R27 v Sydney | Sunday 26th April | 5:00pm

how much is a ticket?

Not intending to add on further bad news, but you can forget about the casual fan's turning up next weekend because the Hurricanes are playing the Crusaders on Saturday night 2 May at the stadium and given the choice of Rugby or Football most will choose the watching the Rugby....

I'll be going to the Football!

Great so we can look forward to a ground dug up and lumpy. Just what we need - Not.

I see what the plan has been, play like crap for the last 5 weeks and then sneak into the finals with City thinking we are easy beats. Come out on the day and smash them..... Good job Nix

Wrong!!

Try Paper Plus Lower Hutt

I don't get why we're so annoyed? yeah we lost but to be fair they were the favorites and I thought we showed some real fight in that game.

Personally I had an AWESOME time in the zone. loud and proud for a good game of football and the banter was top notch as usual.

I got what I came for

penalty miss was a disaster.much of our play was really good.should have done better.

Well there you go, i stand corrected

http://www.fourfourtwo.com/au/news/merrick-bemoans...

Bonevacia to never take a corner again?

Fairly critical post match from Ernie.

Yes he sounds totally pissed off

Good! He should be pissed off. He is clear that one issue is that our "Not A" strikers aren't doing their job (with Burns marked out of contention).

It really does seem to be a mental problem with our lads. I don't like to use the buzzword of "being happy with mediocrity", but I think that might be the case for the people who've been at the Nix forever like Dura, Siggy, Manny etc. Too much pressure to actually reach for the prize. And Bonevacia - who some people here thought was Pele 2.0 the way they were talking about him - has lost it mentally, with both his corners and pennos.

So what can be done? Can Ernie pound some spine into them for the finals season and next year, or do we need a total clean-out?

Short corners are a waste of time, why not try Burns in the center instead of on the wing?

Didn't we score off one yesterday?  But we do need variation as our tallest aint that tall against other centrebacks.

cheaper online?

Wow - those last couple of paragraphs were pretty blunt!

Overall my impressions of the game. Firstly, Sydneys defence is very well organized and disciplined. Anyone playing them is going to do very well to get more than a goal out of them. Secondly our fullbacks were both getting forward a lot which is obviously part of our game plan, but too slow to get back, and Fenton and Lia both didn't cover them effectively which left miles of space for the likes of Ibini to exploit. In fact our whole midfield was really narrow in general but we weren't winning the contests in there. Thirdly, Riera is absolutely brilliant but needs to be told by Ernie to never leave his feet ever again. His accuracy in slide tackles is just too poor, and is starting to cost us. Lastly I would have liked to have seen Krishna and or Kenny on earlier as they both brought some energy again.

Dont agree about Sydneys defence our attack made them look that way.They have leaked goals to other teams even the bloody Jets yet we are unable to break them down.Says more about us than them

Thank you based Ernie!!!!!! Roly's corners have been sharke all season. They are either over hit or don't clear the first man.

Um what

Build a whole new backline around Boxall if the veterans think it's too much hassle actually chasing the title. We also need a striker or 2, though I'd give Krishna another season. If Roly wants out, all the better: otherwise he'd better wake his ideas up.

how bad was Fentons one on one defending on the first goal

1. I think he is now simply playing at the same level as the rest of the team - in statistics it is known as "regression to the mean". 

2. A total cleanout is unrealistic. There is a decent team core and good work has been done by Ernie to capitalise on the development.

3. Dura needs to step up to being a captain and start taking penalties. Look how Mile Jedinak has grown as a captain (Australia, Crystal Palace). His penalties are no-nonsense, precise, firm shots. A few years ago he was prone to some howlers too.

I'm confused. Have we just claimed the spoon again. 

Definitely a mental problem, common with most NZ teams for whatever reason.

Durante must take penalties because he is captain? I think you need to take a moment to breathe. The person with the best tools should get the job. McCaw to takeover place kicking duties for the all blacks by your rationale.

I guarantee you one thing, Dura will know how to spank it like a good old fashioned CB. As long as it's not up the middle, it'll be a goal.

Jesus anyone would think we did win the spoon... season over, mediocre? Fudge I'd hate to see the mood if it was a spoon battle. Kittens would have been sacrificed no doubt!

Agreed, though I question why Roly was given the duty; easy to say that now in hindsight I suppose.

Far out reading some of the comments you'd think our nix was knocked out. We are in the finals! They achieved what they set out to do. good luck nix give em a taste of kiwis

Overall I am happy with 4th. That is a goal the team set and achieved and that Ernie has talked about constantly even while we held first place. Were goals reset during the season to say we are now targeting a top 2 finish? I can not really recall us doing so publically.  If that is the case we got exactly what we aimed for and kind of reflects our underwhelming finish to the season

Hicks would be good with the corners. Accept he is never on the field

If players weren't targeting a top 2 finish then I have to question their ambition - doesn't matter what Ernie's said publicaly.

It is great we have finished 4th which is better than the teams below us, but to progress as a team, I too think that the club need to think ahead and scout out a few players. There's nothing wrong with this, we have a side that is two extremes, players very young and players on the wrong side of 30. We have to be honest with these latter players, they are not getting any faster. As for the younger players, they need to step it up a level. Perhaps bring in some guys in their mid 20's and ones that would better the squad overall. There is nothing wrong with trying to improve this squad.

Would be greta if we went the whole way and who knows, maybe we can because when this team is on form, they play awesome football. But lately we have had a wobble. Concentration now guys, concentration.

I'm not happy.

This is a team that could realistically have sewn up 2nd place a game or two ago.  Other than the Tards I don't think any other team is significantly better than us.  Yes the aim was to make the finals and 4th spot at the beginning of the season, but as a team we know we are much bettter than that.

A bit premature with the post mortem, the body still has a pulse.

The focus should be on building up to our first playoff game in three years.