
Speaker 2: suit how Lui plays a lot better than Galvin does,
Speaker 2: because I think Latu the thing is, whatever number you
Speaker 2: want to put on Droon's back, he best football is
Speaker 2: when he's a little wide over the ruck. He's best
Speaker 2: football on Friday night. And I thought he played really
Speaker 2: well on Friday night was when Latu was in that
Speaker 2: thirteen role and was pushing both our halves a little
Speaker 2: bit wired so that I got Louis a little bit wider,
Speaker 2: so you can play half back and play wider. Pandrith
Speaker 2: do it all the time. Nathan Cleary plays quite wide
Speaker 2: all the time because they've got a guy like you know,
Speaker 2: playing in that link role. And I think that's what
Speaker 2: they're trying to do with lat that night, and I
Speaker 2: think it worked really well for Jerome. So I think
Speaker 2: that combination will work really well. And you are but
Speaker 2: that's that's what your structure. That's the structure he needs
Speaker 2: around him to allow him to break out of that.
Speaker 4: No, I was just going to say, I thought he
Speaker 4: had a bloody good game Wednesday and like a great
Speaker 4: effort to come back with Perth and back up and
Speaker 4: really busy. And I know it's not all about Trisis,
Speaker 4: but I think he had two or three in the
Speaker 4: Origin game Wednesday, and then he had at least one
Speaker 4: on Friday night.
Speaker 2: So how good is his short kicking game?
Speaker 4: It's so down because it goes so deep into the
Speaker 4: line and then he just rolls it in just you know,
Speaker 4: we used to even the great Benji that used to
Speaker 4: hit the back fence sometimes when he did those those
Speaker 4: short kicks. But I think the whole Lewi discussed and
Speaker 4: is a percentage Louie and a percentage our coach is
Speaker 4: working it out.
Speaker 3: Agreed, And Leui almost scored his first try for the club.
Speaker 3: Almost just happened to plant it down on the opposition.
Speaker 4: Leg honestly, like, that's how many times does this happen?
Speaker 4: And even not ranting about bull this year because he's
Speaker 4: been excellent on the whole bit, man, like did that
Speaker 4: ball touch the line? It would have been a double movement?
Speaker 4: Can Like can you just wave to the referee and say, hey, yeah,
Speaker 4: I might have actually scored the try here, Guys, don't
Speaker 4: just get up and play the ball with tone.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about, exactly what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about.
Speaker 2: The hard thing is we had the we had camera
Speaker 2: shot on that next play, like like you get up
Speaker 2: and slow the play down. They get to set their line.
Speaker 2: If he doesn't think he really made it or he's
Speaker 2: worried about the double movement, we should have scored off
Speaker 2: that next play because camera was shot out on that
Speaker 2: left hand side. I think we ended up throwing a
Speaker 2: forward pass and going over. I think Sam went over
Speaker 2: off a forward pass, so I think getting that fast
Speaker 2: pay the ball was really important because it created the
Speaker 2: space we had out wide. We just executed it poorly
Speaker 2: once we got it to that left edge.
Speaker 1: Lack of urgency is a word that comes to mind
Speaker 1: when it comes to that killer instinct. That there was
Speaker 1: an incident late in the first half where Stafford and
Speaker 1: Baulla they just was so lacks a days are going
Speaker 1: and planning up a ball that it could have been
Speaker 1: another Canberra try. They were just asleep. Yeah, so that
Speaker 1: had me worried. I'm going to get to this letter
Speaker 1: in a second. I just want to make one more point,
Speaker 1: and that is I think, and it's an old point
Speaker 1: that we've made many many times on the podcast, we
Speaker 1: are missing a forward leader. There is a golf in
Speaker 1: the forward pack in terms of leadership. Now that's not
Speaker 1: to say that there aren't other deficiencies in the forward pack,
Speaker 1: but I think no disrespected to real May, but it's
Speaker 1: just not his personality. I just don't think it's his personality,
Speaker 1: and I think it's something that we're missing.
Speaker 2: Gary Well, I think we I don't know if i'd
Speaker 2: call the forward leader. I think Therell's doing a fair
Speaker 2: good job of leading those young guys from what o't
Speaker 2: hear that he's in their training on days off and
Speaker 2: they're coming along with him. So I think he's got
Speaker 2: that part of it down fairly well. But someone with
Speaker 2: a little bit more impact in that opening twenty minutes
Speaker 2: is definitely needed for this side. Someone can who can
Speaker 2: play decent minutes but cause a little bit of damage
Speaker 2: and who has a little bit more impact than Torell
Speaker 2: has in the first twenty minutes. I've said a number
Speaker 2: of times that Torell just does not have that impact
Speaker 2: in that opening twenty minutes. In saying that, I thought
Speaker 2: Cioni fan who's starting on Friday Night, was excellent, probably
Speaker 2: the best I've seen him play, and for the remainder
Speaker 2: of the season he has that starting role. For me,
Speaker 2: I really like Poule coming off the bench on Friday Night,
Speaker 2: and I thought Zioni did a really good job in
Speaker 2: that opening twenty minutes, and I thought that's why I
Speaker 2: think he was a big reason why we actually dominated
Speaker 2: that first fifteen minutes field field, position wise and probably
Speaker 2: possession wise, and I think she only played a really
Speaker 2: big role in that On Friday Night, I thought he
Speaker 2: was an excellent one.
Speaker 3: Where is this version of she only come from the
Speaker 3: last six months, three or four months, whatever it is.
Speaker 1: But I think he's got to that age where he's
Speaker 1: got a little bit of experience and it doesn't happen
Speaker 1: in that part of the field. To year twenty three,
Speaker 1: twenty four, Yeah, he's broken out. He's having a cracking season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Samuela had a fantastic game too. The combination with
Speaker 1: Lui gives you plenty of reason to hope. We're still
Speaker 1: at least in that team that ran out Eddie on
Speaker 1: Friday night, we're still three players short. I know Kyle
Speaker 1: Piers Paul's coming in, but there's probably two or three.
