From the moment we defeated manly last week and secured 5th spot and drew the Broncos I was extremely confident we would win well and I expected 20+ to be honest. They were cooked and we were building . Even Terrible refs could stop this mismatch . But I didn’t expect 58-0.
Thanks to Canberra upsetting Melbourne we have the massive task of defeating the 2018 grand final teams to just qualify . Can we do it ?
Momentum is a powerful thing in sport , life , politics, religion. When the shift comes , it brings together believe , passion , history , anger , injustice - the lot . The momentum our young team has got from the last few weeks is seriously huge . They are grounded , they know they have massive jobs ahead of them. No talking it up , no disrespect to Melb , no reference to “ having a go and nothing to lose “ crap.
Watch dylan brown , gutho and co being interviewed . Not once did any of them say “ nothing to lose “ crap. This team believes it can not only beat Melbourne but also win the comp .
Our game is built to stretch compressed defence and wrestle mania. The long pass , short pass , second phase with short kicks ensures teams can’t compress without the risk of being picked off on play 1-2-3. The short passing game brings markers out of the game .
We are a huge chance to beat Melb this week. We must do some things right :
Dont play Melb style arm wrestle one out . Suicide
we need to shift the ball and bring it straight back at them,
no 7 set plays . I think we are likely to run more on last abs jam in rather than risk the back 3 of storm setting up .
Frustrate munster , jamming him in .
Keep the game up tempo. Risks are mistakes and drop ball but you don’t beat Melb playing their way. They will strangle the game from you . Attack our best weapon .
Finally - young guys don’t know that the script is written and the game goes certain ways. Young guys believe they will get another opportunity and play out that spirit .
I know it is a huge ask - but we win the next two weeks we win the comp . No question about it . The premiers is this side of the draw .
Replies
Yesterday was our most patient game. It was probably the 1st time we werent' looking to score off the back of every set. We applied constant pressure, didn't throw any risky balls to make things happen with little possibility. We grinded them in their 10 and forced 4 dropouts which ultimately led to points due to their fatigue. Keeping them in their 10 tackling you will also take something from their energy when they get the ball in their hands.
Fifita (who destroyed us a couple weeks ago) and Haas barely had any room to get their legs pumping as we'd shut them down with 3 and 4 men at a time stopping their offloads and any momentum they were trying to gain.
Alvaro and Tep who both played their best games when tackled, would fall to their knees and play the ball quickly which allowed Mitch and Dylan to run havoc.
In general THE PLAN came together. The only negative point was Mitch's shitter with the boot otherwise it would have been 60+ points at the end.
Our game had both the Storm grit in defence and the Roosters flair in attack.
My only worry is the effort it will take on these guys just to simply get to the GF may make us easy picking for the other half of the draw.
Even so, I’d give my right nut to watch our side run out in the GF - win lose or draw.
We play like we did yesterday with aggression and commitment in defence and then attackin the manner we did, we can beat any team. Just got to hope we can stick at it as there are no more chances. Must win and no reprieve from a bad game. It is great to see the confidence and comradery that this team now has.
Electric Eel
We need to complete at 80% minimum. WE need to attack from opening bell. Passes need to stick. WE cant go into our shell or they will lap it up and strangle us. Their back 3 are brillant players but we have them covered I think. On ground all day with the kicks. Both of their wingers have too much in the air brillance. Dont die wondering boys.
We can win this.
Totally agree. Play our game as it has now evolved, not theirs.