Ahhh yeaaaaa, it feels good to be back doing this!! Here's my match report for the 2024 Charity Shield.
Attack
I'm not going to go into our attacking shapes, plays or structures too much because this was a trial game. And not only that, but we were missing three of our biggest attacking lynch pins in Trell, Cody and Jack so I think the way we will attack will still be very different come the Season proper once we have those guys out on the park. Can't delve into it and analyse it too much when you know the real side will be different.
We looked very scrappy with the ball in the first half and made things a lot harder than they should've been. There were plenty of errors, mistimed or misdirected passes, badly timed runs etc and a lot of the plays we tried to do just shut down. That's pretty understandable though given it's the first hit out of the year and we had a different make up to the side, so the combinations aren't quite there. In saying that though, to the boys' credit, they well and truly got their shit together and put on a bit of a clinic in the second half which was great to watch. it was like we flicked the switch and really just went for it. Man, there was some beautiful tries out there. Minimal errors, a good effective game plan, and it was executed perfectly. A big thing I noticed that is different to last year is that there seemed to be a lot more offloads. That's a positive sign as we didn't see a lot of that last year and we looked good off second phase Footy and that's even without some of our instinctive big guns there.
I want to give a massive wrap to our entire forward pack. They were getting beaten in the first half as we spent most of it coming out of our own end and making errors, but despite that, they just absorbed all the pressure, still managed to somewhat hold the Dragons at bay and somewhat match it with them. Then, in the second half, they just went 'bang' and really stuck it to St George Illawarra's pack. We had a constant roll on and constant momentum as we completely dominated them through the ruck and this was a big reason for the win. We have one hell of a middle rotation with the likes of Junior, Keppie, Tom, Davvy, Liva and big Shaq. That's very exciting and impressive.
Defence
Probably what pleased me most about the win last night was the defence though, especially in the first half. Yea, we were playing the Dragons who aren't the greatest team, but they did play pretty well in that first half, and they threw a lot at us. They put us under a lot of pressure as it seemed like there was times there where they were just constantly in our 20 and knocking on the door. But our defensive structures held and held up very solidly to deny them every time. We absorbed all that pressure and the boys just kept turning up for each other. There were some huge defensive efforts out there.
Even our line speed, first contact, wrapping up the ball to stop an offload and actually putting the ball carrier on their back were much better and much more aggressive than last year. There were all areas where our D struggled in 2023 and although I know it's only one game, there are some pretty positive signs there.
The only try they scored was directly off our error. That's a pretty big wrap for your defensive line against a near full strength side.
Player By Player
Gagai: Played a lot less minutes than I thought he would, but he did impress, certainly didn't look out of place at all and looked very comfortable. Positional play was good, his carries were strong, and he saved our asses on a couple occasions. Just very solid. Has he done enough to make the Round 1 side? That remains to be seen but if he does, I won't complain because I'm confident he can do a job there now.
Johnston: Pretty quiet night for our AJ but that's fine in a trial. For someone like him, a game like this is more just about having a run and blowing out the cobwebs, that's exactly what he did. Strong carries, safe at the back under the high ball and no defensive errors. that's all you can really ask for.
Kennar: His first stint was a bit poor with a couple drop balls and he made little impact on the game, but when he came back on later and had another stint, I thought he was pretty damn good. His carries were strong and he was safe defensively. He's not going to pose a real threat in the backline but he is a good meter-eater and that's exactly what he did last night. Great to see him position himself well off the kick for his try right at the end, that was a highlight.
Tass: probably the only player I was actually disappointed with last night. I know he copped a knock to the ribs which didn't help but even before that, he wasn't running hard, and I thought many of his carries were actually pretty weak. Then he dropped that pass which led directly to the Dragons only try. I'm not worried as we know what he is capable of, but it was just an off night for Tassy.
Milne: Apart from a bit of ill-discipline early on, I thought Taane was great!!! His hit ups were immense, and I lost count of the times I said, "great carry Taane!" he got us out of trouble a lot. No defensive clangers which was nice and that kick he put in for Richie to score was just a thing of beauty!! It was nearly off his shin, but we'll just ignore that ahahaha.
Hawkins: I'm going to say a little bit of a mixed night for Hawko. Look, he was good without being great. I think it's very clear to see that he's not a 5/8 at all, he's clearly a halfback and would perform better there. Granted, he did have some nice touches, played a lot better than the last time he played 5/8 for us and combined better with Lachie but he still didn't really offer a lot or create a lot for mine. Some of his long-range kicks were great but others like the one he kicked dead, or the one he put out on the full were disappointing. I also didn't like his 'bombs' to the corners, they were like big chip kicks with no real height.
Ilias: I'll say mixed as well. He did some not-so-great things like a few wayward passes and stuff like that, but I put that down to rust and a lack of combinations more than anything. Aside from that, he was pretty good. He was taking the ball to the line each time and wasn't afraid to have a run either which we don't see enough of. A solid kicking game. Still not a massive improvement on last year but there was a kick or two there what were outstanding floaters or spirals so that's promising. His defence was awesome though, especially that shot that led to our first try. All round, not a bad night and I can't wait to see how he goes in 2024 with a full compliment of players around him.
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