After watching the replay, here's my full report,
Mitchell: Trell was pretty good considering it was his first game in almost seven months. I would have liked to see him more involved as a whole because I feel like he wasn't present enough in some of our attacking raids in the first 65 minutes but apart from that, I liked what I saw. He returned the ball strongly as he ran for 93 meters. Once he did get really involved in the attack, it sparked us and we looked so much better! He had a hand in two of our late tries down that right side, the first was a lovely cut out pass to Paulo, great vision there. Then he showed the slight of hand for a perfectly timed pass to put Graham over and make it a real contest. Obviously, his goal kicking was another negative, that was way off and probably cost us the game though. However, Trell did step up to try and make up for that with one of the most incredible field goals I've ever seen!! 47 meters on the fly, never looked like missing, it was freakish stuff! So not a bad return game for Trell, he'll be even better next week.
Johnston: AJ didn't actually impress me at all on Thursday night. The finish for his try was good and he did make a fantastic run from a kick return in the second half where he stepped around a few and made a break but that's about where the positives stop for him. I thought the rest of his game was poor. Twice he was beaten on the left for tries, the first he was a bit out of position and couldn't get back in time to stop Coates on the kick and then the second he got beaten for pace which lead to the Storm's second try. Then, in attack for the most part, he was not up to his usual standards. Granted, he did cop some bad passes which didn't help but I think AJ bombed a number of tries for us. there was a few times where if he catches the ball, we probably score but he wasn't able to do that which is very unlike him. Made 5 errors all up which is crazy, a big reason why we lost. It's harsh but it's true.
Paulo: A very poor night once again from Jaxson. That is now four games at left centre and he has shown us nothing at all. That is why JD finally pulled the trigger, ended the experiment (hopefully for good) and put Jaxson back on the right wing. Apart from probably not sliding enough when the Storm scored their second, the defensive side of his game was really good as always but the attack was just terrible. More often than not, when the play got to him it died as he failed to pass, made errors or just took the wrong option. Again, this is a huge reason why we lost because we bombed plenty of tries down the left and Paulo is a big reason for that. he made two crucial errors. Once he was hooked and went back to the right wing, he looked far more comfortable and grew in confidence, had some nice runs and a good finish for his try. A bad night for him and I'm glad we hopefully won't see him at centre again.
Graham: What a game from stretch! Certainly one of our best! Really stood up and lead the way for the outside backs. His runs out of the back field were powerful and he got through a lot of work in that area on his way to a huge 176 meters. 9 tackle breaks from him too as he looked very dangerous. Showed some agility and power to barge over for his try off Latrell's pass and put us in a position to win, it was great stuff! Very solid defensively too, not much got passed him. Well done Campbell!
Milne: Taane also had a pretty good night individually. He did make a couple errors down the right side but apart from that, he was great. We didn't see any big defensive errors from him this time as I thought he was solid in that area. Even put a great shot on Justin Olam at one stage! Chewed through 124 meters off 14 runs so his carries were great. When he got moved to left centre, he showed us that he can do a job there and I don't think it's any coincidence we came to life in attack with Taane there, things just clicked and we looked so much better. He looked pretty dangerous, stepping through tackles, posing a threat and showing us that he can make amends where Jaxson failed by setting up his winger for a try. Good stuff from Milne, hopefully he can continue to do the job at left centre.
Walker: A somewhat out of sorts night for Cody. For 65 minutes, he was once again so off his game compared to what we've seen in the past. He made 3 poor errors on attack and they were errors he doesn't usually make. He just constantly took the wrong option and looked down on confidence. There was a few times Cody himself got it right but those outside him couldn't execute. Very disappointing stuff from Cody all round though and we need more from him no doubt. Thankfully, he did kind of come alive when we started to come back and he looked like the Cody of 2021 again. A beautiful hand in the try for AJ, that was a great pass and we looked dangerous beyond that too, created plenty of chances. Hopefully things have now clicked for us and him on an individual level and we can see his return to form. We need it!
Ilias: Has copped some flack but I actually thought he was really good and not the problem with our attack at all the other night. He did his job, went right to the line, straightened the attack and got nice passes away. It was the guys outside him who were letting him down. Go and have a look at the role he played in our two tries down the right though, it was perfect!! great stuff from Lachie! he also looked good combining with Cody and Latrell at times, especially through some nice plays off a scrum. In terms of his kicking, I'd still like to see him step up more in that area but I think he did okay there, it wasn't bad at all. I get that it was a bad pass from him in golden point which caused Cody to lose it and cost us the game but don't be hard on the kid, he'll learn from that. He's doing a great job and will continue to get better.
