The emotion of the day got to the boys today and for me and I would suspect most on here it was fully understandable given the circumstances. The sad scenes of the team heads bowed, some in tears, in that minutes silence was very powerful. on top of their sadness for Robbie and his family, they were also greiving for themselves…they knew Sonia and the news must have hurt. The last thing they would have felt like doing was play a game of footy against a side who hasnt won in a month despite playing quite well. They were missing Ellis, Farah, Fults and Sirro. This is understandable. You could see they werent fully into it and by half time they were surely turning in their worst performance of the season. I felt really sorry for them that they were being flogged to rub salt into the wounds.
However they dug deep and in true Wests Tigers fashion, made a comebak. In the end they almost stole it. I saw some positives out there today that will help us win this competition.
1) The brotherhood shown during the minutes silence and each players individual reactions. They are a tight knit group which will pay dividends for the sides performances at years end.
2) The Roosters were desperate for victory and were at near full strength as opposed to us being short at least 4 guys. Yet we slaughtered them for parts of that second half.
3) Beau Ryan continued his stella 2012 form with yet another individual try. His highlights reel is starting to resemble Robbie and Benjis (not quite but you know what I mean).
4) Tim Moltzen turned in a very impressive display of staunch fullback play and aggressive attacking prowess. He touched the ball as often as Benji did in that last 20 minutes.
5) Rowdy and Lote were very strong in attack and defence. Rowdy in particular was great.
6) Benji started STEPPING! I was screaming at the telly at the end when he was bamboozaling the line. He is mounting to something devastating.
7) Woodsy and Keith kept trundling it up against a fired up pack who were belting them. Their defence was down but they made good meters.
8) Aysh was getting involved in attack with his trademark rolling gate, fend and offload.
9) Leichardt pulling 20K plus. Whether it was out of condolence support for Rob or the genuine belief this side can go all the way, it was a great turn out that I hope we can build on for the rest of the season.
In the end we were beaten and beaten well but I was proud of a few things that happened out there today and as said under the circumstances can forgive that performance. I hope they are all having some quieties with Rob and the family tonight to drown a few sorrows ahead of the business starting again with their sights set on Newcastle. The form is still there....just the application lacking a little today.
However they dug deep and in true Wests Tigers fashion, made a comebak. In the end they almost stole it. I saw some positives out there today that will help us win this competition.
1) The brotherhood shown during the minutes silence and each players individual reactions. They are a tight knit group which will pay dividends for the sides performances at years end.
2) The Roosters were desperate for victory and were at near full strength as opposed to us being short at least 4 guys. Yet we slaughtered them for parts of that second half.
3) Beau Ryan continued his stella 2012 form with yet another individual try. His highlights reel is starting to resemble Robbie and Benjis (not quite but you know what I mean).
4) Tim Moltzen turned in a very impressive display of staunch fullback play and aggressive attacking prowess. He touched the ball as often as Benji did in that last 20 minutes.
5) Rowdy and Lote were very strong in attack and defence. Rowdy in particular was great.
6) Benji started STEPPING! I was screaming at the telly at the end when he was bamboozaling the line. He is mounting to something devastating.
7) Woodsy and Keith kept trundling it up against a fired up pack who were belting them. Their defence was down but they made good meters.
8) Aysh was getting involved in attack with his trademark rolling gate, fend and offload.
9) Leichardt pulling 20K plus. Whether it was out of condolence support for Rob or the genuine belief this side can go all the way, it was a great turn out that I hope we can build on for the rest of the season.
In the end we were beaten and beaten well but I was proud of a few things that happened out there today and as said under the circumstances can forgive that performance. I hope they are all having some quieties with Rob and the family tonight to drown a few sorrows ahead of the business starting again with their sights set on Newcastle. The form is still there....just the application lacking a little today.
