Well that was really disappointing lads and I feel a little shattered after that. Such a massive game in the history of the club and such a big celebration and we produce a really poor performance like that, I kind of don't know what to say. The Tigers deserve credit, they were really good and frustrated the hell out of us but we had almost nothing in reply, absoulutely nothing. We didn't adjust to the way the Tigers were defending and I had a terrible feeling early in the second half that the game wasn't gonna end well. It kind of looked like we played a different style tonight and we weren't patient, that's not the 2018 Rabbitoh way. I knew a loss would come eventually but to have it in that fashion in such a big game really sucks.
In attack we had almost nothing tonight. This is largely due to the Tigers good defence but then our boys just looked really off. There was almost no power through the middle and the ball movement just didn't look as slick as it has for most of this year. It was all quite slow really and in the end, the Tigers were able to cover us easy. It really sucked to see us attack like that, it was kind of like we went away from the game plan a bit.
Defence was also not at it's usual standard. A lot of missed tackles and we were really struggling to wrap up the ball for a lot of that game. Goal line defence was off tonight too and all their tries came with relative ease from poor tackle attempts and defensive reads. I think we got absoulutely screwed over by the refs in the first half but I still wasn't happy with our dicipline as there were just way too many cheap penalties conceded.
Johnston: Very limited opportunities tonight. His kick returns weren't bad and he was good under the high ball but he just couldn't do much in attack. Almost everytime we went wide, the Tigers were up in our faces or the ball movement was clunky which meant he really couldn't do much.
Graham: Pretty quiet tbh. Had some good runs and a decent work rate coming out of trouble. His kick chase was awesome too but other than that, there isn't really much to talk about with Graham which is a shame.
Hunt; Pretty quiet too. I feel like he wasn't involved enough and didn't do enough work to help the forwards. When he did run, they were strong, there just wasn't enough of them. Marsters outplayed him tonight and Hunt did make some poor defensive reads, especially where he got stood up for that second try.
Gagai: A bit of a rocks and diamonds night for Gags. Looked really, really dangerous a few times but then he came up with some really poor desisions in attack with forced passes and he came up with a few errors too.
Jennings: I actually thought Jennings was pretty good. Didn't see much quality ball down that left edge tonight but he still went hunting for if for much of the game. Almost every hit up he took was outstanding and very determined which was good to see.
Walker: I actually thought Walker was quite poor tonight but in saying that, that is mainly because the Tigers did a great job at containing him. They were up in his face all the time which meant he had to stop and check himself, thus, haulting the backline sweep. However, even with a bit of space, he just looked a tad slower than usual. he left a gaping hole for Chee-Kam to go through to set up Moses' try too which wasn't good to see.
Reynolds: Came up with a couple of absoulute beauty kicks which really pressured the back three and/or got repeat sets but then as the game went on, he seemed to just get worse and worse. Towards the end he was coming up with some really poor, panicky, un-needed kicks and this is so unlike Reyno.
T.Burgess: The Tigers did a good job at containing him tonight as he only had a few really good runs the whole game. Tom's impact wasn't as great tonight.
Cook: Was also a little quiet. He did have some really nice darts from dummy half as always but then the Tigers were really alert to this and Cookie was stopped before he could really get going. Had a high defensive work rate once again which was good to see.
G.Burgess: Was good I thought. Hard aggressive running and he was really physicl all night in contact. He ran with intent and purpose on almost ever time and I thought his work rate was really good.
Sutton: Not a bad game from the 300 gamer. Looked dangerous on the edge with that late footwork and then cut back to the inside and this caused the Tigers some problems. Sutto gave his all tonight and everything he did was done with intent. It's a real shame we turned out a performance like that in his big game, it hurts.
Crichton: A bit rocks and diamonds tbh. Did have some good runs that troubled Brooks a bit and he made a few little half breaks and then that full on break which was really nice work. However, he had a lot of errors and pushed passes in him tonight which pissed me off. Especially that pass for Brooks try, that was just awful.
S.Burgess: One of our best. I think it's absoulute BS he got put on report as the tackle really wasn't that bad, typicla Cecchin I suppose. This seemed to really fire him up and he tried to absoulutely kill anything that moved in from of him. he did come up with a few missed tackles because of this but you could see he was trying to inspire the rest of the boys. Sam did make less meters tonight but I think his intimidation factor really lifted and he tried his heart out.
Doueihi: Not really much to say as he came on late and had litle impact because by then, the game was over.
Murray: Outstanding, another one of our best. An amazing running game tonight, he just kept going and going. Every run was determined and he made a lot of meters post contact straight through the middle. That 30 meter run he had was brilliant and at one stage, I thought he was gonna go all the way. What's more, Cam had a high defensive workload a always.
Clark: Made minimal impact tonight if I'm being brutally honest. His attempted tackle (along with a few of the other boys) on Mbye leading up to his try was really poor and I was expecting better.
Tatola: Was it just me or did he get less game time tonight? I don't feel as though he made as big of an impact on the game as usual despite the odd good run.
Sorry this is a bit more brief than usual, I'm just feeling quite deflated and shattered after that. Forgot waht a loss felt like, it hurts man.
I'm just so gutted we turned up and played like that on Sutto's big day, it shoul've been the exact opposite. Like I said, we just played impatient footy that went away from the game plan and we went away from what had been working so damn well for a long time.
Credit goes to the Tigers though, they were good.
Anyway, that brings us back down to earth which isn't exactly a bad thing. While it would've been nice to get ten in a row and tonight was really disappointing, I think this game shows the boys that we're not invincible. I feel we've been in cruise control the last couple of games and I'm hoping some valuable lessons will be learnt from this one. I really hope this now fires the boys up for a big run home because tonight wasn't us, it wasn't waht we're about and it wasn't how we play. We now know we can be defeated and it'll put the boys on notice and hopefully make them work even harder. Hopefully this was just a wake up call and a little bump in the road.
We will most likey lose first spot this week but we can get it back.
