It seemed to me (I've watched the game closely twice) that Atkins made sure we had next to no opportunities in the dogs quarter. We were raped of possession 3 times whilst in possession (penalised when we had the ball, in decisions that were highly controversial). The fxcker kept stunting our momentum and our halves were unable to show any attacking skills in their quarter. 95% of our possession was in the part of the field from our 10m line to their 30m line - next to nothing attacking their line. This seemed to come from a huge manipulation form Atkins.
The dogs get away with so much shit in the tackle and slowing of our players getting up to play the ball. Tactics such as 3rd man flops, hands on the ball, lifting our players and dragging them back, grabbing/locking the arm carrying the ball. The frustration could be seen from our players as they jostled to free the arm just to play it. Whilst in possession, the dogs were walking 2 to 3 metres from where they were supposed to play the ball, Crichton, Kirac, Montoya, Tracey, Xerri, Burton and Galvin being the main cheats. Atkins never pulled them up once. Every time the dogs are tackled they whinge and complain for a penalty and when tackled on the last tackle, they feign injury so their players can set themselves before giving the ball to us to start our set. Every time they kicked into our corners and we diffused a kick and we got tackled, they slowed the restart down....every time.
Their defense structure relies heavily on making sure that they are never retreating and they slow it down to a snails pace so they are always moving forward to tackle and never retreating. Their tactics are illegal under the current interpretations, but somehow, they RARELY get pulled up. Crichton id a thug and gets away with so much shit and everytime they drop a ball the refs try their darndest to try and call it a knock back.
I still cannot work out How Atkinson got called for a knock on from a Sua pass, when it hit him in the chest and he then picked it up and the ref called knock on.
Atkins fxcked us absolutley.