The Real Cost of the Loss

It was a case of déjà vu as the dust settled after tonight's game against the Bulldogs. In scenes reminiscent of the Round 2 clash, our boys again suffered a 20 odd point loss coupled with an ever increasing injury crisis.So what is the cost of tonight's game?Firstly, the 2 competition points, coupled with an accompanying points differential blow out. There was always the likelihood of not being able to match a near full strength Canterbury, but this result was almost the worse case scenario.Importantly, the kick in the guts from the injury toll might be something that completely cruels our season. With possible season ending injuries to Wicks and Norman, as well as problems for Gower and Watmough, our player stocks could not be much worse for this time of year.The greatest concern flows from the injury to Norman.With the form of both Sandow and Kelly sounding the alarms to a deafening level, only the return of Norman to the halves could provide any hope of salvation. That hope appears now to be gone. Combining an apparent lack of desire from Sandow with the truly substandard execution provided by Kelly sets up a recipe for disaster.How to solve this is an unbelievable headache.Chris Sandow may have placed himself in a truly untenable situation, if media reports from the dressing room are true. For a half to lose the respect of his team mates, let alone his coach, is undoubtedly a hurdle too late to clear at this point in the season. I'd like to believe that every player who takes the field in blue and gold is doing their best, regardless of errors that they may make. Tonight's effort has me scratching my head.For Kelly, I'll not question his effort, but his performance was so incredibly short of NRL standard. If we rely on this level of performance in our halves, we will struggle for the rest of the year. Therein lies our problem. Sandow may have sealed his overseas deal with this performance and with the loss of Norman we are likely to be consigned to 7 matches guided by Luke Kelly.Combining our lack of halves with significant injuries to 3 forwards places a ridiculously dark cloud over our upcoming games. Normally, a side can't wait to put a scrappy performance behind them as they line up for the next match. The psychological damage of tonight's outcome is crucial in so many ways.I have no idea what Brad Arthur can do to prepare the team for a trip to North Queensland. He'll be doing well to name a half decent and fit 17. He'll be working miracles to manufacture a competitive performance.Edit - I feel compelled to offer my two bobs worth selection wise, something I rarely do.Assuming that Norman is now gone and that Sandow is released, I would play Peats and possibly Seffa in the halves. I would play Nelson at dummy half. As a back up I would have Matterson on the bench as a back up half who would allow a rotation of Peats back to dummy half. Not sure if the cap would allow such a line up but I cannot accept any consideration of tonight's halves in future selections. These boys would probably do ok defensively.

Sixties,

Very thorough analysis of the consequences of last nights loss.

It could not be any more of a carbon copy of the round 2 loss, close at half time and then we had 20+ points put on us in the 2nd half then a significantly worse injury toll to rub salt into the wounds.

With the finals run home. It took us about six weeks to recover from the round 2 loss ,we cannot afford a repeat of that stat. lets hope BA can work a miracle after this loss.The teams mental attitude was severely smashed last night It will be made even more difficult with Sandow throwing in the towel. and from your report, the team has lost all confidence in him, there goes not only our attacking coordinator, his kicking game when he is playing with passion and his goal kicking. When we didn't have him, our goal kicking was very poor with Robinson.

It doesn't matter which way you look at this loss, it is a disater from every angle. As you said, the alarm bells are deafening,how could it have turned to crap in the space of 80 minutes. The Doggies seem to have that effect over us.

Your suggestions for player changes may only cover us to fill the positions but I can't see those players making up for the losses of Norman, Sandows cave in, the growing injury list and the teams mental attitude after this loss. This will need a miracle from BA. If he can do it, we will need to call him GOD. who knows stranger things have happened.

Go the Eels. Time to stand up

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the parra cricketer July 18, 2015 at 1:20am

Is it time to give Alvaro, Matterson and French a go? Kelly's performance was shiet, regardless of the amount of effort put in. Giving French a stint at fullback until Robinson comes back may be good for him.
- sixtiesboy > the parra cricketer July 18, 2015 at 8:12am
  
  French is an undoubted talent. I could not think of a worse time to blood him unfortunately.
  You'd need good halves to blood an inexperienced fullback. I'd hate to do blood him at the moment. Not sure we could cap wise.
Perpetual Motion July 18, 2015 at 1:24am

I was so nervous Semi was going to hobble off with a knee injury in the last few minutes just to top off our night.
- sixtiesboy > Perpetual Motion July 18, 2015 at 8:12am
  
  Ditto!
GRUNTA - Death of a Salesman July 18, 2015 at 4:23am

I knew we would get injuries. Dessy makes sure of that.
Revo3010 July 18, 2015 at 7:42am

Sixties,

Very thorough analysis of the consequences of last nights loss.

It could not be any more of a carbon copy of the round 2 loss, close at half time and then we had 20+ points put on us in the 2nd half then a significantly worse injury toll to rub salt into the wounds.

With the finals run home. It took us about six weeks to recover from the round 2 loss ,we cannot afford a repeat of that stat. lets hope BA can work a miracle after this loss.The teams mental attitude was severely smashed last night It will be made even more difficult with Sandow throwing in the towel. and from your report, the team has lost all confidence in him, there goes not only our attacking coordinator, his kicking game when he is playing with passion and his goal kicking. When we didn't have him, our goal kicking was very poor with Robinson.

It doesn't matter which way you look at this loss, it is a disater from every angle. As you said, the alarm bells are deafening,how could it have turned to crap in the space of 80 minutes. The Doggies seem to have that effect over us.

Your suggestions for player changes may only cover us to fill the positions but I can't see those players making up for the losses of Norman, Sandows cave in, the growing injury list and the teams mental attitude after this loss. This will need a miracle from BA. If he can do it, we will need to call him GOD. who knows stranger things have happened.

Go the Eels. Time to stand up
- Carloeel > Revo3010 July 18, 2015 at 7:53am
  
  I turned off , what a bomb site to wake up to this morning :-((( . Some good ideas for BA to think about re playing positions sixties .i think Chris has really disappointed every fan on here who has supported him , especially these last few months .
- sixtiesboy > Revo3010 July 18, 2015 at 8:16am
  
  Cheers.
  In the cold light of day my suggestions look crap! That's our predicament. It would be selections that would not win us matches, just maybe hold the fort at best.
  The only positive is the longer turn around to work with whatever he decides.
the Eggman July 18, 2015 at 7:44am

I know we played pretty bad, but I just shake my head in disbelief at the uneven playing field in regards to the dogs roster compared to ours.Even when we were going good in01 or 05 how many rep players did we have? The dogs atm imo are comparably worse in terms of talent than the storm in 09 and they are continually praised for thier toughness and skill and resolve blah blah blah give me a break.....anyway yeh bring on 2016.
- sixtiesboy > the Eggman July 18, 2015 at 8:17am
  
  I hate having the weekend ruined by a loss of such proportions.

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