Trauma snowballing syndrome and the urge to blow things up isn’t just something buried in human DNA. It's now rebranded as “high standards". Forty Years can do that. Sometimes, all it takes is a few minutes.
But let’s park the emotion for a minute. What actually happened yesterday?
The good news? We fought. Fought hard. That’s two weeks back-to-back. Despite being undermanned, we’ve already used 28 players - the most in the comp - and have the worst injury toll in the game.
The bad news? We didn't stick to what works.
Foxlab shows we made 15-9 errors. That’s the game.
If you’re handing over that much ball, you’re not winning too many.
Fair dinkum. You could have a $17 million roster and a recruitment team featuring Jesus, Mary, Mohammed and Buddha. You’re still getting beat.
Even the Panthers lost 32-16 to the Dogs with 15-8 errors two weeks ago. The Storm made 13-9 errors and lost 48-6 to Souths this week.
Given the injury crisis and rebuilding roster and the fact we’ve been losing the yardage battle every week (see table above) and possession except for once (Broncos game), the adjustment isn't complicated. It's obvious. We have to kick longer, at least over 600 metres, chase hard, hold the ball, make no more errors than the opponents, and complete above 80%.
When we do that, we compete or win.
When we don’t, we lose, usually badly.
Yes, it's boring. It’s not revolutionary. It's not sexy. It just works.
In the first half, despite errors, we kept largely to that blueprint. The kicking game and chase was doing its job - close to 500 metres - was keeping things within possibility of an upset. We were still in the fight at 7-6. Hanging in by our finger nails.
But in the second half, we fell away from that. Kick metres dropped to around 240m. Errors kept piling up at critical moments in the wrong places. We invited Manly to "please enjoy almost unlimited possession and field position." Game over.
Emotions will point to the highlight reel.
Saab and Hopoate, right and left wingers, combining to slice through the middle.
Garrick making a break on our left edge.
Sean Russell missing a tackle and getting steamrolled.
Oka bashing Walker out of the game and running over blokes like he’s late for a Sunday roast.
But cold-hard stats tell a deeper story.
The game didn’t slip away gradually.
Thirteen Minutes of Choas
It snapped. Between the 50th and 63rd.
The score went from 7-6 to 27-6.
4 tries in 13-minutes.
Lights out.
But that thirteen minutes of chaos didn’t happen in isolation.
It sat in within a mammoth 20-minute momentum swing. Almost one long fatigue-feast of a death zone.
Between the 46th and 66th.
Possession was almost 80% against us.
13 /15 vs 2 / 4 sets
87% v 50% completions
It all kicked off with a single error.
Then the avalanche.
5 errors
2 restarts
1 penalty
1 sin bin
4 tries
22–0
We didn't lose the game over 80 minutes.
For 67 minutes, we led 18-11.
Uncomfortable Truths
When momentum shifts nowadays, it doesn’t just shift, it accelerates. One error becomes two. Two becomes a set restart. Then a penalty. Then fatigue. Then someone’s in the bin. Then you’re watching wingers carve up the middle with your head spinning.
Naturally, the You're Fired Posts were inevitable. Sack R&R. Sack the Team. Sack Ryles. Sack the board. Sack the Club. Rebuild the club by Tuesday morning. Get Shane Richardson in, he'll bring us Galvin. Get Matt Cameron. He'll bring Ice and Talagi back along with Alamoti and Jenkins. Job Done. Who said running a $200m organization was hard and needed 5-year plans?
Right now, until we get troops back and new signings like Su'a, this team doesn’t have the punch or luxury of intricate playing loose or expressive footy for long periods. Or to look hot. We’ve got to stick to a simple blueprint, and it’s about as exciting as a trip to the dentist. Hard yakka.
We know exactly what works. We just don’t always stick to it. And when we don’t, we get thirteen minutes like that or worse.
Replies
Poppa, whjat the hell is a "reverse should replacement"? Is it like you're RoboCop and they accidentally put a rocket launcher on the wrong way? "Dead or alive, this arm is going on backwards"
Lol...this one is the right shoulder (dom), had the left done last year.
I now type and wipe my arse with the left.....my wife baths and dresses me every morning....she refuses to do anything more.....look it up Daz...you will be impressed...since i had my left done.....It is like an 18 year old.
Learn something new every day, Poppa. So you're gonna build a huge right deltoid muscle and look like Popeye leaning over?
What I thought you would apprecIate out of that exercise was I had my left done before more right.
The left was definitely leaning too heavily but I am balanced again with my centric positioning but the right eventually (it always happens) being the dominate once fully recovered LOL
The younger kids in NSW Cup are performing and developing well. Look at the stats off Richie, T Brown, Jez, Visconti, Beatie, Avery and Latu. However, the most impressive stat sheet for the game is Lokeni. In 75min he produced 200m+ and 38 tackles with 0 miss & 0 errors.
https://www.parraeels.com.au/draw/nsw-cup/2026/round-8-sea-eagles-v...
EA what's your thoughts on Visconti? Looks like Moretti to me.
Seems mad as a cut snake.
Just runs hard with footwork at the line and works really hard in defence. We signed a good one. Should stay in cup for the rest of the year.
Do you see him as one that could challenge the likes of Talagi, Koina, Popo and the rest for minutes in the future? From past team lists at the Roosters he seemed to always be a bench player, perhaps could be a late bloomer of a player and that happens. Sometimes players get to 23-24 years of age then start to peak.
Definitely. As it currently stands, Visconti deserves to be in front of those 3 in the pecking order in NSW Cup. Popo has only played rd 1 this year. No idea what injury he has and when he is returning. The other 3 probably have more upside than Visconti but you need players like Visconti in your team.
I more so meant in the future. This year yeah it makes sense as he is 21, he is older than those three mentioned so therefore he would be pushing FG more than the three mentioned. But long term they would jump Visconti i guess.
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