Just watched the first half, about to get into the second half.
Thoughts:
- In the main board I saw a couple of posters take a swipe at our effort but I didn't think we were too bad at all. A couple of loose passes denied us some opportunities and there was a 5-6 minute period where the Warriors were rolling us BUT I felt we were very unlucky not to receive a few penalties during those stages. Eg. Vatuvei and Brown taking out Hodges and Yow Yeh, Vatuvei holding Yow Yeh down as soon as he got the ball, Maloney holding onto the leg etc.
A few things...
- Hodges' kicking liscence has been upgraded to a P. Seriously, everytime he gets the ball his kicks seem to have positive results.
- We've done a good job on Manu so far and we've turned one of their biggest weapons into a weakness.
- Great work by Thaiday for the first try. To reign that ball in one handed and then get the offload away was class.
- Anderson was reasonably good in the opening 10, one nice half-break and throwing a lot of good passes before the line. I'm his biggest critic but he's doing a good job for the opening stint.
- Johnson try was disappointing, it should have ended with Mannering but when you present a rookie like Johnson with a staggered line they're capable of those plays. Great to watch, tough to endure.
- If there was one thing I miss about having Hunt around, it's his expertise at the third man play. Hoffy still hasn't worked that out yet. Otherwise Hoffy's had a real strong game and done very well to take a lot of those brilliant kicks from the Warriors.
- The Locke try is just one of those things, beautiful to watch but tough to defend against when it goes right.
- McGuire had a huge impact as soon as he came on, and not really with ball in hand but rather some very crucial tackles 2 on Locke and I believe one on Tupou.
- Great work from Yow Yeh in the lead up to the Beale try. Another great kick but he saw the gap and put us well onto the back foot. Hunt nearly stuffed it up for us, but smart play from Wallace and great work from Reed was able to put Beale away.
Fairly good first half, I think we have the better team than the Warriors, but the Warriors just have those players who can carve you up at any time which makes them so exciting to watch. They also have a great front row rotation, you know you're doing well when you're calling up a State of Origin rep. so they remain relatively strong for the majority of the game.
I forgot to really wrap Wallace, I think he's been real good for us tonight, couple of good kicks, good takes and defence as always is strong. I seem to have it in for rangas but honestly, Wallace is a nominee for halfback of the year. Sure, he's down the totem pole a fair bit, but definitely in the Top 5 in the comp.
I suppose my second post will be even longer, stay tuned!
