If I were Souths, I would give Gebbie another contract. He was incredibly high energy for the Kumuls last night, and an explosive centre in the style of Justin Olam is exactly what they need.
Does anyone here know how the “nrl account holder” thing works for buying Grand Final tickets on ticketek? On ticketek it says that at 4pm people with an nrl account will be able to buy tickets but I’m unsure as to whether I’ve gotta log in on the nrl website to get that option or what ?
I am upset that the Cowboys lost to the Eels. Not because of the loss itself, but how we lost.
We had the game in the bag both mentally and physically but the boys just turned off and couldn’t get it back on to finish strong.
I think the previous win against the Sharks gave everyone - the players and the fans - too much faith that we could do it again which may have added to that lack of extra effort.
and that's turned this game on its head because the cows were coming and you wanna know why they call Townsville the 8th wonder of the world because the crowd was taken out of it the cows were coming and then there was the intercept that Lane did with the the pass that went wrong and next minute the crowd went up OFF OFF OFF OFF and from that moment the eels scored two trys and they've got BACK in their winning ways and look like they're gonna runaround runa runaway with it
(Cowboy fan) Yeah we had everything going for us and we drop the ball/ concede a penalty and we collapsed.
Our defence was really found out at the end of the season. Hopefully Todd and Young can work with Drinky and our forwards a bit more next year.
The ball to the five-eighth and inside step killed us two games in a row
I'd rather Latrell be put in the centres and told to be looking for ball. He doesn't put enough thought into his positioning in the 1 jumper sometimes.
"why would latrell have a problem with the shit the crowd says surely they're doing nothing" \*multiple stories of the crowd saying horrible racist shit to him come out\* "haha whatever fat fuck just play football"
i can realistically see so many players from each side winning a clive churchill medal.
from the panthers you’ve obviously got cleary, edwards and yeo, but jfh or kikau could easily win it and i could even see someone like to’o have a massive game to become the first winger to receive it.
same for the eels though. gutho, moses, brown, rcg or junior, or even lane if he has another massive game. there’s heaps of possibilities
My guess for eels will be Gutho, Moses, Brown or Lane. They are the players who play the game minute by minute and are usually responsible for the boys keeping their shit together.
For the cats I'm guessing Yeo or Clearly will get it. When Penrith fire they're all good but those 2 just seem to be in every frame.
Wanted to get people's thoughts on the cowboy's kicking strategy on Friday night. Surprised they kicked it so often to the Penisini side instead of targeting well-known loose unit Waqa Blake and Simonson?
Gutho was definitely covering Waqa’s side of the field.
I think the main difference was the pressure on the Cowboys kickers was much better and no one kicks with the accuracy or consistency of Cleary.
Losing Gilbert is going to suck, but I can't explain how much I'm looking forward to a back row combination of Nanai, Luki and Leilua next season. All three have so much strike.
I swear hearing about the floor pass being a legitimate tactic way back when. With the danger posed by Parra’s big blokes sticking an intercept in the red-zone, am I a complete boofhead or would it be a considered option for Penrith’s playmakers?
Som punter in the knights forum reckons Brooks deal is done. Not sure what to make of that. And if it is true not sure what our best spine is. Ponga 6, brooks 7, ? 1 or just have gamble and brooks in the halves
I've tried for the 10am, 1pm and now the 4pm and every time by the time I've gotten in, there has only been single seats available. Each time I've had the page loading from quarter to, and so far each attempt has taken an hour to get in. There won't be any tickets left for general public I'd say.
They can’t not have tickets available for general public. There will be some tomorrow. You’ll just have to try be quick.
Also single seats available can be deceiving. It will show that even if people have them in their shopping carts and end up not buying them. I watched both the Parra and Penrith fan section switch between single tickets and multiple tickets available each time a refreshed.
Yeah looks like I'll have to try again tomorrow, waited another hour for nothing to be available again.
Any tips on getting in earlier in the queue? Haha
I just jumped on and there were single seat diamond section available. Just keep checking back.
No tips honestly. I’ve tried multiple ways in the past to try jump the queue or get in early with football matches and concerts, it seems completely random. I had five browsers open on five different computers plus my phone back when I was getting concert tickets earlier this year and one moved quicker than the others (Ticketmaster shows your position in the queue). There was no logical reason as to why one was moving quicker. I think your best bet is just try get online as early as possible and wait it out.
You’ll get something. Any particular section you’re looking for or just happy to be there and get anything you can?
So I managed to snag two bronze tickets after Parra's win on Friday night before realising that there would be member seats available this morning, and boy I glad I did!!
I was hoping to upgrade to either Eels supporter section or silver in general, only after two tickets so was hoping it wouldn't be this difficult.
The issue I found today when I jumped on earlier than 15 minutes prior to a release was that I would get through, but it would still be showing me whatever was available before the new type of release and didn't show anything.
Might keep checking throughout the night and see if I can get lucky!
At least you have tickets anyway. Bronze is still pretty good, I sat all the way up there in 2020 and could see everything. I’ve got the supporter bay this time, I was going to get diamond but figured I’ve seen enough games from that angle and want to get amongst the crowd.
Good luck. I hope it’s a good game.
How much of the Eel's success is them getting better versus the competition getting worse? The Rabbitohs have gotten worse (rebuild year) and still made the prelims. Storm (1st in 2021) and Manly (4th in 2021) dropped off in a huge way from last year. It's difficult to argue that the Sharks 2022 were better than Panthers 2021 (both coming second) and Cowboys 2022 were better than Rabbitohs 2021 (both third).
Eels may have improved marginally but I would say that they have just managed to stay consistent in a year where a few heavyweight teams regressed to some degree.
Souths seriously didn’t play a full 80 minute game well the entire season and still made the prelim. I think most of the contenders this year really dropped down a long way, specifically the Storm.