Speaker 1: And he's been a great workhorse and he's he's bled
Speaker 1: for the club. But Alex twel eight minutes to go
Speaker 1: one on one strip when we're on the attack, I mean,
Speaker 1: that's almost unforgivable in my es, Like I think, if
Speaker 1: you're going to have guys like twelve and save Up
Speaker 1: and Mason as starters and do we in offense. Strangely,
Speaker 1: the world's turned around, Gary was turned around, but we're
Speaker 1: talking about him being a good defender in the centers,
Speaker 1: but his offense is he's just not fast enough. I
Speaker 1: think I think there are three or four deficiencies there ready.
Speaker 4: No, you're right, and like you said, two good players
Speaker 4: already been signed. Obviously there's question marks on Tailor and
Speaker 4: just how he comes back, but looking forward to hopefully
Speaker 4: seeing him in first grade back half of the year.
Speaker 4: But yeah, idea in the ideal world, John, Yeah, Alex
Speaker 4: Twell is perhaps a squad player or a bench player.
Speaker 4: I think he's had a pretty good season, probably a
Speaker 4: seven out of ten seasons, seven and a half maybe,
Speaker 4: And yeah, it's a strange one because for one of
Speaker 4: those players that's seen is very reliable and he makes
Speaker 4: good tackles, he does tend to have him like the
Speaker 4: odd Howler every game or just a really cheap sort
Speaker 4: of turnover or dumb play. So yeah, we're eight minutes ago.
Speaker 4: We were absolutely all over him and couldn't finish them all.
Speaker 1: I think, you know, if I was the table, a
Speaker 1: quote on you know, off the top of my head
Speaker 1: about rugby league or sport in general, the team sport
Speaker 1: teams with the ordinary players, teams that tend to be
Speaker 1: ordinary teams, and you know there's a yes, seven out
Speaker 1: of ten, but I think that's on the West Tigers scale.
Speaker 1: I don't know how that rates across.
Speaker 4: College ordinary player though, Like he said, I don't want
Speaker 4: to call him a plotter.
Speaker 2: That's sort of that one dimensional is the word eddie?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we're in plot of territory.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Nick, just talking about do you before? I just
Speaker 3: wanted to say, you know, yes, he lacks speed. I
Speaker 3: also think he lacks IQ.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: An example is when he made that break down the
Speaker 3: left side and he had Skelton outside of him, and
Speaker 3: he decided to take on the inside Buller outside.
Speaker 2: It was Bullert and Skelton on the left hand side.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know I saw it during the game,
Speaker 3: but when I rewatched it, I freeze it and put
Speaker 3: it back and watched it again.
Speaker 2: I could not believe what he was doing.
Speaker 3: Like he knew Scotland was outside of him, but he
Speaker 3: made that decision to go inside. He made a few
Speaker 3: other silly decisions I thought in that game as well.
Speaker 3: But you need smart players. You're talking about learning how
Speaker 3: to play with LUI and that sort of ad lib structure.
Speaker 3: You need smart players to be able to read what's
Speaker 3: going on and pick the whole pick a gap in
Speaker 3: the defensive line and put yourself in positions to make
Speaker 3: a break or run that right line, and I.
Speaker 2: Don't think he's the player to do that.
Speaker 4: Well. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to come to his
Speaker 4: defense a little bit here, and I know he's employed
Speaker 4: that horrendous manager of his Hopefully I don't sound like him.
Speaker 4: But this is actually not my point, so I won't
Speaker 4: claim it. Because I was reading the West Tigers for
Speaker 4: when I thought someone made an excellent point said defensively
Speaker 4: this year he has shut down quite a few of
Speaker 4: oppositions really dangerous sweet plays like really good reading and
Speaker 4: just jamming in and I can't I reckon it. Definitely
Speaker 4: happened once or twice in this Canberra game, but I
Speaker 4: think like that on that side of the ball, he's
Speaker 4: actually made some really high IQ players this year.
Speaker 2: Gary, He's defending in a way I didn't think he
Speaker 2: could this season. I think he's making really good decisions
Speaker 2: when to come in and when to stay out, and
Speaker 2: when he does come in, he's hitting quite hard and
Speaker 2: rattling the man he's coming in on. So I think
Speaker 2: he's doing a really good job job of that. I
Speaker 2: don't think we're getting enough out of him in attack
Speaker 2: at this point in time. And I think the world
Speaker 2: thinks of me as Adam Doy's harshest critic, But there
Speaker 2: has been an improvement in his game. I don't think
Speaker 2: it's got to the point where i'd really resign him
Speaker 2: for next year. But he's done a job out in
Speaker 2: the centers. He's just struggling a little bit defensively, and
Speaker 2: as the decision making I have the most problem with
Speaker 2: is there will be times where we're inside the opposition
Speaker 2: twenty and he'll take a run from dummyhalf and run
Speaker 2: across field and try and set up a player that way.
Speaker 2: That's not his goal. I want him to stop doing
Speaker 2: that immediately. I think he did it again at one
Speaker 2: point on Friday Night. But defensively, it's a vastly different
Speaker 2: player to what we've ever seen from Adam Douey before,
Speaker 2: and and credit where credits due, he deserves to be
Speaker 2: commended for that.
Speaker 1: We need the Shredder sound effect. I want to start
Speaker 1: firing up the Shredder. We need the Shredder.
Speaker 4: You know, Midweek it's been a while since we did
Speaker 4: an official segment the Shredder.
Speaker 1: It's been I think it's been out for service at Concord,
Speaker 1: but it's back and the blades have been sharpened. It
Speaker 1: needs to go to work in the next couple of months.
Speaker 2: I think Galvin went through it, didn't he Galvin?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Royce hunt Is it's going to
Speaker 1: have to be a big shredder. But we'll talk about
Speaker 1: Royce in a moment.
Speaker 2: Talon de Silver might be going for it this week.
Speaker 1: Talon's putting himself through it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Brad Hancock on Facebook, Guys, I wanted to it's it's
Speaker 1: a little bit lengthy, so I don't know if I might.
Speaker 1: I might cut a little bit short. But Brad Hancock
Speaker 1: on Facebook, one of the Facebook groups West Tigers groups,
Speaker 1: he said, I really liked it. He says, honestly, I'm
Speaker 1: done with the sugar coating.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: There've been a few glimpses this year, but let's not
Speaker 1: kid ourselves. The same problems are still there, just stressed
Speaker 1: up differently. Benji is a club legend, respect, but being
Speaker 1: a good bloke and having heart doesn't make you a tactician.
