keeney said:
I got that feeling too, but the penalty count at one stage was 10-3 in our favour? or thereabouts.
The penalty count is a reflection of which is the dirtier team and which is the least disciplined. It's remarkable how effective the Storm defence is in slowing everything down, but managing to speed up their own play-the-balls. The first is done with plenty of attention to the head and face, and the second with subtle techniques for making it seem like the defender has lingered too long.
In general, I'm not too unhappy. It was a big improvement on last week insofar as the intensity of the team. The final Storm try was just unfortunate (no surprises though that it was Reegan Tanner who missed his man). The Storm's tries came on the back of a couple of dodgy calls -- a forward pass that was missed by everyone that mattered, and another 50:50 call in the lead up to the second.
It's nice to know that our intensity has lifted, and that even when we're not playing our best we can play better than the top team in the competition. I just think that when it matters, we still are not able to make the full 80 minutes. We certainly came close today.
An outstanding performance from Jarrod Mullen -- he set up our first two tries with killer kicks and accurate passing. I thought he outplayed his more recognised halves partner, and came up with a strong defensive effort too. Perry was good until he gave away the stupid penalty with the Storm struggling to get out of their own end... vintage Perry that. A strong performance from Buderus too.
Dont have fox...how did abes go?
Abes was fairly quiet -- didn't do too much but didn't really make any stuff ups. Much like the others -- few terrible performances among the team, but a lot of sloppiness at crucial times. There is a good reason the Storm are on the top of the table: they make the big plays when they count, make their tackles and don't let sloppiness linger too much. We're still learning to be better on some of these things.
