As a Souths fan, let me say well done lads! Real quality performance under enormous pressure! The biggest thing that you guys have going for you is the atmosphere at Parramatta stadium! Its almost like a 14th player out there! Why you guys play games at ANZ I'll never know! I definitely agree that the whole Parra team stepped up tonight! I was very impressed with De Gois and your outside backs! I don't think there were any bad players for you guys tonight! My only criticism of your side and I've thought this for a while now, is Jarryd Hayne as captain. I feel that the way he speaks to referees is a weakness of his. It didn't show through that much tonight but it has at times this season and often when he gets into a running battle with referees and starts screeching at them, his games goes to shite! As I said, it didn't happen that much tonight but he still gave away a silly penalty that on another day might have cost you guys. From an outside perspective, I feel that Nathan Peats looks like the biggest leader in your team. His talk and organisational skills are in the Cameron Smith mold and I feel he'd be alot more composed when it comes to handling refs!
Also, I'm not so sure I'd agree with the refs staying in the background. There were a couple of really dubious calls and some bizarre decisions that will probably dominate the morning papers. I felt the Sandow disallowed try was an absolute disgrace! Its hard to believe a player who has played as many first grade games as Luke Patten could come up with such a bizarre decision. I also though the ref stopping play to check for any foul play on Cherry-Evans was mind blowing; it seems now the refs can stop the game at any point they want to check these things. Finally, I'd like to know how the referees came to the conclusion that those two parra players (I cant remember who they were) performed a crusher tackle on the Manly player! It was ridiculous!
No doubt there were more dubious calls and Geoff Toovey will find something to whinge about like he always does. However, let me say this does anyone else agree that the referee and video referee shouldn't be allowed to stop general play and go back and check for all these ridiculous incidents of foul play, bad tackles etc.? It just slows the game down and ruins the spectacle for the fans! Isn't that why the match review committee was introduced? To pick things up that refs missed and then refer them to the judiciary? I think the whole NRL community needs to accept that refs are going to miss some things and that the game cannot keep getting stopped to check everything; let the match review committee handle it! However, I think the referees may escape alot criticism because it was such a good game! Nevertheless, what was good was that although there were some bad calls the refs didn't decide the outcome of the game. Well done Parra!
