Charity Shield 2026 Thread

[Frank Facer]

First 20 minutes we played with urgency and energy.

Leilua was very good.

Stewart and the Coachman’s same.

Cook, Gutho, Atkinson were sharp.

Both Atkinson & Flanagan had one wild pass each.

TU was good until gifting Souths a try in the second half.

LKT Gifted Souths with a second half try with another woeful pass.

After 2 trials, I would take Reed to Vegas in front of LKT. Unsure what is wrong with LKT at the moment. Seems reserved and lacking interest.

Buchanan had one very good run.

Don’t rate Tuipolotou. Better off playing Fegai.

Overall forwards played well.

Backs lack speed and enterprise.

Don’t usually bash Kyle, however tonight he was ordinary.

We need to fast track Reed otherwise it’s going to be a long season.

Good post. I agree on most if not all points.

 

[TheRev]

the problem is Suli is actually the prototype Flanno player.. and in the first half he was monstering blokes.. in theory if everyone is monstering blokes.. you kick to the corners.. u force mistakes.. u tire them out and u win... but its not often that tgame plan has worked for us.. if Suli was Staggs or Best or someone who scores tries then sure.. be big and score tries..

Defensively Suli can be a liability also.. but i dont think hes too bad in that area.. its more just that he isnt a line threat in particular.. our attack does seem to die around him.. though it wasnt any better on Fales side.

Nick is an option, hes more of a line threat than Suli I feel but hes a much worse liability in defence.. he rly is a 2nd rower..

And Buchanan is like the smallest bloke out there.. a little bigger this year, but I dunno if he improves us at all.. and we lose our punch with the ball too.. im rly not a buchanan fan, but if they wanna play him its fine, but i just think ppl got a sugar hit today with his 1 run, i dont think it improves us.. and I dont think Heidke is ready.. I think he could have been but were obviously looking at Fale/Buchanan first.

Cant wait for Val to get back... lets pray he stays fit.. like proper pray.

 

[Frank Facer]

I think if you hand Flanno the Sharks roster or the Storm or the Cows or the Titans roster, anything like that with juicy big packs and plenty of strike in the backs.. I think he would be a rly good coach.. he would harden them and hes good at getting players up..

But were in a weird position where we are desperately trying to get this squad that has so many gaps to something respectable.. and the bash/barge style isnt rly working anymore.. im sure Ennis and co are telling him that.. but hes gotta believe it.. but at the same time the roster is pretty much poo so on one hand I cant blame him.. but on the other.. you have to commend Ryles who seemed to rly understand exactly what he needed to recruit.. and maybe Flanno cant get the players he wanted to recruit tbf.. but it does seem like its very hard to win with big oversized lads who do hurt ppl when they run.. but it doesnt seem to turn into points.

The key to the great coaches though.. is they do evolve.. and im not sure Bennett has evolved in terms of strategy.. but somehow he seems to find himself with good talent and it seems to work.. maybe its the talent not the coach.. i have no idea.. chicken or the egg maybe.

Flanno has never had the cattle, while coaching us. He is in the process of building a team from the ground up. Koloamatangi will help and our younger players being a year older and more experienced next year will help, but we do need sign some outside backs with speed, agility and X factor or produce them through our juniors.

 

[Mailroomsgi]

The facts are that great teams have great spines to win them games. It’s so deflating as a forward pack having all the momentum but your spine can’t create or score points consistently

Look at how many times we scored more than 4 tries in a game last year. Grim reading. So we’ll never really be able to put teams to bed and stand on their throat when we have the momentum

This is where all the things are linked. Spine scores points, forward pack lays a platform. Coaching creates mismatches and field position to win games consistently rather than hoping for individual brilliance to bail you out.

Currently we lack all 3 and it’s why we look so poor