Great to finally get a win, we looked great in the first half but once again we fell apart in the second half. Lets not kid ourselves, Souths (like Canberra) was playing with a 2 man bench, if Asotasi and Luke hadn't got injured I'm sure they would have run us down. We played about 20mins of great footy but the rest was crap, there were some encouraging signs in defence however.
Thoughts;
- Our backs looked good, although Tighe, while good with the ball, was woeful in defence. Was responsible for at least 2 tries (fell off one tackle and came in on another and didn't secure the ball) and he really needs to rectify this as he nullifies his good work in attack. I still think we under utilise Jennings, Gordon got involved late and was effective from dummy half, would've been good if he got involved earlier, Rooney was ok. Wesser actually caught the ball in backline movements so that was impressive, however other than that he was relatively ineffective.
- Halves are coming together nicely, Sammut looked dangerous as always and Blair is improving every week. Our kicking into open space was great, Blair has surprised with his ability to kick into corners, very good. I still think there are issues with positional play and last tackles options but I think this will come. Blair was targeted in defence and souths scored a couple as a result, more positional play than anything but this will have to improve. I don't mind Big Mick's idea of moving him to lock, however I would prefer to leave him at 5/8th and replace Smith with Lewis when he returns.
- Our forwards played really well, particularly in the first half. I thought peanuts was easily our best, his hit-ups were quality and his offloading ability sets him apart. I though Petero was solid and Big T looks like he has found a home in the fornt row, his hit ups were quality and there were a lot more of them which was great. I still think Waterhouse looks ineffective and continues to force passes and make mistakes, however he is a workhorse in defense so we should persist with him. Nathan Smith tries hard but offers nothing, I feel like as long as he is starting we are a mediocre team.
- Priddis still remains an enigma, he has spells where he does good things but then he backs them up with som really stupid decisions or gives away a stupid penalty (he and Smith are the masters in this dept), I though Aiton was much more effective than Priddis.
- The bench, I thought Aiton really added a nice spark that has been missing lately, however he still has issues with his timing. He threw a forward pass (one of many we threw however they were not called, a growing trend in todays game) and his passes to our forwards are not crisp. He ran well from dummy half, however I wish he wouldn't hold the ball out in one hand, asking for trouble. I though Woolnough was great off the bench, however Bell and Worth added nothing. It hink this is one of the big problems with our side at the moment, no impact off the bench. When Worth and Bell came on we lost all our impetus and Souths came back, we really need so bring in some impact forwards onto our bench but I'm not sure if we have any.
Overall, solid performance but most teams would have still beaten us. First 20mins of the game we played great and we had some nice defensive stints in the 2nd half, we really need to cut out the stupid mistakes and learn to play 80mins, nice to get a win though.
My dream team for next week.
1. Jennings
2. Daniella
3. Gordon
4. Tighe
5. Rooney
6. Blair
7. Sammut
8. T.Puletua
9. Priddis
10. Civoniceva (c)
11. Pritchard
12. Waterhouse
13. Lewis
Subs
14. Aiton
15. Woolnough
16. F.Puletua
17. YOUNG IMPACT BACKROWER - Bateman/Moors/McKendry
