Ok so i will be doing ratings also later today, so please comment on which you prefer and i will do one of the other moving forward. Anyway one of the best matches i have watched in years, in terms of entertainment and quality. It was a pretty even game in terms of team stats not too much favouring the other, 48% possession, 7 to 5 line breaks for Melbourne, 7 to 5 penalty count to Parramatta, 12 to 11 errors for Melbourne. One stat i will mention as it killed us early in the first half, play the ball speed. We have been a team since BA was appointed who have not only had a slow play the ball speed but also conceaded a quicker play the ball speed. 3.38 second for Melbourne while 4.13 for us. I feel play the ball speed is incredibly important for our success long term as an attacking team. Look at Penrith last night, 2.98 seconds, Souths and Roosters had 3.77 and 3.79 respectfully. Hell Canberra and Gold Coast had 3.80 and 3.17. The slowest this week other than us was the Warriors at 3.9 seconds. For those that say well it is Melbourne who slow it down, Souths in round 2 3.67 and Wests in round 1 3.19, so it is us. While for us in round 1 and 2, 3.65 was a bit better in round 1 but less than Gold Coast and 3.43 against Crounlla. But our play the ball speed is usually on the average to slowest in the league.
Most Impressive:
Clint Gutherson (man of the match): Excellent performance by the skipper, 166 metres, 2 linebreaks and a try, not forgetting the numerous try savers also. Is he flashy? no. Is he the best fullback in the comp? no. Is he reliable? absolutley. Gutho showed leadership last night, including that run after the Blake lost ball early in golden point to get us off to a momentum driven start to our set which led to the game winner. Not too much Gutho did wrong last night, Melbourne made plenty of breaks tonight but were met with a brick wall in Gutho before they could think about scoring.
Dylan Brown: Talk about a redemption game, Brown was sensational last night, he played like he did when he debuted in 2019. Filled with confidence and when one play after play after play worked he started taking risks and they paid off. They wont always pay off and will be loving to see how Brown reacts to that to see if he can shrug it off and move forward, though first two rounds Brown's running showed glimpses of making an impact just couldn't get through, then mid first half he broke the Melbourne momentum with an extroadinary break for the Gutherson try which led to us holding onto the game for the rest of the 80mins. Not forgetting his 36 tackles also and his 2 try assists.
Reagan Campbell-Gillard: A sneaky great game for RCG, 197 metres, 2 tackle breaks and an offload. He is the forward leader and leads by example, mr. reliable as you know exactly what you will be getting from RCG every week. If he again misses out on a blues jersey this coming series it will voice the opinion of him being one of the most underrated forwards in the NRL even louder.
Ray Stone: Did you think i was going to forget Stoney? What a hero, what a redemption from last week, what a way to go. It seems he saved his best game as an Eel as his last as a suspected ACL tear spells the end of the Lock's time in the blue & gold, well for as long as we know for. Dolphins have gained themselves a wonderful addition, when he signed with the Dolphins i oddly felt happy, more so for him as he was finally getting that opportunity to be a full-time player. Anyway back to the performance, for a player to move into the centres and not do a single thing wrong in defence and attack also doubling his career try tally in the process? nothing short of an achievement, it would be difficult to get into that game 57mins in at that intensity, move to an unfamiliar position at centre and catch up to speed as quick as what Stone did.
Mitchell Moses: I am going give Mitchell a shout out here as i felt he had a sound performance. Mitchell's kicking late towards the game was excatly needed to hold onto that game. The defensive reads late in the first half where he held close to Papali'i too much, hesitated back in and Munster was through a massive hole was not great but when the game mattered Moses stood up especially in his kicking game which is a top 3 kicking game in this league.
Shaun Lane: For that charge down, that length came in handy. That is all.
Honroable mentions: Opacic, Paulo, Papali'i, the bench.
