For all that we did and didn't do tonight, the one thing that stood up was the kicking game. If there has been one thing that has been below expectations for me this year, it was that Sandow and Robert's kicking game has been well below what I expected from them. It was the one part of our game I figured the signings would rectify. Tonight, it was the best we've had, in my recent memory. We constantly got the ball deep and our tactical kicking was quite strong too. A few of those were strong, but it was absolutely the foundation of our game tonight.
Again, Jarryd makes a big difference. He kicks us an alternate kicking point in the middle. Teams have had a lot of success rushing our kickers but tonight when they did so we just turned it inside to Jarryd who must have the biggest boot in the NRL - and Roberts isn't that far behind him.
Kearney's next job is to get what I call the offensive defence in order. You saw the couple of times that Manly got the ball deep, they managed to pin up. We very seldom keep a team inside their 20 for any more than 2 tackles even when they pick up on their line. Justin Poore is trying really hard to lead that, but we need a few of the boys who are better on their feed to be getting up out of the line just as aggressively on those first three tackles so their outside backs don't march back to the twenty so easily. Then we'll have a team that will be better at the grind, which will give us a better chance when we don't have all our attacking players at our disposal.
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