Even though it was shit and bush league of the NRL not to give us the lowest ranked loser, and getting touched up sucked, I think it can end up being a good thing.
If we were on the other side of the draw I think there's a fair chance we would've beaten Souths or Manly, and then faced another of our achilles heals , a trip to Canberra. Chances are we woulda all wasted money to go down there and watch us lose and say how we were 1 game off a grand final.
In my opinion, we're a long way off a proper top 4 team in this comp. We still don't play well away from home, and the Broncos game was nothing like a semi final. It was like a regular Sunday afternoon round match. The Storm gave us an absolute clinic in semi final football. They were more intense , disciplined, controlled, and prepared to work for everything they got. They built pressure until it strangled us. Moses has to develop the ability to control a team behind in the match.
Overall it was a very positive season. We've come on a tonne. But we need to really knuckle down this offseason and go to another level. You can't look at 5 year plans in the NRL. If we have success next year the salary cap will eventually start to bite into the future. I think we need to really focus on consistency and the ability to win ugly and really practice that mentality into next season. We need to up our mentality to competing on every play. Not just some plays. EVERY PLAY. We go through the motions on so many plays in a match. The scrum play put on us by Melbourne showed we treated the scrum as a rest and they had done their homework to exploit that. Nathan Brown came out of the line to hit Bromwich and Junior just stood there watching instead of finishing the tackle. Lane did the same thing in the Suncorp game we lost against Brisbane. Theres still too many plays we don't compete on. The mindset really has to grow into that so we do it all offseason and develop it through the season.. not just wait till finals and hope we can switch that on. The good sides do it win lose or draw from round 1.They don't win every week but they compete on every play every week. Our effort levels need to be non negotiables.This will help bring better ability to hang in during tough periods of matches, and more than 1 way to win. We can't come out and throw the ball around and hope to score 40 and win every week. I think we need to practice building pressure and doing the little things right and we might go on to another level.
I hope the boys have a well earned break and come back with a desire to improve as much next season as they did this season. Then we might really be getting somewhere!
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The thing about this side is you know the result after the first set every freaking game. We lost the game in that first set.
We won that toss and elected to kick off. Now why didn’t one of our forwards tell the others this set we let these pricks know they are in for the game of their lives or the captain at least?
That first set was soft. No big hits or driving tackles, it’s the best way to start off - aggressive in your face defence and super quick line speed. It would’ve at least slowed them down and perhaps make them play a little tighter early.
The early knock on by Paulo didn’t help either and we ended up only have the ball ince in the first 30mins.
Not sure any team comes back from that not even the best sides in the history of rugby league.
I agree 100%. The intent from the kick off the week before was so much better. We came out like the last game rolled into this one.
The Storm play a simple but clever numbers game with the refs. They know that if the continually infringe it’s unlikely the refs are going to blow more than 2 or 3 penalties against them before giving up. In the semis the tactic works even better because they know refs are instructed not to over penalise. The thing that everyone hates about the storm is that they exploit every rule they can. Even that bullshit where they hold that ball at the back of the scrum. I don’t see why they should be allowed to do that? When you can’t even push in the scrum what can the defence do in response? Anyway no point getting worked up you just have to be able to beat them and we couldn’t
The Seattle Seahawks in the NFL were well known for doing the same thing, they knew statistically they would get away with defensive infringements more than they would get penalised so took the odds and infringed at will.
i totally agree with that ME and who do we have to blame, but some sections of the media who give it to the refs if they blow too many penalties (Gus Gould being the culprit) for "destroying" the game. The refs consistancy is a separate issue however the players infringe, not the refs. There was all the media back lash around the number of penalties the storm gave away in the game (i'll stand corrected) versus South. The Storm havent chnaged the way they play but no referee pairing as blown as many pemalties since.
I think we lost the game before kick off actually. The Parra players did not look very confident in their warm up and looked overwhelmed. I have seen this before from them and every time they have lost. In fact I wonder if running out to warm up in from of thousands of Parra fans at Bankwest gets them into the right frame of mind, but when we play away they run out to a hostile or at least a non-suportive crowd and we don't get them same lift before games.
We completely lost it in and around the ruck the other night as we all know. First half kafusi bunts the ball out with his fist for two forced errors. There was a one on one strip. Speed of the play the ball etc etc. They took advantage of the wet weather because they know how to turn it into a positive from the amount of first grade games they have as a team. We need to train our younger players to play a little more dirtier and do what ever it takes to win. I can remember a game or two this year not sure who we played where we forced errors around the ruck it’s a shame we couldn’t do that the other night. The next time it rains next year I would have all players out there as a training run and practise holding onto the ball, bunting/fist pumping the ball out,stripping, wrestle,chicken wings whatever it takes to control the ruck and be a better weather footy team
Should have moved to the stadium with the roof. Rain was in their heads after how expansive we were the week before.
Yep we moved the ball that much the two weeks before as soon I saw rain was predicted earlier in the week I thought we were gone
The loss the other night showed just how far behind the club is when it comes to playing Eastern Suburbs, Melbourne etc.
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