Most Disappointing:
Wiremu Greig not getting a run: Not too much to complain about here as it was a win with a wonderful performance, but though i understand why Greig did not get on i would have liked to have seen how he went last night. Greig could be the impact player we need with Kaufusi moving on at years end. Hopefully next week he stays in the 17 and is able to get some minutes.
Ray Stone's injury: It seems, speculating, Stone has had his season ended by winning us the game. So unfortunate and cruel for that to happen that way. It is an added hit to our depth.
Waqa Blake: Ok the elephant in the room, Waqa by the end of the first half i thought to myself "he could make my most impressive list" oh how did i jinx him. It was not an awful overall performance, but the three dropped high balls, especially the 2nd one on our own line with 2 to go giving Melbourne the chance to win. Melbourne saw the opportunity and took it, his confidence was shot and nearly cost us the game towards the end, which is a shame as i felt he an alright game before that.
Will Penisini: Had a shocker earlier on in defence, which is a shame as last year he had players like Olam, Best and Crichton in his pocket. Those late performances in 2021 led us to think he is talent, and we still do but fair to say his defensive performances are nowhere near where they were last year. He is still 19, having plenty of time to improve, but no denying against Melbourne he has a bit of trouble.
And that is it, wonderful performance even if we lost. Not many changes for next week, Stone out and Cartwright in you would believe as it seems Matterson and Niukore are round 5 the earliest. Simonsson maybe might be out due to concussion, doubt it but possible, if so expect Naiduki or Loizou to get the nod in those spots.
Replies
W Blake looks too excited when he is catching bombs. He is running at pace when takes catches rather than taking it step by step. He should just stand still and catch it and then use his bulldozing runs. Storm realised this hence why they never kicked the ball long but short and made Blake charge at it.
Thought the exact same things. He is overly enthusiastic about running. Needs to focus on the catching part as the priority and then the running.
I have no problems with Penisini's defence.
Storm tested the defensive combination of Penisini and Moses, which often led Simonson by himself whenever Moses and Penisini made a mistake. Penisini is still very young so I am not too concerned. Penisni just need to trust that Moses will slide
good summary LB. The Ray Stone story is a sad one.I think he deserves his shot with the Dolphins to be a regular First grader.
Maybe Blake can redeem himself next week with a try double as well..I think his body tenses up when receiving an aerial bomb he needs to be more relaxed. It's one of those " all in the mind" things.
I think Dylan is becoming more relaxed in playing more instinctually and doesn,t seem to overthink things. When he hits his mental maturity he will be up there with the best.. Opacic has copped some criticism on this site which is unfortunate. He is ever reliable and does his job.
We did have some defensive issues against a red hot Storm attack. Nice win. Consistency is key let's hope we don,t have our these close games anymore and win more ease.
Don't forget that Opacic defended against Jesse Ramien and R Smith who are both great attacking centres at their best
yes, I don't think Opacic cops too much criticism, as much an acceptance of probably being a good back up centre that is essentially a reserve grader.....what he did on the weekend is exactly what would be expected from a good soldier!
He did his job and did it well! we are lucky to have him in the circumstances we currently find ourselves in.
yep EA i agree Waqa cant run and catch , perhaps Netball is his go.
Disappointing for me is not just this week but last week aswell we haven't iced games.
Last week the Stone penalty and the Mahoney miss on the line to lose.
This week our big men RCG and Lane getting caught laterally.
In closing we are missing the small details that will cost us games.
We should be 3-0 right now.We need to really knuckle down on these small details.
Stone I feeling for you but the depth of the squad has Nuikore and Matto back into the mix.
For me the MoM was joint.Shaun Lane and Isaiah Papali'i both guys played 80 have huge work rates with and without the ball.
Matto coming back in the middle really helps stiffen up the defence because he is great 1on1. Lane tried tripping B Smith for storms last try rather than trying to make the tackle. For me Papa and Lane rnt 80min players. They need a break. When Niukore comes back he can cover their rests. I don't think Carty has fallen of BAs pecking order
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