I enjoyed this game, but obviously I’m disappointed we didn’t win. A couple of brief points:
- There is a few comments that our forwards are “soft”, they were “owned” etc, only Yeo was any good. I just don’t understand these comments. My own eyes could see that we rolled forward without too many problems and they couldn’t stop us getting into their red zone. A quick Look at the stats shows that the Cowboys forwards were the ones that were owned. A single player, Jordon McLean (126m) made more than 100m. For the Panthers every starting forward and some of the bench made more than 100m. Leota 154m (a welcome return to form), Smith 111m, Papalii 140m, Martin 127m, Yeo 168m, Henry 136m. Tackle breaks in the forwards were 20 to 10!
Let’s just stop this nonsense. Our problem wasn’t our forwards, they laid a good platform for our backs, missed very few tackles and made plenty of tackle breaks.
- When you look at that backline, as noted by many on here, if it isn’t the slowest in the league, it is in the grand final. Alamoti is quick once he gets wound up (big guys usually have slow take off and he is no exception), but the rest of our backs are pedestrian at best. The is reflected in the stats. A line break each to Garner and To’o. The Cowboys backline made six line breaks. Their run metres reflect this. The Cowboys backs ability to break through our line made up for the fact their forwards were getting smashed. Bizza tackled at 50%, clearly he isn’t fit and Daley would be crazy to pick him for SOO. The effort was there, of course the man is a champion, but he was grinding his gears.
Alamoti and Jenkins are second year rookies. Garner is a back rower. Our backline sucks. Losing both May and Turuva has left the cupboard bare. In the absence of a spectacular breakthrough by a player in the lower grades, I can’t see how this situation improves.
-And then there is the discipline. 5 penalties to 1, 3 “six agains” to 2. We sucked, the Smith strip is a monument to the stupidity our team has exhibited this year. We had them pinned down multiple times and let the ref do the work of their forward pack.
Still, when all is said and done, we were away from home in humid conditions and exhibited plenty of guts to get the draw. Talagi showed there may be life after Luai and if we can give him some backs to pass too who are quicker than the carthorses we currently have, who knows what he might achieve?
What next? A sprint coach for Garner and Tago and some rest for To’o and then kneel and pray to the footy gods that a lower grader is about to emerge “Critta” like and gives us an injection of speed.
