Well, didn’t sheet get real this week. The wrong end of the Bipolar Eagles turned up today and gave one of those inane horrible performances, only matched by the cringe-worthy officiating.
Let’s start on a positive note. Jorge, hold your head high. It was good how he kept his head in the game despite the implosion happening around him. Was head and shoulders above everyone else today. Nevertheless, still some poor defensive efforts, so the bar wasn’t really that high.
AFB was solid and tried his guts out, one of the few forwards to make hard meters and get some momentum. On this note, Winterstein should also get a wrap. Yes, he missed some tackles and needs to work on that edge defence, but like AFB, he ran hard and got his head through the line to provide some of the little momentum we had.
Outside of those 3 the rest was quite diabolical.
Tom T had one of his worst games to date, (and he has had a couple of ordinary ones in his young career). If it were Wright putting in that performance he would be bashed from pillar to post.
Speaking of Wright, he had a fair game, but we did lose a hell of a lot in our back 3 momentum, starting our tackle counts, with Uate out.
DCE tried his guts out and is doing his best to lead by example and focus on getting on with it rather than getting caught up in the drama. Way too many tackles asked of him and needs much better protection and support in defence. That said, his kicking game was miserable and he failed to grab that team by the scruff again and get them organised and focused. The momentum of panic and poor attitude just swept over any effort he was making to address it.
BJ tried his guts out, but largely ineffectual
Myles went back to his mythical passenger status
Api was in a parallel universe and out of sync
Jake had probably his quietest game yet; very disappointing from somebody who has been so consistent and reliable up until today.
Sirro… did he play?
Marty. Quiet. At least he looks like he is hurting over team performances like that. That’s the sort of care and passion that is needed throughout the whole team.
Walker tried hard but couldn’t get into the game
Kelly was over-awed and out of his depth today
Lussick was disappointing, despite his first game back he greatly underwhelmed
Green was brown, and Brown was brown.
The most notable 1%er today was to see the difference when the 2 lines came together. Drags players consistently poked their head through the defence (when not simply running straight through it) and were always on their belly for a quick play the ball and built excellent momentum. I can barely recall a dominant Manly tackle where we pushed back the oncoming attack and put players on their back. In comparison, Drags did this to us all afternoon. Enthusiasm? Attitude?
I expected we would have ebbs and flows all year with a developing team. However, I was very disappointed with the depth of the ebb today. I would have thought the Bunny game debacle would have made a mark in the sand, but I think we eclipsed it quite easily today.