Speaker 1: No one at Concord is calling out the issues because
Speaker 1: it's a massive echo chamber. All mates, no pressure, no honesty.
Speaker 1: We don't look structured, we look predictable. And the only
Speaker 1: time we actually look like we're playing decent footy is
Speaker 1: when we go completely off the cuff. Here's what's driving
Speaker 1: me nuts. Firstly, we're flat footed. Ninety percent of the
Speaker 1: time we pass standing still, no one runs onto the
Speaker 1: ball twelve moment sums it up. Adam breaks the line
Speaker 1: one of the only times all game. And what do
Speaker 1: we do pass it to twelve when we had two
Speaker 1: unmarked backs that were screaming on the left, no awareness,
Speaker 1: no composure, line speed, shocking in both attack and defense.
Speaker 1: We're always the slower team. We never win the rucket,
Speaker 1: never set the tone our playbook. One up, runs for
Speaker 1: four tackles, then go wide and bomb. That's literally it
Speaker 1: every set, every week. What do they do at training tactics?
Speaker 1: What tactics? We are not a well drilled side. There's
Speaker 1: no deception, no shape, no movement. Our best football is
Speaker 1: broken play. That's not coaching, that's chaos. Let's talk coaching.
Speaker 1: Benji is a motivator, fair enough, but he's out of
Speaker 1: his depth tactically, and he's only hiring ex players and
Speaker 1: mates who won't challenge him. There's no one pushing back.
Speaker 1: We need a senior assistant with proper experience, someone who
Speaker 1: could add structure and pull us into the modern game.
Speaker 1: Right now, it's all comfort Zone hires, same voices, same
Speaker 1: old thinking. I'll cut it just short there, because there
Speaker 1: was the news story that came out this afternoon Sunday
Speaker 1: afternoon that Benji is apparently safe even if we end
Speaker 1: up with the Wooden Spoon. We're not going to be
Speaker 1: making any coaching changes, and I'm not advocating for coaching changes,
Speaker 1: but surely Nick the assistance is something that we have
Speaker 1: to look at as as Brad said there on Facebook,
Speaker 1: we need some people that bring some different ideas and
Speaker 1: challenge Benji and maybe up Benji's skills in this next
Speaker 1: season twenty twenty six. Yeah, one hundred percent?
Speaker 2: Was it Steve?
Speaker 1: During the last week, I think it was.
Speaker 3: Steve said the thing with Benji employing his mates to
Speaker 3: be his assistance is there's no one really to challenge
Speaker 3: him externally. And I know Benji's a very private man
Speaker 3: and he only trusts a certain few people, and I
Speaker 3: guess he's employing those people or putting guys into those
Speaker 3: positions that he does trust, and maybe that's how he
Speaker 3: wants to operate. But I kind of agree. I don't
Speaker 3: think it's the best way to operate. And I remember
Speaker 3: it was probably towards the end of last year or
Speaker 3: during the preseason. Perhaps we're talking about Brad Arthur and
Speaker 3: whether you potentially look at bringing him in, and I know, Eddie,
Speaker 3: you were a bit of an advocate at the time.
Speaker 4: I don't know. Yeah, I can turn on about assistance.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you'd come to be assistant anyway,
Speaker 3: but whether it's spread after or would you think about
Speaker 3: someone like Todd Payton. I know they've played together as well,
Speaker 3: so there's probably a relationship there that benjikin Leverridge and
Speaker 3: Peyton's had enough experience as a head coach. I think
Speaker 3: he'd probably be worthwhile considering as an assistant to Benji.
Speaker 4: Well, he's about to get fired type Peyton. Let's be realistic.
Speaker 4: No other people have Seed one hundred points in two weeks.
Speaker 4: He won't be there at the end of the season,
Speaker 4: so I think he will actually end up back in Sydney,
Speaker 4: and I don't think he's done enough to command a
Speaker 4: head coaching position elsewhere. If I look around the landscape
Speaker 4: of the NFL, so for me would be the perfect
Speaker 4: blend because, like you said, Nick, Benji likes to employ
Speaker 4: people that you trust and that you know, which is
Speaker 4: not uncommon in coaching. Not necessarily a bad thing, but
Speaker 4: there is. When I watch this play, I refer to that,
Speaker 4: saying again that we are an unorthodox team, and I
Speaker 4: think we need to get a little bit more organized.
Speaker 4: Gary's talked about set plays, and I believe it's all
Speaker 4: about set plays, But I think someone like Todd Payton
Speaker 4: could be a great asset if he had a specific
Speaker 4: role when he gets fired by the Cowboys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've spoken a number of times about not wanting
Speaker 2: Benjie to employ any more mates in the roles. I
Speaker 2: think I said on the Midwek pod this week that
Speaker 2: Todd Payden's the exception to the rule. He's a guy
Speaker 2: with plenty of experience. He would not be getting that
Speaker 2: job because he's a made of Benji Marshall. He would
Speaker 2: get that job on merit. So I've got no issue
Speaker 2: if we bring a guy like Todd Payden in, a
Speaker 2: guy who I think is very good at developing attacking structures.
Speaker 2: I think he'd be really strong in that role, and
Speaker 2: I'd have him gladly as our attacking coach moving forward.
Speaker 2: I'd have him tomorrow. If he got sacked tomorrow, I'll
Speaker 2: be on the phone to him tomorrow offering him a
Speaker 2: job as an assistant coach at the West Tigers. That
Speaker 2: the concern I do have is I agree with Eddie.
Speaker 2: I don't think he's done enough to pick up a
Speaker 2: head coaching role, but I think there's a few positions
Speaker 2: of that become available. I think Seabold isn't long for
Speaker 2: the world at Manly, and I think O'Brien has been
Speaker 2: on the nose at Newcastle for quite a while now.
Speaker 2: I think those positions are going to come up, and
Speaker 2: I can see one of those.
Speaker 4: It's not getting one of them's not going to go
Speaker 4: with though. They're going to go with either the hot
Speaker 4: shot no one's heard of that's the trendy thing to do.
Speaker 4: They're not going to recycle coaches. I think that's a
Speaker 4: trend that's going out of fashion. Like for instance, if
Speaker 4: des has lower to get maired, he's never.
