cf2 is back
Reserve Grader
THE GOOD:
Sunday afternoon footy, perfect sunshine, and a massive 19,000 packed into Brookie. Does it get any better? Actually it does when you beat Souths from 22-16 down.
1st half:
They say origin really lifts players and that could not be more evident in the performances of Glenn Stewart and Watmough in the last month. Both were on fire from the get go, and were ably supported by the rest of the starting pack plus big Joe and George storming off the bench. What should have been a significant HT lead was cut back by not one but two very dubious tries. Merritt's dive into the corner was as good as winger dives get, but I don't buy the ridiculous one finger on the ball is a try theory, you've got to have some level of control and downward pressure. Did he have that? Nope he dropped it. Then there was their 2nd try that also looked extremely doubtful (both Ch 9 and 2GB said no try), but even if you give that the benefit of the doubt the score should have been 16-4 at HT.
2nd half:
I really expected us to blow the game away in the first 15 minutes but surprisingly we did just the opposite gifting a sloppy Souths attack 2 tries with even sloppier defence. Trailing 22-16, many teams (including the Manly of last season) might have fallen away and lost the game, but as we all know Manly 2011 are simply never beaten. Just when you thought our season hero Foran might have been a little shy of his best, he single handedly took the game by the scruff of the neck, scoring two totally against the odds tries in the space of 4 minutes to turn the game on it's head and send the Rabbits scurrying back to their burrow. On both occasions there was absolutely nothing doing, but Foran's unbelievable will to win saw him literally smash through the wall of defence to somehow plant the ball down. I don't want to count any early chickens but that had Grand Final material written all over it. Once we re claimed the lead the Bunnies were shot, and Brent Kite made sure of it with his fantastic determined run in the 71st minute turning a nothing play into the try of the match. After beating several tackles Kitey got a superb pass away allowing Oldfield to show us the sensational pace he possesses leaving the defence for dead and in turn drawing the perfect split second drawing pass for Robbo to fly down the wing to score. How good was it to see a true running footy try in the era of way too many cross field bomb tries. That was game over, but just for pure entertainment value a brilliant final back line move and a superb DCE grubber saw Wolfman put the final icing on the cake.
In terms of the individual performances, again we were very strong across the park. Brett looks more and more confident with every game (and how exciting is that, not to mention his incredible record of 59 tries from 60 Brookie games). Robbo, Wolfie, Oldfield and Lyon all put in excellent performances, and as mentioned Foran's two sensational solo against the odds tries cemented the game. Although DCE was generally sound in both attack and defence, if I had to nit pick his kicking game wasn't great today, several times coming up with somewhat pointless options and a couple of errors, but I suspect the wind made kicking accuracy a lot harder than it looked, and ultimately it was no great damage.
In the forwards Kitey stepped up for the injured Kingy with a fantastic determined display particularly in the 2nd half, and was ably assisted by big George. Watmough was sensational all day and time and again straightened our sideways attack with barnstorming runs straight up the guts. Big Joe looked to be in Disneyland after a 2nd half collision but somehow made a miraculous late return, and Mauro and Buhrer did their jobs soundly. Considering he played the full 80 in the Origin only 4 days ago, and carried an injury into todays game, Glenn was a deserved man of the match with his non stop display in both attack and defence. Every time he got his hands on the ball there was panic in the Souths defence.
A really determined win and a great reward for such a fantastic home crowd on a perfect winters day. Even Des must have cracked a smile in the dressing room after that one.
THE BAD:
I could single out the two early 2nd half tries we conceded, but in reality whilsy Sutton's was a rare defensive lapse, Merritt's was pure Inglis brilliance. (That said it just me or is Inglis positively the laziest most egotistical player going around in the NRL? Apart from that moment he spent most of the game walking!). If there was any real bad today it was those idiot refs who seemed to have little idea of the game or how to make a decent decision, and who seemed to think it was somehow ok for Souths to lie over every tackle, with the incredibly annoying Crocker the main culprit. Speaking of Crocker does it not seem really odd that he made just 4 runs in the entire match? Curious.
THE UGLY:
Our ground announcer. The guy has to go, he is a complete embarrassment on every level. No mate 19,000 of us don't need to be patronised with your banal instructions on how and when to cheer on the team. To all those over on the hill who say they can't hear him thank your lucky stars, up in the Jane Try stand we are all cringing every time he opens his big mouth. And on top of that he had the PA up way too high today. The mistake of mixing up Glenn and Brett Stewart is surely the final red card. I still don't know what happened with the legendry voice of Brookie Grant Goldman losing the gig (does anyone know the real story?) but please let's get him back.
Another great day at Brookie, can we go undefeated at home in 2011? This team sure can.
PS. Apologies for missing the Saints game, I was slammed at work for days, but hey at least I missed having to report on a loss.
