Why do we perform so poorly against the Sharks?

[Chachi]

In recent seasons we have left our worst performances against the Sharks. Why is this? I thought we physically matched - and probably bettered them - last night, but we tend to make horrible horrible mistakes against them. Milne, Best, Monas, Buttriss, Miller and Hinchy came up with some clangers out there and it was just painful to watch us fold under pressure.

It was not like the sharks played out of their skin either. They were dropping balls and missed a few tackles too. We just sucked big time.

 

[Bay56]

Chach I think it comes down to two factors

1. Finals Footy

2. Preparation.

With respect to point 1 there is no doubt that the mindset required for finals can be absent, even from players that have performed throughout the H/A season. The stakes are hiigher and unless players can control all the nervous energy they will underperform. Last nights performance was the worst we've had in some 10 weeks. We had our chances but imo placed the cue in the rack when in previous weeks we would have backed our abilities. I think the boys will have learned a lot from this experience and show up against Brisbane with a positive attitude.

Point 2, I have touched on this in another post but imo the Dally M's and the Club award night would not have helped ... interruptions and taking too much notice of the accolades would have taken our mind of the job at hand.

 

[Macko8]

I was sitting down last night thinking about the last time we had actually beat the sharks at home or at shark park.
anyone know???

 

[Bay56]

I was sitting down last night thinking about the last time we had actually beat the sharks at home or at shark park.
anyone know???

last game 2006 ... we led by a some 20 points from memory and almost were run down ... Sharkies were not in the finals race.

 

[Miller was a legend]

Chach I think it comes down to two factors

1. Finals Footy

2. Preparation.

With respect to point 1 there is no doubt that the mindset required for finals can be absent, even from players that have performed throughout the H/A season. The stakes are hiigher and unless players can control all the nervous energy they will underperform. Last nights performance was the worst we've had in some 10 weeks. We had our chances but imo placed the cue in the rack when in previous weeks we would have backed our abilities. I think the boys will have learned a lot from this experience and show up against Brisbane with a positive attitude.

Point 2, I have touched on this in another post but imo the Dally M's and the Club award night would not have helped ... interruptions and taking too much notice of the accolades would have taken our mind of the job at hand.

I think your on the money 56. In other contests they always seem to be pretty close and realistically I didn't expect anything different last night. I think your boys were surprised at the intesity and speed early in the contect and struggled to get composure back. They will learn from this and will be ready for finals footy next week. Good luck boys, I hope you get some more troops back this week. I would love to see the Raiders take the Broncs out. GO RAIDERS

 

[Bay56]

There are another two factors that many a contest will rely upon to distingush a winner ... luck and the decision making of officials.

I've made my assessment of last nights game with green tinted glasses but I dont think I'd be far of the mark to say that the refing was in favour of the home team and the luck factor deserted us.

Sharkies took advantage of all the decisions and luck that went their way, and good luck to them for that ... if you cant do that on a regular basis you wont finish in the finals equation. You could say we've had a bit of luck going our way leading up to the finals, we grabbed it with both hands and the results were on the board.

I just thought that last night, the decision/luck factor compounded our unforced errors, a snowball effect that is not the receipe for winning finals footy.

The Tilse decsion was discussed on The Roast today ... described by a few panellist as the joke penalty of the year, an embarresment to the two video refs who came up with the decision. Unfortunately we compounded that by letting them in for a try from the resultant field position they achieved from the penalty. The decision to hand over the ball when we had no dummy half but regained it after being touched by the Sharks was also mind blowing. The supposed forward pass from Campo, yet the same officials let Kimmorley get away with two that resulted in tries.

These things will turn around ... hopefully next week.

 

[Miller was a legend]

Your probaby right 56. In anycase there is next week which is assured and may the luck be on teh Raiders side in Brisbane.