Speaker 2: Getting imagine the same at Brisbane because things aren't going
Speaker 2: too well for him up there either. I hope he
Speaker 2: doesn't get picked up anywhere else because I think we're
Speaker 2: the perfect fit for him to kind of rebuild his
Speaker 2: career and potentially, like there's if things don't go well
Speaker 2: with Benji down there's opportunities down the track at the
Speaker 2: club for him as well. So I do think Todd
Speaker 2: Payton would be an excellent addition to our coaching staff,
Speaker 2: despite the fact that I don't want any more, mate, big.
Speaker 4: Big shout out to Todd Payton. By the way, Joel,
Speaker 4: we've already fired him.
Speaker 1: On him, welcome aboard, full support of the board. One
Speaker 1: thing I will say about Todd Payton as coach. I
Speaker 1: don't know if what the year was, maybe twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, he was interim coach at the Warriors. We
Speaker 1: played them at the SCG on a Saturday night. It
Speaker 1: still remains one of the most disappointing nights of football
Speaker 1: in my entire West Tigers Be Tigers, following you over
Speaker 1: four decades, it was really, really, really awful game. But
Speaker 1: they he out coached us, and he a number of
Speaker 1: times has out coached and come up with exactly the
Speaker 1: right game plan to beat the West Tigers. Even when
Speaker 1: we started as red hot favorites like we did that night,
Speaker 1: they were just all over us. So I think he's
Speaker 1: got some ability, may not get another head coach job,
Speaker 1: and I'd love to see him back at the club. Yes, Saidie.
Speaker 4: No, I was just going to are you going to
Speaker 4: continue on with this rant or post from the Facebook
Speaker 4: poster because it was a very lengthy post. I did
Speaker 4: have a look at it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, let me just go on with it.
Speaker 2: There's something that he wants to talk about that you
Speaker 2: haven't mentioned yet, Joe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, okay, Well let's TDS. He's got Galvin syndrome,
Speaker 1: wants to be the guy but hasn't kicked on since
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. I'd let him go to Newcastle, happy
Speaker 1: to see for two more years. Anyway, It's time to
Speaker 1: move forward.
Speaker 2: I agree.
Speaker 1: Development it's a shambles. Half our top thirty are kids
Speaker 1: who aren't ready, not physically, not mentally, not positionally. Look
Speaker 1: at other clubs when they bring in young players, they're
Speaker 1: ready to go. Ours are being rushed out of position
Speaker 1: and thrown into the deep end. Our development pathways aren't
Speaker 1: developing anyone. And don't even get me started on the
Speaker 1: recruitment spin. So Bragg talks about the two or three
Speaker 1: players he's worried about Stafford Tower being in the shop
Speaker 1: front and getting a deal elsewhere. He said, that's what
Speaker 1: it kind of looks like. In the sort of summary,
Speaker 1: he says, we've seen this movie before. We talk about change, culture, patience, progress,
Speaker 1: blah blah, but it's the same cycle on repeat. The
Speaker 1: bluster fades, the excuses roll out, and nothing actually changes.
Speaker 1: We need first graders, not development projects. We need people
Speaker 1: with standards, not nostalgia. Yes, we can blame the ref
Speaker 1: there were bad calls, but we still had chances to win.
Speaker 1: We didn't finish, we didn't adjust. The only positive la
Speaker 1: tu yep. Final word. We've been saying all this for years.
Speaker 1: We're not asking for a premiership tomorrow. We're asking for direction,
Speaker 1: for accountability, for real change. Until we get proper coaching support,
Speaker 1: fix our development system and signed players ready to lift standards,
Speaker 1: not just fil jerseys. We're going nowhere. This is a
Speaker 1: professional club, but it's still being run like a backyard
Speaker 1: barbecue where everyone mates and no one wants to have
Speaker 1: the hard chats. We're tired, we're loyal, but we're not blind.
Speaker 1: I just think that sums up so many ways that
Speaker 1: I feel about the club.
Speaker 4: Well, Joel, anyone who takes the time to write something
Speaker 4: like that is obviously a very passionate West Tigers fan,
Speaker 4: and I agree with his summation about Benji Marshall and
Speaker 4: the need for an experience assistant as we talked about.
Speaker 4: I also agree with his point about the referees. We
Speaker 4: need to really stop blaming referees. I mean, we had
Speaker 4: six six agains on the weekend and our fans are
Speaker 4: talking about some challenge or something that went against us
Speaker 4: in a seventy eighth minute. I mean, come on, that's
Speaker 4: not it. But but this is where I turned nasty.
Speaker 4: I thought his posts contained a lot of bluster, to
Speaker 4: be honest, like I actually thought he said at one
Speaker 4: point we need first graders, not development projects. Well what
Speaker 4: a Leuye Skelton to River in May. They'refore really good
Speaker 4: first graders, They're not development projects. He also said we
Speaker 4: need to direction and accountability. Well, what's Shane Richardson. We've
Speaker 4: got Shane Richardson twelve to eight eight months ago. That's direction.
Speaker 4: Benji Marshall, I know he hasn't got the results on
Speaker 4: the board at the moment, but I think there is
Speaker 4: a path that we're following at the moment, and unfortunately
Speaker 4: it's still not turning into results. But I don't know.
Speaker 4: Like I said, I don't want to disrespect the post
Speaker 4: because it was a lot of stuff in there, and
Speaker 4: some of it probably written an hour or two after
Speaker 4: the game. But I thought he was harsh on a
Speaker 4: few areas that we are actually improving on. It's just
Speaker 4: hard in the heat of the moment and.
Speaker 2: It's going to take time at you. I think it's
Speaker 2: a very valid point about us playing too many young guys. Well,
Speaker 2: we're playing so many young guys because our NRL squad
Speaker 2: for the last decade hasn't been up to scratch. That's
Speaker 2: the biggest issue is where we're coming from a spot
Speaker 2: where we're still got three players at least in our
Speaker 2: first grade squad aren't an RL standard, and we're putting
Speaker 2: in young guys before they're ready. We're also had young
Speaker 2: guys playing New Southold's cut before they're ready, and that's
Speaker 2: affected all the way down in our pathway system. And
Speaker 2: I'm not making excuses for that. We're in a position
Speaker 2: where our squad last year was horrible. It was a horrible,
Speaker 2: horrible squad, and we made five key signings over the
Speaker 2: off season. We need to make at least another two
Speaker 2: on top of what we've already done for next season.
