Yeah I'm going to bash the commentary as well. I used to love Vossy but that wankfest over the Rorters was beyond disgusting. And Corey fucking Parker too..!! FMD!! Though Parker at least made mention a few times about what a great effort from the Broncos it was, staying in the game and wrestling the win back etc.
I tell you what we're starting to see shoots of here. Resilience. Belief. Kev is starting to quieten the mental demons and get these guys to trust the plan and the system. Unfortunately I missed the first 25mins or so and tuned in just in time to watch 10mins of Rorterball...had my heart in my mouth wondering if they were going to run away with it but the boys really rolled up their sleeves and gave it to them.
- Crichton is a dickhead but geez he's a competitor - and way faster than I (or Dave Mead) realised!
- Radley not being sent was a favour to Uncle Nick. 2 bins and on report another 4x...deadset. I'm VERY curious to see how the MRC deal with that. I reckon 2 charges out of a possible 6 for, say, 3wks on the sidelines. It will be manifestly insufficient and inconsistent with what we've seen dished out, I have no doubt of that.
- If Lodge's chin tickle was a binning, Manu shouldn't have been on the field either. Again curious to see how the MRC view those incidents, if Lodge misses games and Manu doesn't I will be about ready to riot.
- