Some good posts in here already, but I'll give my take on the game anyway.
I thought the battle through the middle was a really good one. For our young forwards to stand up against that huge Roosters pack, I thought showed some real heart and willingness to get the hard stuff done. McGuire really stood up there, and as strange as it sounds, he was the experienced head up the middle with Macca.
Our backs were solid tonight without being too flashy, most likely due to the weather. Obviously some disgraceful referee decisions. I usually don't like to bang on about ref calls, but I feel I have to comment on a couple things. One that sticks out to me was the Friend try. He didn't even get the ball down for mine. Another one was when McGuire had posession of the ball on the Roosters try line, he got punched in the face by the defending player, then grabbed his jersey, and somehow he got penalised for that. I looked at the TV stunned for a good minute after that one. Anyway, I don't want to get bogged down by it, :lol:.
I thought I would just give some breif thoughts on individual performances that stick out in my head...
Peter Wallace: Absolutely fantastic. Very Langer like with his game yesterday. His organisation of his players was first class, his kicking game was outstanding, and his running and passing was excellent too. I'm very glad NSW didn't pick him for Origin this year, because he's been fantastic for us. But, unfortunately, if he keeps this form up, he will probably be picked next year.
Andrew McCullough: Excellent performance. Plenty of tackles, heaps of go forward, quality ball for forwards and halves alike, then that lovely 40/20 to top it off. Good to see him stay out there for a good amount of time too. He never looked buggered.
Josh McGuire: Big game for Josh. I read on nrl.com this morning he made something like 176 meters and 42 tackles. Huge game. He really hooked into those giant Roosters forwards.
Ben Te'o: Looked dangerous for the first 30 minutes or so, but then went a bit quiet.
Beale/Copley: I thought these 2 actually bent the line back with their runs, particularly Copley - he looks really strong lately, and his ball running is improving immensely every game. He was unlucky to be penalised for "running through a ghost player" (whatever the f**k that is) when he broke through the line there late in the game.
Lachlan Maranta: This guy looks the goods for sure. Not super flashy, but was very safe and didn't make any errors all game. Made some good runs, but needs to work on his goal line defence a little bit.
Overall I'm very happy with that performance. I think it's the first game this year where we haven't switched off for long periods of the game. It's also a glimpse of where the club will be, even in 5-7 years. We will compete at a high level for a long time with this group of young guys, that's for sure. We still need to work on our goal line defence. At times we are too flat footed, and that's why they score those easy forward/dummy half barge over tries.
I think this win says a lot about the coach. Couple losses in a row, then the bludger of a game last week against Newcastle, then to come out and play like that and compete for 80 minutes, it showed real heart and character.
Here's hoping for a similar showing against the Cowboys next week.
3. Peter Wallace
2. Josh McGuire
1. Ben Te'o
Not just because of the win but our great composure through all the muck the chooks threw at us. And at the end it was their undoing! Not sure if it was my audio reception but was that tarzan playing for Sydney? Shit he had the full tribe with him anyway. Talking bout man mountains, the boys will be sore this morning. That hit on Glenn i think it was, expected to see him put up the white flag and surrender to the stretcher gods.
