3,2,1 vs Storm

[Meth]

I hate Archer.

 

[NZ Warrior]

I hate Ropati.

 

[jeffrow]

packer and matulino where inspiring tonight.
loved the quiet but solid version of manu.

 

[Izz]

Packer's removed the handbrake! And damn he looks good.

3. Packer
2. Taylor
1. Matulino/Tupou/Manu

Thought Godinet was ordinary, though it was his first start against an undefeated team. That kick he put through needed Tupou brilliance to make it a try.

We dominated so hard up front. Not sure i've ever seen a worse display from Cronk, and Smith was ordinary too.

lol@Inu. I still want him in the team, but those errors were just, well, Inu-like.

 

[Izz]

Oh, and did anybody notice we were suddenly back to kicking it to Manu for the first 20?

Maloney was ordinary, too, imo. And Locke getting hurt really hurt.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

3. Packer
2. Vatuvei
1. Matulino

FMD, we brutalize them in the forwards and completely fail to create anything from it, and people are handing out points to our HALVES???? Whatever Godinet did (not much) was easily nullified by his hopeless defense on two of Chambers' tries. Maloney was f**king terrible.

Tupou finished well twice but I find it hard to give out points for a bloke just because he manages to force the ball a couple of times. Honourable mention though.

 

[Fast Eddie]

My thoughts exactly.

 

[aargon]

3. Packer
2. Vatuvei
1. Matulino

FMD, we brutalize them in the forwards and completely fail to create anything from it, and people are handing out points to our HALVES???? Whatever Godinet did (not much) was easily nullified by his hopeless defense on two of Chambers' tries. Maloney was f**king terrible.

Tupou finished well twice but I find it hard to give out points for a bloke just because he manages to force the ball a couple of times. Honourable mention though.

wow -for once i actually agree with your rating and comments!!

don't forget Tupou dropped a kick in his 20m line from which the storm scored in their set of six....

 

[Warrior@Heart]

3. Packer (One of his best games ever)
2. Matulino (Played solid minutes, made good yards and defended well)
1. Taylor (Was everywhere tonight)

-3. Inu (Big fan of his but really gave the lynch mob a lot of excuses)
-2. Mateo (Needs to get back to running hard and stop throwing long balls)
-1. Maloney (Laid some good hits but didn't create many opportunities with the field position and possession we had)

Back 3 were poor on defence as per usual, all it takes is a decoy to score when we're defending our goal line, positive was Tupou he really showed he has developed as a finisher. Very impressed with all our fowards tonight except for Mateo, I know he got shifted into the halves but it doesn't excuse his indirect play. Thought Godinet should have been playing fullback, not sure it was the right move by Bluey having him defend at centre, he was a walking speed bump out there and he was also a target to the cross field bomb which lead to a try. But we all know what the headlines are going to be, all be blame will be off our edge defence and go straight to the scapegoat Inu. I've never seen a team dominate like our fowards did tonight and lose so in my opinion it was more than one player that lost us that game, remember the storm made some simple errors coming out of trouble too but they didn't crumble every time we ran a simple decoy play.

 

[attila_the_gorilla]

Packer
Matulino
Tupou (despite that sitter he dropped)

Agree with the general consensus, our halves were useless. Maloney did nothing too bad (could have converted more tries), but not much useful either. However Godinet is too small for this game. Will always be a liability in the defensive line.

 

[_addict]

3 - ET - in the past we've criticised his inability to dominate in the tackle, I have doubts that he'll ever provide much sting in the tackle, but he wrapped up everything in sight in this game and was clearly getting competent opponents into akward positions for quick play the ball.
2 - Packer - Taumaranui no more?
1 - Matulino

The forwards were great to watch, they're starting to charge the line and take the pass just before the line, if we can get some of that short passing game between the forwards like we used to have back in the day with the likes of Seuseu, we will be extremely difficult to handle.

 

[TheDMC]

1. Packer
2. Matulino
3. Taylor

Sigh, shake of the head. Inu

 

[Campion]

3. Matulino
2. Packer
1. Taylor

 

[Warmess]

3. Packer
2. Matulino
1. Tupou

Maloney had an average game, but I don't really blame him, he was playing a lone hand for the most part. People giving Godinet points? He made one kick which Tupou made look good.

Impressed with Benry this game, he actually looked like a centre. First time this year I can recall where we've gone through the hands and our centre actually passed the ball to the winger and put him in space.

Overall, I think that was a pretty complete performance, one that would destroy most sides. I just hope we can have Locke/JRo back at fullback.

 

[One Warrior]

3. Packer
2. Matulino
1. Vatuvei

2 very good trys from Tupou, fraid to say Inu cost us this game.

 

[Drzoidberg]

Can't split it between Mannering, Packer and Matulino. Great effort apart from a few and their hands.

Our halves however, kicks were shit, nfi in there 20. With that much ball we should've been up by 6 - 12 points at halftime, not let them back in. We never got them down because we couldn't execute when we should've. Goddamn we missed the magic of Johnson, I thought we looked directionless without him, is that saying something about him or how good Melbournes D is.

Very disappointed, we had shot to beat them. Some awesome sets of D keeping them deep in their half. Pity we threw it all away.

 

[Mixmasterreece]

3. Packer
2. Manu
1. Matulino

Overall Im pretty happy with that performance. We looked like a top 4 team and would of pushed the competition leaders right to the line if it wasn't for Inu.

The refs kept the storm in the game in the first half with 2 howlers, and Inu brought them right back at the end.

In the end the difference was Kevin Locke going off after 5 minutes.

I think we got a glimpse in that first 60 minutes of what the team might be capable of under bluey. That's the first time we've seen any sort of stucture of game plan from our boys - I dont believe we saw that in any of our 3 wins. So for me, this was the best performance this year.

 

[ozbash]

3 - Matulino
2 - ET
1 - Benry

good to see Freind run with the ball

shame for Kev, looks like he might be gone for a while.

 

[AliN]

3. Matulino
2. Packer
1. Taylor

Yep that'll do me as well.
We had that game until.. Buggerit

 

[Benek]

1. Packer / Matulino
2. Taylor
3. Tupou

-1000 Inu

If Locke doesn't leave injured I think we win that game, even with Godinet doing almost noting.

Our forwards killed it up the middle and we got nothing to show for it because of stupid errors. I think every single one of the Storm tries came off us giving up posession in our half. Plus the penalty count didn't help.

The Storm scored three tries in that huge left side weak spot. They almost looked like replays of each other. Every team for the rest of the season will continue to attack that same spot. Do we have a plan to fix it up?

Inu almost single-handedly lost that game for us. I will be shocked if he ever gets a start again this year. That's a shame for us because if he had a brain he could be an excellent player.

On the bright side, we have a lot of recovery time now before the next game. I hope Locke and Johnson are back.