What ifs are tough. What IF valentine could catch!? To be fair NSW defended well on their line, but far closer than they probably should have been.
Val landed a cracker for the first try, and should have scored their last but for the drop. Break even I’d suggest for him.
NSW just screwed the pooch on this one. FIFO or not, they were strangers. And when your team plays like strangers you look at the leaders and playmakers..
The blues who played well?
Crichton, Addo-Carr, Saifiti and Tupou are the ones who only come to mind.
Tedesco (captain by default) wasn’t in the game long enough to really judge but NSW weren’t flying well at all even while he was there.
All the others simply weren’t what we needed. Some worse than others but those who stick out are your playmakers and leaders.
Id rate them as follows
Tedesco - N/A
Tupou - good
Wighton - fail (but out of position)
Gutherson - pass (played mostly in position)
Addo Car - good.
Walker - Fail
Cleary - Fail
Trbojevic - Fail
Frizell - Fail
Crichton - Good
Haas - Fail
Cook - Fail
Saifiti - Pass
Yeo - pass (out of position)
Finucane - fail
Paulo - Pass
Brown - fail (but hardly given a run)
of the Fails...
Walker - is the best in the NRL at opening up teams when the forwards get on a roll... which they never did tonight.
Wighton - isn’t a centre. For the life of me - Dally M Winner is a 5/8 and he’s playing centre... FFS
Cleary - Ourstanding all year but in the two biggest games (GF and Tonight) he’s blown a huge raspberry. Looks completely out of sorts and apart from a great 40/20, it was kick and hope...
Frizell - best years are sadly behind him. I love the bloke and served my club well. All guts. But not concerned he’s moved on.
Trbojevic - I saw him but it was like he was in the middle trying to fill the enormous void in the halves. Nothing like the damaging lock in the middle he can/should be.
Haas - Dane Carlaw for the blues tonight. Looks like Tarzan, but played like Jane. Maybe unfair and haven’t seen stats but at no stage do I recall him getting on top of anyone.
Cook - dunno what to say really. Rarely (if at all) in top gear on the back of our forwards. Like Haas I don’t remember much of anything he did.
Finucane - toiled but in my mind this guy is a starter. He’s the mortar to bond the bricks. I might be harsh giving a fail and stats might prove me wrong.
Brown - purely by “where was he??”. Don’t know what game time he got but seemed like sweet FA to me - so maybe fail the coach instead.