After watching the replay, here's my full report,
Attack
We kind of all know the story of our attack yesterday and it's not the happiest of stories that's for sure.
I thought most of our struggles in attack last week were just a lack of effort and a bad attitude etc, but I don't think that was the case yesterday. The effort was all there with the ball yesterday, everyone was trying. It's just our execution was waaay off.
16 errors tells the story. That is just diabolical. Absolutely dreadful. I thought last week was bad, but it got even worse in this one. We made one more error than last week. So many of those were just a lack of simple execution and attention to detail too. A stack of forward passes, simple dropped balls that should have been taken or held on to, it was just really not good. I honestly believe that most of the struggles yesterday were because of errors. It wasn't like recent weeks where our timing was really out, or our shapes were off, it was just no execution and errors.
Our processes were good, and our shape looked alright. This shows by the number of tries we had pulled up because of a forward pass or a knock on. I honestly reckon we left about four tries out there yesterday, tries that if they were all scored, we'd be sitting here today happy as Larry saying we're back. But no, just a really bad game for errors and I don't know what to put that down to. One thing I do know is that is MUST improve. You simply cannot keep completing at under 75% and expect to win games against better sides. We're probably lucky we were playing the Dragons and they were just as bad. If we completed at say, 80%, I think we smash the Dragons.
We showed when we turned it on, we looked absolutely brilliant!! Some awesome tries when we nailed it. That just didn't happen often enough.
In terms of our yardage game, I thought it was a lot better. There was a lot more energy and effort out there. Still not nearly where it needs to be, we still looked tired and lethargic at times, but it was an improvement on that Sharks game. We made meters pretty well and rarely got trapped in our own end. Good to see the boys try a few different things to escape our end too.
All in all though, it was another poor attacking performance that watching live, left me wondering what the boys do at training. We are just about the best attacking side in the comp when we're on, but it has deserted us recently. Must improve.
Defence
Somewhat of a similar story to our attack in that it was better than recent weeks, but still way off where we need to be.
I think the effort, attitude and energy improved and this showed in our first contact which was better, as well as limiting the offloads. That was a clear area of focus as you constantly saw our defenders making an effort to wrap up the ball. However, I do think we still had some really poor showings with a real lack of urgency at times.
Our line speed is still really poor on average across the game. There were probably only about three or four sets there where the boys actually came flying in out of the line to really hammer them and trap them down their end. So, despite the improved effort, we still need to be better, and we still don't have anything close to that defensive steel back.
On the goal line, it was good to see us defend our errors and turn St George Illawarra away a number of times. Showed a bit of fight and resilience in those sets but I am wondering if that was more down to the Dragons poor attack, or our defence.
In saying that, still three tries that could have been avoided. They were pretty easy and soft. i'm particularly disappointed in their first try.
Player by Player
L.Mitchell: I think overall, he still had a poor game and I'm still not happy with him. Still not involved enough for mine as there were sets where he didn't touch the ball in good field position, and I often found myself saying "where is Latrell?" Still a number of times where he took the wrong option too, especially in that first half with the forced flick pass early in the set, and then putting in that really poor grubber that went dead and no one was ready for it. Disappointed with his efforts in defence at times too, especially on the Ben Hunt try as he wasn't in the picture at all and didn't even make an effort to get over there. In saying that, he did have a few moments of brilliance that we all know he can do. The first was that sublime catch-and-pass to AJ for our first try. That was very classy. The second was just about one of his best plays of the Season in the second half as he towered over Sloan to take that bomb and then in the one motion, pop a miracle ball to Cody to score. Honestly, that was superstar stuff, just wow. Only Trell can do something like that. he was very lucky to get away with the offside call though. Finally, another great ball late in the game to Tass which put him in a position to put AJ away and him and Tassy did the rest for our last try. So, look, I'm not going to beat around the bush, we still need batter.
Johnston: Pretty solid afternoon for AJ, he was good. His carries were pretty strong as he hardly got driven back and he put his hand up for plenty of work yesterday too. Pretty dangerous in any sort of space as not only did he streak away in a nice finish for two great tries, but he did his best each time there was an opportunity to set Tassy up too. Ultimately, those plays didn't come to anything, but he was trying. Awesome to see him bag another double and move his tally up to 187. Just three behind Slater now. His defence was pretty good with the only real negative being the poor arm-grabbing attempt on Suli when Ravalawa scored. I can't excuse that. very impressed with his effort a couple of plays before his second try though. Saved our arses by covering that kick, then just a few plays later, he goes up the other end and scores. Great stuff.
Tass: Not an awful lot to write home about for Tassy as he didn't have many massively stand out moments. However, that's not to say he had a bad game at all because he was actually pretty solid. Did his job, took his carries, proved a threat at times and his defence was okay. Again though, like AJ, a really poor effort on Suli for that try. Simply not good enough. He made up for it with his hand in AJ's second though. Twice in the one play, he summed it up perfectly to time his pass and put AJ away twice. Well done.
Graham: Pretty solid. Nothing super special but he did still have a good afternoon. His efforts with the ball are shown in the stats as he made 131 meters off 14 carries and a lot of those were the really tough runs that no one wants to do. But he played his part in getting us out of trouble really well with some big runs. Great try! Great hole running off Cody in that scrum play. We've seen them do that play before and once again, Stretch and Cody executed it well. Campbell's defence was very solid too, not a lot went past him despite the Dragons going down there a lot. Their third try probably tells you how important he is to that right edge defensively because he got caught at marker and Keaon and Taane didn't know what to do.
Milne: Speaking of Taane, I thought he was really, really good yesterday. Has hit ups especially were so friggin impressive. Ran so hard, with a lot of effort and aggression, and he made A LOT of meters. And I mean a lot! 233 in fact! That is a huge effort, and you really have to tip your hat to Taane for that. It's Brian To'o like. For that reason alone, he was one of our better players yesterday. His defence was okay and he only got caught out once for the Dragons third try. That was pretty bad though, he didn't need to rush in like that at all. In saying that, a very good afternoon for Taane and I think he well and truly justified his place in the side. I'm proud of him.