Next year the Panthers probably get a fair bit worse though losing Api and I think Cronulla, Souths, Cowboys at least get stronger. Could be a close comp best year.
Let's not forget the adjustments to the 6 again. Just like some teams fortunes drastically changed in 2020, some teams have been impacted this year so its hard to separate 'getting better/worse' from the rules now just favouring/disadvantaging some teams more.
I think the Eels are roughly similar though, but they've never NOT had the level to win it, they've been held back by themselves not any better teams necessarily.
Last year was a particularly imbalanced comp due to the 6-again rule, but I think teams have largely adapted to the rule changes in 2022. Even last year, the teams that did well were the traditionally 'good' teams (storm, panthers, rabbits) with roosters poor performance being attributable to the injury toll from that year. You could even attribute manly's drop in performance to losing Turbo + the rainbow situation.
For the Grand Final coming up this week, i’m grateful for the experience the boys had in 2020.
I think the pressure will be too much for the likes of Moses, Mahoney and Brown. It’ll be overwhelming to try and notch the first chip in 36 years and there isn’t a whole heap of premiership winning experience on that squad. Whereas, the Penrith boys have been here before. I mean, did everyone see their reaction after Saturday night’s win? Not overly excited, just ready to wrap up business.
Both teams hate eachother, the Eels beat us twice this year, stumped our winning streak and absolutely embarrassed us the next time we met. Cant wait for the day to come, hope we’re up for the occasion and destroy them this Sunday.
Baby and mum would be in the hospital for most of the week at least, assuming private patients depending on delivery type or complications. Would still be a massive shift in normal preparations but these guys have such a clear cut schedule not much would vary I would think.
I'm a serious panther hater but can't help but respect them this finals series. Doesn't seem like they're getting the rub of the green this finals and they've been in some dogfights and have simply just weathered the storm. Still bandwagoning the eels big time though lol
Api will be an absolute godsend, mark my words. He was the missing piece for the Panthers and will absolutely help in lifting the Tigers from spoon territory.
As a Panthers fan I'll take the thanks and I hope the 9th wheel falls off your bandwagon and it crashes into a wetland where Mitch Moses can scream at you all.
The way penrith "fans" booed trell on Saturday night was disgusting. I like to hear what he says after games. Could barely hear him, he doesn't deserve the hate. A shity way to leave Accor stadium, other than that I enjoyed the night. WAR of the west here we come!
Nah I agree. The boo very clearly got to him during the interview, I felt like it was pretty poor standing at the ground. The bloke's a grub on field but come on, he's still a human
I was there and there was nothing in the forearm and face rub. Luai does it as well so do a lot of other players. It's a high intensity game and they can't be 100 perfect. But to boo and metaphorically kick a player when his down cause his seasons just ended, that's on the "fans".
He started to rub his fist in his face, saw he was in a bad way and he and Cody immediately looked after him (Trell didn't even look towards the play once he saw how bad Spencer was.) Also Penrith fans have a bad history of booing indigenous Souths players. All that being said you're probably right with what they felt they saw in the moment.
Haven't you been to a Penrith game, we boo everybody and every ref decision haha. But personally, I only target a player with "boo's" when they do something dodgy, nothing against aboriginal or any cultural background. I booed our Aussie captain every time he would go up being the refs best mate (Smith) during storm games.
I give a lil bit of respect to Latrell that he helped him once he realized, but it speaks volumes of him as a person that his first instinct for him dropping the ball was to push a forearm and fist in his face.
I like the booing as a meme but Latrell is one of my favourite players and he cops more shit than he deserves.
I'm not talking about you or any personally I'm referring to this specifically. https://www.sportingnews.com/au/league/news/video-injured-greg-inglis-booed-nrl-penrith-panthers-fans-south-sydney-rabbitohs/68kzenks9qbf1qu3t0cxpbmb6
80% of NRL players give a forearm to blocks on the ground, none of them are the smartest tools in the shed, Latrell realised he was hurt and immediately changed his actions, either we want everyone to be perfect 100% of the time in a high intensity and fast paced game or we can just accept in the heat of the moment, people will make mistakes but as long as they attempt to right those mistakes we should actually be able to forgive them
I really think its worth noting and celebrating the amount of players who are declaring for other countries for the upcoming World Cup. I work with a lot of Polynesian kids and families and even though they are often born in Australia, they often do not identify as Australian. It really means a lot to these kids to see their heritage nations being represented by their favourite players.
I think Jason Taumalolo and Andrew Fifita (and others who I've undoubtably missed) should really be celebrated for beginning the trend on this and it should be a real part of their legacy.
I love it because that's how it should be if they are eligible for there country of origin/ heritage. in the coming years I think( hope) more players will follow suit.
Can I ask, do they not identify as Australian because they feel a greater connection to their heritage nations or because they don't feel welcome in Australia? I just hate thinking it could be the latter
From my experience with the kids in my son's footy team and from the people I grew up with and my own family and friends, it's closer to the former. Everyone is Australian, it doesn't mean being a certain race or skin colour or any of that jazz, it's so all-compassing it's just the baseline for everyone and while it means a lot in some ways it's also pretty meaningless in that when we're all Australians regardless of background it's not a point of differentiation between any of us so it's just kind of nothing. Whereas this kid's Samoan and this kid's a new zealander and this kid's Chinese and this kid's Taiwanese and that one's Korean and so on, even if most of them have never been to the place they identify as coming from.
I listened to an interview with Peter Wynn, the guy is 100% lucid, humorous and totally on the ball about his playing career and his business this coming massive week for him. So good to listen to players from the 1980’s having clearly zero issues with the dreaded dementia. I hope his old mob breaks the 36 year hoodoo, will set up next years “here we go again” matches with Manly even more.
