Did Cullen mention Tim Smith at all ???

Should he have done?

Along with every other half back on a losing team last week as being the weak spot in their defensive line that opponents target as a week spot, just mentioned this once or twice.

He made me laugh when he said Monnas tackling was weak because he goes low so attacking teams target him.

Who signed him??????

He contradicted himself a few times last night.

I can almost accept that Briers is a bit weak in the tackle when he contributes so much in attacking areas (this year so far is probably not the best example of this).

Monaghan doesn't really seem like a threat in attack and isn't great in defense so how come he gets to play every game? I am all for giving players a chance as it sometimes takes a while for foreign signings to bed in but how long do you wait until you cut your loses?

Catalan scored 4 tries against us when we they were down to 12 men. 2 of which were scored on the wing with an overlap.

He made me laugh when he said Monnas tackling was weak because he goes low so attacking teams target him.

Who signed him??????

Answer to that is the same person who signed Matt King -- SIMON MORAN!!!!

Now your starting to get to the route of the problem- well done.

I think Monas tackling technique is fine, if you have good line speed and on the back of that get numbers in the tackle. If Monas is first man in, halts the tackler and quickly you have two men in clamping the ball and turtling him on the floor, then Monas becomes an asset. When you have him making the tackle solo, he halts the tackler but he's able to stand and offload and we get caught on the back of it. I think this is one of the reasons why the NRL suits Monas and his approach.

I agree, better he he takes the legs and makes the tackle rather than go higher and risk being brushed off.

That was to easy.

Against Catalans last week Monas made a mistake with ball in hand early on. He then made a few big tackles and forced a mistake from them.

I made the point to my mate, that fair play his defence had been excellent and he had really stepped it up (in defence). After I made that point, he went on to miss a couple of bad ones in the second half which cost us. I'm going to keep quiet in future.

I see what you did there! One for the keepnet!

"I think Monas tackling technique is fine, if you have good line speed and on the back of that get numbers in the tackle. If Monas is first man in, halts the tackler and quickly you have two men in clamping the ball and turtling him on the floor, then Monas becomes an asset. When you have him making the tackle solo, he halts the tackler but he's able to stand and offload and we get caught on the back of it. I think this is one of the reasons why the NRL suits Monas and his approach."

I know what your saying but nowadays modern tackling techniques dictate that the first man in takes the ball, second man holds up and 3rd man hits his soft undercarriage and slides down to take the legs. All NRL, Leeds and Saints especially employ this type of tackling style, you could see Cullen adapoting it at Wire the season before he left especially when he got the big guys Morley and Rah in the team.The Wire under 18's and 21's are taught this style now by Bastiaon so when you see Monaghan with his style it leaves the attacker open to offloads. Its ok if your a fullback and its a one on one then sometimes that would be the correct choice but when we are defending inbetween the middle 30's then it is absolutly the wrong style. More than Monas suiting the NRL, I think this is a major reason why he left the NRL( as well as he can't pass R to L of course).
Hope this helps.

It is a perfectly sound technique as well. First man also attacks the ball and attempts to twist the player thus exposing his side to the other tacklers. It then slows the play-the-ball as first one, then the second then the third tackler unloads off the grounded player. It does however mean that the third man in has to work harder to get back into the defensive line.