No excuses this time (Spoilers)

[Fairleigh Good!]

I know it will instantly amaze you all, but Ganson was fantastic tonight. His control of the play the balls and the 10 was superb, easily the best ref in this regard in the tournament. Holding down and messing about in the tackle was never allowed to become an issue and it resulted in a far more open and entertaining game. Sure he missed a few things, but his touchies were shocking tonight, refusing on a few occasions to give him any help.

The commentators never mentioned the play the balls once tonight because of Ganson. It was a world apart from the mess allowed by Mander. You will think I'm wrong, but the English wouldn't have had any issues with Ganson. Its something they need to sort out immediately so there is only one version of league played.

GB's pack were again great. They laid a platform once more that a talented back line would have won from the game off. The amount of times we get into superb field position with tackles to spare and do nothing with it is unbelievable. The defining moments in the whole series for me came when GB were camped on the Roos line, surely going to score. Who steps up from the halves to calve them open and secure the try? Keiron Cunningham! He is the only player GB has with the ability and more importantly the willingness to ask questions of the opposition defense. Who kicks to force the repeat set when Cunningham fails? Paul Johnson! That said it all.

I felt the schedule beat GB tonight as much as anything Australia did. Playing 4 games in a row like that is going to hurt and the second half saw Fielden, Peacock and Morley all obviously playing with injuries. Despite this our pack was still well on top.

You have to credit Bennett tonight. Seeing the GB pack was getting on top he instructed them to go around GB from inside their own 20. It worked wonderfully and allowed Australia to steal field position that the pack wouldn't have been able to provide and the try to Tate. Minichello was the Man of the Match tonight and is easily Australia's most impressive player of the series. 1-7 look amazing, 8-17 look very beatable.

I think the key next week is Australia's discipline. It was shocking again tonight. So many needless penalties for stupid messing/flopping/holding down in the tackle. When penalised the reactions were foolish. They were confronting the referee and questioning obvious decisions. The perfect example is Barrett. Australia are told next penalty will be a sin binning. What does he do? Holds onto Fielden in the next set and forces the ref to send him. Then he walks from the field shaking his head, clapping and laughing. Other Australia players moan to the referee about it, when it was as clear as daylight.

There will be a lot of calls for Noble to be replaced as GB coach, probably by Ian Millward. That won't help because as mentioned in the commentary the player pool is too shallow to allow us to be competitive regularly. As Millward mentioned in the press in the week, of the 204 players that start each round in Super League next season, only 102 will be eligible to play for GB. Until that changes international league will be Australia versus New Zealand.

Highlight from tonight? Morley on O'Donnell. Whammo!

 

[JasonE]

Disagree with that assessment, i thought GB's pack were less than average with only Higham looking dangerous. Paul Johnson proved he is nowhere near an international forward and his attempt on Gasnier was embarrassing. Besides Higham the only other bright note for GB was Pryce, I thought he played quite well in a badly beaten side.

 

[League Freak™]

I love this type of stupidity.


27 years of being dominated by Australia, having not won a series of any kind since 1993....but no excuses THIS time. :lol:

 

[Fairleigh Good!]

GB's pack was beaten in the second half, but over the series they have more than matched their opponents.

It is our lack of backs and in particular half backs that have killed us.

 

[ucantseeme]

Australia's defense was superb but considering it was 12 vs 13 for a quarter of the game I would have expected more tries from GB.

The GB forward pack were good but I found they weren't getting over the advantage line as easily as OZ, mainly due to one out running thus lack of variety in attack.

Mickey Higham was their best best player and Keith Senior their worst.

Matt Cooper/Anthony Minichello were our best and Trent Barrett obviously our worst.

I agree the number imports in ESL needs to be reviewed because GB wont win more than the occasional game against OZ or NZ unless they have a bigger talent pool. Also playing in a competition where they participate in intense football each round like the NRL where there are no easy matches, would be beneficial.

Perhaps coaches in the UK need to lift their game as well and develop new tactics and gameplans to help the game evolve over there.

 

[AuckMel]

Ganson is, CRAP and GB were ordinary.

Never looked like scoring until the Aussies were a man down and the game was as good as over.

GB should be gutted after last weeks peformance. Then again, maybe it says more about the Kiwis performance.

 

[Fairleigh Good!]

Ganson is, CRAP and GB were ordinary.

Never looked like scoring until the Aussies were a man down and the game was as good as over.

GB should be gutted after last weeks peformance. Then again, maybe it says more about the Kiwis performance.

What about Ganson did you object to? Decision making? Play the balls? 10?

I think GB gave up pretty much after they came away from the first half behind when they should have been winning.

 

[RB30DETT]

He wont be getting any Christmas Cards from Trent this year...lol

 

[ParraDude_Jay]

What about Ganson did you object to? Decision making? Play the balls? 10?

The problem is in Super League, they don't hold down and aren't coached to hold down in the tackle, but NRL players are. So when a Super League referee is the ref of Aus (100% NRL players) v's GB (all but one SL players) then he favours the GB team because it's how he refs week to week in Super League.

Who's fault is that? Not Ganson's, BENNETT'S! If Wayne Bennett didn't piss and moan about Glen Black then there'd be no problem. But he can't do that, he has to kick up a stink and get his way, so then a Super League referee is binning Australian players because they play a different style over there to over here.

 

[AuckMel]

What about Ganson did you object to? Decision making? Play the balls? 10?

Yea, pretty much the whole package. Right through the series he's been found wanting.

Could easily have cost the Kiwis victory in Sydney, but has now gone overboard with his usage of the VR. For someone who stands 20m in front of play, I'm not surprised he misses so many forward passes.

His PTB rulings today were very one-sided.

