2024 Pre-season discussion

[Tandy]

Seen 5 mins of the indigenous all stars v Maori all stars. Was surprised at how big the crowd was considering the sport doesn't really attract big crowds apart from SoO.
I think they're really on to something here. If the players really embrace it, celebrate and engage with the crowds. Plus more advertising dollars and promos it could be the pre season SoO. Has more appeal to me than the regular season. I'd watch it next year. A real celebration of culture.

 

[nobbyiscool]

Watching the Raiders vs Parra, we don't appear to have spent a cent of the Wighton money. We might've gotten Weekes for not much more than I understand we were still paying CNK last season. Did we think we'd flip Wighton? Do we think he might return after a year? There weren't even rumours of players we were chasing, and Luke Brooks was available.

 

[Exe Gesis]

My Rabbits at 8pm

 

[Aucklander]

Watching the Raiders vs Parra, we don't appear to have spent a cent of the Wighton money. We might've gotten Weekes for not much more than I understand we were still paying CNK last season. Did we think we'd flip Wighton? Do we think he might return after a year? There weren't even rumours of players we were chasing, and Luke Brooks was available.

Smashed them.

 

[fake tyrone]

Xerri will give the dogs a bit more firepower.

I've only gotten stuck into NRL properly over the last season or 2 and am wondering if this guy will be a good pick for my fantasy team?

 

[Aucklander]

Good effort by our 2nd's on the weekend. Good looking side named for game 2.

 

[Jatz]

I've only gotten stuck into NRL properly over the last season or 2 and am wondering if this guy will be a good pick for my fantasy team?

I have him in mine but it's a bit of buyer beware.

He's a great player with plenty to prove but I think the Dogs attack will still struggle this season.

 

[GoEaglesGoSGIO]

I get the tough love approach to the Bulldogs, but Cirraldo seems less tough love and more just a guy acting like a absolute flog

Seems to be going the PE teacher training 14 year olds route which he arrogantly thinks will work because he believes the sun shines out of his ass

Its going to end in tears

 

[Jatz]

Making Chrichton captain is one hell of a call.

Wouldn’t have been my choice.

 

[moto748]

The 'down-town' rule: is it just me, or is this a hammer to crack an egg? Seems to me it's a case of, if only the existing rules were applied. All too often, we see chasers who were in front of the kicker tackle a defending winger or full-back, and as long as the defender retains possession, play is allowed to continue with a p-t-b, when in fact the defending side should have been awarded a pen. I agree this should be clamped down on, but I don't see the need to penalise any 'down-town' players if they're not affecting play.

 

[moto748]

Also, whilst I'm on it; the 'no jeopardy' thing with short drop-outs? Surely this is a classic of fixing a problem that didn't exist. Coaches deemed they already had sufficient advantage to attempt short drop-outs, and quite often did. With a fair degree of success. Which seemed absolutely fine. So why artificially tip the balance further to the benefit of the defending side?

 

[nobbyiscool]

I have no idea how the Raiders line up got round 1 after today. The whole backline seems up in the air.

I kind of hope they don’t consider Cotric. He’s put on so much size - he just needs to work on his tackling and I think he’s a really agile lock forward in the making.

 

[Jatz]

The 'down-town' rule: is it just me, or is this a hammer to crack an egg? Seems to me it's a case of, if only the existing rules were applied. All too often, we see chasers who were in front of the kicker tackle a defending winger or full-back, and as long as the defender retains possession, play is allowed to continue with a p-t-b, when in fact the defending side should have been awarded a pen. I agree this should be clamped down on, but I don't see the need to penalise any 'down-town' players if they're not affecting play.

This is allowed provided they're more than 10m away when the kick has been caught.

 

[moto748]

This is allowed provided they're more than 10m away when the kick has been caught.

Yes, but I think they often aren't, both in the NRL and SL. But surely we've seen players penalised under the 'down-town' rule who are much more than 10 m away?

 

[Jatz]

Yes, but I think they often aren't, both in the NRL and SL. But surely we've seen players penalised under the 'down-town' rule who are much more than 10 m away?

It's a pretty difficult one to police. On a kick chase the ref is also running down the field and they can't see where every single player was when the kick was made and it's often hard to make out 10m when they're running from behind the play.

It's no different to policing the 10m on any given play the ball. You don't often see it on TV but if you're at the ground, it's pretty clear teams jump almost every time.