Speaker 2: I think the signing of kyps Paul is a really
Speaker 2: good signing in an area of weakness. But we need
Speaker 2: to look at getting a lock. We need to look
Speaker 2: at getting another PROP, as I said earlier, and depending
Speaker 2: on what happens with tailor May over the next couple
Speaker 2: of months, we're still shorter center. So these are all
Speaker 2: things that need to be improved in our club and
Speaker 2: what that does. If we can improve that NRL squad,
Speaker 2: we can approve the ability at that of those players
Speaker 2: at that level. It pushes guys we've got playing NRL
Speaker 2: down into depth positions. That's what we need to be doing.
Speaker 2: We talk about how poor our depth is all the time.
Speaker 2: Our depth is poor because we've got guys playing who
Speaker 2: should be our dept players. You fix that and push
Speaker 2: those depth players down, then it fixes up the dept
Speaker 2: at the same time. So it's really important that we
Speaker 2: focus on improving that NRL squad and getting those two
Speaker 2: of the three more signings we need for next season.
Speaker 3: Over the line, just a quick one, Gary, you said
Speaker 3: that we probably need another PROP, which I agree. I
Speaker 3: did hear von Sampson on Channel nine the other night,
Speaker 3: say Channel nine, Kox on Fox, sorry, say that Josh
Speaker 3: Papolee is no longer required beyond the end of his
Speaker 3: season at camera?
Speaker 1: Would you consider someone like him? He's a work use.
Speaker 2: On the on the right contract. He's right at the
Speaker 2: end of his career. So yeah, yeah, I don't know
Speaker 2: who that prop's going to be at this moment. I
Speaker 2: really haven't thought about it. I trust Rito to get
Speaker 2: that sort of stuff done. I think that he's right.
Speaker 2: He's a great acquisition, and I think he's done a
Speaker 2: really good job for the most part of signing players
Speaker 2: that have strengthened areas of weakness. I think we've done
Speaker 2: really well with that going in from last season to
Speaker 2: this season, and the two signings that we've made for
Speaker 2: next season, I think they have those saying things about them.
Speaker 2: So you've got to remember a lot of those five
Speaker 2: signings came really late after the season had finished last year.
Speaker 2: So I expect us to get another two to three players.
Speaker 2: We got the spots in the RUSS we've got the
Speaker 2: salary cap to do that, and I'm very confident we'll
Speaker 2: target players that in areas of need, which before. I
Speaker 2: think with recruitment at our club, before we targeted names,
Speaker 2: we went out and signed whoever big name was off contract.
Speaker 1: Which means that the pendulum swung and we're a recruitment
Speaker 1: club again.
Speaker 2: Well, I wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily say that we've got
Speaker 2: Macasini coming through who we're looking at the doing later
Speaker 2: in the season. We've got young Haywood coming through as
Speaker 2: a hooker, who I think is why they're okay, we're
Speaker 2: kind of letting talent goes because there's another young guy
Speaker 2: coming through who'll be ready around the time that that
Speaker 2: happy you's looking to hang up his boots. So I
Speaker 2: don't think to do it right. I don't think there
Speaker 2: can be anything any such thing as a development club
Speaker 2: or a recruitment club. You've got to do both. You
Speaker 2: got to have young guys coming through.
Speaker 1: We do. We alternate year to year.
Speaker 2: We alternate, but you've got to You've got to supplement
Speaker 2: what you've got coming through and recruit in the area
Speaker 2: of weaknesses. And I think that's what we've been really
Speaker 2: poor at is kind of getting that balance right you.
Speaker 4: I'm trying to read your mind. I think you like
Speaker 4: development club makes us sound soft, but it's not wrong.
Speaker 4: But like I think you just want us to be
Speaker 4: a rootless club like Cannabury, like Canaby are developing their players,
Speaker 4: but they're also recruiting tom play. You've got to be
Speaker 4: both and you've got You've talked about soft underbelly. I
Speaker 4: don't want to go down that rabbit hole. But just frustrating,
Speaker 4: like mid season we give up a player, we don't
Speaker 4: sign a player. Now the silver looks like, okay, you
Speaker 4: want to leave, all right, fair enough, mate, go next
Speaker 4: week like it just honestly.
Speaker 2: Look if he goes next week and we get Coypeas
Speaker 2: Paul though this season, I'm okay with that because if
Speaker 2: if we've got issues with him anyway, and we can
Speaker 2: pick up Peers Paul this season, who will make a
Speaker 2: difference to our squad this year, who is in an
Speaker 2: area of weakness in our squad this year, then mate,
Speaker 2: I'll drive him up to Newcastle. I'll drive co Peas
Speaker 2: fall back.
Speaker 1: Can I ask the question what did Tony Suker do
Speaker 1: to lose his position after that Penrith performance and have
Speaker 1: Safar grab that spot and not even make a bench spot.
Speaker 2: I'll be picking him next weekend the start in the
Speaker 2: second row.
Speaker 1: He played, Yeah, he played in the New South Wales Cup,
Speaker 1: thirty one tackles, played eighty minutes, only five runs for
Speaker 1: forty five meters. But still I don't understand the logic
Speaker 1: of why he lost his position based on that performance
Speaker 1: and to move Safar back And if it was KPP
Speaker 1: I'd understand. But that had me scratching my head. Eddie.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Royce Hunt's name. So the New South Wales
Speaker 1: Cup team surrendered thirty eight to eighteen against the Dragons.
Speaker 1: I'm in a bad mood about all this weekend. I
Speaker 1: really am Royce Hunt, one of the four or five
Speaker 1: quality players that we were just from outside one run
Speaker 1: for seven meters. He played twenty one minutes, made an error,
Speaker 1: He made ten tackles but missed six tackles. Now there
Speaker 1: are some reports that he has a rib injury. But
Speaker 1: if what is going on there, Eddie?
Speaker 4: Well, you mentioned being in a bad mood. Johlet's two
Speaker 4: of us. I think if you haven't done well tonight,
Speaker 4: I'm in a bad mood. But I mean, yeah, Royce Hunt.
