An observation .....

[TrueTiger]

Quite clearly the whole team and particularly the forwards seemed to have lifted another level against the Cowboys last night…I enjoyed the game because many players improved somewhat on previous games,such as Sue,Rochow and others.
I put this down to Packer being back and Rowdy playing the entire game,both led by example...
I even noticed that although Benji didnt kick brilliantly,he ran harder and straighter lines which was a pleasure to watch for a change instead of side crabbing and hoping for the miracle to happen...
just my observations and Iam wrapped with the win and the teams performance.....special mention to coach Cleary... :smiley:

 

[Magpie_Magic]

Probably the squad felt like you and us too in that they saw that from being a talked about team in the mix the season was in danger of slipping away to mediocrity.
Last night they faced a choice of being a strong side or more of the recent same of the last few years..
And they choose by their level of commitment to be a winning team. Even in the face of a more desperate big name opposition and some dubious mid range refeering calls.
That's where the pleasure comes from.

 

[weststigers]

A few things are clear.

1\. When we hold the ball, our defence tends to frustrate sides into errors
2\. When we stop gifting easy metres through silly penalties, we frustrate sides into errors
3\. Packer makes a BIG difference
4\. We've had more than our fair share of bad refs calls, but we have still managed to stay in and win these games - attitude is different.
5\. We need to fix our "game management" techniques. Newcastle and Parra games could have been won putting us on 16 points.
6\. On point 5\. this could have been a hangover from all the travel we had been doing in a short space of time - we really looked flat in those games.
7\. Now that we are at round 10, teams have had a chance to get match fit and iron out the kinks. The next few weeks will give us a good idea of where we are really at.

 

[innsaneink]

Benji runs across field when we lose the ruck, when forwards go forward he has room

I hate the pipsqueak ref

 

[TIGER]

No problem with Benji running cross field as long as Masters is coming under him at speed and taking on a lazy defender who hasn't pushed across enough in the centre of the field. Actually I think this is when Masters and now Fonua on the other side can cause some damage.
Similar to what James Roberts did a few weeks back, coming back across them and finding bigger tired guys out with footwork speed and strength.
Every time Benji has floated across and found Masters on the switch he's been a handful.