Oh man I am so friggin frustrated right now! So frustrated! Once again, it's the same old story. Can play well in patches but then the rest of the game is dogshit where we shoot ourselves in the foot and lose all hope of winning. Same story tonight, another game we could have won but we go down because of our own stupidity. It's so frickin frustrating!! I'm fuming with the boys to be honest.
Attack overall was incredibly poor. First half was good, we controlled the ball, marched up the field well and were asking lot's of questions. Yes, we lacked execution a couple of times but the signs were there. Put on two fantastic plays for two fantastic tries, that was great to watch. As a result of our great attack, we went in at halftime with a two point lead. I can't say the same for the second half though as the attack in that stanza was awful. We completely dropped off the cliff. A poor completion rate crept in once again and when we did have attacking chances, we threw it away with a bad error or average attack. Forwards had no problem getting into field posititon, it was what we did when we got there. Honestly, the attack in that second half was so poor. Crash ball, after crash ball, after crash ball. It just killed our attack! It was pretty obvious that it wasn't working so why did we persist with it? No expansive play at all really and minimum movement out wide. We killed ourselves with crash balls tonight.
I'm gonna say the defence was actually pretty decent oin this one. The only bit of really poor defence came on Cotric's try, I think it's fair to say their other two tries were pretty lucky. Apart from that, we were able to turn them away a number of times and we were really physical on 'D.' Some really awesome defensive sets there. So yea, defence wasn't the issue tonight.
Johnston: Not much to say as he went off with that HIA. Was playing pretty well before that though.
Allan: I thought Corey was pretty solid tonight. Didn't do anything spectacular, but we was safe. Good runs and was busy, safe under the high ball and didn't do anything wrong in defence. Did miss his assignment early in the game with that cut out pass from Cody, he was fair too deep. Other than that, solid game.
Graham: Kind of the same, a solid game. Loved his hit ups coming out of our end, he ran hard and had a lot of them. Almost no issues in defence. We need more than a 'safe' game from him though. Saw little opportunity and clean ball as our attack was all over the place.
Gagai: A little mixed I thought. His running game again was awesome, plenty of hit ups and was able to rack up a decent amount of meters with his evasive running. A great finish in that left corner for his try too. However, He did come up with a couple of errors and showed some really poor defence on Cotric when he scored.
Paulo: Solid game from Jaxson. He was prehaps a bit more quiet after his debut last week and didn't get involved as much but apart from that, he did nothing wrong. Strong running of the ball which helped a lot when coming out of our own end.
Walker: Didn't have a good game tonight to be honest. His quick hands in the lead up to Gagai's try were brilliant and he had a few dangerous, scheming runs where he almost poked through the line. But that was probably his only highlights of the match. Apart from this stuff, he really struggled to inject himself on the game and create. Threw the ball to no one, died with the ball a few times and put in some average kicks. It's just not good enough from Cody, he's the focal point of our attack and he needs to lift big time. It's clear to me he's missing Latrell out there big time.
Reynolds: Bit of a rocks and diamonds game, similar to Cody. Had a really good first half as he was involved in both our tries. Her started the great movement for Gagai's try and then through the beautiful pass to Jaydn to poke through and then hre backed it up to finish off a brilliant play. He did put in some nice kicks throughout the game too and it was cool to see him tick over 1,500 career points. However, he seriously went missing in that second half I think. We needed him to step up and he didn't. To be fair, he didn't get a lot of ball to create opportunities because we were always doing crash balls. But still, it's not good enough from Reyno, I'm sure we all expect a lot more.
Tatola: Seemed to play less minutes tonight due to our injuries and the interchange situation but he was good over all. Really strong runs as we have come to expect and he got through a fair bit of work in defence. Was a lazy effort at the end of the game to have the ball stripped but that was the only blight on his game tonight.
Cook: A very poor game from Cookie tonight. He is fine for most of the game outside the red zone, I thought he played well in those areas tonight. However, he was so friggin poor attacking the line tonight. He almost single handedly killed our attack the way I see it. Hesitation, really slow service, poor passes, it was just a shocker. His forward pass proved to be costly as Canberra then marched down the field and scored. Then there was the crash balls, I touched on it earlier but that was a joke. Why he kept going for that play instead of going straight out the back for the halves, I don't know. All I know is that is murdered our attack. man, Cookie needs to lift big time!
Burgess: Absolutely outstanding. Our best tonight by a long way. Huge run after huge run and he just kept barging and barging all night. Really lead the way with his carries and tried his best to step it up when no one else would. That long run he had was honestly incredible! Was unlucky to not score too. Great game Tom!
Su'A: Jaydn was pretty good tonight. Hard running and a high work rate on that edge which was good to see. Was putting some shots in in defence as well which I loved to see! A great line run for Reyno's try and then to get the arm free and offload it back to him for a try assis, it was brilliant.
Sironen: Had a few errors but apart from that, he played pretty well. He gave his all in every run he took as he just ran direct and hard. Plenty of them too. Great draw and pass to set Gags up in the corner and he handled the reshuffle out to centre well.
Murray: Cam was pretty good. Runs that were full of energy everytime and mostly offered a quick play-the-ball, and he was just absolutley everywhere in defence.
Nicholls: Came off the bench and made a good impact, did his job well.
Sele: Was playing well but then came off and didn't return. Anyone know what happened there? Commentators didn't mention it.
Koloamatangi: Bit of a mixed game for Keon's second NRL game. He had some rampaging runs that looked great but then produced a couple of poor errors.
Johns: Played way more minutes than he would've been planning but jeez he handled it well. A really impressive debut. He had a strong running game and ended up with a decent amount of meters. Did get smashed a few times but he rose straight back to his feet. Well done Jack!
So yea, once again we beat ourselves and our spine lost us that game for sure. I'm so frustrated as we can't go on like this. So much to work on for next week.
