Northland Rugby 2022
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Being played in Auckland tomorrow.
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It is good seeing so many Northland rep or divisional type teams running out this year.
Previous years we barely have any age group or even dev team stuff, but been a fair bit so far this year, early days but certainly looks like they are finally trying to promote some of our age group players, which will reap rewards in coming years.
@Steven-Harris you know how the u19s got on, I saw results for the vikings and a couple other teams.
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@taniwharugby the under 19s went down to Taranaki 33-19 which was played at the Karaka RFC in south auckland on Saturday boys were hit hard by injury and unavailability..side had a completely different look to the side that performed well against Auckland & Harbour .
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NRU announced a venue change for our final RR match v Manawatu...to Kaikohe to preserve the pitch for RWC.
Outside chance, but what if we finish high enough to host a semi final?
Assume that moves too?
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Time for a vent.
Is this another false dawn season? So much to like about those early performances. A toughness and grit not seen in recent times backed up by fitness - about time.
Since then, a few injuries, some unavailable ABs, and we have had 3 big losses. One to Canterbury was ok but these last 2 were so disappointing.
While our forwards have mostly stood up, our backline performance has been dreadful. An accumulation of selections ( coach, squad, game day, substitutions ) and tactics. Repeated.
It’s been very clear in the last 2 weeks that when teams pick up the pace we struggle and given the squad we have picked we need to play the game differently. But we don’t and pay the price for playing wide rugby - which works when your players have pace and good ball skills under pressure.
So much to like about the progress the squad had made this year, but you get the feeling the die was cast before the season started. The real conservatism has started to bite at the back end of season. And for the life of me I still cannot under stand the continued substitution of Reihana at 45 minutes?
The search must be on to back up our superb young talent - Reihana, Heremaia, Tua. The loss of players like Evans to Auckland is the risk we always run. We have so much of our young talent playing away from home or just not being nurtured at home, combined with a limited budget, making player development and retention our Achilles heal. Don’t know a lot about what Northland Rugby is now doing in this space?
I’m ok with Nock, Harris has been great and Moorby is class. But we should want pace and the enthusiasm of youth. And be developing the players selected in squad e.g. Kalani Going must be saying WTF?
As others have said it now feels like another wasted year.
Mod Edit: amended your title from "Be" to "We" ... reads a bit less like Engrish.
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@kev little bit of this and little of that...I think our season up until about the 2nd half of Canterbury, we were a different side to the one that ran around v NH & Ta$man.
Its like a switch was flicked and somethign changed, because as much as we looked a vastly different outfit for rounds 1-5 than last year, rounds 6-8 we looked exactly like last year!
Looking at our roster, I'm not sure injuries play a huge part, sure we are missing Tom, but Rush has stepped up and been huge for us, no Moorby for a couple of rounds possibly slowed any progress we were making, but TBF, I think the issues run deeper than injuries.
Here comes my rant, but why we persist in selecting guys like Hawkins (granted he has played his role off the bench well this year) Hohaia, Leilua, then look at guys like Ranger, Wright, to a lesser extent, Nock, CTC (who I reckon has a HUGE upside, IF he got himself fit)
I think Toby Bell from Kerikeri is a talent, and Ryan Nankivell from Moerewa should have had time at 10 for us this year, but instead we go to Hawkins, and while Cooper is clearly a talent, he seems to have off field issues that are holding im back.
Kalani Going, easily the best mid-fielder playing in club footy this year, whats he had, 20-30 mins so far? I hear he is looking at buggaring off, sadly, I can see why.
Zion Going is another, came back from MLR, in great form, but they went with a guy who came up and told them how good he was in HB, didnt stand out in club footy, but again, even he hasnt laced his boots...are also a few other examples of them signing or almost signings players without any due diligence.
At lock, we are pretty blessed right now, with Goodhue, Caird, Hallam-Eames, Robinson and Craig who spent time with the Blues this year, but we know Goodhue is off, I wont be surprised if at least one of Caird or Hallam-Eames leaves too meaning our depth will take a huge hit, and we havent sighted King or Vaipulu, who need to be shown we are keen to develop and grow with...and this is without even thinking about the fact it is looking increasingly like Tom might not play as much of a role as we'd like going forward
What I hear through the many grapevines is that Dewes is not particularly big on development of players, which is ridiculous.
Konia strikes me very much like Foster, apparently well liked, but often seeming clueless with selections, subs (agree with you @kev on the subbing of Reihana, which seems a sub for subs sake) again, the many grapevines says there are massive issues with communication between him and players, especially when it comes to delivering less than ideal news.
Obviously Veale, in charge of the defence looked like a master stroke after 5 rounds, yet now...
We know there are talented kids running around up here, we know that plenty end up in Auckland schools and further south too, which is fine, but what we want, is for them to aspire to play for Northland, to want to come back.
Someone like Moorby, sure he isnt from here, but he is a class act, a marquee player, my understanding is Wellington and Waikato are chasing him hard, Northland should be trying everything to keep him, a guy of his quality will attract others up here too...realise we are probably up against it competing with those 2 Unions, especially with his home in Waikato and having a super contract in Wellington, but this will always be an issue, so we need to be an attractive option for players to come to for thier pathways
You look at other sides, they are happy to mix some of thier talented kids in and watch them flourish, we instead seem reluctant to play these young guys for fear of failure, yet we keep using guys not up to it, and we keep failing....
This year is certainly 2 steps forward, 1 step and a stumble back, and we still have 2 games left!
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@taniwharugby agree with all ( your comments about the local talent esp. ) of that, except Hawkins playing his role off the bench. His goal kicking is good but outside of that he just doesn’t do enough. A real backward step for me and putting him on with 35 mins to play is just so negative.
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@kev oh I'm on the train that is leaving Hawkins behind, I just think he has done his job off the bench (however limited he is) albeit earlier than you would hope in most cases this season (although that Red Card was a shocker)
With Cooper seemingly on the outer as well, we need to look to some youngsters as there probably isnt too many decent 10s in NZ wanting to come up to initially sit behind Reihana...to me, Nankivell 1st, then Bell.
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The priority for me is to get Moorby signed for another couple of seasons at least. We can build a backline around that guy. Personally I think it’d be a bit shit of him to run off after one year, as it would all have seemed a waste of time getting him here in the first place. We need to match the offers that he’s getting from elsewhere and pay him what he wants. He’s that good..
As for the rest I agree with the list you guys have proposed to cut. Some of those blokes have been around a little too long for my liking, some have had varying degrees of success, while others just aren’t up to it.
Would love to see us continue to try and get guys like Corey Evans, Cook-Savage, Tamaiti Williams and Josh Beehre back home as well.. I know it won’t happen overnight, but we need to stabilise for the future. I know for a fact through a good source that Evans has strong ambitions to wear the Cambridge Blue.
Looking forward to seeing who the candidates are for the head coach role next year. I hope we attract some decent names, as I really think that’s the crucial missing link right now. I think we need a bit of a clean out there, bar perhaps Veale who showed he at least has some ideas..well early on anyway.
As for the last few weeks I really hope Cam Bell has a closed door meeting with the team and management, and sets a higher standard heading into the last two matches. The guys need a fire lit under their asses and we need to bring back what we saw in rounds 1-5.
