Round 5 | Storm 34-22 Knights @ AAMI Park | Fri March 30 @ 7.30pm

[The Showstopper]

Damn, that wasn't cool dude. I was looking forward to watching this

Sorry. My bad brother. Don't go hating on me now.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

They were just too good. They are at the state we are reaching for.
I think we showed enough for there to be promise that we can get there. We toughed it out for the full 80. We definitley let ourselves down at times with mistakes.
We have a lot to improve on and that can be a positive.

Am really disappointed in Boyd and, in particular, his positional play.

 

[rabble]

Yeah hey, Boyd does'nt seem to have found his niche yet.

 

[The Red Afro]

Aku has the problem of being labelled the best winger in the game - All teams are undoubtedly going to rush all the numbers they can towards him and shut down any opportunity he has.

One of the ways teams have been doing this is stifling the lead up to him actually getting the ball as well.


But I'm so glad to see Jimmy doing so well. After his injury and when he was out of the side, people suddenly wanted him gone and dropped and forgotten about which was a tad unfortunate.
Always rated him as one of our best consistent players.

 

[The Red Afro]

I know there has always been talk of Aku in the No. 1 jersey, but thinking seriously for a moment, imagine what he could do from there.

His problem atm is defenders can see the ball coming his way from a mile away, so they have time to shut him off like tonight.

Only have to look at switches made by Inglis and Morris to see what happens when you put a devastating edge man into a position where they get unlimited freedom and opportunities to eject themselves whenever they please.

 

[Nuffy]

Mullo was very good again, he seems to really be growing in confidence.

Totally over the Nine love for Melbourne.

 

[Spot On]

In fairness we hardly had any attacking opportunities inside the Storm 20. The only one I can remember was Slater's trysaver on Uate in the right hand corner.

We had a few opportunities in the first half with possession in the right spots. We don't do enough with the ball in the attcking zone to worry to many defences. That said Mullo has definitely improved his attacking game with ball in hand. Not just his individual darts but also the speed at which he is using the ball. I haven't seen him do that and if he has it must be a long tie ago now. He had the Melb defence making decisions when he had the ball in hand instead of the silly stuff he used to do like jinkand jump on the spot before passing. That was very slow and predictable to say the least.

 

[strewth_mate]

Both teams played well enough to make this a good contest, so it's a real shame this match felt misaligned and short of its potential.

Very, very difficult to get anywhere in a game when you are punished so thoroughly for errors. I would like to think that we'd have shaken them too, given a little more our way.

I'll dispute a few calls, but not blame the loss on them. I hope we become a team with the character to shrug that sort of thing off. There were signs of it tonight.

Filthy to lose, but not completely discouraged.

Really could have used Hilder tonight, incidentally.

 

[slotmachine]

Who player hooker when Bedsy went off?

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

Really could have used Hilder tonight, incidentally.

Even if only as a backup kicker. 2 points can make a difference at the pointy end of the season and if Gidley had gone off earlier we would have been lost for a goal kicker.
Who else out there tonight could goal kick? Obviously Sau can't. Can Boyd? Tahu has 2 goals in his stats.

 

[Jono078]

Who player hooker when Bedsy went off?

Neville Costigan spent about 5 minutes there, and did exceptionally well tbh.

 

[Burwood]

Few things from the game:

1. Lowrie is still useless- dominated when hitting up, missing tackles and fell over on the way to an open try line.

2. Have the Knights contested a single bomb in the last two games? Every time they get 20-40m out and put the ball up they are content to sit back and let the winger/fullback catch it. All they want to do is hit the player just after they catch it, but I can't remember this forcing an error or resulting in us getting the ball.

3. We made a lot of metres, especially in that first half. We were regularly making 50m+ in a set, but just couldn't really crack their line or mount any pressure through repeat sets.

4. Melbourne were good. I tried to hate them, but I just couldn't. Cronk and Smith's kicking is unparalleled- they kept getting repeat sets at the right time and turned our back three around all night.

