Rd 2 vs Wests Tigers

[blazza18]

Can find all different advanced stats for different sports around the world. We can't even get the basic shit right.

[Mattpoet]

The NRL website promises better stats this years and they've removed everything but the stats leaders. Almost impossible to find official stats anywhere.

[tugga]

Full credit to the joint venture.
They have kept us and Roosters to a combined total of 14 points.
That's not easy. I was at the game, as were a lot of you, and they deserved the win.
I can't help but think that Munster should be at FB with Croft at 7.
No Billy? Unthinkable, yeah I know. But there comes a time where you need to move on.

[blazza18]

Not having Cronk controlling things will take some time to get used to for the entire team. Croft is still inexperienced and Munster has never had to do it. Fans are going to have to be extremely patient with both this year.

[TC]

Full credit to the joint venture.
They have kept us and Roosters to a combined total of 14 points.
That's not easy. I was at the game, as were a lot of you, and they deserved the win.
I can't help but think that Munster should be at FB with Croft at 7.
No Billy? Unthinkable, yeah I know. But there comes a time where you need to move on.

And yet our 3 or 4 best try scoring opportunities came from Slater.
Besides, with Jacks unavailable, who would you put with Croft if you moved Munster?

[Mattpoet]

Only option is the untried Walters. Not sure that fixes it to be honest.

[1999]

Billy Slater has one off game and people want to chop the greatest fullback the game has seen? The MOTM from last years GF? This forum has lost the plot

Let’s make this crystal clear, as long as they are fit these 3 spine positions are locked down

1. Slater
6. Munster
7.
9. Smith (c)

Only the 7 has some flexibility, we could run any one of Croft/Jacks/Walters/Drinkwater/Hughes or at a pinch C.Smith and run B.Smith at 9, I think Croft is our long term 7 but he is still a bit green and will need to be nursed through his first full year in first grade, Jacks will see plenty of game time this year.

[underdog]

18-8 penalty count against the Tigpies.

Slaters 300th game.

They also got a hard done by sin-binning.

Refs looked for every reason NOT to give the try to Brooks (I don't know who the Tigpies have pissed off there, but it looked farcical they way they kept searching for reasons NOT to give it to them)

Credit where credits due lads, surely. They were just better than us.

[Mattpoet]

Should have had more sin binnings surely.

[Deadpool]

18-8 penalty count against the Tigpies.

Slaters 300th game.

They also got a hard done by sin-binning.

Refs looked for every reason NOT to give the try to Brooks (I don't know who the Tigpies have pissed off there, but it looked farcical they way they kept searching for reasons NOT to give it to them)

Credit where credits due lads, surely. They were just better than us.

Every one of those penalties were deserved, in fact there could have been more.

The sin bin was 100% right. It was a clear professional foul and the refs had no choice but to send him off. It was exactly the same as the Munster sin bin against the Eels in last years finals.

The video refs are just shit at their job. They look at every replay a thousand times (not just the Brooks one) even when it’s clear as day to everybody watching after the first replay.

I don’t think the Tigers were necessarily better then us. I mean they had one try scoring opportunity, we had multiple. We had the Munster no try, that was just saved by Thompson’s fingers, just. We had Scott go over and had he got lower would have surely scored and the JAC no try that should have been awarded.

Not to take too much away from the Tigers, their effort was incredible but I think we lost this game more so then they won it, the silly schoolboy errors at the end of the game cost us. The Suli drop, the messed up kick off return, those things should never of happened and they ultimately cost us the game

[Scooter]

I think the sinbinning was fair, a clear professional foul. I thought there should have been a sinbinning earlier, when Stimson regathered the kickoff and poked his nose through the line just inside the 10m line. The Tigers giving away a penalty there I thought would have been a professional foul.

The Storm didn't play well but credit to the Tigers they did play well.

[Mattpoet]

They could easily have gone 2 men down with the number of penalties after the sin binning too.

[yourhero]

Defensive line speed was a critical tactic by the Tigers. That is what pressured us in to numerous mistakes. They were constantly offside (hence some of the penalties) however the Tigers were good enough to turn us away despite the penalties and they did exceptionally well to not change tactics as a result of a few penalties. It worked exceedingly well for them, as it did last week.

The refs just kept blowing penalties instead of going that next step. If repeated infringements is sin-bin worthy (as it has been in previous years), that option has seemingly disappeared. Any club that has a player sent to the sin-bin this year for numerous penalties should present this game as evidence to the NRL of inconsistency.

We had no answer to the swirling high balls that Benji was putting up in the wind. It was a huge success and we didn't really try and replicate it for some reason.

[yourhero]

I'm not sure why the sin-binning is even being discussed (except by Tigers fans with black and orange coloured glasses on). It was a sin-bin every day of the week.

I think the sinbinning was fair, a clear professional foul. I thought there should have been a sinbinning earlier, when Stimson regathered the kickoff and poked his nose through the line just inside the 10m line. The Tigers giving away a penalty there I thought would have been a professional foul.

This was sin-bin worthy as well, to be honest. A quick play the ball there and the Tigers have gaps all over the park. They were lucky to get away with this one.

[yourhero]

Bellamy fires a public shot...

https://www.melbournestorm.com.au/news/2018/03/17/we-owed-them-more-bellamy/

We owed them more: Bellamy
melbournestorm.com.au
Sat 17 Mar 2018

It was not the ending Melbourne Storm had hoped for after a week full of milestone celebration.

Billy Slater entered the 300-Club while Kenny Bromwich played his 100th game to make it the first time in Storm history two brothers had reached triple figures for the Club.

The inability to give both players a fond memory of their milestone left a bitter taste in the coach’s mouth after the game.

“We need to be better than that for a guy who has played 300 games for our Club and another guy who has played 100 games for our Club,” Craig Bellamy said.

“To have a lack of intent to start the game, that ain’t good enough.”

To their credit, Wests Tigers came to play right from the outset.

The visitors brought energy and aggression which had Melbourne on the back foot for much of the 80 minutes.

“They just beat us to the jump on everything tonight,” Bellamy said.

“Especially in the first half they had a lot more intent I thought, especially with their run. I just think they out worked us and out enthused us as well.

“I thought we did some really good things tonight but I thought we did a whole heap of poor things.

“We need to get back to doing the basic things really well and doing them consistently.”