Just watched another replay of the game and It's still a joy to watch.
Credit to the Bulldogs. When Perrett scored I dropped my head thinking they came to play and were going to do what a lot of people expected them to do and that's switch on. We done what Manly, Storm, Souths and the Roosters have done all year and that's defend our line and only walked away with a try. If those shots on McManus didn't happen, I doubt they would have even scored. But the Dogs' repeat sets and forcing dropouts was something to congratulate them about. The old us would have been defeated then and there.
But our defence was easily the most impressive thing. We forced error after error and matched it with their forwards. Every time they seemed to get the ball rolling we would be up in their face with Scott, Smith, Mase or Robbie driving them into the ground and forcing an error or simply stopping any chance of making easy metres. Even when they were off, it was either Gus or Hadley that called McKinnon, Nev, Hilder and House the "Bench Brigade" and boy, didn't they carry on with the job huh? Hilder is getting better each game and I hope Wayne decides to pick him over Gower especially if Craig goes another year with us (Perfect to ease in Clydsdale)
House's sin bin I'm mixed about. He could have gone on a better angle when getting back into the defensive line however, Ennis ran into him. He noticed him and ran right at him trying to get that penalty. If House ran into him or changed his line at any point to make contact then I understand but simply he didn't. It's funny how since the Cronk Farce we've had a bloke sent and House binned, both extremely harsh.
To all those who criticised Roberts when Gower arrived, f**k you :lol: He was spectacular. That pass to McManus closer to the end was spot on and how the referees called that forward I'll never understand. Simply, he's doing what I think a lot of people wanted him to do and that's structure the team. He played with complete confidence and kept his composure on the big stage. Mullen (never thought I'd talk about Tyrone before him) was again outstanding. He controlled the game with his left boot, forcing repeat sets, perfectly placed kick for Aku and gave Tyrone the field position to take control. Otherwise, his defence was just like everyone else, just perfect.
The refs seemed very one sided. Sitting in 103, I could see the Dogs left defence racing up well before the ball is played that stopped us from putting more points on them out wide where as Mullo got pulled up for being off side after we took them out of play. The penalty was fair but it goes both way. It wasn't just on our line as well.
Our vets stood up. I was hoping that they would step up throughout the week and their experience would rub onto the young blokes. No one had a bad game. Scott and Smith were just so good in defence and smacked them before really forcing their middle defenders to work hard and it paid off for Smith and his try. Again, Bedsy was unbelievable good. His leadership is the biggest thing we'll miss and I think Smith, Scott and Mase will be forced to carry that as the most experienced blokes on the field. But our young blokes were phenomenal. Robbie's quick inside ball to Boyd was phenomenal, Gagai should kick into goal more often with Aku and him forcing a repeat set. Give Slater no room on Saturday and I think it will work. BJ and Jimmy were on fire again.
Finally, the our fans were incredible. Whichever merkin said in the other thread that we didn't turn up is kidding themselves. Four bays close to full wearing the red and blue. The "Ennis Sits When He Pees" was absolutely hilarious. Random and makes no sense but absolutely hilarious. The blokes behind me had no idea what they were talking about half the time but kept yelling out asking if it was the "7th tackle yet" over some odd calls.
Phew, that was a bit to write
But the scoreboard was a true reflection of a Wayne Bennett side. Not many points in it, but the fact is we controlled the game. We could have scored a lot more points but we didn't. BRING ON THE STORM
