R9 - Penrith vs Melbourne Sun 12/05 6:30pm Centrebet Stadium

[Chip]

Team for next week:

1. Billy Slater
2. Justin O'Neill
3. Junior Sa'u
4. Will Chambers
5. Sisa Waqa
6. Brett Finch
7. Cooper Cronk
8. Jesse Bromwich
9. Cameron Smith (c)
10. Bryan Norrie
11. Junior Moors
12. Ryan Hoffman
13. Kevin Proctor

14. Siosaia Vave
15. Tohu Harris
16. Jason Ryles
17. Lagi Setu

I like the 17 but Proctor is better on the edge and Tohu is doing his job in the middle.

Tohu is still developing and these big minutes are burning him out a little I feel, he needs to be in the 17 I just think he might benefit from afew weeks off the bench. Moors has really put his hand up the last 2 weeks and looked our only real danger, I want too see more of him!

T is on GPS and they are building his minutes at lock and the emphasis is on defense...he's not taken off because he's doing anything wrong. I might be biased but in his first 30 he had already had 21 tackles and only 3 hit ups (and is well marked) so I think he's doing everything asked of him. One error when the ball popped out with 3 on him - usually doesn't have any errors...He gets brought back on to defend atm but you might be right, off the bench as an impact player may work the way the team is playing atm.
My worry is the seemingly desperate plays we are making - forced passes, low percentage moves and poor defensive reads, and basic errors.
Overall though I think there are a lot of new players and the team hasn't gelled like they have in the past - there seems a certain unrest that's not Storm-like and a few changes could make a difference.

[Bullucked]

Maybe 'The Big Three' are playing their form down in the hope they don't get picked come Origin time!
No, seriously, how awful is our Origin period starting to look?
(Didn't see the game, am relying upon comments on here, can't comment on individuals)

[blazza18]

End Of Rant.

Wont quote all of it lol. But well said.

[Rina]

Maybe 'The Big Three' are playing their form down in the hope they don't get picked come Origin time!
No, seriously, how awful is our Origin period starting to look?
(Didn't see the game, am relying upon comments on here, can't comment on individuals)

with 2 games to be played without Cam, Billy and Cooper I'd say its looking quite bleak. Especially if we dont win next week or against the Roosters.

[one-eyed]

If Storm play like they have in the last two games?? We will get hammered by Manly and the Roosters, i hope i'm wrong but on tonights performance not confident.

[Go Storm]

I just wonder whether there's a bit of Bellamysm going on here?

As Cam said in the pressy "the top team always gets hunted". Maybe it's a good strategy to let the hunters hunt someone else for a while?? Afterall the NRL season is a marathon, not a sprint race. No point being in front setting the pace.

I suspected this was the case last year, and I still do believe our 5-game losing streak was a bit setup. I'm not convinced about these last 2 games but you never know with CB.

Anywhere in the top 4, or even top 8 for that matter, puts you in good stead to win the premiership.

I just hope we beat Manly and the Roosters.

[nacho]

from penriths first set you could tell they had the wood on us already. they turned up to play and threw the ball around trying to win and made an easy 50m before getting to their kick.

we played with no spirit, we just hit it up, run, hit up, pass, pass, stupid pass, turn over.

after half time we had 4 or 5 minutes when we would be offloading and creating opportunities, the commentators said we were playing like there was 3 minutes left. mind u we made some errors but we looked far more dangerous than we did in the first half.

there has to be some changes in the way the guys are prepared for the game, they looked half asleep and like they didnt even want to play.

drop ryles, get rid of him. we consistently have teams deep in their own half and we give them an easy penalty at the ruck and the most penalised man in the game is a magnet for it.

[blazza18]

I just wonder whether there's a bit of Bellamysm going on here?

As Cam said in the pressy "the top team always gets hunted". Maybe it's a good strategy to let the hunters hunt someone else for a while?? Afterall the NRL season is a marathon, not a sprint race. No point being in front setting the pace.

