It's hard to accurately rate the season with the first two rounds, the easy draw we've been given, and what is honestly a lot of easy excuses to make (injury, disruption from Josh Morris and Xerri, COVID break, etc).. but I think we're trackin well above expectation with a lot of work left to do. Considering the rest of the field, reckon we should finish 5th/6th and threaten the Top 4 (we're at the level of Parra and Canberra, well behind Penrith, Storm, Roosters) but too much slop around the edges so I reckon we'll finish 7th/8th.
1. Attack [7.5] -- scoring points easily and seem to tend to get back into opp half when we aren't conceding repeat sets, but a fair bit of going missing and a lot of moments where we're lost. We're learning to run off Johnson now which changes everything.. attack is there, it's just combinations and timing which will look after themselves if we stay consistent 1-17
2. Defence [5] -- Looks like we're about to start defending a lot better, but our line speed is shot as mentioned above, ball control is shot (when an offload goes, no one's on the support runner), poor options, lack of concentration and giving up metres makes us super fkn vulnerable against the good sides
3. Goal Kicking [7] -- Shaun's doing well this year, can't blame him for missing 3 in a monsoon yesterday
4. Coaching [7] -- wanted to give a 6 for rounds 3-8 and all the chopping and changing in the three-quarters in particular, but now the team seems close to set and the young guys have pulled us through a rough injury patch you can't fault the spirit that's in the team. We look very motivated, and as far as recruitment goes... just didn't imagine Johnson, Brailey, Talakai, Hunt, Kennedy and Katoa to fire like they have, so gotta give credit to Bomber
5. Ball Control [6] -- Crucial dropped balls and errors preventing us from winning the close ones, but we're putting so many points on the board that it's hard to complain too much.
6. Captaincy [7] -- Wade's been pretty steady, but it looks from the outside that the pushing is coming from the young guys, and they're following Johnson and the pigs. In saying that, last few weeks, Wade being in everything has to be motivating. Seems smarter this year too
7. Penalties & Set Restarts for [?] -- not sure how to rate a stat outside of our control, but we don't seem to get gifted many restarts. I like that our squad isn't milking it as much this year though... I think it's good for the young guys to stick in rather than flop around like the Gal/Fifita/Woods years
8. Penalties & Set Restarts against [3] -- dunno how we give so many away, lazy stuff often poorly timed
9. Shape [7] -- We seem fit as considering the break.
10. Resilience [8] -- Penrith game aside, we've been in it and bouncing back almost every other round. Thought we deserved to win the first two games before the break too, and we seem to be in it and pushing the whole game.
