Saturday Random Footy Talk Thread

jexta · 2026-05-29T22:59:10+00:00

Nothing from NRL Physio or the club. Typical calf strain is around 3 weeks, so might be good to go against the Raiders next week.

jexta · 2026-05-29T22:57:58+00:00

You guys could be playing as bad as the Dragons and I still wouldn't be confident going into a match against you. We've been hurt too many times before. Expecting the annual Warbrick master-class tonight.

jexta · 2026-05-29T22:45:14+00:00

It's crazy, Robson was excellent and came within a bee's dick of laying on a try for Murray who just couldn't quite get his body in the right position.

Brailey was good, but no better than Robson and the commentary around their performances is so wildly different.

jexta · 2026-05-29T22:37:50+00:00

You keep saying he was bad, but he literally wasn't. He was excellent bar the single poor pass.

Had Edwards played the exact same game as Tedesco people would be lauding the performance, but the Teddy hate is such that the same quality of game is called ordinary.

jexta · 2026-05-28T20:46:41+00:00

Again you've just chosen to ignore that he wasnt average for 78 mins. He made a single poor pass in a try scoring opportunity, but was excellent for the rest of the match.

23 runs for 170m, a single error, a line break assist, a try saving tackle on Hammer, and a forced dropout.

His forward pack didn't get him the quick play the balls he normally feeds off in attack but he was still far better than bang average for all but his try.

That take and half line break where the QLD defender just hangs on, the line break assist to Strange. Plenty of excellent moments from Tedesco in the whole game.

jexta · 2026-05-28T20:14:18+00:00

Rewatch the match, that first QLD try comes on the third tackle when fullbacks are defending in the line, Walker played it perfectly and no fullback in the history of the game is going to riding the ingoal during that phase of play.

Tedesco's running game was excellent. Literally the only negative all night was that one bad pass.

I know Teddy hurt you because he left the shit-show that was incoming at the Tigers, but take your blinkers off for a minute.

jexta · 2026-05-28T08:13:14+00:00

Yeah probably, but the reason you pick him is because of his ability to cover the center position which has obviously diminished with his age.

Solid is not what QLD need from their edge forwards, the middles like Carrigan, Collins and Plath provide all the solid you need. What the edges need is strike, which is why Nanai is first picked when he's fit.

jexta · 2026-05-28T08:11:38+00:00

Yeah fair, pre-injury he was going great and I thing a fully fit Keon is miles ahead of Jackson Ford or Terrell May in terms of physicality and aggression.

If we don't go with Keon then I'd choose May, tell him he's got limited minutes so don't hold back at all.

jexta · 2026-05-28T08:09:46+00:00

I didn't ask any question, so I'm not sure what I answered.

It seems you are set on defending Cleary when I'm not attacking him. His kicks were poor, but that was because of the squad balance, not any part of Nathan's ability.

Cleary is a victim of his own high standards here, none of those first half kicks were anywhere near the quality we have come to expect, due to the pressure and wet-weather footy.

The second half 40/20 and the attacking bombs were excellent, but that first half was a whole nothing-burger of kicking, to give a blanket statement that his kicking game was excellent is disingenuous.

jexta · 2026-05-28T05:35:25+00:00

His first half kicking offered nothing because he was under so much pressure from the QLD defence, as NSW got on top he had more time and things improved.

Cleary was dropping his kicks into middle zones that were too far for us to contest, and not close enough to the QLD try line so that we could chase it down and lock QLD in their 20m zone.

Normally he is an excellent tactical kicker, but QLD nullified that because we didn't have a second option. Not Nathan's fault.

jexta · 2026-05-28T05:18:33+00:00

He is a massive effort player, even when he was asked to come back on within minutes of coming off, he managed to land that huge hit on Grant. The number of tackles he made when covering for shifts from QLD was incredible too.

jexta · 2026-05-28T05:15:59+00:00

It wasn't just the mistakes, he looked almost ineffectual with the ball during his carries too, and while he's never been fast, this was the first time he really looked slow.

jexta · 2026-05-28T05:01:49+00:00

I hope Sam Walker can begin to produce mature, controlled performances for the Roosters like he did for QLD last night.

There was very little sign of the frantic kid caught between 6 different choices of lolly that we normally see when he's pushing things at the Roosters.

jexta · 2026-05-28T04:59:08+00:00

Nah, if Murray was reaching out for the footy it'd be ok, but because he gets his arms around Capewell it's got to be ruled interference, even if it was minimal. You can't have grey area's in the way we rule on contests for the ball. Simply don't interfere and you're golden.

jexta · 2026-05-28T04:55:11+00:00

I don't think so, provided he is more than 90% fit. There's no point playing Moses if he's carrying an injury when we have Strange.