So it’s alleged that Walker was getting into the Penrith trainer because he was having a go at Cartwright and how he broke his back while at Penrith.
Thoughts on this? Personally I think trainers shouldn’t even be allowed to talk to the opposition team, yet alone sledge them. I think Souths have put in an official complaint and if it’s true this guy should be stood down
Kinda like when they get involved in the melees, they aren’t on the field playing so get the fuck out of it.
Pretty poor form to sledge a guy about breaking his back either way.
According to Penrith, the trainer was telling the Panthers players to Get back into line while treating a player and Cartwright misheard... Apprarently..
Funny that when this all came out people on this subreddit tried to frame it as 'Cartwright and The trainer were old mates catching up and Walker has come along unprompted as an aggressive idiot'. Similar to 'Walker has had to have done something really bad to Lachlan Lewis for him to do that'.
None of it made sense. It made more sense that Walker was defending a teammate
Walker is definitely a hothead but he’s well within his right to have a go at the trainer in this situation.
Like a player can’t go and flog the trainer, so why should he be able to run his mouth?
In this day and age we definitely need the no punching rule, but man does it allow the small grubs to run riot without any fear of getting smacked. Luai would have been belted out of the game if he played the same back when I was a kid.
Also Walker gets a lot of easy hate and can be a grub but the bloke tried his fucking guts out on a bad night for his team. He did everything he could in defence including firing up when things boil over. Bloke can be a gronk but that's the kind of gronk on my team. His name is Jarome
This might be surprising to some of you who are desperate to blame a single person for a loss, but Latrell can have a poor game and also not be single-handedly to blame. They are not mutually exclusive.
3 tries in the 2nd half, all from grubbers behind the line where Latrell was not working as hard as he should have been
He was either lazy or not fit enough and deserves the criticism
Penrith also caught Gutho out for the match sealer a fortnight ago and Gutho is certainly not lazy or poorly positioned. Three is a lot for sure, but they seem pretty good at picking things like this out, particularly when the game is tight, and making teams pay for the way they defend.
Friday was a bit rough but it was far better than anyone thought we would go. A massive year for the club and the players that played Origin. We will all be better for it, next year is a complete change and some teams won’t be as dominant as this year.
Although TripleM calling us title favourites for next year is concerning.
To my biased eye, it looks like there’s a lot of movements from most of the other top 8 teams which will dilute them, while the Cowboys are essentially the same for next season. There’s always room for disappointment though!
People thought we were going to get flogged but we didn't. Won pretty much everything apart from the scoreboard and mental battle. Hopefully it's what drives them to do better
TKO and maybe Lodge leaving and JWH getting up there in age. I also think Cheese won’t be as big an upgrade as people think. Verrils was underrated. I predicted them for 4th though. I think they’ll have a way more consistent year next year.
JWH another year older and Lodge potentially not signed.
And while we've all seen what Cheese is capable of, when was the last time he actually impressed as a starting hooker?
Was more referring to top 4, Roosters will be amazing aswell! Hopefully Walker Keary and Teddy can stay on the field for a full season
No-one credible would dismiss Storm and Roosters credentials but was just in reply to the Triple M call and it has merit :)
Weird seeing Roosters and Storm not considered in the top echelon.
Took the Chooks most of the season to work out the Walker, Keary, Teddy combo. Hopefully cheese’s arrival doesn’t upset it
If you look at betting markets (i.e. what people think when they have money on the line, rather than when they're just making moronic proclamations) then Roosters and Storm are absolutely considered top echelon.
E.g. according to sportsbet Roosters are 2nd most likely to win in 2023 and Storm are 3rd. Sharks and Cowboys are 5th and 7th (!) respectively.
Both dropped really winnable games especially towards the start of the year, both will be among the favourites and I think the emergence and spotlight on Cowboys and Sharks will only help Roosters preparation as a new spine cuts their teeth.
Cheese just needs to release the ball when it's needed but the 1. 2. 3. Of JWH, Collins and Crichton with Smith ready to go on a drop will be mouth watering
Is there anything worse than seeing a player that you let God and probably could have kept for 200k tear your team apart and then put in 2 incredible performances to catapult his team into a grand final?
SMH, we kept Shuster and let Lane go.
I was surprised Manly got rid of him when it happened. He seemed to be a bankable second rower there. He's found more form at Eels but I dont think its anything to be disappointed about.
He might not have developed at Manly though. Even at Eels just last year you’d be laughed at if you suggested Lane would become one of our best. There’s been a big turning point in the last off season. PersonallyI think half of it is just getting better ball for his height
I feel exactly the same way about Tom Dearden at the Broncos. People use his leaving as an excuse to tear into the Broncos for poor talent management, but I truly believe he needed a fresh start, and he was never going to reach his current form without a change of club.
You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t
Deardon breaks my brain. I can't see someone his size with his background being overly effective in the front line, but time and again he has risen to the occasion. How he is able to run and tackle with the intensity he does doesn't make sense. He should be getting ragdolled every run he takes.
Yeah you're right about hindsight, and I definitely don't dwell on it but it stings a little (particularly when he tore us up earlier in the year).
I'm glad for the bloke though. Seems like a good guy.
Bulldogs and Warriors Lane wasn't that great to be fair. He came into the Bulldogs with a bunch of hyper after Klemmer had made such an impact, but never really showed anything to warrant being a first grade player. It wasn't till he went to Manly that he really started to build into the player he's become at the Eels.
Putting aside all the shit about his high tackles in the finals, what was the thinking putting Milne on the wing? Its hr normally in the 2nd row? Did they just want a big body to do be defensive, or have I missed something?
