Everyone always points to fitness as something we lack in. I've never watched them train, and I haven't seen their yo-yo test results, their strength etc so I can't definitively comment
But to me, it's ability to play through pain and hardship, not physical fatigue. I doubt our guys are much different to the competition in terms of our pure physical fitness. Why would they storm back in Perth, on a bad timezone with travel, late in the game if they were physically unfit?
It's our mental fitness that is shot. Friday, they talk a big game how they're going to do it for Manu, come out of the blocks hard etc. But when Penrith hit back, they don't want to get into an arm wrestle for too long. We've done it once all season v the Roosters, and obviously they didn't enjoy it enough. Hey, the cheques still come in.
That to me is why we miss someone like Micheal Luck so much. He didn't let you slack, EVER. I did see him at training and he put up with zero shit, and the coach backed him up. If Kevin Locke was a dick, he paid him out in public. If someone was lazy, they'd get nailed. Mannering sets a similar on-field standard but doesn't have the talk to back it up.
That's why i'd go out and recruit the guy who is going to tell these guys to man up. He doesn't have to be a rep player. A Campion, a Luck, a guy who the coach says right - this guy is here for 3-4 years minimum. He's going to put up with no shit, and he's going to be vocal. Don't like it? There's 15 other clubs and more in the UK. At the moment there's zero f**kin accountability for the mental weakness that abounds. Issac Luke won't dress you down. Manu never would've. RTS won't. Hoff might've tried but did he have the backing of the coaching staff? That's what we miss to me. We had Campiion and Luck at the forefront setting examples with words and actions in our GF apperances. And it's irrelevant what nationality they are, it could be James Graham, Ruben Wiki during his days, anyone.
