It was a poor option and Robson cops it a fair bit but fuck me he's been gun the last 5 or so weeks. I am actually happy to have him as our halfback. Gutted we lost but I'm extremely happy with the effort. That's how I want us to play, heaps of intensity and offloads, I really do believe if Carney was playing we win that game. You could really tell where we missed Carney the most, in our kicking game. We only hit the turf on our long kicks once and that was in the 5th minute. Manly we're always starting their sets on the 20-30 metre mark and had attacking kicks every set, you can't give that field position to those halves. Our defence was good. Manly scored two tries off kicks that were pin point and two tries that we're in my opinion no try's. If Taufua got that ball down I'm Bill Gates. You can tell by the seperation and the way the ball bounces when it lands. The second try through the hands had a clear cut forward pass from Stewart to Lyon. One of many forward passes that weren't picked up by referees against both sides. The attitude of the players after the game and the belief and experience the players will get from the run in the finals has me excited for next season.
I thought Cronulla's defence was pretty ordinary for a lot of the time. Same as Easts last week. Giving up that much ground, that easily and that regularly, is a deal breaker for me.
I don't think there's any doubt that if Carney played the Sharks win. On the other hand, if Stewart plays too I think Manly wins.
I still think Gardner should've been fullback though with Gordon on the flanks........for the greater good. You can't play with fucking Pomeroy and Wright in the centres, you just can't. They are so fucking bad it's not even funny.
Sopoaga's still off contract isn't he? Off contract and a second rower at the Sharks doesn't make for a good mix..
See games like this make me wonder about Fifita. I mean in such a free running, high speed game with huge metreage you would expect props to really get over the advantage line with ease and yet Fifita runs for 64m from 9 hit-ups. All 3 other starting props ran for over 8m per run. And he's back on 7. He's a weapon in broken or second phase play and can be dangerous on the edges and ran for good metres in total, but in the main aspect of a front rower; charging the ball forward, he's pretty blunted IMO. It's unfortunate that his frame basically consigns him to prop and prop only because I honestly think some of his main attributes would work better as a second rower. Josh Papalii is a second rower but no one can tell me he wasn't better through the middle for QLD than what Fifita is or was running for 6.5m per hit-up.
How ironic a John Morris tackle wins Cronulla the game last week at loses it for them this week. Any conspiracy theories to come out of this game?
