Wow! What a game of footy! That has to be one of the most controversial endings to a game of footy I've ever seen! To the incident which decided things, I do believe it was a penalty but I don't think it should have been awarded in front of the sticks; I always thought the penalty is where the ball lands! In saying that, the hit from Graham, although accidental, was late. Moreover, I always feel that when you take out the standing leg of the kicker your asking for trouble. It was an unfortunate way to decide things, but it was a penalty.
As for our performance as a whole, I thought we were purely and simply outplayed. This win surely has to rank as one of our finest because we showed plenty of courage to stay in the contest against a formidable opponent who was on top in a contest where the conditions and the style of the game completely suited them. I thought the Bulldogs forwards outplayed us. In particular, Josh Jackson and David Klemmer were absolutely superb for the Dogs, as was Kasiano, Tolman; the leg drive of those players was phenomenal. I also liked how the Bulldogs back rowers were able to change direction a lot in the wet conditions, making them a real handful to tackle. What let the Dogs down was their last tackle options; they certainly need to work on their execution and decision making on the last play. I've also got a question mark over some of Michael Lichaa choices from dummy half.
As for Souths, our form is start to become a bit of a concern. We're 5 games in and we haven't produced one really polished performance as yet. I thought the efforts of the Burgess brothers were admirable but they really need to work on their handling. David Tyrell showed plenty of guts and I take my hat off to Chris Grevsmuhl - he looks like a world class backrower in the making. However, the likes of Clark, McQueen, Tim Grant and ever Glenn Stewart were rendered ineffective by a Bulldogs defence that were in their faces right from kick off. In saying that, they didn't play badly, they just weren't as dominant as the Bulldogs.
Like last week, our real weakness seems to be our outside backs. Goodwin tries hard and is a solid player I guess but can be exposed from time to time. I've still got massive question marks over Daryl Millard and his ability to defend as I do over Joel Reddy and his positioning; Millard's offload was an absolute coach killer! In general our defence out wide on the right looks really vulnerable. I think its a combination of poor communication and decision making and is something which we need to sort out.
All in all, it was a gutsy win but I would have much rather have scored a try to win the game than kick a goal in the circumstances that we did.
