R24 Sun - Melbourne v Canberra @ AAMI

[Scooter]

I also think today's game also highlighted that a team with a points difference of negative a lot should not be in the top four.

[Bullucked]

Raiders $4.90 at 1-12. Money for freaking jam babyyyyy

You're banking on Storm to lose two in a row?

You realise that both games against Canberra last year at home we were coming off 2 game losing streaks and still coughed it up against them

Did you hold or fold?

[Bullucked]

Garlick starting for Grant which I can only assume is a tactical switch to keep Harry a bit fresh, Katoa also in for Eisenhuth.

Welch on the radio said Grant hadn't trained all week, rested as per the "high performance" peoples instructions, only being at the captains run. Welch also said Garlick is a bigger body to help take on the up front size of the Raiders pack
From the world of FB, but I did hear this myself too

[Storm Spirit]

In honour of how long he was letting them sleep on us after each tackle today, I am hereby naming the snooze button on my alarm 'Grant Atkins'

[RobbieRoss]

Was Tui hurt? He didn't come back after his first stint

I was wondering the same thing. Hopefully it just reflected that they wanted to give Tepai and Bronson bigger minutes.

I hope Will Warbrick is ok for next week. Craig said Paps unlikely next week , so we need Will to wing and Reimis to centre .

[SunshineCoastStormer]

Excellent performance after a slightly shaky first 10.

I was sceptical about not starting with NAS but it worked great as we held the Raiders in check.

We really need our middles to work as when we attack up the gut we look far better than going lateral.

Great performances across the team. Hughes inclusion was huge and Grant was massive off the bench…

[The Black Dot]

Is the Garlick start and Harry on the bench going to be a regular thing like the Smith / Grant sitiuation from last year or will it be a one off?

[Mattpoet]

Kind of sounded like they weren't saying

[Lucas]

I'm personally OK with them using that tactic again with Harry. Easy to forget that this is his first year with us basically as the sole number 9. Not everyone is going be Cameron Smith and play every minute of every game plus SoO and internationals for 15 years.

[blazza18]

Eh, Harry was an 80 minute hooker last season too. Not really sure I'm a fan of the tactic itself but managing his minutes is totally fine as he has played a lot of footy the last few months.

I think there is probably more upside in taking him off before and after halftime for 10-15 minutes. He gets a bit too helter skelter when he's fatigued so freshening him up for the later stages of games might benefit him and the team. That would actually give a real role to Garlick or Wishart as well.

[Lennart Bedrager]

Bellamy mentioned in the presser that they used the garlick/grant combo as a way to negate Canberra's tactic of putting a lot of traffic through grant early to get his tackle count up and tire him out.
Seems to have worked well, and I dare say it gets used a time or during the rest of this year's campaign. Certainly seemed that Penrith middles did a good job of targeting Harry and reducing his effectiveness. He made 13 more tackles than Mitch Kenny..

[Lucas]

Eh, Harry was an 80 minute hooker last season too. Not really sure I'm a fan of the tactic itself but managing his minutes is totally fine as he has played a lot of footy the last few months.

I think there is probably more upside in taking him off before and after halftime for 10-15 minutes. He gets a bit too helter skelter when he's fatigued so freshening him up for the later stages of games might benefit him and the team. That would actually give a real role to Garlick or Wishart as well.

Brandon played plenty of hooker taking plenty of time off him last year, was my point.

[Lucas]

I think Papenhuyzen plays another 80 in Qld Cup next week and if he gets through that is number 14 v Titans the week after. Imagine the crowd reaction when he comes on.

Yep, this is what I am thinking too. Looking at his stats (didn't see the game) he made plenty of runs but only made 6-7metres per run, so not really where he'd want to be just yet.

[Shuttlesworth99]

I think Papenhuyzen plays another 80 in Qld Cup next week and if he gets through that is number 14 v Titans the week after. Imagine the crowd reaction when he comes on.

Yep, this is what I am thinking too. Looking at his stats (didn't see the game) he made plenty of runs but only made 6-7metres per run, so not really where he'd want to be just yet.

I only watched the highlights of the Falcons, but the positive for me was that whilst he wasn’t the one scoring or making the big runs - he was always there as a support player ready for the pass.

[blazza18]

Brandon played plenty of hooker taking plenty of time off him last year, was my point.

Not really something to argue over but this just isn't true.