Ugh, that was painful to watch and I'm pretty damn frustrated after that! It was simply not good enough. Yes, our Origin players were out and we have injuries but you can't blame some of the stupid stuff that we did in that game on that. We just weren't physical enoug in all aspects of the game and that's really disappointing as I reckon that's what won Parra the game in the end and it could have been so much better.
I'm not gonna fret too much about the attack because our best attacking linch pins were both out but the attack still wasn't good enough. A lot of running sideways and very poor passes which just stuffed us. Gee, we missed Cook and Cody as we just looked completely rudderless without them. As I mentioned, the boys weren't physical enough when running the ball and got man handled more often than not. Then there was the errors!! That's probably what annoyed me most because just as we were getting on top, a fundamental error was made and then zip, there goes all the momentum. Really disappointing.
Defence was just okay - not to our usual standard though. There were some periods there where we defended our line really, really well which was impressive, especially early on. However, the rest of the time it looked a bit shakey. I also don't think we controlled the ruck well enough or had good enough line speed which just gave them way too muxh space.
Allan: Wasn't bad. Safe under the high ball and really good kick returns with some good runs too. Some nice efforts in defence but I'd still like to see him chime in more when attacking the line.
Hiroti: Mawene wasn't bad either I thought. He did a fair bit to help out the forwards and they were mostly pretty solid runs. He made a few breaks down that right edge too, it's just a shame we couldn't finish it and convert the opportunity. Defensively he was good apart from Sivo's try.
Lowe: I thought Lowe was a little quiet so I don't really have an awful lot to say. He had a few good runs but he just didn't do enough for me. I'd like to see him get his hands on the footy more and just take a bit of extra pressure off the forwards like others are. He's pretty much a forward so he should be able to do it well.
Doueihi: It was great to see him back out on the field after his long recovery, must be a great feeling. In terms of tonights game, we didn't see much ball which was a shame but I'm wondering if that's because of the ACL and it may take a little time to get used to it. Still, he made some good runs, a line break and was solid in defence.
Graham: Mixed bag. Cammy had a mixed performance tonight. On the one hand, his running game was awesome!! He was highly involved and gee, I loved his kick returns which looed very confident. However, he made a couple of errors at crucial times just when we were etting on top which killed the momentum and turned the game back in their favour.
Tracey: Wow!!! One of the few guys I can say actually say had a great performance, my goodness he looked great. Everytime he touched the ball he appeared super dangerous and with that blistering speed of his, all it took was a quick skip to the outside and he was gone. Connor did that many times and got a result with a couple of line breaks and he could've had some tries if he was able to finish it. He was the spark tonight and everything good we did in attack ame of the back of him. An amazing performance really, I loved it!!
Reynolds: Reyno was a bit off. Dunno if it was because of that injury or not but he was just a bit off.In general play, he just didn't look as crisp with his passing game which did hurt us big time and the attack stuttered. Also, despite the off good one, his kicking game was off too. We needed him to stand up tonight but he couldn't.
G.Burgess: I'm just going to be brutally honest here. I think George has genuiely lost it. He just looked really disinterested tonight and it shows in the stuff he dished out on field. Yet again, more errors and in all honesty, it looks like he's scared of contact to me, that's how it appeared tonight.
Brittain: Billy was okay. Did a lot of work in defence which was good to see and I really liked how he picked his times to run quite well. However, in my opinion, he has a really bad passing game for a hooker. A lot of his where loopy, floater type passes rather than lat, crip spiral passes. It might sound harsh but I think that's a big reason as to why we didn't win becuase I noticed offen the player recieveing the ball would have to check themselves due to a poor pass which loses a lot of momentum in the run and hence, the Parra defenders could pounce.
T.Burgess: Was good. Probably our best forward tonight. A lot of great hit ups where he was able to pick up a fair few post contact meters and he was one of the only guys in the pack showing a large amount of aggression which was good to see. Tom was rewarded with his first try this Season too which was awesome.
Sutton: Took on a sort of third playmakers role and he did a good job as he was directing the boys on that side and was putting in some nice passes to try and set up those around him. Had a decent running game too. I was just disappointed in his defensive effort as he missed two crucial tackle sin the lead up to two of the Eels' tries.
S.Burgess: I'm a little disappointed with Sam because we really needed him to step up tonight but he didn't. The runs he did have were great (most notably the line break) but he just didn't do enough tonight. I think they said he only had five hit ups in the first half which isn't good enough for one of our best players.
Tatola: Not too much to say really as he had really limited game time tonight, I think he only came back on for the second stinit with ten minutes to go. He did put in a solid performance though and was rewarded with his first NRL try.
Sironen: Didn't really do anything once he got on apart from make the error which killed all hope of a comeback whick was disappointing.
Nicholls: Played more minutes it seemed and did well. he tackled everything that moved and was making some really decent runs. Once again, he just did his job.
Britt: Had increased minutes toinight and was good I thought. he fought for every millimeter of every run and just didn't stop his whole stint.
Knight: A bit disappointed with Liam as his impact was almost non-exsistant compared to what it norally is. He didn't have as many runs and he made an error.
All in all, I'm really frustrated by that performance even without the Origin players out. I guess we were due for a loss and this is probably the game to drop, still pisses me off though. Gotta turn it around next week.
