After watching the replay, here's my full report,
Attack
Our attack was certainly far from perfect last night but on second viewing, it actually wasn't as bad as I thought after watching it live.
Firstly, our yardage sets were pretty decent for most of the night. They weren't outstanding or anything, we weren't absolutely pouring through the middle, but they were solid. The forwards did their job, and they were supported pretty well by our outside backs who rolled their sleeves up. As a result of this, it's hard to tell, but I do feel like we won the field position battle overall. The area of the game where this wasn't so good was the 20 minutes after half time. That's where it got pretty diabolical. Not sure what happened but it was like the boys just didn't come out with any sort of energy in the second half during that time. This saw us get swamped and stuck in our own end. There were some really ineffective sets for us trying to get out. A lot of one-out running, no real sign of a plan B, no energy or impact. Even the energy to get up and play the ball as quickly as possible seemed way off which was disappointing. Were looked to be stuck in a rut and I was really concerned. Thankfully, all it took was one break by Keaon and normal service resumed for the rest of the game so well done to the lads for being able to turn momentum this time.
Our actual good ball attack was a little mixed but as I mentioned earlier, not as bad as I initially thought. Apart from all our tries and a few other great movements which produced line breaks or nearly produced a try, it did look a little clunky. Passes not hitting their mark, mistimed runs, guys not being in the right position, errors, and so many friggin crash balls plagued us. It's fair to say the timing was just a bit off. Is that excusable considering this team hasn't played all together for twelve weeks? Maybe, I'm not sure. But we need to be better.
In saying that, four of the five tries we scored were pure attacking brilliance. Beautiful to watch. I especially enjoyed Tassy's try and AJ's third as they were all class. Just goes to show you what we can do when we click.
Defence
Looking at our defensive effort as a whole, it was certainly a decent improvement on recent weeks which was good to see. For most of the game, our intensity which made us such a good defensive side earlier in the year had returned. I'm talking line speed, first contact, wrapping up the ball, kick chase etc. It was all back and looked pretty good. We were absolutely belting them at some stages which we haven't seen the team do to an opposition for a while. basically, it was just all the little things we were getting so wrong recently, we were getting them right this time. Even when the Tigers did make a break, the cover was there which I like to see because it shows a better attitude.
Our goal line defence also looked pretty solid for much of the game. I know we were facing a pretty average attacking side, but you can only play what's in front of you and they didn't look like scoring for much of the game.
But that's what really disappointed me about the 20 minutes after halftime as we kind of undid all of that and slipped back into bad habits. All of a sudden, the attitude in defence looked completely different and everything good I've just mentioned earlier, flipped and went the other way. It was really poor. All of a sudden, the Tigers scored two pretty soft tries to get back within two and they were making breaks all over the place. We'd completely dropped the bundle.
Thankfully, the lads steadied the ship and got back to what was working for us. The final twenty was pretty good. It could have turned pretty ugly otherwise.
Player By Player
L.Mitchell: Yewwwww he's back!!! And what an almighty return it was. Trell starred for us and was one of the better players out there. You could clearly see the difference me makes to our team, even just with the way everyone else played. I wouldn't say he did anything particularly flashy like we all know he can, it was more just his involvement, effort and attitude, and work rate that I was really pleased with. He was heavily involved! Chimed into the attack pretty well, looked super dangerous there and when the team got things right, it just looked so much better with Trell out there. His kick returns were fantastic! There was no passing it off to his wingers, he took on the defence every time and gave it his all. That effort to get out of the in goal in the second half off a Brooks grubber and get it up to our twenty was freakish! Only Trell could do that. Played a big hand in Tassy's try as he made the half break straight through the middle off Murray's offload. That gave us momentum, and then two plays later, Trell's hands are all over it again as he threw the beautiful cut out pass to AJ to find space and set up Tassy. Good stuff from Trell. He made no errors all game, was safe at the back, made a huge try saving tackle on Tupou in the second half which I now feel had a big bearing on the result and his goal kicking way okay. His final key stats read a massive 171 meters off 18 carries, this was a team high, with a big 11 tackle breaks. I think this performance from Trell is a very ominous warning to the rest of the comp because his involvement was so high. I wouldn't say he was 'the man' in this game but he was still one of our best players. Not many super flashy plays but look at what he did and the influence he had. That's scary for other teams because those flashy plays will come. This game just shows where his attitude is at. He's fit and fired up. A new series of Trellivision is just beginning!
Johnston: Very good! One of our best and one of his best games of the year. What a start for him! That intercept was awesome! Great anticipation and reading of the play as he could probably tell Bateman was going to be forced into passing without looking and just like that, he swooped on it and ran 70 meters! What pace too! He's still just as fast as even Bula couldn't get him. About 16 minutes later, he came up with another massive play, this time being the provider for a try. Taking that pass from Trell off the end of a big shift before going hard for the corner and getting a great pass away to Tassy to score was great to watch, awesome play! He had his own second try a little while later, great positioning to receive the ball and dive straight for the corner in a split second. Later in the second half, he got an easy one to complete his hattrick and 184th try of his career which was amazing to see. In between all the try scoring and try scoring involvements, I thought all other areas of his game were on point. Tough carries, no errors, no personal defensive errors. A great night for AJ!
Tass: Pretty good game from Tassy. I do have the one criticism though which I'll get to shortly. But he was outstanding in attack all night! very dangerous and put on some great plays. Was rewarded for his support play when he scored a well-deserved try, but then his real highlight probably came a bit later when he laid on AJ's second. Cody put him in a one-on-one situation with Nofoaluma who rushed up on him, but in an amazing show of strength, he just completely threw him off, said "get out of my way" and left him for dead, beat another tackle from Laurie, before putting AJ over for his second. That is probably one of the highlights of his young career so far to be honest. What a play!!!! Later in that half, he would have come up with another amazing play and sent AJ over again if it wasn't for Nofoaluma batting his pass down. He had another shot in the second half though and didn't miss this time. Awesome catch-and-pass to send AJ over for his third, that was extremely classy. Apart from all that stuff, the rest of his game was very solid. His defence was much better than last week which was great to see. The one criticism I do have of him though? I've noticed lately that when he's taking a hit up, he seems more interested in hopping, skipping and trying to beat a tackle using footwork. This rarely works, and because he's not running as hard as he could be, he often got folded last night. Just run hard son!!
Graham: Not a whole heap to write home about for Stretch last night but that's not to say he had a bad game or anything. He was actually very good. It was just the way the game played out and it meant that he didn't see a hell of a lot of quality attacking ball so didn't really provide any highlights. But we didn't need highlights to appreciate the work that Stretch does. It was one of those tough old games for him, but he battled through beautifully! Great carries coming out of our own end, really strong, and there were plenty of them. His defence was pretty solid for most of the game as he had a fair bit thrown at him but held it out. However, I do think the Tigers second try was partially his fault. He was at marker and over-chased on Brooks which created the space inside. He didn't really need to do that though as Lachy probably had Brooks covered. Anyway, not a bad night for him. I hope his sternum is okay.
Milne: Kind of similar to Campbel in that he didn't see a lot of clean attacking ball as we mostly went left but he did still have a very good game. Rolled his sleeves up, constantly put his hand up and made carries out of our end when we needed it. He finished with 127 meters from 13 carries which is one hell of an effort. No real individual errors from him in defence and what about his work under the high ball? Caught every single one!