Speaker 4: I think me and Gary maybe talked about it the
Speaker 4: last podcast, or might have been Steve. I don't think
Speaker 4: he's in for a quick return. I just get bad
Speaker 4: vibes about Royce Hunt. I wasn't overly please when we
Speaker 4: signed him. Torell May signing made it look like, okay,
Speaker 4: he could go to the bench, but like, yeah, I
Speaker 4: didn't say. I can't say I watched the new South
Speaker 4: Wales Cup or even they'll playing this weekend. But one
Speaker 4: run for ten meters doesn't sound too.
Speaker 1: Seven meters seven meters.
Speaker 4: Mating his stats there, But I don't want to go
Speaker 4: through the same rant I had last week. But those
Speaker 4: sort of players, I really don't know how valuable they are,
Speaker 4: Guys that currently played twenty minutes football.
Speaker 3: But there's going to be something seriously wrong with him
Speaker 3: because you don't attitude someone attitude well, it would have
Speaker 3: to be because you don't send someone that's played every
Speaker 3: game of NURL throughout the season, whether it's off the
Speaker 3: bench or not, back to the Cup with specific things
Speaker 3: to work on. And you know, Benji would have said,
Speaker 3: you've got to get your minutes up. I want to
Speaker 3: see better impact or you know whatever, more productivity. But
Speaker 3: you don't see someone go back to Cup and then
Speaker 3: fail miserably and go completely backwards.
Speaker 1: So maybe it his attitude.
Speaker 3: Maybe he's gone back and he's got the shits and
Speaker 3: he doesn't want to be in Cup and he's and
Speaker 3: that's coming out. But I'll tell you what, that's going
Speaker 3: to be a very quick exit to out of the club,
Speaker 3: isn't it. If that's his attitude, he won't be around
Speaker 3: for long.
Speaker 2: From what I've heard is he's failed some benchmarks and
Speaker 2: fitness benchmarks and that resulted in him being dropped and
Speaker 2: I'm guessing that hasn't gone down too well.
Speaker 1: It's a shame because he's the only guy that I
Speaker 1: saw actually stand up to an opposition player this year
Speaker 1: and that was in Round one against Newcastle if you remember,
Speaker 1: I think it was Heatherington's face he got into, you know,
Speaker 1: like we had such high hopes and he started out
Speaker 1: so well and it's a real shame. But maybe there's
Speaker 1: was something more to that whole. Considering retirement at the
Speaker 1: end of last year from the Sharks, maybe that killer
Speaker 1: instinct is not quite.
Speaker 2: There Gary, And the sad thing for me is we
Speaker 2: could really use that impact that he does provide. I
Speaker 2: know Eddie's not a big fan on someone who's playing
Speaker 2: twenty minutes, but if we can get twenty five to
Speaker 2: thirty minutes out of him at high impact, I'm okay
Speaker 2: with that. But the problems for me seemed to start
Speaker 2: when we moved him into that starting role and that
Speaker 2: doesn't suit what he was what he was doing and
Speaker 2: he defans got really ragged in that game. But I
Speaker 2: am missing what he was providing when he was coming
Speaker 2: on with fifteen minutes ago in that first half. I
Speaker 2: think that's something that is missing in this side at
Speaker 2: the moment.
Speaker 1: When it comes to West Tigers forwards coming through the
Speaker 1: ranks over the last few years, guys like Madame Mouer
Speaker 1: come to mind. Kitler Lily is in that same bracket.
Speaker 1: But we did have hopes that kit was about to
Speaker 1: push his way through. I didn't see the game. I
Speaker 1: can only go off the stats, but he played nearly
Speaker 1: forty minutes, so two stints, he played fifteen minutes and
Speaker 1: twenty five minutes, two runs for twenty meters. It's really
Speaker 1: really disappointed because I thought, Gary, you know, we're talking
Speaker 1: about kit maybe pushing through for NRL, coming back into
Speaker 1: the NRL team at some stage, but those stats in
Speaker 1: New South Wales Cup aren't filling with a lot of confidence.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't see the game this weekend. I was
Speaker 2: a little bit busy, but I watched the game two
Speaker 2: weeks ago and I thought he was really good in that.
Speaker 2: So it's a little bit of a tough one because
Speaker 2: I think I think for the most part the games
Speaker 2: I've watched for New South Falest couple this year, he's
Speaker 2: been really good. But those stats don't make great reading
Speaker 2: from yesterday, so I'm not sure what was going on there.
Speaker 4: I mean, save Half is getting to that point though,
Speaker 4: where it's sort of like he deserves to be next
Speaker 4: one dropped. Like coaches tend to always have one favorite,
Speaker 4: I generally think Benji over the past two years, it's
Speaker 4: been pretty good with selection. If someone's not performing, he
Speaker 4: will drop them. Not so much you know they need
Speaker 4: to change bench. That's probably a little bit different. Maybe
Speaker 4: he hasn't been a strong there, but save Half hasn't
Speaker 4: been doing it for me for a while. I had
Speaker 4: hopes for him, not necessarily as a starter, but as
Speaker 4: a top seventeen player, but he's definitely not earning that
Speaker 4: spot on the right side of the second row. I
Speaker 4: can see Gary smiling because he's he feels like he's
Speaker 4: been vindicated.
Speaker 1: Tell me what say Fath brings. What's the strength of
Speaker 1: his game?
Speaker 4: He well, I suppose it's it's possibly stuff we don't
Speaker 4: see in the eighty minutes. John, it's probably around the
Speaker 4: training padding and stuff like that. But coaches have players
Speaker 4: like that. You know. I actually thought he was all
Speaker 4: right off the bench, but I don't think he start
Speaker 4: to come off the bench once this year. And I'm sorry,
Speaker 4: but two runs miss tackles still got the odd bit
Speaker 4: of poor discipline doesn't dominate any collisions. So now it's
Speaker 4: time for him to be demoted.
Speaker 3: Just just to defend save Farth a little bit. I
Speaker 3: won't defit him completely. And I know Steve. You know,
Speaker 3: Steve's word was accountability, and he did highlights say Forth
Speaker 3: and Heath Mason in that line. But I did think
Speaker 3: Alex was a lit a bit let down on a
Speaker 3: couple of occasions with Heath running up out of the line,
Speaker 3: Gary shaking your head.
Speaker 1: But the Raiders.
Speaker 3: It might have been the Raiders first try where Mason
Speaker 3: did run up a lot quicker and sort of left.
