First off, if you get 1 injury to an outside back and it causes 5 positional shifts within the team, you didn't get your bench right.
Secondly, just as it always does against top teams, our ruck defence got blown to pieces. You can sit there and say we had 40% of the ball tonight.. same against Penrith... wasnt much better against Souths.. theres a reason for it. We give the oppositon too many metres, set restarts , quick play the balls, and time to decide what they want to do.
Thirdly our attention to detail isn't that of a true top 4 team. At a crucial time we'll slacken on a kick chase or make silly errors the top sides dont do. The kick chase for the Storm 2nd try was very reminiscent of the one we did vs Souths.. where the middles saw it as a good opportunity to have a rest.
Our effort in other parts of the game was great and injuries didnt help our cause. But we cant kid ourselves if we want to get to the next level as a team. Again, we were not on the pace It felt like Storm were coming to get us the whole game, and if they executed a bit better it woud've got ugly for us. The same people can come on here and say us who point this out are fake fans or whatever you want to say. I can tell you now, without massive upgrades to this coaching staff and some smart recruitment this is it for us. We haven't really advanced that far from last year. Its only a matter of time before the players realise all their effoerts are leading to little reward and lose that 4 or 5% and we go backwards. Getting to the finals and getting pumped the same way year after year isn't good for the team either. We need an injection of fresh ideas and a few key players. Lets hope we can find a way to show up next week, because in BAs history he struggles to get us up 2 weeks in a row.
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That's my fear. We will play the bunnies and be torn to shreds again. Out the back door in straight sets again.
Hopefully not. If we go out in straight sets this season has been a failure and the coaching staff needs to go. Anyone saying otherwise is kidding themselves.
I dont think people realise that Blake and Fergo were already being torn to pieces at the start of the game beofre all the injuries. Storm just had no points to proove it yet. Storm just took time polish the play that exposed that side of the defence. Secondly, that side defence has been exposed every week. Its not like this was our first week our right edge has been exposed. Using injuries is just an excuse for something that has already been exposed and is a massive problem if we have any chance on going deeper into this finals campaign.
Right side should have been sorted weeks/ months ago. If BA won't address it The Board needs to demand answers. It's the most obvious thing in the NRL right now. Why?
Yep. He's had half a year to sort it out and hasn't achieved a thing with it.
Thing is , to me it appears like Waqa comes with a lot of energy and willingness to get involved. He's not a lazy player not having a go by any means which to me would be harder to coach and droppable. Fergo is an experienced, premiership winning origin player. How the coaches can't help put Waqa and Fergo in a poistion to sort it out is beyond me. The coaches are accountable.
Quote of the night from a QueeR-Zlander and Storm supporter in the Ch 9 commentary box, "Why hasn't somebidy done something to fix this?"
No injury excuse. We played for 35 min max. We aren't a complete enough team to do what dominant teams do for 80 min! Why? Ask the coach. Although I think next week we would beat god, I'm that confident it's not funny. Not sure why! Let's see
Was at the game, it was apparent live that they were just far too dominant around the ruck and we were scrambling all night to hang on. Even when we were up 12 nil you could tell Melbourne just needed a few passes to stick and the points would flow. It was a great effort but great effort gets you nowhere in the end. Our attention to detail when it matters is appalling and has been in all his time at the club.
PS - They are a grubby pack of maggots and blight on the game.
Not a bad synopsis Al. I was at the game too and felt they controlled the ruck speed way better than us. Any momentum we gained via a six again was generally on the first tackle as opposed to the storm getting them mid set.
Watching Munster direct traffic towards Waqqa and Fergo has put another 10 years on me.
Yep, I was there too mate and the thing I noticed was how much quicker they did everything, but it never seemed frenetic, it was always in control. They just played faster than us, even if we managed to dominate the tackle they found a way to still play faster.
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