My player by player analysis:
1. McKinnon - Played okay. Made an unbelievable effort to regather from his own knock on and hold on to the ball while coming down (no idea how the ref put a scrum down as it didn't go anywhere near touching a Tiger before being regathered). Shame he came off, but should be back soon. Expect to see Burt start at fullback with Petersen coming onto the wing next week.
2. Burt - Seemed to have trouble remembering which way was forward fairly often, but proved fairly elusive and did make a few good metres. Covered well for McKinnon when he came off. Note: He actually started on the left wing with Tahu. Had goal kicking duty and did well, although I expected him to make the conversion on the Morrison try as well.
3. Wagon - Quite solid. Threatened a couple of times and I think I may have even spotted a pass. Solid tackling, but offered no protection for Grothe under the high ball.
4. Tahu - Good one-on-one defence... sat a couple of Tigers on their tails. Threatening with the ball. Looked more dangerous when he switched to the wing. Great intercept at the death and a good buy for the club.
5. Grothe - Woeful start... had no protection on the bomb, but not too much pressure either and should have caught it no problems. Let another bomb bounce later on and that can get dangerous. I think he should focus on the footy and give the music a rest during the season. Had no trouble pushing off the first defender, but was always gang tackled. He MUST play on the LEFT wing as he needs to get outside his man and fend with his RIGHT hand. I have no idea why he is being switched with Burt to start on the right wing. One play really inspired me... he physically moved Marsh out of dummy half to take a DHR himself. Deserved the benefit of the doubt on his disallowed try.
6. Morris - Played solidly in attack and defence. Stuck to his word and helped Timmy out all day, taking a lot of pressure off him. Put in a few good long kicks and bombs.
7. Smith - Good debut, but not exceptional. Put in a few very clever short kicks... which could have led to tries if the chase was better. Put on a great step and fired a bullet pass which would of been a great play had Cayless not decided to catch the dropsies virus at that exact moment. Marshalled the troops well and picked out the right man more often than not. Quite solid in defence... did well to swat the ball out of an opponent's hands to force a knock-on both ways scrum. Did a couple of silly things when he had way too much time... eg. dummied a kick on the 5th tackle with no-one near him and passed into the middle of the field with nothing on; dropped the ball cold a few metres out from the Tigers line. Overall, dealt with the pressure well and refused to be intimidated by any of the Tigers.
8. Peek - Solid, without doing anything special. Some good work in defence. Did well to be Adam on the spot for Hodgo's fumble.
9. Riddell - Provided some okay service from dummy half. Seemed to play better when he came back on in the second row against a tiring defence. Good one-on-one defence. Made a great break and, while he should have been cut down about 10 metres out, he made it to 1m away. I thought, if only Riddell was in at dummy half to barge over from there, but he was the one playing the ball. D'oh. Took his first opportunity at a barge over a few minutes later anyway and again, deserved the benefit of the doubt. The ref was standing right over the top of it... how he could have decided to go to the video ref for that astounds me.
10. Stringer - Similar to Peek. Solid, without doing anything special.
11. Robinson - Fairly average. A lot of dropped ball and a very bad attempt to pass off the ground. Could probably use some time in PL to be honest.
12. Cayless - Some solid tackling in the middle. Unfortunate head clash with his Tigers opposite, but came back on later. A bit of risky offloading, but calculated and paid off.
13. Morrison - Possibly the buy of the year. A machine that played equally well at lock and at centre when McKinnon came off. His try right on half time was inspirational, as was his defence throughout, chasing down players and bundling them into touch. Definitely MOTM.
14. PJ Marsh - Provided good service from dummy half. Still feeling his way back in and (understandably) touchy about his neck which resulted in throwing the ball at Skando (a player that would a lot more respect from me if he cut out all the niggling crap). Needs to work on his kicking. Will improve through the season.
16. Hindmarsh - Picked up where he left off. Almost felt sorry for Reynolds when Hindy picked him up cold and threw him down like a rag doll. Between him and Morro, they chased down all the breaks in the second half.
17. Cannings - Impact. He provided it off the bench and left it on the ground when he tripped over running back to the defencive line. Great try... there was no way speed bumb Hodgo was going to stop him. Attracted a lot of attention and has cemented his spot in the top 17.
19. Perenara - Didn't do too much when he was on. Could have scored a try if he chased one of Smith's kicks properly instead of stopping and propping. Ended up with the next best result though, ie. a Tigers dropout.
Ref - Woeful. Seemed to give random penalties on both sides. Missed high tackles from both sides. Was pretty good with dropped ball rulings (most of the time). Should not have called on the video ref for the Riddell decision. Will be happy if he goes back to Pommie land and never referees another Eels match.
Video Ref - Should be hung, drawn, quartered, flayed and shot. He made 1 correct decision out of 4. Richards try was a clear dropped ball, even the Tigers fans around me hung their heads when they saw the replay. The video ref looked at it 20 times and did not even check all the angles (one new angle was shown after the decision was made), but it was clear from the very first replay anyway. He got the Morris try right. The Grothe no-try, there is no way that he could see conclusively whether it came off Grothe or the Tigers player... should have been benefit of the doubt to the attacking side. The Riddell no-try, again, inconclusive and should have been a refs call since he was standing right on top of the frickin' play.
Overall - defense has improved out of sight. The second half was a complete shut-out. The two tries were: 1) a lucky dropped ball from a bomb; 2) a dropped ball over the line because of the Eels pressure. Areas to work on are: ball handling, combinations and kick chases.
Assuming McKinnon is unavailable and Widders is available again, I'm expecting next week's team not to include too many changes, and to be names as:
1. Burt
2. Petersen
3. Wagon
4. Tahu
5. Grothe
6. Morris
7. Smith
8. Peek
9. Riddell
10.Stringer
11.Hindmarsh
12.Cayless
13.Morrison
14.Marsh
15.Widders
16.Robinson (or possibly a prop/second-rower from PL if anyone really stood out)
17.Cannings
18.Perenara
Hope he's back soon.
