- Messages
- 11,711
After watching the replay, here's my full report,
This is gonna be a bit of a tough one to write to be honest. Once again, life is really busy at the moment so I don't have time to do a full one sorry.
Attack
Well, can we even call it attack? Seriously, we had nothing even close to resembling any sort of attack last night, it was that bad.
Firstly, for the most part, apart from the odd good set we struggled to make meters and get out of our own end. That was probably the biggest issue in terms of what we did with the ball. It was a really conservative game plan once again and it simply didn't work. There was no plan B, and we couldn't turn momentum which was a real concern. The game plan is becoming a concern. Our conservative style coming off our line works well if everyone is doing all the one percenter in all other areas of our game, but we certainly weren't doing that yesterday, so the game plan fell apart and it was largely ineffective. As a result, in the second half especially, we were mostly on the back foot and there was no real spark to try and change that, it was all just one-out running but with less intensity than we normally have. Super disappointing.
To top all this off, the kicking game was terrible. With a good kicking game, you can often kick yourself out of trouble, but the boys certainly weren't able to do that yesterday afternoon. So poor.
Then, when we did try to put on a shape, or did get a limited opportunity down their end, it looked super clunky. Players not nailing their roles, mis timed runs and passes, poorly executed passes, slow movements, and errors, a shitload of errors. The only try we scored was a bit of individual play from Lachy. Completely rudderless.
It's probably the worst we've looked in attack all year to be honest.
Defence
While I was a little concerned about our attack at halftime, I was actually feeling somewhat okay at halftime as our defence looked much better in the first half. Much better. Yea, we conceded the one try, but I can cop one try per 40 minutes of Footy. I was starting to think we'd turned a bit of a corner and our defence was back because the Cowboys spent a lot of time on our line, they threw a lot at us, yet we showed some real resilience for the first time in weeks to constantly repel them. The boys actually looked pretty solid, and I was feeling okay about it.
How friggin wrong was I to think that? I simply cannot believe the defensive effort that the boys put in during that second half. Simply not up to standard. All of a sudden, we looked shoddy again. Poor first contact, constantly struggled to put guys on the ground, poor reads, and just some really simple misses that shouldn't happen. Next to no resilience on our goal line yet again. There was no want and no desire. Ended up with 41 missed tackles. Yes, 41. That is a simply ridiculous stat which just says it all.
Player by player
Taaffe: I thought he started the game quite strongly, some great kick returns that had a lot of zip but got progressively worse as the game went on. Really stalled the attack almost every time he got the ball. He just offers nothing to be completely honest. I'm not sure he's the answer for the next two games.
Kennar: I was really happy with his carries, credit where credit's due for that. Some enormous hit ups and he finished up with 185 meters which is nothing to be scoffed at. But for me, that doesn't make up for his other deficiencies. He's so slow. If we had someone with a bit of speed out there, we score one, maybe two tries during the first half and the Cowboys maybe don't score their first as Kennar just got burned and couldn't recover. He also made a poor attempt to take that kick that led to the Cowboys third. Don't mean to come at him but I don't want him in the team anymore. Milne, while still not the answer, offers much more than him.
Graham: Clearly playing injured. Watched him closely and he looked extremely uncomfortable after a lot of his tackles.
Walker: Worst game for the year. I'm spewing at him after that performance where he slipped back into his old ways and looked more interested in the niggle than doing his job. He did nothing for us last night expect make errors and throw poor passes. His kicking game was awful too. No signs of leadership form him. We demand better and we need better. Cody has been so friggin good all year, our best player, and one of the best in the comp by a mile, but I cannot excuse performances like that.