 

[Chachi]

I think your on the money 56. In other contests they always seem to be pretty close and realistically I didn't expect anything different last night. I think your boys were surprised at the intesity and speed early in the contect and struggled to get composure back. They will learn from this and will be ready for finals footy next week. Good luck boys, I hope you get some more troops back this week. I would love to see the Raiders take the Broncs out. GO RAIDERS

I personally don't think the intensity and speed early last night had anything to do with Best dropping a sitter and us looking like a headless chicken with the football. We weren't being physically dominated nor were the sharks putting on any special plays to get around us.

They did what every team has done against us this year and we just choked. If Purtell gets that intercept in the first set then it's a completely different game.

We should have played with more control in the first 20 and then cut loose.

 

[Bay56]

I personally don't think the intensity and speed early last night had anything to do with Best dropping a sitter and us looking like a headless chicken with the football. We weren't being physically dominated nor were the sharks putting on any special plays to get around us.

They did what every team has done against us this year and we just choked. If Purtell gets that intercept in the first set then it's a completely different game.

We should have played with more control in the first 20 and then cut loose.

Exactly what I am saying Chach ... with less at stake, less nerves, do you think that Purtell would not have scored in the first minute ... he'd gobble that one up 99 times out of hundred.

Do you think that Covell reaching for the ball in front of Monas, missing it by a fraction than the ball missing his arm as it falls to the ground (two chances for a knock-on in the blink of an eye), bouncing up in his hands for him to drop to the ground and score a try will happen again .... yes it will, and hopefully in our favour next week (and knowing our luck Ward will be officiating and press the NO TRY button :lol.

I think we have the cattle to beat Brisbane ... we'll need the right preparation, attitude, touch of luck and some favourable decisions from the officials.

 

[Bay56]

PS .. all the above is theory ... if I was to predict what will be our main problem next week it would be the ref ....

... there is no way we will get the decisions our way at Suncorp ... if Sportsbet had a market on this I'd place my house and super on the Broncs getting those vital 50/50 calls going their way ... Bennett would expect nothing less so unless the NRL requests a fairy tale story the officials will go into the contest with an opinion on the result.

 

[Chachi]

Yep, out of those 7 tries from the sharks, at least 2 were bloody lucky bordering on bad refs decisions and another couple came from incredibly bad defence. Their second last try came from a forward pass from Kimmorley.

Most of their field position came from our mistakes (Miller knock on, Milne's fumble, Costigan "penalty" in playing the ball and then Tilse's ridiculous penalty against him etc etc).

Purts should have scored in the first minute and we should have been awarded Chalk's first try which was called back for the "forward" pass. If Best takes that Campo pass in the second half we're probably in there too.

There is no way on Gods green earth that the sharks were 26 points better than us. We were shafted by ourselves and by the officiating.

There were some awful individual performances out there. We all know who they were and we can only hope we bounce back next week.

 

[Cryptic]

I agree we played poor and the Sharks did deserve the win but... f**k me if Maxwell makes it to next week I'm really giving up on league... Two CRAP penalties for "head high tackles" and, yet again, we get pinged for a forward pass when it was clearly back, it didn't even f**king float forward, yet they get two tries off forward passes themselves... Then that play the ball... HOW did they all miss that! I also fail to see how the try where Monaghan "lost it" was with-out and doubt... I could survive with it being Benefit of the doubt but f**k me... No doubt at all? Granted if that was the same situation but the other way around it would have been a no try.

We didn't deserve to win with all the dropped ball we had out there but dead set the scoreline should have been DRAMATICALLY closer...

 

[dubby]

The boys suffered stage fright IMHO. They looked daunted and a bit lost, especially with the very rabid crowd there.

It comes down to a few things;

we were a bit unlucky with some ref calls (i cant blame him for losing, we didnt deserve to win)

The lack of experience

The lack of a halfback

The lack of size off the bench

A poor kicking game

 

[Mick_63]

Ricky Stuart.

Wherever he coaches,those sides have the wood on us.