I have just got home after the game. The drive was long enough for the golden point win euphoria to have worn off and for reality to have set back in.
I was absolutely furious by the 75th minute. We were complete shit. The only thing that kept us in the game was luck that the Tigers missed so many goals, including one from right in front and a field goal that bounced off the posts. It was hard to find much to like about how we were playing. In no particular order:
- we kept dropping the ball or pushing the pass (and it going forward) for no good reason. We should have been holding onto it and building pressure. I don't know how many errors we made by the end of the game - I lost count - it was more than 15.
- we had no line speed for almost the entire game. We hung back in defence. We appear to play a slide and scramble type of defence now rather than a fast up and in defence. It means we concede a lot more metres than we did last year, and we aren't doing any damage with our defence.
- further to the previous point, there is no aggression to our defence. The way we approach the ruck is technically much better - we are much better drilled using three people in the tackle, and our wrestle is better. But we are not even trying to hit hard and win the battle physically.
- we aren't getting a roll on up the field like we were last year.
- we are much less fit than we were last season. Forwards were often walking back on side, and during golden point we were totally gassed. It barely mattered last year how much ball we had during a game, we always had petrol in the tank.
- we lack a leader in the middle who can read the game and adjust how our team is playing during the course of the match. It was completely obvious that the referees were allowing a very slow ruck. Tigers were lying all over us. However, no one in our team had the brains or leadership to say to our guys - look, the ref is allowing a slow game, we should do the same with our ruck. We were letting the Tigers up in tackles much more quickly.
It is plain to me from our first four games that we have gone backward compared to last year. We get the two points tonight, but it was a fluke. Our win against the Knights was also a fluke.
I hope this post comes back to haunt me come the end of the year - and please, everyone on the forum should feel free to rub my face in it if I am wrong - but we do not look anything like a top 8 team and we will not make the 8.
Hate on Hook all you want but he had produced a super fit side that beat teams with physicality and aggression. That's no longer how we will play.
By last year we had a pack that played with real mongrel - and our forwards have shown they are suited to that style. All we needed was a decent half behind that pack and we found a way to score points, even if it wasn't always pretty and even if we struggled inside the 20m. Think back to the Dragons game at Penrith and the Warriors game at Penrith. We belted both of those teams into the grass with our line speed and aggression in defence, and eventually the opposition was so bruised and battered space started opening up when we had the ball.
Our forwards are a shadow of themselves from last year. They approach the ruck in a more drilled way, and scramble better, but there is no aggression and we are nowhere near as fit.
