So I've just watched the first 27 minutes of the game. There was some seriously concerning signs from the outset.
From Panthers second set of the game, there was no line speed. They weren't neccessarily playing the ball any faster than us at this stage, we just sat there and waited for them to reach our defensive line.
Then, on the other side their line speed was relentless.
Were we seriously gassed after 2 minutes? I suspect not. We weren't ready to play a grand final. No way.
One thing I've thought for a while that we do far too often is run straight into the marker, and this was on show again last night. We were easy pickings for them.
The kick on the first tackle was a good play really, and we then had them 5 metres out from their tryline. But why wasnt this backed up with line speed and smash the shit out of them? We had them right where we wanted them - but no, Tackle 1 was 5 metres out, Tackle 2 15 metres out, Tackle 3 22 metres out, Tackle 4 30 metres out and Tackle 5, 41 metres out. All just from one out hit ups.
In contrast our responding set of six was
Tackle 1 16 metres out, Tackle 2 19 metres out, Tackle 3 23 metres out, Tackle 4 26 metres out, Tackle 5 34 metres out. We then kick inside their 20 metres and tackle 1 was 35 metres out. They score off this set of six on Tackle 5. Where was the kick chase to start? To start the set, it was non existent and again we waited for them to run into us. Just sat back and waited.
After we kick off they made 60 metres on 5 tackles and it literally became all too hard from there, the Panthers just took the easy metres on offer and we let them control the game.
Were they that great in this first 20 metres or were we just not up for the contest like we should've been?
I can't believe that a team who is ready to play in a grand final, basically stops moving up in defence after the first set of six in the match. It's not hard, it wasn't tactical brilliance, it was just laziness.
We were in no way ready and in the right frame of mind to play a grand final.
Disappointing really.