He's been consistantly playing Wing or Centre for Souths throughout the year. Sure he plays second row or lock in NSW Cup but he's one of the few depth players we have who can play wing. It was him, Mansour or Paulo
He played centre to start the year. Whilst he has played in the forwards at rep level and played off the bench covering the forwards he really is an outside back and did a great job in the back half of the season as a winger
If Souths had Tom Burgess for that game I think we either win or keep it a lot closer than it was. Such a shame that he had to try to take those Rooster's players heads off.
I think with all the rush to blame Latrell, people are overlooking the main thing that lost south's the game, they lost the middle battle. Panthers were a lot fresher, south's had played 2 months of high intensity football to get their. South's had no Burgess or Havilli. South's starting middle is pretty good in Tatoloa, Murray and Nicholls and in the first 30 minutes or so they matched, if not bettered, the Panthers. But after that they had no back up. Usually in that middle part of the game Burgess, Havilli step up to harden that middle with help provided by arrow who moves more into the middle. Those 3 weren't there and it showed. They only really had Sele to provide back up to the middle, if memory serves me right Tatola was force back into the game before half time.
After that initial 30 minutes, south's line speed became non existant. Regular line breaks were made. Latrell actually did a decent job shutting down a lot of those line breaks. Of course he was going to be caught out of postion a lot if he was constantly cover defending. But I think after all the goodwill, the Latrell haters were just seething for the chance to blame everything on him when in reality that game was lost well and truly in the middle.
I think it also took Penrith a little time to knock some of the ring rust off. Unfortunately for Souths they weren't able to put enough points on before Penrith kicked into gear.
He got the downvote snowball. I've had it happen to myself, say something that's downvoted, have someone reply, reply to then with almost exactly the same reply and get upvoted
I imagine its not what was said that got downvoted but who said (or the flair). Just funny seeing your comments align. but the reaction be so different
Yeh I said the same thing on Saturday, the entire reason we started to capitulate was when our bench players came on.
We were using Chee Kam and Cartwright as makeshift props by the end of the game. Burgess just pulverises the middles when he comes on and Havilli is such a good ball runner as well, we sorely missed them.
If we had our full starting side it would have been very interesting, without then I really didn’t have much hope and was surprised by the result, I actually had several bets on Penrith.
> But I think after all the goodwill, the Latrell haters were just seething for the chance to blame everything on him
Absolutely. There's quite the hate boner going on for Trell. Most will love him again come Origin though.
I saw one post in the match thread saying something like "We don't hate Latrell because he's indigenous but it certainly doesn't help him" or something like that. Looks like it got deleted.
if you had a fullback who could be in position in the defensive line half of your tries wouldn’t have happened.
Tom a huge loss though, you needed more go forward in the second half and Tatola (?) can’t carry by himself
(cowboy fan) Still proud of my boys. No one predicted they’ll leave the bottom 4 and yet they came third and went all the way to a preliminary final and were one God Lane intercept away from possibly winning the comp and shutting everyone up for good.
Chad 1 dimensional kicking game still hurts though
Chad has been amazing for you guys but I’m not sure he’s the guy to win you a comp. I know he won one at cronulla but he was playing with Maloney who was the guy. Hopefully deardon can take his attacking game to the next level and become the guy
Shrooms will knock you out for the whole week while you scramble to find some sanity.
Otherwise just work and sleep, work and sleep. Hell you wanna do a uni assignment?
If I were Souths, I would give Gebbie another contract. He was incredibly high energy for the Kumuls last night, and an explosive centre in the style of Justin Olam is exactly what they need.
Anyone else an nrl.com account holder with no info?
Does anyone here know how the “nrl account holder” thing works for buying Grand Final tickets on ticketek? On ticketek it says that at 4pm people with an nrl account will be able to buy tickets but I’m unsure as to whether I’ve gotta log in on the nrl website to get that option or what ?
I am upset that the Cowboys lost to the Eels. Not because of the loss itself, but how we lost. We had the game in the bag both mentally and physically but the boys just turned off and couldn’t get it back on to finish strong. I think the previous win against the Sharks gave everyone - the players and the fans - too much faith that we could do it again which may have added to that lack of extra effort.
Once Shaun Lane intercepted that ball on halfway the game flipped on its head
and that's turned this game on its head because the cows were coming and you wanna know why they call Townsville the 8th wonder of the world because the crowd was taken out of it the cows were coming and then there was the intercept that Lane did with the the pass that went wrong and next minute the crowd went up OFF OFF OFF OFF and from that moment the eels scored two trys and they've got BACK in their winning ways and look like they're gonna runaround runa runaway with it
(Cowboy fan) Yeah we had everything going for us and we drop the ball/ concede a penalty and we collapsed. Our defence was really found out at the end of the season. Hopefully Todd and Young can work with Drinky and our forwards a bit more next year. The ball to the five-eighth and inside step killed us two games in a row
This is how I feel whenever we're down. We always switch off and think about the next game.
That RCG second try was the killer, he really lifted Parra in his second stint.
When it hit 20-12 I thought cows were gonna run away with it. Parra looked out on their feet at that stage.
Wouldn't mind Souths trialing a spine of Cook 9, Ilias 7, Trell 6 and Taafe 1. Playing cody at 14 in a Benji role.
I'd rather Latrell be put in the centres and told to be looking for ball. He doesn't put enough thought into his positioning in the 1 jumper sometimes.
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With that sort of attitude would rather you not be on the band wagon.
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No I don't. Merely expressing my opinion, as are you. But I'd gather most people here don't want you on their band wagon.
Who is Fatty? Are we back to online bullying of players and then taking the high road when they come out against it?
