Man I'm gutted. Honestly I'm absolutely gutted after the way that game played out. We have beaten ourselves in a big game once again. We dominated the Storm for most of that first half, we were alll over them and with the way we were playing, this was a massive opportunity. But no, we decided to slip into old habits and just do the simple stuff wrong. Far too many dropped balls which just gave us no chance, far too many. Once again we have been our own worst enemy and I honestly feel like we gifted that game to the Storm. Should've won but we just can't beat them I swear. So gutted.
Attack wasn't on tonight and it was clear to see we missed Latrell. The forwards were great and certainly stuck it to the Storm. We had no problems making meters at all. In fact, we were rolling through at times. It was just our plays attacking their line which were off. The Storm are a great defensive side and that probably contributed to it but even then, we were off. Outside of Reyno and Cody, none of the backline looked like much of a threat. Raids were slow and lacked execution. That's were we missed Latrell big time. Yes, we scored two great tries apart from that, the attack was lacking. Then there was the errors. Just not good enough, far too many. Completion rate was awful in that second half and it just gave us no chance. Enough said.
I was actually really impressed with the defence. I put the Storm's last two tries down to weight of possession. Because we couldn't hold the friggin ball, we were forced into a lot of defence and thus, fatigue. Their first two tries were serious lapses by us though, lazy efforts and that one right on half time proved costly. Apart from that the defence was great. Super rough and aggressive, and we turned them away many times.
Allan. Was solid. Safe at the back, had a pretty strong running game but that was about it. He wasn't involved enough/didn't execute well enough in attack. A few errors and poor passes. Plus I just don't think he got involved enough.
Johnston: Had very limited chances tonight so found it hard to get himself into the game. Hit ups were strong though.
Graham: Was able to get a bit more involved than AJ and played pretty well. Very strong hit ups and poked his nose through the line often. A fantastic try by him to not give up on the play, that was great! He was solid in defence too.
Marsters: Bit of a mixed game. Had a few good runs but apart from that he didn't do much in attack which was disappointing. Made two big defensive errors that lead to two tries as he was giving his opposites far too much room and Addo-Carr was just burning him. But then after that, he sorted it out, was aggressive and made some fantastic tackles. So yea, a real mixed game.
Paulo: Have to be honest, he was busy but wasn't massively effective. I still feel that he goes into a tackle far too upright which means it's easier to defend and push him back. We saw a lot of that tonight as he had plenty of runs but was getting stopped in his tracks almost everytime. Had that crucial drop close to the line too. I know it was a poor pass but he still should've taken it. Wasn't too bad on defence.
Walker: I thought Cody was pretty good. He looked the most likely for us in attack and was creating a lot of chances for those outside him, we just couldn't ice it. He didn't drop in and out of the game like he sometimes can and he tried his guts out. Fantastic kick For Grahams try (perfect in fact) and then ran a great hole to score a beautifully engineered try. That was great to watch.
Reyno: In his 200th game, he played well too. Directed the troops around well, his kicking game was pretty decent and he was digging right into the line to start our attacking plays. This put the defence in two minds and created a lot of space out wide. I'll have to watch the replay but I don't think he did too much wrong on defence either so it wasn't a bad game from Reyno.
Tatola: Once again, just a good, solid performance form Junior. He didn't do anything special like a lot of our forwards but he just did his job and was a big reason while we kept rolling forward.
Cook: Great game from Cookie! Right from the opening whistle he was on. Played really direct and gave good service to the rest of the side. There was no hiccups there tonight which was really good to see. Once again was a brick wall in defence with a really high workrate there too. However, it was his running game which was most impressive. It was honestly 2018 like, he looked that good. Picked his time well and just pinned the ears back, almost breaking through a couple of times. Was great to see from Cookie.
Burgess: See my comments about Tatola as I'ts pretty much say the same for Tommy.
Su'A: Was really aggressive tonight and he looked good. Some of the hits he was pulling off were bone rattling. It was good to see that kind of aggression. Other than that, his running game was strong and I remember saying 'good run Jaydn' a fair bit. The only blemish was the one error.
Sironen: Made a lot of charging runs and they were all very strong. Got to see a bit of ball playing from him tonight and I liked what I saw.
Murray: Another good, trypical game from Cam. Enough said, all class.
Nicholls: A good solid game where he just charged off the bench and did his job. Increased minutes was no issue for him and he gave his all out there.
Knight: Not sure how to feel about Knighty's game tonight to be honest. On the one hand, he came on and provided some great impact off the bench with charging runs and relatively quick play-the-balls. But on the other, his dicipline was poor. In my opinion, he made the crucial error of the game just before halftime when we were eight points up. That lead to a try and we never had the upper hand after that. He also gave away a penalty or two. Needs to get this stuff out of his game.
Mago: Didn't play many minutes but still made his presence felt.
Koloamatangi: Not a great night for Keon. Two errors and and HIA. He'll be back bigger and better.
Despite the loss, I feel like I should be proud of the boys because we've just proven our Premiership credentials again. We were able to really push the Storm and go with them, even dominate them at stages. If it weren't for us beating ourselves, we certainly could've won that one. So that just goes to show we can match it with the big guns of this competition.
So yea, I should be proud but I'm shattered as we've just let a great opportunity slip. We can win this comp, I have no doubt now. We just need to stop beating ourselves like what happened tonight. Lot's to work on for next week.
