The 2nd tackle of the match set the tone for me. We had them trapped in their 10 and lane just lies there. The next 10 or so minutes we were starting every set inside our 10. Some good points made about our backs not getting our sets off to a good start but it’s never easy inside your own 10. A set restart or two was deserved but not given in these circumstances. To much one out from our middle. We need bodies in motion to attract defenders. The amount of times penrith got 4 in a tackle was ridiculous.
The first time we attack the king is waving to the camera when Moses hits him on the chest with the ball. Someone said Moses shouldn’t have thrown it. Why not? He was in a little space, I agree it didn’t look like much was on but it was a better option than Moses getting tackled.
Kane f*ck off to Warriors already Evans thinks he is such a tough man. He stands over the tackled player with a minute to go and gives up a set restart. For his size he is actually a pussy. We go in leading bar that. Penrith would have been down on confidence but right on half time they get a boost.
We get into an arm wrestle in the second half and Lane drops the ball. For pretty much the rest of the half we were on the back foot. It’s only one of many mistakes but it was the one that gave penrith the momentum.
To many stupid mistakes that good teams don’t make or at least limit. Like gutho not bothering to attempt to catch the kick for the second try. We cut them out and we get more attacking opportunities. We may not have used them but I’d rather be shitty of our attack being inept then not getting enough chances to try.
Once they score that second try we we no chance. To much energy expended defending. Having said that why would you not take a short drop out with just over 3 minutes to go? I know we were not going to go the length of the field but you got to at least try. Then off the kick off after the penalty goal. Why no short kick off? They were playing for a 12 point loss, not good enough.
People bagging Moses, I get it. Cleary is clearly a better half and I thought this at the start of the season when most were bagging him and blowing Moses. If you swap them tonight and we would be saying Cleary is a downhill skier and how good was Moses. He copped some shit for his kicking game I thought was unfair. He was on the back foot most of the time deep in his own half. Most of the time the only reason we had some field position was how deep he kicked it. Hard to find touch in those situations. Better kick chase would help also. He certainly needs to take a few more risks, especially towards the back of the game. He has gone from trying to score off every play to not trying anything.
Lastly what the f*ck is the go with Sutton? I have no issue with any restart calls against us bar the first one he gave in the second half. However I seen plenty he should have given us. Luai spent the whole game tackling around the head, not one penalty. We had a lot of bad luck with some of the six to go calls but I have no problem that they were the right calls. But we got none of the 50/50 calls while defending our line, or at least that’s how it felt.