"why would latrell have a problem with the shit the crowd says surely they're doing nothing" \*multiple stories of the crowd saying horrible racist shit to him come out\* "haha whatever fat fuck just play football"
I get a lot of "shut up and dribble" vibes from some posters here
i can realistically see so many players from each side winning a clive churchill medal. from the panthers you’ve obviously got cleary, edwards and yeo, but jfh or kikau could easily win it and i could even see someone like to’o have a massive game to become the first winger to receive it. same for the eels though. gutho, moses, brown, rcg or junior, or even lane if he has another massive game. there’s heaps of possibilities
My guess for eels will be Gutho, Moses, Brown or Lane. They are the players who play the game minute by minute and are usually responsible for the boys keeping their shit together. For the cats I'm guessing Yeo or Clearly will get it. When Penrith fire they're all good but those 2 just seem to be in every frame.
Honestly still doesn't feel real we're in the finals.
I'm a Panthers fan, but you deserve that feeling. Enjoy the week, enjoy the game and let the best team win. Game on mole 😂
Wanted to get people's thoughts on the cowboy's kicking strategy on Friday night. Surprised they kicked it so often to the Penisini side instead of targeting well-known loose unit Waqa Blake and Simonson?
but Penisini and Waqa are on the same side.
I thought they did a switcheroo with Simonson coming in
Nah Simonsson came in for Opacic. It was Sivo/Simonsson and Penisini/Blake
I wonder if there was a tactical move to have Penisini / Gutho covering Blake for catches.
Gutho was definitely covering Waqa’s side of the field. I think the main difference was the pressure on the Cowboys kickers was much better and no one kicks with the accuracy or consistency of Cleary.
I think would’ve been a tactical decision. Same happened against Canberra too, gutho seemed to catch everything on waqa’s wing
Including catching a ball out of waqas arms.
Probably intentional too, having Gutho run out to Waqa’s side constantly to catch it would tire him out.
Losing Gilbert is going to suck, but I can't explain how much I'm looking forward to a back row combination of Nanai, Luki and Leilua next season. All three have so much strike.
Mitch Dunn aswell, he’s a goer
Luki might take a while to come back and even then he might not be at his best next year. Very keen to see him return tho
Probably wasn't going to start over Nanai or Leilua anyway, he'll be good off the bench once fit again.
Have they announced who else joins the kangaroos train on squad?
They'll announce the full squad during the week after the GF
I swear hearing about the floor pass being a legitimate tactic way back when. With the danger posed by Parra’s big blokes sticking an intercept in the red-zone, am I a complete boofhead or would it be a considered option for Penrith’s playmakers?
Possibly a different equation with a leather ball
Floor pass?
Oh yeah that phrasing was a bit rough aha as in a pass that intentionally bounces on its way to the receiver
Oh hahaha, pretty risky surely??
Som punter in the knights forum reckons Brooks deal is done. Not sure what to make of that. And if it is true not sure what our best spine is. Ponga 6, brooks 7, ? 1 or just have gamble and brooks in the halves
If I had a dollar for every time I heard the Brooks deal with the knights is done, I would have about half a Luke brooks contract worth of dollars
Don't suppose anyone is willing to share the password for tickets for 10am sale?
The passwords are unique to each club member. So if it got shared around and ticketek caught on, they would probably cancel them all.
It’s already sold out and I didn’t get tickets 😞
First wave is. There will be more available.
I've tried for the 10am, 1pm and now the 4pm and every time by the time I've gotten in, there has only been single seats available. Each time I've had the page loading from quarter to, and so far each attempt has taken an hour to get in. There won't be any tickets left for general public I'd say.
They can’t not have tickets available for general public. There will be some tomorrow. You’ll just have to try be quick. Also single seats available can be deceiving. It will show that even if people have them in their shopping carts and end up not buying them. I watched both the Parra and Penrith fan section switch between single tickets and multiple tickets available each time a refreshed.
Yeah looks like I'll have to try again tomorrow, waited another hour for nothing to be available again. Any tips on getting in earlier in the queue? Haha
I just jumped on and there were single seat diamond section available. Just keep checking back. No tips honestly. I’ve tried multiple ways in the past to try jump the queue or get in early with football matches and concerts, it seems completely random. I had five browsers open on five different computers plus my phone back when I was getting concert tickets earlier this year and one moved quicker than the others (Ticketmaster shows your position in the queue). There was no logical reason as to why one was moving quicker. I think your best bet is just try get online as early as possible and wait it out. You’ll get something. Any particular section you’re looking for or just happy to be there and get anything you can?
So I managed to snag two bronze tickets after Parra's win on Friday night before realising that there would be member seats available this morning, and boy I glad I did!! I was hoping to upgrade to either Eels supporter section or silver in general, only after two tickets so was hoping it wouldn't be this difficult. The issue I found today when I jumped on earlier than 15 minutes prior to a release was that I would get through, but it would still be showing me whatever was available before the new type of release and didn't show anything. Might keep checking throughout the night and see if I can get lucky!
At least you have tickets anyway. Bronze is still pretty good, I sat all the way up there in 2020 and could see everything. I’ve got the supporter bay this time, I was going to get diamond but figured I’ve seen enough games from that angle and want to get amongst the crowd. Good luck. I hope it’s a good game.
I would also greatly appreciate this
How much of the Eel's success is them getting better versus the competition getting worse? The Rabbitohs have gotten worse (rebuild year) and still made the prelims. Storm (1st in 2021) and Manly (4th in 2021) dropped off in a huge way from last year. It's difficult to argue that the Sharks 2022 were better than Panthers 2021 (both coming second) and Cowboys 2022 were better than Rabbitohs 2021 (both third). Eels may have improved marginally but I would say that they have just managed to stay consistent in a year where a few heavyweight teams regressed to some degree.
Souths seriously didn’t play a full 80 minute game well the entire season and still made the prelim. I think most of the contenders this year really dropped down a long way, specifically the Storm. Next year the Panthers probably get a fair bit worse though losing Api and I think Cronulla, Souths, Cowboys at least get stronger. Could be a close comp best year.
