Gee, we got away with one there! Great feeling to get a great comeback win but I'm obviously not entirely happy with that game. The start was really good, everything was flowing in attack and in defence we were holding strong despite Parra throwing everything at us. However, after Hunt's sin binning, we really fell away for a fair while in a really disappointing way. The effort was down, defence looked really shaky and it seemed we had nothing in attack. I was absoulutely spewing when Hayne took that intercept but thankfully, it didn't turn out to be a try and after that, the boys seemed to really click and pull their fingers out which was good to see. After that, we looked like the side we have come to know and love and in the end, pulled through with a nice comeback win.
Although we did look a lot better in the last half hour of the game, I thought the attack still looked a bit clunky. In fact, it looked a bit clunky the whole game. I don't know, the backline sweeps just didn't look as slick and the ball seemed to not go through the hands as fast. I think this is why we struggled for a large part of that game, this was evident and it seemed to frustrate the boys so things just didn't go our way. Thankfully, they sorted it out and in the end, we scored some really nice tries off some great plays. Through the middle third, I thought we went alright and the boys rolled forward nicely. The attack did seem more direct tonight too which was good to see.
The defence to start the game was brilliant. Parra were really trying when attacking our line but we held them out brilliantly for a long period of time. Okay, they didn't throw a lot of good shape at us but it was still great to see the resiliance of the Red and Green wall. However, after Hunt's sin bin, we fell apart with twelve men and the defensive intensity dropped off. Throughout this period, we conceded three pretty soft tries and i was absoulutely fuming. It wasn't until the 50th minute ish that we switched on and from that point on it was allgood. I will also note that I wasn't too happy with our dicipline in defence, there was a lot of cheap, soft penalties given away which put us on the back foot and gave Parra all that easy posession.
Anyway,
Johnston: Wasn't bad tonight. He was a little quiet in attack but I think that was due to Parra doing a pretty decent job of containing him. He did provide that beauty basketball pass for Jenko's try though and he was very safe at the back under the high ball. I do think he needs to lift a bit though and provide a bit more in attack.
Graham: Was good. The only bad thing he did all night was competing for the ball when Gutherson scored, apart from this, he was brilliant! Great kick returns and runs coming out of our end and he was busy with this all night to help out the forwards. His defence tonight was top notch, timed when to come in perfectly and came up with some brilliant reads to shut them down. His two tries were a good reward for a nice game.
Hunt: He actually didn't impress me tonight. Had some decent runs but he just wasn't involved enough imo. I'd like to see him come in and be more involved. Obviously, his sin binning was a bit dumb but he also came up with some awful defence on Jennings when he scored, that was really soft.
Gagai: Well, we said he needed to lift and boy did he do that tonight!! Really stood up in all areas. He looked so dangerous in attack with some late footwork and good, strong runs in which he was able to generate quick play-the-balls. Then his two tries were really nice, some great holes run especially for his second which was just pure determination. A much improved effort from Gags.
Jennings: Pretty good. As always, I loved his work coming out of our end, he's been doing it all year but his runs in this area are just fantastic and they do an awful lot to set the tone for the rest of the set. He did look like scoring a few times only to be wrapped up by some good Eels defence but he was eventually rewarded with a nice try that puts him back on top of the try scorers list. Was a shame to see his night end early, I believe it was for an HIA but tbh, I struggle to see how it could have been for that because his head was barely touched. Let's hope he's allgood.
Walker: Wasn't bad. It certainly wasn't his most outastanding game but it was a good effort. I will say that some of the time in our set plays he looked a bit slow and clunky but that was only on the odd occasion. Most of the game, he was really asking a lot of questions of the Eels defence and I thought he was unlucky not to be given that try. To my one-eyed eyes, it looked like the ball did actually glance the line.
Reynolds: I didn't actually think he was that good tonight, just seemed a bit off. His long kicking game was fine but the short kicking game wasn't great at all and he came up with quite a few poor kicks at poor times which relieved a lot of pressure on Parra. Then there was that very risky, loopy cut out pass he kept throwing and hed it not been for AJ's middle finger, we could have lost that game due to one of those loopy passes. It did pay off for the final try but I just didn't think it was great vision from Reyno the couple of other times he tried it. Also, is it just me, or is Reyno not digging into the line as much as usual? to me, it seems that he isn't taking it to the line enough. He wasn't horrible tonight but he could've done a lot better.
T.Burgess: Came up with a couple of poor errors but had an otherwise good night. I loved some of his carries with pure aggression and it layed a good platform for us to work off. I think we he came off, we lost that middle battle a bit and Parra gained momentum but when he came back on, the game once again swung in our favour.
Cook: Was good. One of the more quiet games Cookie has had as he didn't seem to run the ball as much due to some limited opportunities but he did still do his job and brought the forwards onto the ball nicely. A beautiful pass for our first try but then later on in the game, I wasn't too happy with his choices in attack close to the line. A couple of times he wasn't able to get a pass away due to being a bit slow which killed momentum. Other than that, it wasn't a bad game from Cookie at all.
G.Burgess: Was also very good. I really liked what I saw from George tonight as he had some brilliant hit ups. I love his runs off the kick off as he just goes full tit and has a really high intensity. In fact, every run he had in this game was like that and he was able to march forward quite easily. I also noticed he was doing a lot f defensive work in both sets which was good to see.
Sutton: gee, he looked really dangerous tonight. Asked a lot of questions with that late footwork back on the inside and he was very busy, a lot more involved than last week I reckon. The strength he has was on show tonight because almost every run he had, he was able to free his arms but there was just no one there to affload to.
Crichton: If I'm being honest, he was kept a little quiet in this game. He did have some nice runs and was unlucky to not score off that Reyno short ball but otherwise, I think that the Eels did a pretty good job of containing him. In saying that, I don't think Gus went looking for the ball enough.
S.Burgess: Another typical Sammy performance really as he just dominated through the middle. Fantastic aggressive runs and a high work rate, pretty much what we've come to see all the time from Sam. I'd like to see us use Sam a little wider when attacking the line because we saw how many defenders Parra had to commit to him when he made a charge at the line. This would be really dangerous out wider.
Doueihi: Not an awful lot to say but he did come on and fill that left centre spot well once Jennings came off. He had a couple of solid runs.
Murray: Came on and did his job beautifully. I loved watching him in defence tonight and he made some great text book tackles. His impact helped to sure up that middle and put us back on track in a rough period during the game.
Clark: Was really good. He made a fantastic impact once he was injected into the game. Once he came on, he was really busy and had quite a few good, solid runs. was also generating a lot of second phase footy with numerous offloads. It was a nice performance from Clarky.
Tatola: I may be being a bit harsh but I thought he was a little quiet as I can only recall him having a couple of runs. He was really good last week, just needs to focus on being a bit more involved.
All in all, it's great to get a win. Especially great when there was a time there I didn't think we were gonna do it. However, I don;t think we were good enough in some areas and we didn't play for the full 80 minutes. We are gonna have to really lift and improve over the next few weeks, it'll be a massive test.
I dunno, I just feel that we're not going as good as our record suggests and we have a lot to work on. I'm excited to see how we tackle this next tough period.
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