A Brief, Unemotional Assessment Today

Today was a key match. To say that the team did not step up is an understatement. I'm regarded as a bit of a unicorn on the site, but I'd rather be thought of as someone who can take a step back and analyse the game. For any one who thought I was incapable of a critical blog, here we go.I'm going to ignore the first half because it was an even contest and the game was there for either team to win in the second half.The forwards did not win the ruck in the second half. If the forwards can't go forward, the halves will have a tougher job. Furthermore, repeated dropped balls from Terepo were a real momentum changer.The defensive effort was below standard across the park. There was no sting in the defence.The support play from runs through the ruck was almost non existent. What's the point in making any half break if nobody is supporting the player?Semi looked lost in his first week back. I suspect that Semi has never had a serious injury in his life. I wonder how he has adjusted to this.Are there any positives? Absolutely none!I doubt that it would have changed the score but again I found myself scratching my head at the refereeing. Incessant forward passes were ignored, 50/50 calls went against us. The strip penalty against Sandow led to a try. The double movement penalty led to a try. (Why wasn't it a scrum from the dropped ball? There was no advantage as the ball was dropped inside the ten.)However, even with the refereeing inequities, we deserved to lose. I expected better. Come on Parra, we fans deserve better, especially at home games. I never tell the coach what to do, but I would hope for a couple of changes in the forwards after that.

"1.longi 2.simmo 3.penisini 4.russell 5.samrani 6.papalili 7.mitch 8.paulo 9 smith 10.debelin 11.williams 12.kautoga 13.moretti 14.walker 15.tuivati 16.brown 17.tuilagi 18.pezet 19.dasilva"

"Guymer is a younger version of what de Belin is here for. Cleaning up the middle with 2nd and 3rd man in attempts, get through work and do your share in attack. Guymer can definately do that."

"Yep agree. Though clubs like Canberra and Brisbane do it and did well, i just do not like it. I don't mind doing what BA did in between 2020-2022, where he would have Mahoney play 80 each week but then around Round 8-10 he would bring in like…"

Replies

Patsy Stone May 10, 2015 at 6:23pm

^^This^^
aveel May 10, 2015 at 6:25pm

The coach has left his run too late to make changes if he wants to make the 8.
Mitchy May 10, 2015 at 6:28pm

Couldn't have said it better 60's. We are all disappointed and guess after this weekend of elections we needed a win. We always need a win I guess. I felt the same mate and feel we were there to take the game but our forwards didn't do this and some other errors cost us. I thought Sandow tried very hard.
Hugo May 10, 2015 at 6:34pm

Sorry mate but I thought the officials were fine.
Quite simply Robinson should be on wing , he is no fullback. We have Taka and Hoppa as our centres which gives us a serious disadvantage regarding speed and lateral movement .
Sandow is an instinctive player who needs space.
We have limited punch iin the forwards with a poor bench.
Most of all we have limited leadership from our captain.

Sorry - it all comes back to the coaching staff.
- sixtiesboy > Hugo May 10, 2015 at 6:41pm
  
  Don't agree about the officials but they didn't cost us the win. There were no excuses with the team we were able to field today. The players didn't execute their plays and their energy levels were below the Storm's. If we can't find that 5% extra in our efforts, we will be in trouble. It is up to each and every player to be focussed for the entire 80 minutes.
- Duncan Goulden > Hugo May 11, 2015 at 2:55pm
  
  Agree with most of this except Robbo.The guy runs like a jack rabbit but has no hope of showing it,with our up front
  
  performance.Our 2 halves are complete individuals,so no-one has a freaking clue what's going on.Our play the balls are slow with no effort in getting up quickly.This has nullified any form of speed out of dummy half.Robbo is there looking for opportunities,but there seems a distinct lack of perception from anyone playing the ball.If your saw yesterday,it was only a desperate lunge by Smith around the collar that stopped a try.This team is not being coached to any strengths we may have.WE LOST THE PLOT!!!
- CP > Hugo May 11, 2015 at 3:01pm
  
  Yep Robinson has zero support play and zero passing ability. One time he threw the ball out and another time sweeping around the back he tried to force a pass.
  
  He has speed and needs to be on the wing, he burned GI twice against Souths.
- luk3_182 > Hugo May 11, 2015 at 4:03pm
  
  Robinson struggles to pass though. Twice he went to throw the ball to Hoppa and it dropped straight to the ground. However we have bugger problems than adding a but of polish to our back line movements. I say every time our team is confirmed the fact we have two utilities on the bench kills us late in the game. Our forwards get real tired come the 60 minute mark and bringing on IDG or Sef is not enough size. We have got a small enough pack as it is without having Peats, sef and IDG all on at the same time, in the crucial part of the game.
  
  As much as I like BA and I do think he will lead this club to success this is the wrong option by him.
Josh May 10, 2015 at 6:37pm

as much as some players were terrible in execution and yes, the bench chosen baffles me but the real killer today was the dropped ball, over and over again. i think the errors crept up to around 13-15. you wont beat anyone with that, esp the clockwork storm. also we have no luck with player returns..... hodges comes back against us, acrves us up. slater comes back against us, carves us up.
Camo73 May 10, 2015 at 6:39pm

Any word on our board situation?