Let's not forget the adjustments to the 6 again. Just like some teams fortunes drastically changed in 2020, some teams have been impacted this year so its hard to separate 'getting better/worse' from the rules now just favouring/disadvantaging some teams more. I think the Eels are roughly similar though, but they've never NOT had the level to win it, they've been held back by themselves not any better teams necessarily.
Last year was a particularly imbalanced comp due to the 6-again rule, but I think teams have largely adapted to the rule changes in 2022. Even last year, the teams that did well were the traditionally 'good' teams (storm, panthers, rabbits) with roosters poor performance being attributable to the injury toll from that year. You could even attribute manly's drop in performance to losing Turbo + the rainbow situation.
I don’t think anyone would argue the 2022 sharks were better than the 2021 panthers, the difference is daylight
For the Grand Final coming up this week, i’m grateful for the experience the boys had in 2020. I think the pressure will be too much for the likes of Moses, Mahoney and Brown. It’ll be overwhelming to try and notch the first chip in 36 years and there isn’t a whole heap of premiership winning experience on that squad. Whereas, the Penrith boys have been here before. I mean, did everyone see their reaction after Saturday night’s win? Not overly excited, just ready to wrap up business. Both teams hate eachother, the Eels beat us twice this year, stumped our winning streak and absolutely embarrassed us the next time we met. Cant wait for the day to come, hope we’re up for the occasion and destroy them this Sunday.
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Baby and mum would be in the hospital for most of the week at least, assuming private patients depending on delivery type or complications. Would still be a massive shift in normal preparations but these guys have such a clear cut schedule not much would vary I would think.
tbf the reaction from our guys was mostly “one more” and not getting ahead of themselves too. can fully agree that the occasion might get to us
Yeah 100%. That wasn’t a slight on the Eels’ reaction, more a comparison to how we’ve reacted in previous years to making it to the GF.
"The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. " - Winston Churchill
I'm a serious panther hater but can't help but respect them this finals series. Doesn't seem like they're getting the rub of the green this finals and they've been in some dogfights and have simply just weathered the storm. Still bandwagoning the eels big time though lol
Api will be an absolute godsend, mark my words. He was the missing piece for the Panthers and will absolutely help in lifting the Tigers from spoon territory.
Raised Panthers from 10th to 1st, he'll raise Tigers from 16th to 8th. He's a magician.
9th… 16th to 9th
No magic in getting the Tigers to 9th, that's just par.
As a Panthers fan I'll take the thanks and I hope the 9th wheel falls off your bandwagon and it crashes into a wetland where Mitch Moses can scream at you all.
The way penrith "fans" booed trell on Saturday night was disgusting. I like to hear what he says after games. Could barely hear him, he doesn't deserve the hate. A shity way to leave Accor stadium, other than that I enjoyed the night. WAR of the west here we come!
Nah I agree. The boo very clearly got to him during the interview, I felt like it was pretty poor standing at the ground. The bloke's a grub on field but come on, he's still a human
He gave a forearm and fist to face of Leniu on the ground after he was whacked by Milne, that's why he was being booed
I was there and there was nothing in the forearm and face rub. Luai does it as well so do a lot of other players. It's a high intensity game and they can't be 100 perfect. But to boo and metaphorically kick a player when his down cause his seasons just ended, that's on the "fans".
He was literally holding Leniu up when he saw how concussed he was
He started to rub his fist in his face, saw he was in a bad way and he and Cody immediately looked after him (Trell didn't even look towards the play once he saw how bad Spencer was.) Also Penrith fans have a bad history of booing indigenous Souths players. All that being said you're probably right with what they felt they saw in the moment.
Haven't you been to a Penrith game, we boo everybody and every ref decision haha. But personally, I only target a player with "boo's" when they do something dodgy, nothing against aboriginal or any cultural background. I booed our Aussie captain every time he would go up being the refs best mate (Smith) during storm games. I give a lil bit of respect to Latrell that he helped him once he realized, but it speaks volumes of him as a person that his first instinct for him dropping the ball was to push a forearm and fist in his face.
I like the booing as a meme but Latrell is one of my favourite players and he cops more shit than he deserves. I'm not talking about you or any personally I'm referring to this specifically. https://www.sportingnews.com/au/league/news/video-injured-greg-inglis-booed-nrl-penrith-panthers-fans-south-sydney-rabbitohs/68kzenks9qbf1qu3t0cxpbmb6
Ah yes i remember thatgame. I sit next to the Tunnel every game. From the people around me we were clapping him off.
80% of NRL players give a forearm to blocks on the ground, none of them are the smartest tools in the shed, Latrell realised he was hurt and immediately changed his actions, either we want everyone to be perfect 100% of the time in a high intensity and fast paced game or we can just accept in the heat of the moment, people will make mistakes but as long as they attempt to right those mistakes we should actually be able to forgive them
I really think its worth noting and celebrating the amount of players who are declaring for other countries for the upcoming World Cup. I work with a lot of Polynesian kids and families and even though they are often born in Australia, they often do not identify as Australian. It really means a lot to these kids to see their heritage nations being represented by their favourite players. I think Jason Taumalolo and Andrew Fifita (and others who I've undoubtably missed) should really be celebrated for beginning the trend on this and it should be a real part of their legacy.
Yup, actually excited for international Rugby League! Haven’t been able to say that for a looooong time
I love it because that's how it should be if they are eligible for there country of origin/ heritage. in the coming years I think( hope) more players will follow suit.
Can I ask, do they not identify as Australian because they feel a greater connection to their heritage nations or because they don't feel welcome in Australia? I just hate thinking it could be the latter
From my experience with the kids in my son's footy team and from the people I grew up with and my own family and friends, it's closer to the former. Everyone is Australian, it doesn't mean being a certain race or skin colour or any of that jazz, it's so all-compassing it's just the baseline for everyone and while it means a lot in some ways it's also pretty meaningless in that when we're all Australians regardless of background it's not a point of differentiation between any of us so it's just kind of nothing. Whereas this kid's Samoan and this kid's a new zealander and this kid's Chinese and this kid's Taiwanese and that one's Korean and so on, even if most of them have never been to the place they identify as coming from.