Sunday afternoon footy, perfect sunshine, and a massive 19,000 packed into Brookie. Does it get any better? Actually it does when you beat Souths from 22-16 down.
1st half:
They say origin really lifts players and that could not be more evident in the performances of Glenn Stewart and Watmough in the last month. Both were on fire from the get go, and were ably supported by the rest of the starting pack plus big Joe and George storming off the bench. What should have been a significant HT lead was cut back by not one but two very dubious tries. Merritt's dive into the corner was as good as winger dives get, but I don't buy the ridiculous one finger on the ball is a try theory, you've got to have some level of control and downward pressure. Did he have that? Nope he dropped it. Then there was their 2nd try that also looked extremely doubtful (both Ch 9 and 2GB said no try), but even if you give that the benefit of the doubt the score should have been 16-4 at HT.
2nd half:
I really expected us to blow the game away in the first 15 minutes but surprisingly we did just the opposite gifting a sloppy Souths attack 2 tries with even sloppier defence. Trailing 22-16, many teams (including the Manly of last season) might have fallen away and lost the game, but as we all know Manly 2011 are simply never beaten. Just when you thought our season hero Foran might have been a little shy of his best, he single handedly took the game by the scruff of the neck, scoring two totally against the odds tries in the space of 4 minutes to turn the game on it's head and send the Rabbits scurrying back to their burrow. On both occasions there was absolutely nothing doing, but Foran's unbelievable will to win saw him literally smash through the wall of defence to somehow plant the ball down. I don't want to count any early chickens but that had Grand Final material written all over it. Once we re claimed the lead the Bunnies were shot, and Brent Kite made sure of it with his fantastic determined run in the 71st minute turning a nothing play into the try of the match. After beating several tackles Kitey got a superb pass away allowing Oldfield to show us the sensational pace he possesses leaving the defence for dead and in turn drawing the perfect split second drawing pass for Robbo to fly down the wing to score. How good was it to see a true running footy try in the era of way too many cross field bomb tries. That was game over, but just for pure entertainment value a brilliant final back line move and a superb DCE grubber saw Wolfman put the final icing on the cake.
In terms of the individual performances, again we were very strong across the park. Brett looks more and more confident with every game (and how exciting is that, not to mention his incredible record of 59 tries from 60 Brookie games). Robbo, Wolfie, Oldfield and Lyon all put in excellent performances, and as mentioned Foran's two sensational solo against the odds tries cemented the game. Although DCE was generally sound in both attack and defence, if I had to nit pick his kicking game wasn't great today, several times coming up with somewhat pointless options and a couple of errors, but I suspect the wind made kicking accuracy a lot harder than it looked, and ultimately it was no great damage.
In the forwards Kitey stepped up for the injured Kingy with a fantastic determined display particularly in the 2nd half, and was ably assisted by big George. Watmough was sensational all day and time and again straightened our sideways attack with barnstorming runs straight up the guts. Big Joe looked to be in Disneyland after a 2nd half collision but somehow made a miraculous late return, and Mauro and Buhrer did their jobs soundly. Considering he played the full 80 in the Origin only 4 days ago, and carried an injury into todays game, Glenn was a deserved man of the match with his non stop display in both attack and defence. Every time he got his hands on the ball there was panic in the Souths defence.
A really determined win and a great reward for such a fantastic home crowd on a perfect winters day. Even Des must have cracked a smile in the dressing room after that one.
THE BAD:
I could single out the two early 2nd half tries we conceded, but in reality whilsy Sutton's was a rare defensive lapse, Merritt's was pure Inglis brilliance. (That said it just me or is Inglis positively the laziest most egotistical player going around in the NRL? Apart from that moment he spent most of the game walking!). If there was any real bad today it was those idiot refs who seemed to have little idea of the game or how to make a decent decision, and who seemed to think it was somehow ok for Souths to lie over every tackle, with the incredibly annoying Crocker the main culprit. Speaking of Crocker does it not seem really odd that he made just 4 runs in the entire match? Curious.
THE UGLY:
Our ground announcer. The guy has to go, he is a complete embarrassment on every level. No mate 19,000 of us don't need to be patronised with your banal instructions on how and when to cheer on the team. To all those over on the hill who say they can't hear him thank your lucky stars, up in the Jane Try stand we are all cringing every time he opens his big mouth. And on top of that he had the PA up way too high today. The mistake of mixing up Glenn and Brett Stewart is surely the final red card. I still don't know what happened with the legendry voice of Brookie Grant Goldman losing the gig (does anyone know the real story?) but please let's get him back.
Another great day at Brookie, can we go undefeated at home in 2011? This team sure can.
PS. Apologies for missing the Saints game, I was slammed at work for days, but hey at least I missed having to report on a loss.