After watching the replay, here's my full report,
Taaffe: He was solid without being exceptional. Positional play was good and he was very safe under the high ball as he took a few tough catches under pressure. He did return the ball with confidence but got bashed pretty much every time he ran last night. Chimed into the backline pretty well but I still want to see him inject himself more. Bombed a try in the first half by not passing. However, he made up for that by scoring that try on fulltime, that was good support play from Taaffey. His defence wasn't too bad as a whole, a good effort when Foran 'scored' (I still think he was held up but then put on a pretty poor effort on Tuipulotu when he scored. On another note, his goal kicking was very good again.
Johnston: Great night for AJ, he put in a pretty awesome effort. While he ran for 76 meters which isn't huge, the touches he did have were quality. Some of his kick returns were very good and he did get through a decent amount of working coming out of our own end. Obviously, that move he put on for his try was amazing! Still had a lot of work to do but beat Saab with pure footwork and acceleration for a great finish! Could have had another couple of tries but passes to him didn't find the mark. AJ was good defensively with the only negative of his night being not competing for the ball when Saab scored. I expect better there.
Tass: A mixed night for the kid in only his second game. He made 3 errors throughout the 80 minutes, one of which lead to Manly scoring and another which turned momentum in their favor later on in the game. He also gave away a penalty which later lead to Manly scoring too. So those were some real negatives to his game. However, I did also see some really big positives! His running game was strong as he ran for 111 meters and he looked very dangerous attacking the line with a bit of space. when he scored, he summed up the situation perfectly, showed a bit of speed and just cut straight through which was brilliant! Also did really well to get the ball out the back for Cody's try. On another note, he was solid defensively too, did his job. I've seen enough to be willing to keep giving him the shot at that left center spot. I'm not going to say "we've found our left center" just yet but he's worth a go and potentially we have found it. He looks more likely than anyone else who has played there this year.
Graham: Brilliant. Just brilliant yet again from Stretch. He's become a real professional and ever-so consistent. That was no different last night as he had another top notch game. Once again, one of our best. A massive 190 meters which topped that category for us. Just goes to show you the sort of work he got through in 80 minutes and that was both tough runs to get us out of our end and jinking, dangerous runs attacking the line. There was a number of times there where he almost broke through and he had 4 tackle breaks for the game. An amazing effort in the final play of the game to break those tackles from nothing, slip though and then get the ball away to Taaffe to score, that was seriously freakish!! An equally amazing effort in defence too. He made one error as he fell for Foran's dummy when he scored but aside from that, he was brilliant. Our right edge was under assault all game but he shut it down and saved our asses so often!
Mansour: Another mixed night for Sauce. yes, he's slow so couldn't take advantage of his opportunities, including that early break, but I thought he actually went okay with the ball. He had a real dig. Some really strong runs to make a total of 176 meters which is huge. I admit, his defence again was all over the shop as he constantly got caught out in no-mans-land again and that comes from his poor ability to read the play. He is then not quick enough anymore to cover his mistakes, Tuipulotu 's try is a good example of that. However, I do have to admit he did save a few tries by knocking the ball down so credit goes to him for that. Still think Paulo is the better option.
Walker: An improvement, certainly showing signs of getting back to his best. He was one of our better players last night and certainly lead the way. Some really classy touches at various times! Obviously put AJ into space for his try, had a good hand in the try to Tass, again threw a good ball to Tass and was there to pick up the crumbs for his own try which was awesome to watch! Then there were a number of other times where he did create a few chances, we just couldn't ice it. So the signs really are there for Cody. However, he still wasn't perfect, still not fully there. I think his timing does still look a bit off and we did bomb a couple of opportunities because the pass from Cody didn't find the mark. I also wasn't a big fan of his kicking game, a lot of his kicks to Saab didn't pose a threat at all. No issues with him defensively, did a good job there. Good to see Cody step up and improve on a very special night for him!! Hopefully he continues to rise again.
Ilias: I was worried about how last week would effect him heading into this one but to his credit, he seemed to shake it off and bounced back in a very encouraging way last night as he turned in another good performance. Thought he controlled things pretty nicely and his ball playing was good, back to near its best despite not picking up any try assists. Loved when he combined with Cody. I also loved to see him take the line on A LOT! This makes him more unpredictable and we saw it last night that he almost broke through off a dummy and run a couple times. The only negative for him though was his kicking game as I don't think it was too flash and he also didn't do enough of it. I believe he is a better general play kicker than Cody so that needs to be mainly his job and it's his kicking which is the big work on for him. Still a pretty good night yet again from the young bloke.
