Several things stood out for me.
THE GOOD
1. Cartwright is a good half. We looked a heap better when he went into 1st receiver. He cannot defend there though as his lateral movement and defensive attitude is not up to it. In the future he needs to be an 'active' ball playing #13.
2. Edwards adds so much to this team. He would have scored and/or set up a try if he was fully fit, you could tell that he was missing 1/2 a step in explosive power.
3. Whare really completely shut down his side. Tommy Turbo was having a great game till he got pole axed by Whare after that he was a shadow of the player earlier on.
4. Cleary's kicking game was for the most part very good, defensively he was excellent. Still gets a little lost out there, so he needs an active partner like Moylan or Carty to create when he is struggling.
5. Wallace was very sharp, by far his best game since his injury. I was pleasantly surprised.
6. Leota - we know he hits and runs hard, but damn he turned it on at the right time.
7. Commitment was on another level, I have almost never seen us with such line speed, intensity and effort. I just hope we weren't too burnt out by it.
NOT SO GOOD
1. Pushing risky offloads/passes. Whare's was on the 2nd or 3rd tackle and we had a heap of momentum. There was no need for that, Manly score next set. Dumb.
Mez always seems to have an offload a game that either goes straight to the opposition or is a hospital ball to our player. Needs to cut that shit out.
2. Dumb penalties/Discipline. Whilst better than most weeks we are still dumb with these Fish is a huge culprit. AT one point in the 2nd half we were just getting back on top of them and pinning them again....then Fish lays all over the Manly player. I was screaming at him to get off as I knew he would get penalised and he did. Manly were then allowed back in the game.
3. General brain explosions - sort of covered above, but it seems nearly all our players are capable of them. Are we the only team that seems to have a turn over or two a game after scoring? Mansour not covering properly, DWZ hands on head after wayward pass from Edwards..instead of immediately tracking back and following/getting in front of the play....does my head in!
4. May had a decent game (he is no long term #6 though) but the knock on after our 1st penalty followed by refusing to catch the ball that led to RCG getting pushed back into touch after the Peachy try...this sort of thing loses tight games. Lucky it didn't tonight.
