Just watched the replay, so here is my full report,
Attack
Diabolical. I really don't know what's happened. We were one of the best attacking teams in the comp last year, but in 2023, it seems to have all gone to shit. No real new combinations or anything, it's just gone to shit. That was hugely evident last night. We got so many friggin opportunities but just looked really poor, barely looked like scoring. With the exception of the two tries we did score and the odd crisp play, the rest of the time attacking was bog average. Slow, lethargic and clunky. It was like the boys had never played with each other. Passes going to ground, players dying with the ball, errors at crucial times attacking their line. Where the hell has our attack gone? Where has the 'lethal left' gone? Jeez it was disappointing.
I understand what JD was trying to say in the press conference, but I don't fully agree with him when he said, "it's not about our attack." Because for me, our attack is the main reason we lost. We finally sorted our defence out in the last half hour of the game and had a huge territorial advantage for that period. The stats were all dominant in our favor. The Storm were barely able to get out of their half yet, we barely fired a genuine shot at them that looked dangerous. They were wilting and there to be put away, but the attack couldn't fire, and we didn't get it done. So, I get what JD was trying to say but I think we lost this one, for the most part, because of our inability to score points.
Defence
Despite this, that's not to say that our 'D' was good because it was far from it in the first 50 minutes. The worst we've defended so far this year in fact. you could see it right from the opening set that the boys were off. No physicality, no heart, no determination and desire. There was pretty much zero line speed for much of the game and Melbourne just rolled on through. Our first contact was poor, and we struggled to commit and handle them. i don't know what it was, they just looked way off. Not there physically.
A couple of really poor defensive efforts for their tries which I'll get into when I do my player-by-player stuff, particularly Warbrick's try. That was just weak. It was simply piss poor defence for the first 50 minutes.
However, we really did turn this around and lift for the last half hour. Certainly lifted intensity and we were defending as we should be. Because of this, we had the Storm trapped for the best part of 30 minutes. They were struggling to get out of their own end, barely had a line break, rarely had a tackle in our half and I think they hardly got any opportunities in our red zone this whole period. I did really like to see that and if our attack wasn't so shit, we probably would have came back and put them away.
But the question needs to be asked, why weren't we that intense from the start? may have never dropped behind in the first place.
Player-by-player
Let me just start by saying there is going to be a fair few negative comments from me in regard to many of our boys. Don't take this the wrong way and see it as me 'turning on the boys' or anything like that. Love all these blokes and this team but I am just bitterly disappointed and angry. We need to be honest about the team and individual's performances just as the entire organisation should be because it's the only way we'll get better.
L.Mitchell: Love him, he's one of my favourites ever but I'm coming for him and he deserves it. I don't think I'm the only one that's coming for him. I'm sick of it. He talks a big game in the media, all, "I want to be the best, I want to win a Dally M" and all that crap. Dally M my f**king ass. Last night Trell was lazy, disinterested and his body language stunk. Barely, and I mean barely sited in the first half when we really needed him. It wasn't until 20 minutes to go that he decided to play. He was barely injecting himself into the attack, didn't come in looking for the ball at all and his kick returns were just lazy. Stopping at times when he got the ball and then just ambling into the defence. It was piss poor. Just lazy. On the Storm's first try, he was there to defuse the situation and could have made an effort to get to the ball once Lachie lost it but he just watched on as King wanted it more and scored. Poor effort. Again, when Warbrick scored, Trell should be tracking the ball across as the last line of defence as all fullbacks do. The ball movement from the Storm was that slow he could have easily been in the frame but was he? No. Trell is seen again, being lazy, and just walking near the posts when Warbrick scores. Pathetic effort. Now, he did come alive in the last 20 minutes with some big runs and some really good plays, particularly for Stretch to score and put us back in the game. That was a great play where he shaped to pass long, confused Coates, and then delivered the pass which gave Stretch enough space to slice through. He ended up with 172 meters off 21 runs which shows you just how much he did at the end of the game. But the thing is, he's done this for five weeks in a row now. Sat back, been lazy and been a passenger until the end of the game when sometimes, it's been too late. It's not good enough and I'm sick of it. If he had any sort of work rate, he'd be absolutely unstoppable, but he doesn't seem to want to put in the work. He just puts in the work with his mouth off the field. So disappointed in him and JD needs to put a rocket up his ass. Trell needs to realise the influence he has on this side and do his best; we need him now more than ever. Sorry to sound like I'm dissing him, I don't mean to attack him or anything but it's just pissing me off.
