Round 14: Dolphins vs NQ Cowboys

[Red]

It's nice to get the bye this week and the following week, NQ. NQ are going very well. They haven't had a bye yet. At the start of this win streak, it was looking pretty dire. I expected all 4 of Souths, Canterbury, Canberra and Melbourne to be up around the top of the table. Anyway, the bye this week will give us a bit of breathing space inside the top 8 and if we win this game, we'll be up around the top 4.

Though it doesn't get any easier. I don't usually look at the draw, Just look 1 or 2 weeks in advance but I just had a look now. We have a really bad draw. We only place St. George, Parramatta, Canterbury, Gold Coast and Melbourne once. Probably 5 teams we can definitely put a line through for making the finals this year barring some kind of miraculous turnaround. On the other hand, we play NQ, Sydney, NZ, Manly, Newcastle, Souths twice. So 6 of the other 7 teams in the top 8 at present. I'd bet no team has a worse draw than that!

 

[Liverbird with Phins up]

It's nice to get the bye this week and the following week, NQ. NQ are going very well. They haven't had a bye yet. At the start of this win streak, it was looking pretty dire. I expected all 4 of Souths, Canterbury, Canberra and Melbourne to be up around the top of the table. Anyway, the bye this week will give us a bit of breathing space inside the top 8 and if we win this game, we'll be up around the top 4.

Though it doesn't get any easier. I don't usually look at the draw, Just look 1 or 2 weeks in advance but I just had a look now. We have a really bad draw. We only place St. George, Parramatta, Canterbury, Gold Coast and Melbourne once. Probably 5 teams we can definitely put a line through for making the finals this year barring some kind of miraculous turnaround. On the other hand, we play NQ, Sydney, NZ, Manly, Newcastle, Souths twice. So 6 of the other 7 teams in the top 8 at present. I'd bet no team has a worse draw than that!

Add these points to the discussion we were having in the other thread about our poor start, and top 8 being the minimum.

With our run home you can see how that poor start has become even more important/damaging.

From a coaching stand point, you lay out your goals for the season at the start. You would look at the draw to see where you are going to get your points from. And then you set coaching and tactics accordingly. You then adjust those goals and target games as per how your going in that season taking injuries into account.

This is all very low level common practice. So you would have though a fast start was important, and making sure those errors, direction issues and cohesion were down pat.

North Queensland are firing. I think this is the first game in 5 weeks which will tell us where we are really at. In the last 5 we've played some average teams, however its given us confidence. This will test us, and test Woolf. Grabbing a win here after a bye, and time to freshen up and prepare, will up us in a strong position, and be a good indicator of where we are with the squad.

Id say after this game we can probably get a feel of whether we are going to be in contention or just making up the numbers.

 

[Liverbird with Phins up]

All that being said.

Confidence is high, Woolf seems to be turning them around. Herbie should be back to defend against the center strength of the Cowboys, with Bostock looking strong to hold up his end. And people coming back from injury and being sharper after injury.

I am confident.