Its such a big deal to get that first win.. kflan to kiss the emblem.. the boys gel all that work they did over the off-season and get some confidence.. new blokes sing the song (I know we did in the trial too, but this is much sweeter), Hunt actually crack a smile... and went to a winning press conference... I havent seen the boys walking around the field after a game in so long.. chatting away to eachother... compare that to how deflating a first up loss could have been to overcome. Wonder what Hook is thinking to himself from his living room?
Doesnt mean we win next week, but its a bluddy good start... we do need that spine to stay fit though.. Liddle is always moving forward it makes such a difference when he goes off, and this is exactly what i was saying about Sloan all last week, is that if he cant bust tackles himself, he has to work on supporting non-stop, because he has a tonne of blokes who will happily make the holes for him.. we just need him to be there when they do...
Hopefully this will put some of the Lomax chatter to bed.. hes a good centre, but there is no way he can provide that level of impact from that position.. he never has before.. and its not like he was running the length.. half of that ~250m work was post contact metres, put on with his footwork.. just getting us an extra 5 or 10m at a time and rolling forward.... but even more than that..... he must have been there for 5 or 6 short dropouts? I mean can you imagine if that had resulted in 5-6 handovers to the Titans instead? Like it did last year every time.... Maybe we wouldnt be singing the song tonight... tbh I wonder if we should be tapping back more than trying to catch a contested bomb though, but it came off most times tonight... surely teams will kick to Ravas side in the future?
With Bird I dunno.. tbh I love his physicality in defence, im not sure if we bring anyone else in we will have our defensive wall.. but his errors were quite unforced.. and he almost needs his passing licence revoked, just hold it with 2 hands and run. Tbh if Bird was to be dropped at some stage, I reckon its for Tamale.. and Lomax stays put.
Not sure what the best way to fit Eisenhuth, RFM, Leilua, Lawrie, Sele into the team.. But thats Flanagans problem, and its a good problem for once.. not sure we want to lose RFM from that side,, but Leilua and Su'a need to be there also.. I think Flanno will have some ideas obviously.. now that we won, it was great that Leilua got that extra week of training
Edit: Just to mention, I bet Shane Flanagan sleeps well tonight.. what a ride he has been on, some of that load he has been carrying for all this time finally let go... and I think it will do his confidence a world of good.. he seems bullet-proof to all the criticism and media stories... but he's human too.
