Obviously, it’s only a trial. Other than reviving Henson Park, at best it's test of whether juniors' physicality is up to the task. We passed that test. Perhaps, there were symptoms of something else.
We seemed to have picked up where we left off at the end of last year. Two things impressed me, other than the juniors coming through.
Culture.
Defence.
There was cohesion to our systems and structures, both with and without the ball, even when the firsts went off. Winning helps, but players were smiling like Cheshire cats. They looked happy. They played for each other.
Mitch Moses was rallying the troops in coach-mode on the sidelines, in constant chatter with Scott Wisemantal, talking shop, while being paternally protective of young Pezet and his million dollar smile.
When Samrani lost his cool in the 60th minute handing the Sharks a penalty in our red zone, and they then coughed it up, a team made up largely of juniors (with names I had to double check on the team list) celebrated that small win like they’d just won the match.
That’s buy-in.
They looked aligned.
It's not accidental. It reflects where we are up top. It’s no coincidence that at last Wednesday’s Members’ Forum, the head coach, CEO, chairman and GM all appeared completely on the same page and some of our 1EE members in attendance saw it with their own eyes. Plenty of fans are noticing it at fan days too as well as Ryles' quiet confidence. That alignment is starting to filter downstream.
Perhaps, even our Prime Minister might have been impressed as he walked the dog around the pitch on this historic day.
When Fletcher and Lorenzo linked up with Pryce and Latu, and Twiddle supported like a terrier, it was obvious these guys know what each other is doing. The Pathways look promising. Hopefully it translates to first grade.
I’m also not seeing signs of the dreaded second-year syndrome with some of our rookies like Joash Papali'i (above), Ryley Smith, Isaiah Iongi, Kitione Kautoga, Jordan Samrani, or Sam Tuivaiti, while TDS improved as the game wore on.
To borrow some Cleary-isms, that’s what culture feels and looks like, mixed with a bit of Bennett’s Dr Jauncey pragmatism.
We’re creating good environments. Constantly improving. For the badge.
There are plenty of promising young guys coming through, and not too many weak links to address yesterday. Aside from not seeing how Ryda Talagi, who looks bigger than I expected would fare, and a few weaker-links in Tago, Tuilagi, and a poor defensive read by TDS, there were two key low points.
The first was giving them too much ball through errors (14–9) and penalties/restarts (12–6), which handed the Sharks' superior territorial advantage.
Foxlab had them with 50–17 tackles inside our 20m red-zone for the game. What pleased me was the energy and goal-line resilience to withstand that, even if the Sharks didn't seem to throw much to test our defensive systems.
Also, part of the high error count comes from exuberance and youth, as well as getting off the line quickly and being willing to throw the ball around (offloads 15–2). I can live with a slightly higher error count if we defend it. Then, we earn the right to play more expansive footy as we evolve.
If we start playing more conservatively, we will blunt our footy. The Sharks’ conservatism helped their stats, but not the 40–6 scoreline.
The scoreboard counts more than the stats.
The second concern, and a bigger danger, is the quality of the opponent which could mislead us. Though they had some first graders in their pack, their young team didn’t really test us and were often predictable. A stronger side could have ruthlessly exploited some of our errors and weaknesses.
So I’m cautiously optimistic, as Ryles' face seems to show.
We won't know the answer for some time, but round 1 against the Storm will tell us far more.
Sean Russell only played until half-time, but he keeps improving, and it's arguably the best game I've ever seen him play.
Post Game: A picture tells a thousand words.
Replies
Agree with the "cohesion" comment. Watching at Hensen Park, I was impressed by how sharp we looked; when the Eels had the ball the Sharks were backpedaling and, when defending, our our line speed was pressuring the Sharks.
And it was constant, same shape and pressure when the player swap happened at 1/2 time.
But the Sharks may have included more quality players in their reserve grade team than the Eels did (where the Jets gave the eels a touch up) - so tempering my optimism a bit.
I don't know if we'll have to wait for the Melbourne game, i think our defence in next Saturday's trial agains Easts will either confirm our optimism or bring us crashing back down to earth with an almighty thud!