Good Things:
1. Our right side Defence held up tonight and our defence generally was first class. The scramble and desperation was admirable. 2 of Panthers 3 tries came in the last minute of each half. Panthers have the best attack in the comp, all the ball, but struggled to score against us.
2. That was an 80 minute performance that was tenacious. We didn't have lapses in energy or effort.
The Bad Things:
1. Our attack was so one dimensional. 1 man out runs for a bomb on tackle 5. No plan B. No one tried something different. No cut out balls, very few offloads, very few darts from dummy half, no variation of kicks, no line breaks, no cohesion, no second phase play, very few passes beyond the initial ball from dummy half.
2. Mitchell Moses. I bashed him in 2017 and 2018 then ate my words last year when he had a stellar season. He started this year with his tail up too. However, for the last couple of months, he has reminded me why I don't rate him. He is not a steady mind on the field. He consistently makes the wrong decisions at crucial times. In the first half, after being under tremendous pressure all half, we finally get the ball then Moses runs us out of room and throws a shit hospital pass that gets dropped by Gutho who isn't even looking or expecting it. Just crippled any chance we had to make good on tenacious defence. At times we needed Moses to change the tempo, but he doesn't kick out over the sideline, didn't attempt a 40/20 and only kicked out with 10 minutes left and need the ball in play to score. He couldn't put a play on, couldn't organise the backline to have any shape, or come up with an individual play to spark the attack in the final 15 minutes. He ain't a premiership half (I don't think). Unless Joey can turn him, I think Moses is going to continually dissapoint against the good sides.
Replies
JBG I can't remember a game where one team has pinned another team in their half for so long in a game - our boys were exhausted out there and it's bloody hard to attack when you've done that much work
im very proud of the effort tonight - I think nobody beats Penrith tonight with the sheer weight of possession and field position.
let's just hope if we square up with them again we have our best team on the park ... not many ppl on hear want to acknowledge half our spine was out tonight... but that's there way.... out shut on the club at all costs and say "I told you so"
I agree with what you say, but my criticisms still stand.
You see DCE play when all his attacking weapons are missing, he still puts plays on and manages to break the line with some variation of direction, inside pass, cut out ball or individual footwork. Moses just doesn't seem to have that steel when we are on the back foot and it seems to infiltrate to the whole team in attack.
Who could have beat the Panthers with that many set restarts and penalties all in their favour? It was totally lopsided and a disgraceful refereeing display again.
1 annoying thing - Your still here and dribbling nonsence
agreed.
We have 3 set restarts and I pretty sure all of them were on the first or second tackle. Any momentum we have was counteracted by the refs. We had no fast play the balls because Panthers would flop everytime and the refs would not give us a 6 again. BA really needs to speak up in the press conferences. I don't like ref bashing but this was atrocious.
We only had a 5 day turn around and within the first 20 minutes of the match Panthers had 70% possession and at full time they had 65% possesion.I think the last try really sank us a bit after so much good defence. Blake was alright but nearly cost us a few tries with his horrible decison making.
I 100% agree that our attack was too much one out, but you can't expect so much from a team so tired. I think everyone can't be too critical of Moses this game, as a team you need to earn the right to play expansive footy (quick play the balls) but the panthers flopped so much and we got no six agains. Also because the middle has done so much work Moses can't play to risky cause an error is causing a tired defence to continue to defend. We didn't offload too much this game, perhaps due to fatigue.
Good things
1. We're well positioned in the top 8
2. Defence was generally pretty good
bad things
1. We lost
2. see number 1
but surely Blake has to get dropped