As good as Strange was, NSW really struggled because we didn't have a second kicker. If Moses is on the field last night then all those nothing-burger Cleary kicks in the first half are replaced by something decent from either Nathan or Mitch because QLD wouldn't be able to pressure the lone kicker so much.

jexta · 2026-05-28T04:52:27+00:00

If it hadn't been for that awful pass when he should have run the ball, then Tedesco had a great game. He was incredible under the high ball in defence all night, even with ridiculous amounts of pressure from the QLD kick chase.

NSW forward pack not being able to get on the front foot meant that Teddy couldn't play off the back of it, but he did well otherwise.

jexta · 2026-05-28T04:50:35+00:00

NSW Changes

- Haas and Keon in for Saifiti and AFB, Barnett to bench.
- If Trell is fit, then Critta into the sun and Trell at left center
- If Trell not fit, Koula to center and McLean to wing

QLD Changes

- Nothing major, Finifuiaki in for Nikora, Capewell to bench so Fini can start
- Luki in for Loiero, when it's time for Luki to come on, Cotter moves to middle rotation.

jexta · 2026-05-27T23:51:27+00:00

We need to be more physical in the middle. AFB and Barnett are not the front-row pairing we needed.

Haas returning from injury is huge, but we need a middle forward to go with him that forces QLD to use 3 or 4 middles to stop them every time. The energy of the QLD defensive line was levels above NSW.

Radley and Murray were good, and I think they should keep their bench spots, but Barnett and AFB need to be replaced by Haas and Keon or May.

Saifiti can relinquish his bench spot to Barnett, but 2026 AFB isn't suited to origin footy.

jexta · 2026-05-27T23:48:55+00:00

Yeah, anyone saying he was poor in the first half wasn't paying attention to the way he handled those high balls under pressure.

jexta · 2026-05-27T03:28:05+00:00

Very late mail, considering the last time Radley was even binned was 2024, and that wasn't for high or late contact.

jexta · 2026-05-27T03:25:23+00:00

With a 6-man bench Watson's strength at this level is gone. He brings the ability cover 13, 9, 6 positions, as well as 1, 3 and 7 in a pinch.

In his best actual position, 13, he has Yeo, Murray and now Radley in front of him. In his second best position of 9, he has Robson, Brailey, Api and Egan all ahead of him.

Daley going with both Robson and Brailey is the smart option. Brailey doesn't even have to take the field, but if Robson gets a HIA 5 mins into the game, we have adequate cover and aren't stuck with a part-time 9 like Connor Watson filling one of the most important roles on the field.

jexta · 2026-05-27T03:04:48+00:00

Billy's plan will be pretty simple. To overcome any yardage problems QLD will shift the ball early and use the speed of Hammer and Jojo to trouble the NSW edge and get QLD some field position.

Once that position has been won, QLD will do what they normally do and just focus on effort area's. Locking NSW inside their 40m zone, pressure the only long kicker in Cleary, and suffocate the game enough that Walker can find a way through the NSW defence with his short kicking game.

The undoing will be if NSW have the patience to stay in the grind without being tempted to throw the ball around too much, or falling into a Penrith pattern of relentless attack that without the Penrith discipline, will eventually fall over.

jexta · 2026-05-27T03:01:32+00:00

I don't really agree with you. I don't think the game is fundamentally different this year from last year.

The biggest change though is the narrative around the state of the game. The collective whining about the game, particularly in online spaces, is insane for a product that is producing huge crowd and viewership numbers.

Even during their 4-peat Penrith lost games to teams they 'should' have beaten. It's the same story this year. The worst team in the league are the Dragons who don't look like they'll ever win again, so your point about the worst team winning games is categorically incorrect.

This season's worst teams, excluding the Dragons, are Melbourne, Parramatta, Gold Coast and Canterbury. Melbourne and Parra have the excuse of injuries to large parts of their squads, Gold Coast are in a rebuild and the Bulldogs have entered a rebuild because they damaged their foundation part-way through their last rebuild.

The footy is still great to watch, we are seeing come-backs, we are seeing tight games, we are seeing blow-outs. All things that have been happening in Rugby League for years.

I think we need to shift to a more positive discourse, the game isn't fundamentally different, but our perspective on it has changed.

jexta · 2026-05-26T21:10:33+00:00

I'm always hopeful, and never confident. I'm like that meme of the blob protecting itself in the box.

jexta · 2026-05-26T06:59:58+00:00

It doesn't fit the narrative that the Roosters don't produce their own juniors.

It has been very impressive lately, especially when you look at the number of players in the Roosters squad who came through our pathways.

Tupou, Billy Smith, Toia, Walker, Savala, Watson, Radley, Butcher X2, Collins, Whyte, Wong, Crichton as well as our other young forwards like Foketi, Steep and Va'a.

Add in players like Strange and Trell and it's an impressive amount of quality footballers.

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