Hard game to vote for, might have to watch it again without facepalm-a-vision but all in all I'm satisfied with the effort.
Beale is an easy target and while it's an issue he needs to address (he's attempting to catch the kicks around his torso instead of his chest) I don't think it's the reason we lost the game. Our work around the ruck and our last tackle options is what really hurt us in the end. Despite being given every opportunity to come back into the game we just played some silly attacking football, which hurt our momentum and made it difficult for our make-shift halves pairing to come up with the right play at the right time.
Make no mistake about it though, Kiwis were on last night, particularly in that first half that was played almost like an Origin match by them. Every bounce went their way and they received a couple of questionable home town decisions that influenced the scoreboard.
Honestly it's difficult to think of my votes. I thought there were a about 6-8 players worthy but I'll go with...
3. Josh Hoffman - A constant menace at the back busting through tackles, getting inbetween defenders and ensuring we got our sets off to the best way possible despite the swarming defence.
2. Alex Glenn - Like Hoffman, a constant handful down his fringe, scored a nice try weaving through traffic and wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty.
1. Ben Te'o - Came on and played like it was his last game from the club. Great stuff and almost turned the game on it's head with his couple of charges.
Unlucky - Reed, Hodges, Macca, Parker & McGuire.
Oh and don't even get me started with the Kiwi coverage. If I hear Mateo called Martel one more time I'm going to scream. Pissed me off within the first 5 minutes when they refused to show us how the Kiwis earned three goes to finally crack our defensive line. Instead, just showing us Reed's challenge on Maloney.
