One of the best team performances I’ve seen in recent times. Reminded me of last year’s game at Shark Park where we took them apart in the second half, but this was another step up in intensity.
Really want to give everyone points!
3 - Boyd - mammoth effort after losing CHT after 9 minutes. If he doesn’t get 6 Dally M points this week, then I don’t what he’d have to do
2 - TT - didn’t play Cup last week and less than one half in the trials, and only just back from a leg injury, but stepped in like he had half a season under his belt
1 - Laban - nrl.com says he only played 65 minutes, but nope, he played the full 80, which he would not have been expecting, and has never done before at FG level. Could tell he didn’t have much left in the tank in the last 10 but he just kept putting his hand up, chasing hard, tackling hard, taking hitups.
HM - basically everyone, but a few thoughts:
Laban played 80, so did Leka, and Ford played 75 or something. Huge efforts.
On Ford, very nearly gave him points. He’s looking natural as a middle now, and seems to have cut out the silly penalty part of his game (though of course we’ll see if that lasts lol)
CNK made a couple of nice one-on-one momentum killing tackles while at centre
RTS dropped a couple passes, but ran for over 200 metres
Another great game from JFH. I feel like he’s settled into being a club captain this season. Last year, that was new and I think he often tried too hard, which led to errors and misses.
Ali had a bounceback game. Hopefully he can keep that confidence going forward. Little bit worried he might have another lower leg injury/niggle, though.
The injury to Capewell might make room for Niukore, but I don’t see him getting into the team any other way right now unless there’s injury. Who would he replace?
Was nice to see Egan get a spell with about 30 to go. He only came back on because of CNK’s HIA, so good use of the interchange by Webby.
A longer thought on Boyd: he came to us on a 2-year deal, with the second year a mutual option. Partway through last season the Cowboys approached his management saying they were interested in him for 2026, on a 3-year deal iirc, based purely on his Cup form. But he turned them down, preferring to stay here instead, saying he loved the environment and he was learning and getting better week by week. Big call at the time, but it might just pay off. He never really got a fair shake at the Titans, imo, because, well, it’s the Titans so what half ever looks consistently good there? I hope he keeps this strong start to the season going, because he might just be the most complete half we’ve had. And he’s even levelled up his defense!
On to next week, which, given how we’ll we’ve gone first two games at home, could be a huge banana skin game. Hopefully we keep the intensity high during the week and go over there feeling like we have something to prove
