i can't believe the pasting you guys are giving the team tonight.
look, we were dreadful with the ball. that much is obvious... but were any of you expecting different? what stood out to me tonight, above all else, was our commitment in defence. that was easily our most committed game of the season, even over the dogs win in round 1. as sh*t as we were, the boys DID dig deep... and funnily enough they were rewarded for that by the football gods.
we're really missing a metre eater or 2 in our team... both of our second rowers are more like backs... and run sideways far too often looking to create opportunities. both of them need to pull their heads in a bit and do a bit of running in a straight line. they both had really bad nights with their hands, probably as a result of trying to push the pass and the offload rather than tuck it under and go forward more than anything else. they try and create a try off every play... and are impatient. they are both also very skillful players and if coached properly they will shine (or if the front row does their job better, tbh).
i'm not trying to underplay the fact that we were shocking in attack, but that's really the least of my concerns. i know we can score points. i've seen it plenty of times this year. what i didn't know is whether we could dig in deep and defend. honestly, we showed tonight that we can. Parra were ordinary with the ball in hand too, but they did have their chances and we turned them away. a lot of the drop ball tonight was also from very heavy contact, and our boys muscled up in that respect too. aside from the drop ball, i thought their forward pack was pretty bloody good tonight. whoever was trying to tell me that Poore isn't a good front rower a few weeks back needs to have their head read, too. he's been in bad form this year... but he's still got class in him.
i thought our commitment was excellent tonight... and i was really proud of the effort in spite of the ineptitude with the ball.