I suspected this was the case last year, and I still do believe our 5-game losing streak was a bit setup. I'm not convinced about these last 2 games but you never know with CB.

Anywhere in the top 4, or even top 8 for that matter, puts you in good stead to win the premiership.

I just hope we beat Manly and the Roosters.

LOL WTF. So we lose games on purpose ? Is that what you're saying ?

[Turtle188]

Just remember folks that premierships aren't won in May. This will get sorted out. Keep the faith!

[stormsally]

I don't think Widdop will be dropped because the position is too critical to be messing around with and we need him confident and firing for origin.

Billy was falling into that trying too hard mode that he is capable of.

We really missed Hinchcliffe and Hoffy seems to be missing in action a bit, not the powerhouse he was last year.

In the end we did only lose by two. At least we played a much much better second half, but you could tell we were still off our game because we didn't look like catching the panthers at all in the last ten minutes

[Rina]

I just wonder whether there's a bit of Bellamysm going on here?

As Cam said in the pressy "the top team always gets hunted". Maybe it's a good strategy to let the hunters hunt someone else for a while?? Afterall the NRL season is a marathon, not a sprint race. No point being in front setting the pace.

I suspected this was the case last year, and I still do believe our 5-game losing streak was a bit setup. I'm not convinced about these last 2 games but you never know with CB.

Anywhere in the top 4, or even top 8 for that matter, puts you in good stead to win the premiership.

I just hope we beat Manly and the Roosters.

I would really hope that's not the case because it would be an insult to the fans who turn up to support them to victory.

[Michael :P]

and Hoffy seems to be missing in action a bit, not the powerhouse he was last year.

s

I think last year other teams thought it was Bryan Hoffman signing for the 2012 season whereas this year theyve realised its actually Ryan "loves to get put through a hole on the left usually off a Cronk short-ball" Hoffman and adjusted accordingly.

I couldnt believe teams actually fell for it as much as they did last year considering theyd pretty much shut that play down since 2008.

[mattstormy]

and Hoffy seems to be missing in action a bit, not the powerhouse he was last year.

s

I think last year other teams thought it was Bryan Hoffman signing for the 2012 season whereas this year theyve realised its actually Ryan "loves to get put through a hole on the left usually off a Cronk short-ball" Hoffman and adjusted accordingly.

Bryan Hoffman, that's funny . Is that a bit like Ryan Norrie since last year? It is just me or is Noz really struggling out there now as he is getting older and can't handle the big hits like Bryan once did circa 2010-11.

I'm pretty sure he's off contract so I reckon this will be his final year in Melbourne.

[mattstormy]

I couldnt believe teams actually fell for it as much as they did last year considering theyd pretty much shut that play down since 2008.

Just on that, Hoffy scored 10 tries a season in both 2006 & 2007. As you mention, the opposition worked out his favourite play in the following years, therefore his tryscoring tally was 4 in 2008, 6 in 2009 and 3 in 2010. When he came back last year, he scored 11 tries before the opposition worked it out again and he has so far only scored 1 try this year (I know there's a long way to go this year, but Hoffy hasn't even looked like scoring a try this year apart from the one he scored against the Cowboys).

[mattstormy]

drop ryles, get rid of him.

I have to say that Ryles has been ill disciplined this year (he's struggled with that for most of his career), but the reason we recruited him is that he is huge and can still make plenty of metres. We need three props and at most one utility off the bench from now on, not this Mickey Mouse set-up of having a couple of utilities. We need size more than anything (we certainly need it against Manly), and that's what Ryles has. Having a bench of Ryles, Moors and Garbutt with Griffin as the utility would definately be more than helpful next week. Having the set-up that Bellyache has persisted with for the last couple of weeks has contributed to us losing to Canberra and Penrith. Hopefully Bellyache learns from his mistake he has made in those games with his bench selections.