It was a shit win, but it was a win.
At least one negative for every positive, and for every standout player we carried another dud.
Couple of notes from me:
- Both Aekins and Crichton struggled with positioning tonight, with bad reads leading to tries. Crichton has the X factor we need in the backs though.
- Mansour picked up another try assist, and carried the ball strong (as usual) but was caught out defensively at least 3 times.
- Luai was too quiet (again) for mine. When he did get involved he looks dangerous, especially playing straight on the back of a quick play the ball. Couple of his legs tackles lead to very quick play the balls (and a try). As a team we need to make sure that someone is over the top on those tackles to slow things down.
- Martin is definitely trying too hard. Made another bad handling error, and gave up a stupid penalty trying to put it over Frizell
- Burns looked a bit out of his depth, but granted we were on the back foot for most of the time he was on.
- That first 20 mins was dynamite. With a bit of luck it could have been 24 - 0. I like Fisher Harris passing at the line despite that forward pass. And Yeo was also unlucky with that intercept.
- Edwards and Hetherington will be straight back into our 17 when available. I think Cleary needs to have a really hard think about our best back 5. For me Crichton has to be there, and I like his freedom in attack at Fullback. Maybe Edwards to the Wing for Mansour. But Whare has to pick up his game too.
Big test next week against Melbourne.