There are a few takes i feel myself over this team and this match
1. Let's be fair and say, yes we were bad but St. George were great also. McCullough and Bird were phenominal moving the ball freely along the line and bending the line. the scoreline mirroed them being great and us being poor.
2. The issues brought up by experts against Wests was simply our attack stifles upon playing sideline to sideline working our way around Wests, than straigtened up and scored off short plays near the line and it worked, tiring the middle and then moving towards the edges as fatigue sets in. Tonight it was apparent sideline to sideline cost us again, though having a bench of one Prop, two Back-rowers and a utility aint going to get much done in the middle unless there is some size coming for Paulo and RGC. Why did Papali'i come off for Stone when it should have been Cartwright, we need Papali'i's size in the middle and move on with Stone? beats me.
3. It could have been worse, had this been a Penrith or Melbourne or Souths fans would have swallowed this loss a lot better than they have tonight, however people forget how in form and sneakily good St. George Illawarra are, they are a well coached team. They are 4 from 5, hey if it was Canterbury or North Queensland than that's embarrising, this not so much. Not excusing a poor effort, but it was also a good team we played. We have Brisbane and Canterbury back to back weeks, now losses to either of them is worse.
4. A loss early on was due and could be needed, it is a test to lose at home like this than play a team that is perhaps fighting it out with us for a top 4 spot, in the nation's capital where our record is awful. Let's see, we could very well come out humbled and surprise everyone, or could fall apart even more. Do they come out smarting or do they approach it as they need to be better and grind to a win, remains to be seen but great teams come back from a poor performance on home turf, if they are as good as they say and believe they are they will pop up with not only a win against Canberra, but a convincing win.
5. If we beat Canberra, the result and reflection of this match is forgotten, we will go from how do we lose on home turf to St. George Illawarra to we broke a hoo doo in Canberra and came up with an incredible win against a good Raiders outfit. it is that simple.
It is the second month into a six month season, there have been times where premiership contenders have lost games like this, hey in 2012 Melbourne lost 6 games all year, including a loss to Parramatta where we got the spoon. A loss was due and much better to get it now and at home to get the pressure off our shoulder of being an unbeaten team and now realise the work that needs to be done.
In 6 days time we will see how to response will be and hope it is the response to not only the Raiders or the Dragons but to the entire NRL.
Replies
You're spot on except for the part where you 'feel yourself over the team'
Agree Coryn.
It has always worried me that our halves can't get us back into these tough games when we are struggling/behind and this was the point again last night.
Our forwards were getting belted by a compressed defence, I'm astounded that Moses, Brown or Gutherson didn't organise to get the ball wide coming out of our own end.
Our performances are far too scripted to the point where you can tell what will happen just about every set.
We need a Plan B and the halves need a free reign to play whats in front of them from the off.
Scott
Niukore was found out with the Bird try, speed was the factor to Bird breaking through, it was an excellent run but Niukore was no chance.
St George were the better team, however they certainly had the rub of the green which happens in games. Ther so called penalty try I have seen them go the other way with the offender sin binned. The obstruction by Junior Paulo which disallowed Gutherson notry. Again I have seen them go the other way. Finally the second try by Dufty was clearly by a forward pass from Clune.
I don't think we were that bad. St George were sharper in the1st half but got the decisions that counted.