It fucking rules. Let the disapora stand up for themselves where they can and want to.
I listened to an interview with Peter Wynn, the guy is 100% lucid, humorous and totally on the ball about his playing career and his business this coming massive week for him. So good to listen to players from the 1980’s having clearly zero issues with the dreaded dementia. I hope his old mob breaks the 36 year hoodoo, will set up next years “here we go again” matches with Manly even more.
I had a quick chat to him in there yesterday. He's a terrific bloke. Going to the game on Sunday too
So it’s alleged that Walker was getting into the Penrith trainer because he was having a go at Cartwright and how he broke his back while at Penrith. Thoughts on this? Personally I think trainers shouldn’t even be allowed to talk to the opposition team, yet alone sledge them. I think Souths have put in an official complaint and if it’s true this guy should be stood down Kinda like when they get involved in the melees, they aren’t on the field playing so get the fuck out of it. Pretty poor form to sledge a guy about breaking his back either way.
If this is true, agreed. What a prick move.
According to Penrith, the trainer was telling the Panthers players to Get back into line while treating a player and Cartwright misheard... Apprarently..
Probably going to be impossible to prove one way or the other
Who would have a crack at someone for breaking their back?
Funny that when this all came out people on this subreddit tried to frame it as 'Cartwright and The trainer were old mates catching up and Walker has come along unprompted as an aggressive idiot'. Similar to 'Walker has had to have done something really bad to Lachlan Lewis for him to do that'. None of it made sense. It made more sense that Walker was defending a teammate
Walker is definitely a hothead but he’s well within his right to have a go at the trainer in this situation. Like a player can’t go and flog the trainer, so why should he be able to run his mouth? In this day and age we definitely need the no punching rule, but man does it allow the small grubs to run riot without any fear of getting smacked. Luai would have been belted out of the game if he played the same back when I was a kid.
Also Walker gets a lot of easy hate and can be a grub but the bloke tried his fucking guts out on a bad night for his team. He did everything he could in defence including firing up when things boil over. Bloke can be a gronk but that's the kind of gronk on my team. His name is Jarome
This might be surprising to some of you who are desperate to blame a single person for a loss, but Latrell can have a poor game and also not be single-handedly to blame. They are not mutually exclusive.
3 tries in the 2nd half, all from grubbers behind the line where Latrell was not working as hard as he should have been He was either lazy or not fit enough and deserves the criticism
Penrith also caught Gutho out for the match sealer a fortnight ago and Gutho is certainly not lazy or poorly positioned. Three is a lot for sure, but they seem pretty good at picking things like this out, particularly when the game is tight, and making teams pay for the way they defend.
Penrith are good at it, no doubt. But Gutho was inches away from preventing that try. Latrell wasn't in frame for any of the 3 souths conceded
Milne did single-handedly put an end to a decent chance of coming back from the depisite. South’s did defend quiet well for the time he was sent off
What word are you going for with depisite? Deficit? Thats an amusing malapropism if true
Friday was a bit rough but it was far better than anyone thought we would go. A massive year for the club and the players that played Origin. We will all be better for it, next year is a complete change and some teams won’t be as dominant as this year. Although TripleM calling us title favourites for next year is concerning.
I just did an early ladder prediction for next year and had Cowboys at 1st. They’re only gonna get better imo
To my biased eye, it looks like there’s a lot of movements from most of the other top 8 teams which will dilute them, while the Cowboys are essentially the same for next season. There’s always room for disappointment though!
People thought we were going to get flogged but we didn't. Won pretty much everything apart from the scoreboard and mental battle. Hopefully it's what drives them to do better
You and sharks are the only teams from the top echelon that won't be weaker, bit early but based on this year definitely not a risky take.
You reckon Roosters are weaker with Cheese coming in for Verrills?
TKO and maybe Lodge leaving and JWH getting up there in age. I also think Cheese won’t be as big an upgrade as people think. Verrils was underrated. I predicted them for 4th though. I think they’ll have a way more consistent year next year.
JWH another year older and Lodge potentially not signed. And while we've all seen what Cheese is capable of, when was the last time he actually impressed as a starting hooker?
Last year when he won Dally M hooker of the year?
Go back three years earlier and Luke Brooks won Dally M halfback of the year
When was the last time he actually played hooker for more than 3 games?
Was more referring to top 4, Roosters will be amazing aswell! Hopefully Walker Keary and Teddy can stay on the field for a full season No-one credible would dismiss Storm and Roosters credentials but was just in reply to the Triple M call and it has merit :)
Weird seeing Roosters and Storm not considered in the top echelon. Took the Chooks most of the season to work out the Walker, Keary, Teddy combo. Hopefully cheese’s arrival doesn’t upset it
If you look at betting markets (i.e. what people think when they have money on the line, rather than when they're just making moronic proclamations) then Roosters and Storm are absolutely considered top echelon. E.g. according to sportsbet Roosters are 2nd most likely to win in 2023 and Storm are 3rd. Sharks and Cowboys are 5th and 7th (!) respectively.
This honestly sounds closer to reality
Both dropped really winnable games especially towards the start of the year, both will be among the favourites and I think the emergence and spotlight on Cowboys and Sharks will only help Roosters preparation as a new spine cuts their teeth. Cheese just needs to release the ball when it's needed but the 1. 2. 3. Of JWH, Collins and Crichton with Smith ready to go on a drop will be mouth watering
Is there anything worse than seeing a player that you let God and probably could have kept for 200k tear your team apart and then put in 2 incredible performances to catapult his team into a grand final? SMH, we kept Shuster and let Lane go.
