well, i'm f**king pissed.
lulia was absolutely, positively... 100% terrible out there today. i've been tossing and turning on him the last couple of weeks, not quite sure what to make of him.. but that game has well and truly sealed it. that is the worst a knight has played this year. i'm not as critical of vuna - mainly because i believe he could benefit immensely from a quality centre (and a clip up the ears for running sideways) but lulia was just plain sh*thouse.
now onto the positives. danny buderus and kurt gidley. what can you say about these 2 guys that hasn't already been said? they are the heart and soul of the team at the moment and both were absolutely fantastic. gidleys bomb late in the game was great - but other than that his kicking game is still atrocious and i hope smith isn't tempted to play him in the halves based on the momentum we had after scotty left the field. bailey's passing game is incredibly crisp and he is capable of giving excellent service to his centres. wes did look good at fullback, which will only strengthen smiths temptation of playing gids at halfback.
for the forwards, pato was a little hot and cold but still exudes class from every orifice. i thought the rest of the forwards were actually quite disappointing today - and i really think this is where the game was lost (besides off the boot of gidley.. but i'll get to that). brisbane carved us up the middle at times - and it's the first time i've seen it this year. they dominated a lot of tackles and just generally got over the top of our boys - something i really didn't expect with cross coming back. cross looked promising - but needs some match fitness badly.
..and now for the goal kicking. the conditions were absolutely horrible out there today and i can hardly blame gids for costing us the match - especially since he, along with buderus, was the one actually keeping us in the match in the first place. however, i do think that in this competition you really need to nail those high pressure kicks in the close games, and it obviously showed on the scoreboard just how much it cost us today. still, i wouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater on this one... and i'm willing to chalk it down to the conditions and maybe a slightly off day with the boot from an otherwise sound goalkicker.
it has to be said, our discipline needs work big time, as does our drop ball. once again i know the conditions were poor today - however the penalties we give away seem to all come at absolutely crucial times... and ditto with the drop balls. it is plain and simply costing us matches and every week it kills me.
lastly - our attack was really starting to click today. i would have loved to see the game if it were a dry track today. we really stuck it to another competition front-runner today. both teams were nowhere near their best, but i can see miles and miles and miles of improvement in the team yet - and can see us travelling very well come mid season.