Johnston: Not great. had some really strong carries and kick returns but that's about it for the good stuff that AJ did. Had a shocker the rest of the game. That effort to tackle Warbrick, or should I say non-effort, when he scored was piss weak. Schoolboy stuff. it was a simple one-on-one that should be made at this level but AJ wasn't up to it. Inexcusable. Didn't get a lot of genuine opportunites in attack to be fair, but the one time he does and has a chance to score, he decides to run straight into Meaney, knock himself out, lose the ball and potentially throw away a huge chance at winning. Why didn't he go acrobatic like he normally does and go for the corner? There was still space there. Watching the replay, I'm certain he would have scored. Again, inexcusable.
Tass: I'd say Tassy was okay. Really good with the shit work coming out of trouble as he had some great hit ups. 146 meters off 17 runs is great. Great work rate. However, he wasn't without fault. When Warbrick scored, yea, AJ should have made the tackle first up, but even after his miss, Tassy had a shot at him that he should have made but his attempt was just as piss weak as AJ's. It's also been well talked about, but I think he's a big reason why our left edge attack isn't as lethal as it used to be. He's stifling it with his inability to pass. I counted three times throughout this game that he could have passed to AJ and he would have been at the very least, a chance to score. But Tassy doesn't seem to want to do it and it kills the play. We know he is capable of those tough, skillful, quick hands passes because he did it last year and even did it once in the second half of this one but he dies with the ball more often than not. Sort it out Tassy.
Graham: Not his finest night, he was just off. Still made 141 meters off 18 carries which is pretty big and scored a try which helped put us in the contest late but I don't know, he just seemed off. A lot less intense and physical than he normally is. Unnecessarily caused Lachie to lose the ball, leading to King's try, had some poor reads in defence and he made a couple of crucial errors attacking the line which we don't usually see him do.
Thompson: Izaac was the standout in an underperforming backline. He was fantastic!! It was most notably his carries which were the best, probably the strongest we've seen him so far this Season. He looked very hard to handle and ran straight over the top of a few Melbourne defenders. That one on Munster off a kick return was awesome! He was also pretty safe under the high ball and tried his best to score that last ditch try. In terms of defence, he wasn't bad but did look slow in cover. I'm not going to blame Munster's try on Izaac off that long range break, there wasn't much more he could do. It was just a case of our defence being heavily compressed, we failed to stop the offload in the middle and then they stripped us for numbers. So, I'd say this is one of the better games of Izaac's career so far.
Walker: Wasn't bad, he tried really hard but just had no one go with him. His try was great as he pushed up off Murray's shoulder on the half break, took a difficult pass, and plunged over. That was a great play. Otherwise, he probed all night and didn't do a lot wrong personally. As I said, he tried hard but was getting somewhat let down by teammates. The one poor part of Cody's game last night was his kicking. It was very one-dimensional with those lollipop kicks, not threatening at all. There was also no hint of a short kicking game from Cody.
Ilias: Poor night. Really poor actually. really struggled in attack. I think he was standing a bit too flat and allowed himself less time. The Storm's defence was consistently rushing up on him because of that. And as a result of that, he got spooked and came up with some poor plays. There was probably about four of five times a pass of his went to ground and killed all our momentum. He also died with the ball a few times. However, I will give him credit for the hand he played in both our tries, especially the first. That was a great pass to put Murray through a half-hole. Along with Cody though, his kicking game was also very poor and one dimensional.
