What?
That was one of the best physical 80 minute efforts I've seen from us this year.
We smashed them.
We lost because we didn't have any halves, simple.
And thats the disappointment of it all. Gubb, Matulino, Lillyman, Mannering, I thought they were quite dominant at times. But I wouldn't necessarily say the halves cost us, I put it down to the following critical moments (and, for at least the last 4-5 years its been critical moments in games where we are dominating that we lose all momentum that destroys us.... and generally they are really basic soft errors)
* Friend's ankle grubbing pass to old mate Townsend
* Old mate Townsend (who has also checked out early) throwing a similar pass to Lolohea
* RFM deciding not to put his body on the line to effect what should be a very simple tackle on Tagatese
* Manu dropping a chip bomb when it was harder not to catch it - he really is lazy with his hands at time
* Manu coming off his wing when there was absolutely no reason whatsoever to do so to allow Valentine Holmes to score
* Tui not going for the grubber off Ennis from the kick off, yes, it meant nothing score wise because it was half time, but it shows a lot about the mentality
* Albert Vete had a 2 on 1 outside him (those blokes being Hurrell and Vatuvei) with 5 metres to go, decides to trot across field essentially allowing Cronulla to slide because he couldn't pass the ball 10 metres to his left
* Friend being stripped one on one, so weak
* Tomkins not being urgent in getting to the football, knocking the ball on into the post (Basic basic error due to lethargy). This guy really hasn't had a go the last month or so. I bet the little tosser has his airline ticket already booked. Deadset, has he ever heard of a squat or a bench press? Honestly, he is so frail it looks like he puts no time in at the gym so he can try to break tackles.
* As much as Matulino was excellent, I can't for the life of me understand why Chad didn't play out the back once or twice ... it went to Matulino as the front runner every time so Cronulla were able to adjust to the knock out tactic the Warriors were aiming for. This is why Chad is a very average half, no deception in his game at all. Adequate runner, adequate kicker, no trickery at all and soft defensively (Graham was rolling him easily)
Now when I see Charlie Gubb tackling like an targeted missile, Matulino run with intent, Lisone throwing himself around with no thought of preservation, Ikahihifo trying his guts out, the handling errors, the simple misses from Manu and RFM... ARGHH!! One game, yeah no worries, I'd tolerate that, but its been happening for the last 4-5 years.