Lachy: I too am starting to have my doubts. He's been poor for weeks now. Putrid kicking game that offered no threat at all as it was all lollypop bombs, kicks to the in-goal caught on the full, ineffective punts and poorly executed grubbers. Don't even get me started on that nothing kicks before halftime, what the hell was he thinking? That would be one of the silliest plays I've seen all year. Couldn't spark us in attack or set up many plays either. Cudos to him for the try though, that was nice. Even his defence, which is his strongest attribute, has deserted him in recent times. Again, last night, two tries to the Cowboys can be directly attributed to his average efforts and reads. I've been one of his biggest supporters all year but after another poor game, I really am starting to have my doubts too. He needs to lift BIG TIME.
Tatola: In a very average team performance, Junes was one of the shining lights. That's more like it from him. 12 carries for 152 meters is doing his best to lay the platform. It's a shame no one went with him.
Cook: Worst game of the year from him. We looked better when Pete came on, that's all I'm gonna say.
Koloamatangi: One of our best with the ball, one of our worst without it. made some huge runs and had 146 meters gained but two inexcusable efforts to let both Drinkwater and the young Cowboys forward through for tries. That disgusted me to be honest.
Murray: Even Cam was out of sorts. Probably the worst I've seen him play for a while.
In summary, it was just a putrid afternoon all round. We really needed to win that one and I really thought we would. Throughout this losing run we've been saying 'we need a bye.' Well, we got one and then came out and put our worst effort of the Season in. There's no excuses, none at all.
I've thought 'we'll be okay' after our last few losses but I've got to admit, that feeling is starting to fade and I'm very concerned right now. I just cannot believe how we are in this position after leading the comp just six weeks ago.
I think JD nailed it in his press conference, It's an attitude problem. Particularly with our defence, we know we have the side to do it, we know we have the structures and the skill, it's just our attitude stinks at the moment. Guys are comfortable and complacent.
We're so much better than this, everyone knows that. I know we have the side that can win this comp, we have proved that the first 11 Rounds but what we're dishing up right now is miles away from that. We have the side to turn it around, but will we? That is the question. We've got five days to get our shit sorted before we look to bounce back.
This Season is a simple story for mine. IF we can get our game right, get our attitude right, it's gonna take one hell of an effort to stop us, but the boys just aren't living it at the moment.
Glory, Glory.
This is gonna be a bit of a tough one to write to be honest. Once again, life is really busy at the moment so I don't have time to do a full one sorry.
Attack
Well, can we even call it attack? Seriously, we had nothing even close to resembling any sort of attack last night, it was that bad.
Firstly, for the most part, apart from the odd good set we struggled to make meters and get out of our own end. That was probably the biggest issue in terms of what we did with the ball. It was a really conservative game plan once again and it simply didn't work. There was no plan B, and we couldn't turn momentum which was a real concern. The game plan is becoming a concern. Our conservative style coming off our line works well if everyone is doing all the one percenter in all other areas of our game, but we certainly weren't doing that yesterday, so the game plan fell apart and it was largely ineffective. As a result, in the second half especially, we were mostly on the back foot and there was no real spark to try and change that, it was all just one-out running but with less intensity than we normally have. Super disappointing.
To top all this off, the kicking game was terrible. With a good kicking game, you can often kick yourself out of trouble, but the boys certainly weren't able to do that yesterday afternoon. So poor.
Then, when we did try to put on a shape, or did get a limited opportunity down their end, it looked super clunky. Players not nailing their roles, mis timed runs and passes, poorly executed passes, slow movements, and errors, a shitload of errors. The only try we scored was a bit of individual play from Lachy. Completely rudderless.
It's probably the worst we've looked in attack all year to be honest.
Defence
While I was a little concerned about our attack at halftime, I was actually feeling somewhat okay at halftime as our defence looked much better in the first half. Much better. Yea, we conceded the one try, but I can cop one try per 40 minutes of Footy. I was starting to think we'd turned a bit of a corner and our defence was back because the Cowboys spent a lot of time on our line, they threw a lot at us, yet we showed some real resilience for the first time in weeks to constantly repel them. The boys actually looked pretty solid, and I was feeling okay about it.