5. I feel sorry for Uate. He isn't going to get any ball from set plays this year. He is only 50% of a player without MacDougall playing beside him.

 

[Spot On]

Few things from the game:

1. Lowrie is still useless- dominated when hitting up, missing tackles and fell over on the way to an open try line.

2. Have the Knights contested a single bomb in the last two games? Every time they get 20-40m out and put the ball up they are content to sit back and let the winger/fullback catch it. All they want to do is hit the player just after they catch it, but I can't remember this forcing an error or resulting in us getting the ball.

3. We made a lot of metres, especially in that first half. We were regularly making 50m+ in a set, but just couldn't really crack their line or mount any pressure through repeat sets.

4. Melbourne were good. I tried to hate them, but I just couldn't. Cronk and Smith's kicking is unparalleled- they kept getting repeat sets at the right time and turned our back three around all night.

5. I feel sorry for Uate. He isn't going to get any ball from set plays this year. He is only 50% of a player without MacDougall playing beside him.

Point 2 - No we don't seem to be interested in putting the ball up and contesting or even putting pressure on the fullback. We have never been good at it.

Point 4 - Our kicking game is still not good enough. That said Melbourne have three blokes who can kick, two exceptionally well and of course we have one. Kurt can put a good kick in but half the time it seems like a fluke. Most of the time it's crap.

Point 5 - no doubting Doogs. He was brilliant at setting up his outside man. I really don't see why Bennett kept Sau. Depth I suppose.

 

[Nuffy]

What happened to Gids, anything to worry about?

 

[Jobdog]

Hyper-extended his knee I believe.

 

[Yosh]

We would have beaten 12 teams out of 14 teams in the NRL with an effort like that. We committed too many errors and the storm really just do not need a second invitation. Each mistake we made, they scored a try.

They have brilliant set plays. They look so slick and everyone, literally everyone, on their team is in the right spot at the right time. On the other hand, there were literally plenty instances where we stalled trying a set play or movement; Snowden's dropped ball, House doing nothing after Aku's break etc. We'll get there though.

They don't make mistakes. They make like one or two and never give away easy possession. They commit fouls at the right times as well.

Perhaps their greatest asset (bar Billy 'God' Slater) are the refs. I'm usually pretty cool about refs making mistakes but some of those calls were outrageous!

 

[doggone]

Had a function tonight missed the game. Sounds like I didn't miss much. Thought this would be the case. MELBOURNE are very consistent. The team doesn't change much and key players don't seem to get injuries. Nice to hear Mullen had another good game. He will come on under Bennett.

 

[Yosh]

Had a function tonight missed the game. Sounds like I didn't miss much. Thought this would be the case. MELBOURNE are very consistent. The team doesn't change much and key players don't seem to get injuries. Nice to hear Mullen had another good game. He will come on under Bennett.

Some of the skill shown in the this game was phenomenal, from both sides. Melb were clinical and they are definitely the benchmark for this year.

Having said that, we put 22 on them. Furthermore, we looked really strong and never gave up. We'll very strong around september, I know that for certain.

 

[RABK]

We played a very good side who get a lot of decisions go their way and who frustrate the hell out of the opposition. They are thugs, plain and simple and Bellamy is someone i wouldn't piss on if he was on fire. He's a blight on the game with his 'coaching'

We have a lot of improvement as a team and as individuals but i can see clear signs here and there that we are slowly building towards a good football side.

Guys like Mullen, Buderus, Tahu and McManus are playing great football, others like Houston, Taia, Faas, Tahu, Costigan are playing inconsistent but solidly whilst our two biggest threats Boyd and Aku are a fair bit off the pace.

We're getting by on the class of a handful of players and staying very competitive. A long season still ahead and plenty of time to improve a lot.

 

[Whats Doing]

McKinnon has let in two soft ones - his worst game so far - rookie errors.

Yep and Tahu was soft on one and let in another and he is an international.