Looking at some of the stats from yesterday, it's pretty impressive reading. By the same token, I don't know how we replicate that every week. There were some monumental efforts in there which probably won't be repeated.
Firstly, we had 5 forwards run over 100m, with Mataora coming close with 98m too. Our team just never puts up these sorts of numbers, if we can do it again we'll put ourselves in just about any game. I can't see us doing it too often, though... but it just goes to show what a committed effort in the forwards can achieve. Also a special shout out to Jeremy Smith - 15 runs and 45 tackles is immense at 35 and double his typical output. Talk about your captains knocks, not sure how many more of those performances he has in him. Not many, I bet... but it's his last year, and I hope he leaves nothing left in the tank by Round 26.
On the back of that go forward, Hodko and Mullo were actually able to do their thing. We still struggled to find opportunities in some patches of the game, but we stuck in there and kept at it. The points did come eventually. They will continue to improve if the forwards can lay the platform and the errors are kept to a minimum.
Levi - 80+ minutes, 40 tackles, 8 runs for 64m. These are numbers any hooker in the NRL would be happy with, and he's dangerous with the ball to boot. I don't care if Randell makes 1000 tackles, Levi is twice the player he is and then some. His service game is light years ahead.
Gagai - why is it that suddenly we're trying to hide this guy in the team? $575k and this is what we get? He's the new Sione and Aku this year, needs to pull up his socks big time. Looked dangerous at times, and stupid as f**k at others. We know he can play well from the back, we've seen it before. Needs to be better and running out of excuses.
Speaking of Sione - he's come along in the off season, at least based on yesterday. Bigger, stronger and smarter. Not doing as well as Pat thus far, but I don't think he's going to be as much of a liability this year. Still only 19 years old, he looks to be actually developing and improving again now. Also, that shot on Vaughan! Ooof! Pat had a few "moments" during the match, including his "captains call" on the 5th which we were lucky to get away with. Other than that, he's been really good on both sides of the ball, and is really solidifying himself in that left centre position. If he can keep these performances rolling out consistently, he won't have any problems holding his spot.
At the end of the day, our stat sheet reads like that of a good NRL team. The problem is, most of the "actors" in this play rarely, if ever, have put numbers and performances like this up in their lives. What worries me is that many of them can't repeat it, because they've never done it before as far as I can see. I guess it's Browns job to figure out how to get those sorts of performances regularly.
