Yes, we won the first two matches. But as I have said before, those matches were against the Eels, who are doing worse than us, and Manly, who didn't win a game until about round 7 from memory. Placing the consequent lack of form solely on Fien's dropping is pointless, the problems with the 2009 season were deeply rooted well before Fien was dropped.
Agreed.
I hear that a lot "Fien won 2-2 at halfback to start the season". What a load.
We beat a sh*thouse Eels side at home round 1, we then beat the Sea Eagles but while Fien might have been starting halfback we wouldn't of won that game without Stacey, and then people quickly forget that Fien was the starting halfback against the Broncos, a game we were beaten comfortably in.
Fien's record is 1 win, 1 loss, 1 Stacey assisted win. Hardly inspiring, and this is coming from someone who would prefer Fien at halfback to Stacey.
Facts are something was wrong well before they took the field. They've looked physically and mentally slow for most of the year. Perhaps a general lack of fitness, perhaps the pre-season was just too disrupted due to the Fai tragedy, maybe the training staff experimented and it backfired, who knows. Point is we were screwed before the season started, we just hadn't realised it yet.