How friggin wrong was I to think that? I simply cannot believe the defensive effort that the boys put in during that second half. Simply not up to standard. All of a sudden, we looked shoddy again. Poor first contact, constantly struggled to put guys on the ground, poor reads, and just some really simple misses that shouldn't happen. Next to no resilience on our goal line yet again. There was no want and no desire. Ended up with 41 missed tackles. Yes, 41. That is a simply ridiculous stat which just says it all.
Player by player
Taaffe: I thought he started the game quite strongly, some great kick returns that had a lot of zip but got progressively worse as the game went on. Really stalled the attack almost every time he got the ball. He just offers nothing to be completely honest. I'm not sure he's the answer for the next two games.
Kennar: I was really happy with his carries, credit where credit's due for that. Some enormous hit ups and he finished up with 185 meters which is nothing to be scoffed at. But for me, that doesn't make up for his other deficiencies. He's so slow. If we had someone with a bit of speed out there, we score one, maybe two tries during the first half and the Cowboys maybe don't score their first as Kennar just got burned and couldn't recover. He also made a poor attempt to take that kick that led to the Cowboys third. Don't mean to come at him but I don't want him in the team anymore. Milne, while still not the answer, offers much more than him.
Graham: Clearly playing injured. Watched him closely and he looked extremely uncomfortable after a lot of his tackles.
Walker: Worst game for the year. I'm spewing at him after that performance where he slipped back into his old ways and looked more interested in the niggle than doing his job. He did nothing for us last night expect make errors and throw poor passes. His kicking game was awful too. No signs of leadership form him. We demand better and we need better. Cody has been so friggin good all year, our best player, and one of the best in the comp by a mile, but I cannot excuse performances like that.
Lachy: I too am starting to have my doubts. He's been poor for weeks now. Putrid kicking game that offered no threat at all as it was all lollypop bombs, kicks to the in-goal caught on the full, ineffective punts and poorly executed grubbers. Don't even get me started on that nothing kicks before halftime, what the hell was he thinking? That would be one of the silliest plays I've seen all year. Couldn't spark us in attack or set up many plays either. Cudos to him for the try though, that was nice. Even his defence, which is his strongest attribute, has deserted him in recent times. Again, last night, two tries to the Cowboys can be directly attributed to his average efforts and reads. I've been one of his biggest supporters all year but after another poor game, I really am starting to have my doubts too. He needs to lift BIG TIME.
Tatola: In a very average team performance, Junes was one of the shining lights. That's more like it from him. 12 carries for 152 meters is doing his best to lay the platform. It's a shame no one went with him.
Cook: Worst game of the year from him. We looked better when Pete came on, that's all I'm gonna say.
Koloamatangi: One of our best with the ball, one of our worst without it. made some huge runs and had 146 meters gained but two inexcusable efforts to let both Drinkwater and the young Cowboys forward through for tries. That disgusted me to be honest.
Murray: Even Cam was out of sorts. Probably the worst I've seen him play for a while.
In summary, it was just a putrid afternoon all round. We really needed to win that one and I really thought we would. Throughout this losing run we've been saying 'we need a bye.' Well, we got one and then came out and put our worst effort of the Season in. There's no excuses, none at all.
I've thought 'we'll be okay' after our last few losses but I've got to admit, that feeling is starting to fade and I'm very concerned right now. I just cannot believe how we are in this position after leading the comp just six weeks ago.
I think JD nailed it in his press conference, It's an attitude problem. Particularly with our defence, we know we have the side to do it, we know we have the structures and the skill, it's just our attitude stinks at the moment. Guys are comfortable and complacent.
We're so much better than this, everyone knows that. I know we have the side that can win this comp, we have proved that the first 11 Rounds but what we're dishing up right now is miles away from that. We have the side to turn it around, but will we? That is the question. We've got five days to get our shit sorted before we look to bounce back.
This Season is a simple story for mine. IF we can get our game right, get our attitude right, it's gonna take one hell of an effort to stop us, but the boys just aren't living it at the moment.
Glory, Glory.