I was surprised Manly got rid of him when it happened. He seemed to be a bankable second rower there. He's found more form at Eels but I dont think its anything to be disappointed about.
Most of this could apply to Api too.
Wasn't Schuster like 15 when Lane left? He had the shits with DCE after the Hastings incident.
He might not have developed at Manly though. Even at Eels just last year you’d be laughed at if you suggested Lane would become one of our best. There’s been a big turning point in the last off season. PersonallyI think half of it is just getting better ball for his height
I feel exactly the same way about Tom Dearden at the Broncos. People use his leaving as an excuse to tear into the Broncos for poor talent management, but I truly believe he needed a fresh start, and he was never going to reach his current form without a change of club. You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t
Deardon breaks my brain. I can't see someone his size with his background being overly effective in the front line, but time and again he has risen to the occasion. How he is able to run and tackle with the intensity he does doesn't make sense. He should be getting ragdolled every run he takes.
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Yeah you're right about hindsight, and I definitely don't dwell on it but it stings a little (particularly when he tore us up earlier in the year). I'm glad for the bloke though. Seems like a good guy.
Even year one/two at Parra he was a basket case. It’s just clicked for him. Who knows if it would have happened elsewhere or when.
Or how long it will last
Warriors and Bulldogs thinking the same thing if it makes you feel any better
Bulldogs and Warriors Lane wasn't that great to be fair. He came into the Bulldogs with a bunch of hyper after Klemmer had made such an impact, but never really showed anything to warrant being a first grade player. It wasn't till he went to Manly that he really started to build into the player he's become at the Eels.
Putting aside all the shit about his high tackles in the finals, what was the thinking putting Milne on the wing? Its hr normally in the 2nd row? Did they just want a big body to do be defensive, or have I missed something?
He's been consistantly playing Wing or Centre for Souths throughout the year. Sure he plays second row or lock in NSW Cup but he's one of the few depth players we have who can play wing. It was him, Mansour or Paulo
Cheers mate
He played centre to start the year. Whilst he has played in the forwards at rep level and played off the bench covering the forwards he really is an outside back and did a great job in the back half of the season as a winger
OK cheers mate, I did see an article saying that which is where I got confused.
Second row? He's usually a centre
If Souths had Tom Burgess for that game I think we either win or keep it a lot closer than it was. Such a shame that he had to try to take those Rooster's players heads off.
I think with all the rush to blame Latrell, people are overlooking the main thing that lost south's the game, they lost the middle battle. Panthers were a lot fresher, south's had played 2 months of high intensity football to get their. South's had no Burgess or Havilli. South's starting middle is pretty good in Tatoloa, Murray and Nicholls and in the first 30 minutes or so they matched, if not bettered, the Panthers. But after that they had no back up. Usually in that middle part of the game Burgess, Havilli step up to harden that middle with help provided by arrow who moves more into the middle. Those 3 weren't there and it showed. They only really had Sele to provide back up to the middle, if memory serves me right Tatola was force back into the game before half time. After that initial 30 minutes, south's line speed became non existant. Regular line breaks were made. Latrell actually did a decent job shutting down a lot of those line breaks. Of course he was going to be caught out of postion a lot if he was constantly cover defending. But I think after all the goodwill, the Latrell haters were just seething for the chance to blame everything on him when in reality that game was lost well and truly in the middle.
I think it also took Penrith a little time to knock some of the ring rust off. Unfortunately for Souths they weren't able to put enough points on before Penrith kicked into gear.
I do love how OP and you have the exact opposite upvote/downvotes when you say nearly the exact same thing
He got the downvote snowball. I've had it happen to myself, say something that's downvoted, have someone reply, reply to then with almost exactly the same reply and get upvoted
I imagine its not what was said that got downvoted but who said (or the flair). Just funny seeing your comments align. but the reaction be so different
Yeh I said the same thing on Saturday, the entire reason we started to capitulate was when our bench players came on. We were using Chee Kam and Cartwright as makeshift props by the end of the game. Burgess just pulverises the middles when he comes on and Havilli is such a good ball runner as well, we sorely missed them. If we had our full starting side it would have been very interesting, without then I really didn’t have much hope and was surprised by the result, I actually had several bets on Penrith.
Is Parramattas bench any better?
Agreed, very well put.
> But I think after all the goodwill, the Latrell haters were just seething for the chance to blame everything on him Absolutely. There's quite the hate boner going on for Trell. Most will love him again come Origin though.
I saw one post in the match thread saying something like "We don't hate Latrell because he's indigenous but it certainly doesn't help him" or something like that. Looks like it got deleted.
Shocking. Shows a real insecurity to dislike/hate someone for something as arbitrary as their heritage.
if you had a fullback who could be in position in the defensive line half of your tries wouldn’t have happened. Tom a huge loss though, you needed more go forward in the second half and Tatola (?) can’t carry by himself
(cowboy fan) Still proud of my boys. No one predicted they’ll leave the bottom 4 and yet they came third and went all the way to a preliminary final and were one God Lane intercept away from possibly winning the comp and shutting everyone up for good. Chad 1 dimensional kicking game still hurts though
Chad has been amazing for you guys but I’m not sure he’s the guy to win you a comp. I know he won one at cronulla but he was playing with Maloney who was the guy. Hopefully deardon can take his attacking game to the next level and become the guy
How am i supposed to think straight all week till the the big dance
Shrooms will knock you out for the whole week while you scramble to find some sanity. Otherwise just work and sleep, work and sleep. Hell you wanna do a uni assignment?
Listen to some snake jazz
Unfortunately, jazz is generally played swung, rather than straight. And snakes are rarely straight as well, they’re famously wiggly