Good thread, was going to start something similar.
I think we need to begin by looking at the positives vs negatives of our team. The bad news is, I think our strongest points are also our weaknesses.
First and foremost - TACKLE! 48 missed,averaging over 30 missed! that won't make the 8, let alone win the comp. Ours strength was our attack, our weakness is that it seems like all we want do is attack (although our scramble is fine, our man on man defence is rubbish).
Secondly - the 15 minutes at the end of the game today was the smoothest I've seen us since prince left. This sounds silly I know. What I'm referring to is humble actually played halfback, and Benji played 5/8\. It's not rocket science, you need two halves, a 9 and a 1\. Sheens wants them all to be able to ball play, so the solution is Humble 7 - Benji 6 - Robbie - 9 and Moltz -1 (although if it was up to me that would probably be Reddy or Beau). I'm absolutely serious that I haven't seen us with someone that decisive at 1st receiver in a long time, he would run an angle before passing, not just sideways, he would commit a defender and then give it to Benji, to distribute - unfortunately at this stage of their careers Moltz and Miller are not 1st grade halves and Humble can be. He also tackled as hard as he could, I was impressed.
So, that could be a big positive, i'm afraid its going to be a big negative. Its almost the reverse of the John Morris situation, where we tried to make a 7 (to some extent with Lui too). It looks like we have bought a good little 7 and want to use him as a 14 or 1.
third- DO NOT TALK TO THE MEDIA about "favouritism", "pressure", "attack", "our style" or anything else. When asked questions say "I don't know"! We look dumber and dumber every week, coming out and talking nonsense that no one believes or cares about. The players thing the media is like facebook or twitter, that they should just open up their hearts to the world. They don't realise the motivation they give to others, OR, the extra pressure they put on themselves by talking about pressure. And this is where the positive of having a great squad becomes a negative. The players don't want to be favourites. What an absolute joke. you work hard over a career to be the best, you become the best and then you say "I don't want this"! Have some bloody self-belief, the only reason this hurts all us is because we believe in you. This would not have hurt in 2003\. We would be talking about the spirit they showed in scrambling.
Finally - a huge positive, and also the biggest negative. We were 50% tonight, the raiders were 90%+. Half the teams in the comp (exceptions being Melbourne, Manly, Warriors, Broncos and maybe dogs, bunnies, dragqueens) would have lost 50 + to the raiders unless they were also at 90%+. We only need to play at 75% to beat the raiders at their best,that should be evident from the stats that show missed tackles, possession, field position and final score. Let's say we save one try, score one more then bang! We play mediocre and still have a good shot at winning. This should be obvious to all, we've seen it for years. The players can play, the coach can coach, we lack nothing in resources. We only lack attitude, and its all we ever lacked as a merged entity. Attitude is the difference between a good team playing 50% and an average team playing 90%. Tigers. Fix the attitude, play for each other,, play for Sheens, play for us and you will win the comp. Do anything less than that and don't bother showing up.