Speaker 3: Mason left so fast, sort of you know, a couple
Speaker 3: of steps back he came up out of the line
Speaker 3: and created a bit of a hole and that was
Speaker 3: a pretty poor read and he did stand there shaking
Speaker 3: his head when he did it. What what does say
Speaker 3: fast bring? I think he's a workhorse. I don't think
Speaker 3: he stops trying. You'll never lack him for effort. And
Speaker 3: he knows how to find a try line. That's something
Speaker 3: I don't think Alex Tele knows how to do.
Speaker 1: It's funny. Yeah, well we know that.
Speaker 2: It's not his job.
Speaker 3: Well prop slash lock right, he plays you know that
Speaker 3: number thirteen roller to start.
Speaker 2: The game a second roller. One of your roles is
Speaker 2: to be, especially on the try line, is to hit
Speaker 2: that gap and find the try line. I think it's
Speaker 2: a little bit hard, Like I'm not an alex Ple
Speaker 2: fan over. I think it's a little bit harsh on
Speaker 2: him to say he's not a try score when that's
Speaker 2: that's quite obvious in the type of footballer he is
Speaker 2: for me. Save Haf made a really poor defensive read
Speaker 2: on that first try. He came in far too far
Speaker 2: and supported the player that was depending inside him. I
Speaker 2: can't remember who it was now, and it was say
Speaker 2: aast Man that actually went through the whole to score
Speaker 2: that try in the lead up to the second try,
Speaker 2: he was the one that missed the tackle on about
Speaker 2: thirty meters out from the break break. And I can't
Speaker 2: disagree with you, Nick that he's a wholehearted guy who
Speaker 2: puts in a lot of effort and he's getting the
Speaker 2: most out of his ability that he was given. I
Speaker 2: have no doubt about that. But that ability isn't enough
Speaker 2: for an NRL player. His lack of impact and his
Speaker 2: lack of ability to win the contact in both attack
Speaker 2: and defense is a massive problem and has been a
Speaker 2: massive problem in his entire career. You'll see quite often
Speaker 2: we'll get a decent player the ball, Alex will take
Speaker 2: that next hit up and he gets bent backwards and
Speaker 2: ends up on his back and gets a slow play
Speaker 2: the ball. The same thing happens in defense. He'll get
Speaker 2: to the player and the player ends up going over
Speaker 2: the top of him, which results in a quick play
Speaker 2: the ball. That that poor contact in defense and attack
Speaker 2: is a real problem. He did score a nice try
Speaker 2: he chased. He also threw a really nice ball the
Speaker 2: one the other try we scored out on that right
Speaker 2: hand side. I thought he threw a really nice ball
Speaker 2: for that try. Yep, it's just not enough. He's a
Speaker 2: nice guy, he's a hard worker, but you need to be.
Speaker 4: More than that in the and we know he's a
Speaker 4: nice guy.
Speaker 2: I don't know I'm giving him something else, give him
Speaker 2: a massive whack exactly.
Speaker 3: I'll just say they quickly when that try that's or
Speaker 3: that break that camera made where save Farth missed the tackle.
Speaker 3: If you watch that back, Tower was outside of him
Speaker 3: and that camera play, I can't remember who it was
Speaker 3: was going from Tyra as well, and Tower should have
Speaker 3: made an effort to try and shut that down with
Speaker 3: say Farth, he left it to him and he was
Speaker 3: only a meter or so away. So I'll just back
Speaker 3: up save Futh a little bit there. I think he
Speaker 3: should have had a bit more assistance from his outside men.
Speaker 1: We're trending down. Is all lost for season twenty twenty five?
Speaker 1: Is it time to say season over?
Speaker 2: It depends what you're looking for, Like, if you're exacting
Speaker 2: what that was what I was looking for. Yeah, if
Speaker 2: you're looking for ape spot. I don't think they're going
Speaker 2: to make the top eight do. I think we'll get
Speaker 2: a few more wins and have more wins than the
Speaker 2: last couple of years out, I actually think we'll win
Speaker 2: on Friday Night as long as we picked the right squad.
Speaker 2: There's some pauzes in that game on Friday Night, but
Speaker 2: the effort has been there all season. I'm really happy
Speaker 2: with that. I think there were some promising things in
Speaker 2: attack once we got Lar two into the side and
Speaker 2: Lart two out on the field playing. I think if
Speaker 2: we fix up, I think there's two selection changes that
Speaker 2: we can make that make a massive difference to what
Speaker 2: we're going to see over the last couple couple of
Speaker 2: months of this season. So selections on Tuesday is really
Speaker 2: important for me, and I think if we make the
Speaker 2: right selections, then I'm not like Eddie and Nick. I'm
Speaker 2: not keeping my one eye on the wooden spoon. I'll
Speaker 2: worry about that if we get to three weeks out
Speaker 2: and we're still in a fight for it. Right now,
Speaker 2: I'm just looking at the next game and whether we
Speaker 2: can win that. And I think we can win the
Speaker 2: next game. I think we can get a couple more
Speaker 2: wins in the next month, but selections on Tuesday are
Speaker 2: really important to go to get to that point where
Speaker 2: we are winning games.
Speaker 4: I noticed Gary just casually just watering down expectations a
Speaker 4: bit there with his first few lines, you know, we
Speaker 4: might win a few more games this year, and just
Speaker 4: casually throwing it out there the stuff I've been saying
Speaker 4: with you. But anyway, I.
Speaker 2: Think we can still get four or five wins this
Speaker 2: season in the back half of the season. I'm not,
Speaker 2: as I said, I'm not sitting looking.
Speaker 4: For a serious on a serious note, like I won't
Speaker 4: call it Eddie's gambling gel, I'll call it Eddie's analytics
Speaker 4: this time. And like last year we won six games
Speaker 4: and there wasn't a single loss where we could have
Speaker 4: won for me, this year we've won five games. It's
Speaker 4: probably I think we've lost six games. So like time
Speaker 4: spent playing together learning how to win, we don't want
Speaker 4: to get in the habit of honorable losses, but those
Speaker 4: sort of statistics if we end the year with eight
Speaker 4: losses by six points or less, generally the trend is
Speaker 4: if that side stays together and gets strong with a
Speaker 4: couple of signings, that will not flip on its head,
Speaker 4: but at least revert to some sort of meme next
Speaker 4: year where you're actually winning four of those eight games
Speaker 4: decided by four points or less. So there are really
Speaker 4: good signs there. It's just torture. Like I said at
Speaker 4: the start of the pod.
