Register a free account today to become a member of the world's largest Rugby League discussion forum! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
Yep he was great , very composed and full of confidence in this game. He's a talent , people just have to give him time. Next year he will be even better. He's a former junior Roo, the potential is there.
Yeh they arent far off are they, maybe people could argue Lyon and Matai ? but they will fade in the next year or so. This backline we have has huge potential , cant recall being more excited about a backline for a very long time. They could be anything.
.
Will mostly be echoing stuff people have already said but:
Outstanding and committed performance. Honestly it is what I expected we would produce come finals time. We really took them on in defence and up the middle, which is one of the Bulldogs traditional strengths. Wayne said in the presser that taking them on in the middle was part of our plan, which surprised me a bit. But it did force the Dogs into throwing it round more than they probably should have, and our edge defence was up to it. Guys like Scott were immense in this regard, also Gagai made numerous quality reads and Joseph is turning into a fine young player.
I thought our first 15 minutes was very average actually. We looked slow in attack, almost reminiscent of that period when we were playing our worst football. The hit on McManus should have been penalised and could be at least partially to blame for their only try. After that 15 minute mark we had 5 minutes of outstanding D which may have snapped the boys out of their funk, while at the same time was probably the winning of the game.
The bench came on and mostly continued to do the work. Hilder was very solid although I must admit I was counting down the minutes until Buderus came back on. What else can we say about the bloke, what an absolute legend. McKinnon I thought was very good and brings good aggression in D, can't believe some people don't think he belongs in our 17. Smith was huge, and Mason had a roughish start but definitely came good.
The sin bin of Houston I thought was fair, after all we've been calling for these kind of calls all year. Just a bit ironic that it happened to us. I will say that in the play previous leading up to the intercept Ennis should have definitely been penalised for blatantly working Roberts over after the tackle was complete. However karma had its say and the grub had a shit game and gave away numerous penalties (and gave me plenty of lols when he complained to the ref that we were sooking :lol
Oh yeah, the other thing was our kick chase. Plenty of red and blue shirts there to meet the Dogs backs in the in-goal numerous times.
Incredible! Boyd, Mullen, Rochow and Tyrone who made the diving tackle!
Incredulous! Why didn't you have your people escort them to a more... suitable... area of the grandstand?
