Yea we made the semis. Considering the disgusting situation we found ourselves in re Brian Smith leaving, not a bad effort at all. We have the physical side of the game down pat. I thought our effort tonight was outstanding, but, just not good enough. No point showing up and defending your guts out when you cant get out of your own 40, just through sheer stupidity.
Personally, I think we should give Rick Stone next season to prove he can educate our players into playing smart footy...its not like its hard to do the little things in a game that make a difference, kicking when its prudent, holding the ball when its prudent. There is a time and a place for everything and if losing to the bulldogs doesnt wake them up to that then this side has gone as far as it ever will. We should have lapped them tonight, we handed it to them on a platter.
Its Disappointing to end the season with a performance that wasnt our best footy, but perhaps its somthing we needed to learn. Time will tell.
Certainly there are a few key points we need to address for next seasons:
1. Our kicking game, its woeful, in attack and defence it just doesnt give us what we need. It puts us under enormous pressure.
2. Karawana and Naqama off the bench. Not happening Rick, Karawana = Sean Rudder, Naqama is a f**kup waiting to happen, and often does.
3. No leadership when we have the ball. We lack direction when we have the ball, things degrade into hot potato far to regularly for my liking. Less razzle dazzle, more hard running, more leadership from our hooker and halves.
4. Just too much dumb footy like Fa-aoso throwing a no look flick pass 2 mins from half time when we were out on our feet, or running it on the 5th way too often, and when its totally inapproproate...like in a final, when we have a 40-60 possession count. I could go on but you get the point. Dumb football, and we dont need to do it to be a great footy side, in fact, we wont be if we keep it up.
Some things to work on for next season...most of the issues are in their heads.