Speaker 2: Look, any I think that's a really good point you raised,
Speaker 2: and I do think I do think that matches what
Speaker 2: the Bulldogs did a couple of years ago, where they
Speaker 2: had a season where everyone wanted Geraldo sack, but it
Speaker 2: was a building year for them. Man, I'm guessing this
Speaker 2: year is a little bit of that as well. Of course,
Speaker 2: like I want us to make the EPE, but even
Speaker 2: when I predicted as finishing an eight spot at the
Speaker 2: start of the year, I said a lot of things
Speaker 2: would have to go our way for that to happen,
Speaker 2: and I didn't ultimately really believe it deep down in
Speaker 2: my heart. But I am happy with the progress we've
Speaker 2: made this year. I would like a few more wins,
Speaker 2: but I am happy with the progress we've made so far,
Speaker 2: and I do think where we are on an upward trend.
Speaker 2: As a clab on a.
Speaker 3: Hole, I actually agree with you, Gary. I actually do
Speaker 3: think we can beat Manly. I don't think they're playing
Speaker 3: great footy at the moment. I just want to and
Speaker 3: I know we'll preview that game during the week. But
Speaker 3: Luke Brooks is due for a good game, isn't he
Speaker 3: And that type of game that you'd expect Brooks to
Speaker 3: actually come out and never blind up.
Speaker 2: But he's been drew for a good game for about
Speaker 2: ten years.
Speaker 1: I don't know where I heard it, and it's not
Speaker 1: the most optimistic way of finishing the pod, but I'm
Speaker 1: not going to be here on Wednesday night for the
Speaker 1: midweek pod. Just find it out there, guys. But I
Speaker 1: heard somewhere. It may have been West Tiger's Life. Maybe
Speaker 1: it may have read it on one of the forums.
Speaker 1: I'm not exactly sure, but the person said that their
Speaker 1: fear is that losing it's in the walls at West Tigers. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just just so much part of the club. An exterminator. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: where do we get one of those?
Speaker 4: It is? It is in the walls at the moment, Jold.
Speaker 4: But I think they think they're doing their utmost to
Speaker 4: change it. I just I don't think it is you know,
Speaker 4: boys club as everyone goes home happy. I do think
Speaker 4: it's just super frustrating at the moment. There is progress,
Speaker 4: but it's it's sort of painful progress at the moment
Speaker 4: because we're just losing those close games.
Speaker 1: Well, let's hope those bench selections are better than this
Speaker 1: week's bench selections, Garret, because I don't think we got
Speaker 1: them right this week, so let's hope we get them
Speaker 1: right next week.
Speaker 4: You got first, Garrett.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm more concerned about who we're picking at five
Speaker 2: eight and who we're picking on that right edge the
Speaker 2: bench elections. I think, Look, I haven't been that happy
Speaker 2: for our bench selections the last few weeks, but we're
Speaker 2: finishing over the top of things. To me, that's got
Speaker 2: to say something about your use of the bench and
Speaker 2: and how you're performing. If you're coming back at teams
Speaker 2: in the back end of the games, which has been
Speaker 2: our trend for the last couple of months, then I
Speaker 2: think fitness wise and an amount of time you've got
Speaker 2: players spending on the field, you're probably doing a fairly
Speaker 2: good job.
Speaker 3: Of You know what that tells me about coming over
Speaker 3: the top of teams the last couple weeks. For me,
Speaker 3: he's the difference, and it was very noticeable when he
Speaker 3: was on the field. We looked a hell of a
Speaker 3: lot more dangerous when we're.
Speaker 2: Doing it before him as well. Though we came over
Speaker 2: the top of South late in the game, and Latu
Speaker 2: fan wasn't playing in that game. So it's been a
Speaker 2: trend that's been there for a little while now. Even
Speaker 2: earlier in the season, we really came over the top
Speaker 2: of the Dolphins. So I think fitness wise and the
Speaker 2: ability to still physically be in a game at the
Speaker 2: end of the game is a lot better than it's
Speaker 2: been in past season. So I at least think we
Speaker 2: got that part of our off season pretty good. I think, yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't think we got too much wrong in that
Speaker 2: fitness wise.
Speaker 4: Sorry, Joel, I was meant to say something, wasn't I
Speaker 4: What I was going to say to finish is, you know,
Speaker 4: if I come back in another lifetime in a few
Speaker 4: thousand years, obviously rugby legue will still be going head
Speaker 4: knocks and that's not a problem at all. But you know,
Speaker 4: if I come back as some sort of and people
Speaker 4: are visiting the earth and they say, all I want
Speaker 4: is a nice, quiet life, But I like sports scary
Speaker 4: and I just want to follow a certain team or something,
Speaker 4: I would just advise them, you know, follow the Melbourne
Speaker 4: Storm on or follow cricket or something like that. But
Speaker 4: the one team you must never follow a lifetime of
Speaker 4: torture is the Wet Tigers.
Speaker 2: Knowing you Eddie, though I think you'ld more prefer the
Speaker 2: Tom will follow the West Tigers, just because I think
Speaker 2: you'd get a kick out of seeing them suffer.
Speaker 4: Gary, I'll be coming back in a few thousand years
Speaker 4: and I'm going to advise you to support the West Tigers.
Speaker 1: Well, I think we can probably pretty much be assured
Speaker 1: that if you do come back in a thousand years
Speaker 1: any you're not going to see another Rugby League merger
Speaker 1: because if you take two two week teams, you only
Speaker 1: end up with one week team because.
Speaker 4: You're finishing with.
Speaker 2: Fitz Gerald says High that's who it was said.
Speaker 1: That wasn't so that would have been a takeover, that
Speaker 1: wouldn't have been a merger, But there would never be
Speaker 1: another merger where you've got two teams that are in
Speaker 1: that exclusion zone that are struggling, because you just end
Speaker 1: up with one team that's struggling.
Speaker 4: So that's a real whack to finish off.
Speaker 1: We're the last merger in history. Thank you, guys. We'll
Speaker 1: look forward to the midwik Pod. Thank you boys, boy.
Speaker 4: Cross and Crocks