Player by Player
This part of my review will probably be a lot shorter than usual. Not really much to go through and the boys have wasted enough of my time already this weekend.
Mitchell: I love Trell as much as anyone but jeez I'm so off him after last night. Really off him. If tried his best, but he had a bad game, I'd forgive him, but there is no excusing his performance last night. Lazy, inept performance. he did do some good stuff. A couple of good kick returns, the early try saver, had a good hand in AJ's first try and provided Munro with a couple of chances but that's it. Those are the only positive contributions he made all game. The rest of his time on the field was spent stinking it up and being lazy. He was so off in attack with some really poor passes. Only gets one official error on the stats but a few of the errors we made were because of him. Two of Munro's errors were because of shit passes from Latrell. He threw a terrible pass straight over the sideline with the game in the balance, and generally, he just failed to inject himself and look interested. His failed short dropout cost us two points. But for mine, there is three parts of the game from last night that really stand out and sum up Latrell's lazy, shithouse game. The first is his tackle attempt on Hiroti when they scored their first, pathetic. The next, and probably worse, is the effort he put into trying to stop Katoa when he scored. Trell was way too passive, didn't go to Katoa, he just sat back and waited, gave Katoa time and space. Then, once he's stepped, Trell doesn't even attempt to turn and chase, he just gives up. I'm aware he probably wouldn't have got there, but at least show some effort. The final bit that ticked me off was when Duncan and Murray made that break off the kickoff, Trell is in a position to provide some support but is seen jogging. Just jogging. Do you think someone like Tedesco would be doing that? No. So lazy and just summed up his night. I know I'm being hard on Trell here, but he deserves it. he deserves every bit of constructive criticism he cops. As I say, love him but I'm just so pissed off with him right now. You're our marque player and a superstar. We needed you to stand up, but you couldn't be bothered. Not good enough and I expect better.
Johnston: AJ went alright. His kick returns and hit ups were okay, made 91 meters, and his individual defence was pretty solid. Didn't get many opportunities until the last 16 minutes because of the way those inside him were playing but he did make some big plays in that period. Obviously, nice finish for his try. Then moments later he comes up with the highlight of the game. Streaking away down the sideline, showing some pace to burn Hynes, he then puts in a beautiful kick ahead for Lachie to score! That was a pretty amazing bit of play.
Tass: Tassy had a pretty good game, probably one of our best. He was one of the only guys out there where I'd really say he was trying and giving his all. Continually put his hand up and had a solid running game with 135 meters from 15 carries, put AJ away with some quick hands on Lachie's try and scored one himself to keep us alive. His defence was pretty good too, not a lot got past him, and he came up with some big tackles. Ramien and Katoa did score that long range try down their edge, but I do think Tassy did everything he could there, he covered and got to Ramien well to almost stop it, but it was just the brilliance of the opposition player that got the offload away. Tassy would have been one of our better players, he certainly put in.
Graham: Campbell put in and tried hard, but he didn't have a great game. I appreciated his carries out of the backfield, and he did still end up with a decent 117 meters, but he did get smashed on a lot of his runs. No real attacking opportunities although he was unlucky not to score that try from the kick. I'm not overly happy with his defence, I think he made it hard for Ty Ty as he came up with a few bad reads. Trindall's first try is Stretch's fault in my opinion. He fails to slide which is why Munro rushes in.
Munro: Definetly a rocks and diamonds game from the young fulla, a tough learning lesson for him. We can talk about what he did wrong and discuss it, but I'm not going to bag him. He's young and in his third game, errors are going to happen. But I'm convinced he's that good that he can be a superstar in a year or two. Firstly, he made five errors. That's pretty bad and not really up to first grade standard when you just look at the starts, but we do need to look at the context of these errors. Two of them, in my opinion, were Latrell's fault as they were bad passes that were tough to take, and one of them was when he was going for an intercept so you can't be too harsh on him there. However, I will say that errors such as just dropping the ball cold when you're in possession and streaking away are inexcusable. Disappointed with him in that one. However, it was great to see him get in the clear a few times and man, he looks like a prospect when he does. Very deadly. Defensively, he certainly struggled, some bad reads in there. This is a worry as he will get targeted now.
Walker: Another guy I'm really pissed off with after his performance. Bitterly disappointing. Another senior, superstar player you'd expect to stand up and lead in games like this, but it was the opposite for Cody. He was a passenger for much of the game. Did nothing! Nothing at all for about 54 minutes. He did come alive in our comeback and played a big part in that though. Firstly, great ball playing for AJ's try as he holds the ball up just long enough to commit three defenders which created that three on two for Latrell, he then had a great pass to create the overlap which led to Lachie's try. Great pass selection again to put Tass over with a ball straight across the face of Katoa. However, these efforts all came in the last 16 minutes when the game was gone. His contribution in the 54 minutes before that was simply not good enough. Very disappointing and I expect so much better.
Ilias: Certainly not great but certainly not bad, I'm not going to bag him for that game. I was mainly impressed with his attitude as he was one of the only players out there genuinely putting in. This is mainly emphasised on the Katoa try as Lachy comes from the other side of the field in an effort to stop it when no one else does. You can't fault his effort. However, he was largely ineffective for the large part of that game. Had a hand by starting movements for a few half chances but they ultimately came to nothing. His kicking game was okay. Just okay. Defence pretty solid though, apart from the effort on Hiroiti's try.
