First Grade Knights v Warriors

[Whats Doing]

Its been said a thousand times, but do you not realise that Faas and Wicks are impact players, injected after the hard graft is done by Tolar and Royal?

We were on the back of a 6-0 penalty count and some terrible dropped ball in the first 20 minutes. Some of those penalties could have went the other way, but very few were from our front two. (end quote)

Royal gave away 2 penalties in the first 6 against us. :crazy:

 

[Pika]

50/50 strip was one. Unlucky call, and frankly, he was one on one and winning the wrestle. Had he released, there was an offlaod opportunity.

We just have to take those penalties on the chin.

 

[BG]

When Royal and Tolar went off we went from 14-0 down to 14-12 down in 20 minutes.

Surely that was mainly the penalty/possession flow turn around. Royal's responsibilty for some of the penalties is arguable (and has been debated) but is separate from his value in keeping our middle solid in defence and his ability to give us go forward.

The game against Parra was less of an anomaly in terms of proceedings being dictated by the ref and therefore a better guide imho. In that game it was glaringly obvious that our defence suffered when Royal and Tolar were replaced. When Wicks and Faaoso were on in the latter stages of the first half, Parra carved us up the middle and that's really when we lost the game.

 

[BG]

Wes and Keith were both very average

Bit tough on Lulia imho. Didn't see much of the ball and I'm not really expecting him to manufacture authority on a game out of nothing at this stage of his career. Of the few times he touched the ball he actually looked pretty classy. A nice offload in that movement in which Bedsy handled three times. And at the end of the game, when we were desperate and threw it wide coming off our line he ran a really good angle off Patto and then gave a great flick pass to Hilder.

While he hasn't stamped himself on a game for us yet, I like the fact that he's given us little showcases of a diversity of skills. We've seen good hard running to find the try line, an impressive fend to make a break against the Sea Eagles and the nice touches against the Warriors mentioned above. Take out that gut-wrenching dropped catch at silly mid-off against Parra, and I think we can summarise Lulia thus far as a guy still finding his confidence in first grade but showing glimpses of class when given the opportunity. I'm not yet convinced, but I do see potential. I suspect he'll make way for Doogs this week though.