I think GB gave up pretty much after they came away from the first half behind when they should have been winning.

Ok.

 

[Iafeta]

What about the

"We could have used another warm up game"

excuse? Or has that one worn thin now?

 

[innsaneink]

What about the

"We could have used another warm up game"

excuse? Or has that one worn thin now?

No,.....its the other end of the scale now.

I felt the schedule beat GB tonight as much as anything Australia did. Playing 4 games in a row like that is going to hurt and the second half saw Fielden, Peacock and Morley all obviously playing with injuries. Despite this our pack was still well on top.

 

[bartman]

I thought Mickey Higham was really the only real breath of fresh air... set up two tries though support play and chiming in to create a movement. There wasn't much of that creativity in attack apart from him, nothing really doing (again) in the halves?

The GB forwards were tough and laid a platform initially but nothing came of it, and it was one way traffic in the second half - even if it was sometimes Aussie backs making the yards and keeping the roll on. Injuries may have been why the GB forwards weren't too effective in the second half, but that also reflects on the bench selections.

For me the turning point was while Barrett was first off, GB evened up with the try, but the Fitzgibbon almost planted one back under the posts while Australia were one man down. Demoralising. And then they scored anyway to take a lead into the break. Unfortunately the six point margin seemed to spell game over, instead of a toughly contested second half?

 

[ledzep]

The stupidest decision was taking the two points after Barrett got binned for the first time

 

[PARRA_FAN]

They really did miss Sculthorpe, good captain for GB. The last two wins for GB against Australia were on the back of his leadership, he lifted his team. Probably wouldnt have changed much if he played last night. GB play a different style, they like the physical stuff up front. Theyre good in almost every position, except the halves. They havent had a good half that's killed us in ages. Plus theyre not fast enough, however I think theyre wingers are still world class. Brian Carney will do well for Newcastle next year.

 

[ForestDragon]

Australia's defense was superb but considering it was 12 vs 13 for a quarter of the game I would have expected more tries from GB.


I agree the number imports in ESL needs to be reviewed because GB wont win more than the occasional game against OZ or NZ unless they have a bigger talent pool. Also playing in a competition where they participate in intense football each round like the NRL where there are no easy matches, would be beneficial.

Sums it up perfectly,GB will never be able to compete witn Australia and NZ unless changes are made to the structure of League in the UK.

 

[strong_latte]

I know it will instantly amaze you all, but Ganson was fantastic tonight. His control of the play the balls and the 10 was superb, easily the best ref in this regard in the tournament. Holding down and messing about in the tackle was never allowed to become an issue and it resulted in a far more open and entertaining game. Sure he missed a few things, but his touchies were shocking tonight, refusing on a few occasions to give him any help.

The commentators never mentioned the play the balls once tonight because of Ganson. It was a world apart from the mess allowed by Mander. You will think I'm wrong, but the English wouldn't have had any issues with Ganson. Its something they need to sort out immediately so there is only one version of league played.

Are you f#cking serious? Ganson was an absolute JOKE! I've never seen a ref try harder to keep an outclassed team in a game! GB were spinning and flopping on tackles all the time, but conced around 2 penelty's! Australia on the other hand got penelised for everything and anything, and Barret's 2 sin bins were an absolute joke! I guarantee you that it wouldn't have even been given a penelty comming from an English player under Ganson. Mander was crap, but compared to Ganson he looks pretty bloody good now.

 

[Jeffles]

Ganson was not consistent. But ultimately it had no bearing on the game. GB made little use of their advantage. Superb defence from the Aussies. You can really tell that the Roos players play intense matches week in week out. The professionalism is evident. They are a technically sound team to watch. Coaching videos should be made of them.

To score points against them you need to be enterprising like NZ are normally and how GB were at times. It took the Aussies to have someone sin binned for them to let in their tries.

That is the problem with GB, they are not enterprising. In attack, the Aussies will mix it up. Forwards run at back and vice versa. The Aussies throw the extra pass and offload because they know if things go wrong, they will back themselves in defence to minimise the damage.

GB don't know much more than how to run one out. When they offloaded they were dangerous. But they rarely offloaded due to a lack of support play. In the lead up to both tries Higham was used well. GB's plan to have a forward hit up the ball (drawing a few defenders) then offloading to a quick and agile Higham who could exploit those gaps worked a treat. Certainly better than GB's use of Burrow. Problem is GB didn't do this enough.

Another strength of GB's in attack is the use of the threeequarters. GB rarely went wide. The threequarters are also liabilities in defence and the Roos exploited this perfectly.

I thought Morley was great for the Poms. His hit on O'Donnell was vintage Lions - the spirit they need to recapture if they are going to become a force. I dare say they have gone backwards since 2003-04. They need more intensity all year round. Superleague will slowly improve. For a quicker fix, some players should spend a year or two out in Australia.

 

[Pierced Soul]

Ganson - "he's about 2 m in from touch lets go to the video ref to see if we can somehow find fault in the try". i thought he was ordinary. i think he favoured GB hell of a lot and they got a lot of quick starts in the defensive line. sure there wasnt excessive holding in the play the balls, but you werent allowed time to get off the tackled pom... er player either.

the british halves were useless. I dont think i've seen a creative british half since andy gregory, and whilst people may say the back could match it with aus, the centres never saw the ball and did nothing, and wellens is useless. the best backs were wingers and that says something - coming up against 2 australian wingers who usually play in the centres they still didnt exactly carve up the opposition.

tyhe only way gb will develop is if they cut the quota, get coaches over there who can actually nurture creative players and continue to play hard internationals. let them come over to aus and get flogged mid-season every year, eventually you'd think they'd learn something...oh wait how many years since gb/england last won a series againjst australia?