What has made the difference?

[Meth]

To me, it's obvious.

Matulino, Lillyman, Rapira, Packer. The propping rotation who took us to the GF hardly got going in 2011. Having them together and going forward is more or less the major reason why we've gone from bottom to the middle region of the table in 4 games. If these blokes keep playing like they are, and stay injury free, anything can happen from here.

Matulino, on form, would be the best prop in the competition.

I was really, really impressed with Rapira's work last night. I have often been critical of him, but some of his hit ups last night threw me back to when he was not only regarded as our best prop, but one of the best emerging props in the world.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Seriously, how good a player is Matulino? Still a bit underrated, the perception of him probably isn't helped by the fact he's occupying the Feka/Hitro slot as "Warriors bench/impact prop".

I'd say Matulino is our best player by a margin, he is genuinely elite level in his position. We obviously have other important contributors but none rank anywhere near as highly in their position compared to their peers.

 

[Juju]

Matulino is crazy good. My fav player for sure.

To me the difference is all attitude, wanting to compete for their team mates and their fans.

Dunno how they have made the attitude shift so quickly but hopefully they can sustain it...

 

[jamaman]

Matulino is Better then any forwad playing!

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Matulino is Better then any forwad playing!

That's a funny comment from a bloke with one of the few forwards better than Matulino as his avatar ;-)

 

[TheDMC]

I dunno if Mats is the best prop going, but he is fecken awesome. Would love to see him develop a bit more of an offload threat, especially as he bends the line. But maybe that's too much to expect considering he runs into and through heavy traffic and looking for offloads may detract from his penetration.
Mateo was quiet last night, didn't do much, I guess because he was being heavily attended to by the chooks based on his past month of exception.

 

[hitman82]

Mateo had a mare of a defensive game, with 12 made and 6 missed!
Lillyman was next with 19 tackles and 7 missed or ineffective.
Friend made 56 and missed 4.

 

[Rich102]

For the first time in a long while we have 17 blokes who all want to play football.

 

[Diesel]

For the first time in a long while we have 17 blokes who all want to play football.

You beat me to it.

Instead of collapsing after the Penrith game, they pulled together.

The team will be feeling good after the 4 wins and an upcoming bye. Hopefully the bye does not kill momentum and the team gets a well deserved break before taking on the Broncos in a fortnight.

 

[Fast Eddie]

The players found out Tomkins was about to sign.

 

[Rich102]

The players found out Tomkins was about to sign.

Or, equally importantly, that the club was looking to offload a number of them.

 

[LeagueNut]

[joke]We've improved a shitload since Ben Henry got injured[/joke]

 

[Auckland4ever]

Our defense has improved this year, our attack has decent variety and depth to it, but why I think we've lost so many close ones over the past season and a half is that we've shown an inability to grind other sides down. If you're not tiring the opposition, your defense will eventually crack and your attack will likely be blunted for a lot of the game. So yeah, a lot of the turn around is due to the intensity that our pack as a whole has shown of late (except for Matulino, who always has an impact, regardless). Besides Manu, Hurrell(who is looking more confident) and Laumape are also instrumental when it comes to physically wearing the opposition down, so I hope they continue to have the high level of involvement in the game that they did last night.
I still think we have yet to learn when to play direct and when to play expansively, though, so there's still plenty of room for improvement.

 

[hitro]

Not missing Bill Tupou at all. Not sure where he is, but it would be disappointing to see him in the team and Laumape not.

 

[Benek]

Fish is favoured on that wing anyway, so between Laumape and Fish I doubt we'll see Bill again. Definitely need to have Laumape playing first grade. He has been excellent every game he's played.

 

[ozbash]

[joke]We've improved a shitload since Ben Henry got injured[/joke]

That's not funny, nutz..:x

Benry will be a regular when ET joins Ives at Pantherville..

 

[_addict]

...no-one poisoning the well

 

[_addict]

...or at the very least agreement and belief between all.

 

[vvvrulz]

Along with the prop rotation there are a few other things:

- Mateo re-signing with us, suddenly he woke up and started creating opportunities and we finally look to be able to put points on the board at will.
- Lowrie's injury which put Taylor starting where he always should have been, he seems to be a player who thrives on responsibility.
- Healthy competition at fullback, the Tomkins situation (or something else) gave Locke a reason to fire up and Fish is finally starting to settle into first grade.

I always said we had the team to do wonders but just needed a few things to fall into place, apart from the Penrith debacle we didn't have many particularly bad games this season. In fact that Penrith game did more good than harm, it was the wake up call the whole team needed.

We should sneak into the eight and win 1-2 playoff games from here.

 

[kos]

The difference came after the Penny Panthers game.
Johnson got pulled off the field.
Konnie got dropped.
Players started returning from injury.
AND
There was genuine competition for positions.
So they had to try harder.
They tried harder won the Broncs game...
And gained CONFIDENCE in themselves.

So whats the difference

-two C words
Competion and confidence.