TheRam
Coach
- Messages
- 13,480
So far this season my observation in regards to Parra and all the other teams is that we have the best overall roster including better then the Storm and the Roosters. My only issue with our team and therefore our greatest obstacle to winning the title(barring injury) is our mental toughness.
I still don't think that we are up to the standard of the Storm or the Roosters in this vital part of our game. Sure we have made great strides this season and are very close to them, but we still don't have what they have mentally and I'm not sure if we can get there or not.
Why? Well the Roosters in particular, but it also applies to the Storm to almost the same degree, have a great balance of youth and experience and virtually all their players have been there, done that and most have representative honours. We on the other hand have Jennings and Ferguson and to a lessor extent Matterson due to his stint with the Rooster and RCG with some high level rep honours. The Storm and the Roosters have a huge advantage when the pressure cooker whistle is screaming. Up until now we haven't shown that we can compete with either of these two mentally hardened teams.
We should of won that game against the Chooks. They were there to be taken and skewed, but at the most crucial time of the game when each and every player would have been drilled that in this scenario they would come at us like a lion freed from its chains, we totally melted. Again not because they are player wise a better team the us, but mentally they rose to the occasion while we idled. We need to fix this or perish when it counts.
The Chooks didn't go up a gear as such, but more of the same brutal intensity that they always show when a team gets one up on them. The trick is don't fear the Reaper and go with them. Meet them at that same tempo and blunt that excitement and enthusiasm. I thought that we would do that while Moses was taking the goal and the camera was panning across our players.
But as soon as we gave them the ball back from the very first tackle we weren't in it. Not because they were supermen, but because mentally we switched off from the clear sharp focus we had for the first 67 minuets of the game. Every tackle was a fail for us. We gave away the ruck and the line speed not because these guys are superior athletes or have greater stamina, but because we lost our way mentally and their roll then created a slight panic from us, which they then picked up on and so off to the the races they went and we were gone. Ultimately regressing to the numskull decisions we are all so familiar with from previous season that we would all rather forget.
But to my original point, I believe that when we have all our troupes available again that we have the best roster at this point in the competition. After watching the Roosters closely this season, I don't feel that they are unbeatable at all. They are a very good team, that's for sure, but they are hardly a brilliant team of superstars. They are just settled in very well, they all know their game and what their roll is and they are very well coached, obviously.
Keary is the key. As good as their team is it's all about Cleary. If you limit him, with a team as good as ours, you basically win the game. We have the artillery and strike power all over the park. The trick is don't give him room and most importantly stay strong mentally for the entire 80 minuets of the game.
I still don't think that we are up to the standard of the Storm or the Roosters in this vital part of our game. Sure we have made great strides this season and are very close to them, but we still don't have what they have mentally and I'm not sure if we can get there or not.
Why? Well the Roosters in particular, but it also applies to the Storm to almost the same degree, have a great balance of youth and experience and virtually all their players have been there, done that and most have representative honours. We on the other hand have Jennings and Ferguson and to a lessor extent Matterson due to his stint with the Rooster and RCG with some high level rep honours. The Storm and the Roosters have a huge advantage when the pressure cooker whistle is screaming. Up until now we haven't shown that we can compete with either of these two mentally hardened teams.
We should of won that game against the Chooks. They were there to be taken and skewed, but at the most crucial time of the game when each and every player would have been drilled that in this scenario they would come at us like a lion freed from its chains, we totally melted. Again not because they are player wise a better team the us, but mentally they rose to the occasion while we idled. We need to fix this or perish when it counts.
The Chooks didn't go up a gear as such, but more of the same brutal intensity that they always show when a team gets one up on them. The trick is don't fear the Reaper and go with them. Meet them at that same tempo and blunt that excitement and enthusiasm. I thought that we would do that while Moses was taking the goal and the camera was panning across our players.
But as soon as we gave them the ball back from the very first tackle we weren't in it. Not because they were supermen, but because mentally we switched off from the clear sharp focus we had for the first 67 minuets of the game. Every tackle was a fail for us. We gave away the ruck and the line speed not because these guys are superior athletes or have greater stamina, but because we lost our way mentally and their roll then created a slight panic from us, which they then picked up on and so off to the the races they went and we were gone. Ultimately regressing to the numskull decisions we are all so familiar with from previous season that we would all rather forget.
But to my original point, I believe that when we have all our troupes available again that we have the best roster at this point in the competition. After watching the Roosters closely this season, I don't feel that they are unbeatable at all. They are a very good team, that's for sure, but they are hardly a brilliant team of superstars. They are just settled in very well, they all know their game and what their roll is and they are very well coached, obviously.
Keary is the key. As good as their team is it's all about Cleary. If you limit him, with a team as good as ours, you basically win the game. We have the artillery and strike power all over the park. The trick is don't give him room and most importantly stay strong mentally for the entire 80 minuets of the game.
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