Come the 35th minute, most of our squad looked spent and without sufficient trials to build up the 80 minutes of intense game-time stamina required to push through hard, push through hard, push through hard, push through hard........... consistently, especially in 33c+ temperatures, we were out of gas before half-time and so our line speed in defence went backwards, and from there we lost the ruck, momentum, attack started falling apart and many a marble amongst our squad was left stranded in a suspended state of waxing lyrical confusion.
From the beginning we also went out too fast while Penrith remained measured and waited for our energy depletion to kick in and bingo, they went on a roll and never looked back.
We just burnt out of our "own" doing. Penrith did nothing to make us tired in the 1st half.
Game time stamina is everything and I suggest we wait until round 12 when our game time stamina has greatly improved and we can see just how many games we have won and lost and from there crucify the coach, his squad or not. The show ain't over until the fat lady sings. Momentum into the semis is everything.
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It stood out like dogs balls Poppa.
The Panthers only had 1 more trial game than the Eels! Plus they have knew halves combination! So really there are NO excuses. The Eels were disgraceful for the first game of the season after a full preseason of training together. The Panthers game plan was far superior than Brad Arthur’s.
1 extra trial game is a massive difference in game time conditioning. Why BA chose to have only 1 this season will be answered at the end of this season.
Momentum only started changing when our squad was hitting the wall around the 33rd minute mark. Lack of game-time fitness will make the best players in the world look average/shit.
A few HIA's won't help either - both Moses and Norman were out of it during the first 25 minutes and then add exhaustion on top and the stress levels go out of whack and the fluidity of the brain no longer functions while tons of bricks are added to the exhausted chain gang who can't give up.
Choco we had 11 men on the field when they scored that try that put them ahead. Not to sure we lacked gas but we defianately lacked men on the field.We will bounce back boys
This is just one of many other key factors to this game, I agree with you, but I'm focusing on the very big one that led to the Panthers finally getting on top. Moses sin bin was bullshit. The Panthers were stepping forward up to 2 meters before playing the ball. If there was no moving forward, Moses had already managed to get back on side in the ruck and would not have been penalised. The refs fucked up that one. In fact they should have penalised the Panthers at least 4 times for stepping over the mark going back over the previous 5 minutes or so of play. There were other incorrect calls that went the Panthers way. Phil Gould must have given the refs too much of a good thing for them not to accept his generous offer. LOLLLLLL
Exactly, and it was a very heavy whack too. He was easily the best player on the field until that whack.
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