Not singling anyone out in particular and I realise some havent gotten home from the game yet but it is a ghost town on here today compared with Monday night. Lets talk about the win for a moment….
For mine today was a step in the right direction and without getting carried away in any shape or form, I found myself pleasantly surprised with the turn around in the attitude and aptitude of our playing group. Obviously Penrith didnt bring their A game and we were far from contender material but there was some great signs I thought;
1\. Woods looks ready to start again and is over his injury. He was outstanding today and showed great agility for his tries to boot. Was best on field today in a highly impressive display.
2\. Robbie was straight behind him with a huge game himself. Looked dangerous in attack, defended well and was highly involved right throughout the game.
3\. The much maligned Timmy Moltz showed today why coaches have faith in him. Was good under the high ball, was good as last line of defence and attacked regularly. Best game I have seen from him in a long time.
4\. Benji played like he used to. He showed a good amount of flair, looked to attack at the right times, kicked well and made some good tackles.
5\. BMM from the bench was massive as was Pettybourne. These blokes ran hard and dented the line regularly. Eddie took a tap at one stage and launched into the defence with everything he had....great to see.
6\. Miller and Marshal started to find their groove. Both were darting around, backing each other up scored tries and looked dangerous. If we stick with Miller, we will have a good halfback.
7\. Aysh/Reddy combination looked really solid. They both held their ground in defence and showed a bit in attack.
8\. Koro looked very fast with ball in hand and tried to use his newly acquired frame to good use.
9\. Blair, although quiet, did a lot of mop up work and put on a great 'hip and shoulder' hit to save a try. Still has a fair way to go but is pointing in the right direction.
10\. Defence was still a bit washy but had a lot better structure than last week.
11\. Energy and enthusiam levels were vastly increased. The boys looked hungry today and did everything at speed. Even though that lead to a lot of errors, they were having a go which is in stark contrast to last week.
12\. Kick and chase was very effective for a change.
All in all, it was a scrappy affair but it was a round 2 game against a first round victor and I thought they were quite good. Lots of improvement obviously;
- Koro/Lawrence defensive combination was found out again and exploited. Could be a language barrier thing ....needs to be fixed asap.
- Koro has to work on his ball skills. He makes a lot of errors due to ball security which is a shame as he is a weapon when the ball is secured.
- Braith was very quiet. Needs to impose himeself more otherwise he is just a small second rower who is holding back guys who churn out superior stats.
- When we had established what looked like a winning lead, the main men - Rob, Benj and Braith didnt look to close out the game. It is like they are thinking, 'well they cant get us now, lets have fun'. This theory is disproven regularly and this mindset must change. Hammer the corners, find touch, make them submit and acknowledge they are beaten. Hammer them into the turf. Too often we let sides back in after doing all that hard work. Good sides like Storm, Souths and Manly dont miss these chances.
Anyway Parra next week and we could be down a few members as Gal looks almost certainly gone, Miller ended up off injured as did Rowdy. Parra will supply a harder opponent so hopefully the side continues to improve and rolls them. At the moment we are still not playing like a top 8 side, however they did show something today worth getting excited about after what was a disgraceful effort only 6 days previous.
