Finally got around to watching it.
So glad I saw this live, my impression of this game would have surely been soured but to see our 20s perform so well in a thriller + see Wally & Geno inducted made the night sweet.
Watching 9s replay just made me feel so frustrated. For the majority of the game, we just looked like a disjointed mess putting together sets with plays that just don't go together and if it wasn't for the quality of our opposition or the form of a handful of players we would have struggled big time.
Before I get too ahead of myself here are my votes:
3. Peter Wallace
2. Ben Te'o
1. Alex Glenn
Honorable mentions: Dale Copley, Jack Reed, Justin Hodges & Josh McGuire.
From what I saw, Wallace was far and away our most committed out there. His long distance kicking game ensured we dominated territory for the majority of the contest, his defence was inspirational for the most part & I really liked watching him step up and command the ball for that field goal. Throw in his positioning right at the end in the first half & the strip right at the end (lucky, but they owed us after they incorrectly ruled against Hunt).
Tough deciding who gets our other votes, Hannant actually took my 2 points on BHQ because I appreciated his hard work, cover tackles and relentless hit ups through the middle but honestly I thought Te'o & Glenn had a far bigger impact on the night. From the very first hit up, Te'o spelt trouble for the Panthers defence and he just wrecked havoc all night. Glenn was just a mark above intensity wise, kept making good ground with his runs and his play the balls were like gold for us in that second half.
Really wanted to give Reed some points, thought he was one of our best in the first half overall but he was out-shined and I don't want to go against the 3,2,1 system.
I didn't actually think Norman was all that bad...till he was captured with the ball on the last deep in the second half. That really had a negative impact on us and he went onto compound it with a penalty and a knock on. Terrible and thank god he finally spat out that pass to Glenn otherwise I'd dead-set want him dropped for good.
Didn't think the refs. did us any favours in the lead up to Coote's second try. Reed getting penalised for being pushed over is a joke and I can't believe that's the second time it's happened to us in a month. Coote threw the biggest forward pass of the game in that set, set should have ended on tackle 2. Then to add insult to injury, Grant was offside by a good metre on the play itself. Slump times I guess.
I could keep talking about this match but overall we were patchy. Started slow but a few boys were 'on' and if we can build on it we may give the finals a shake just yet.
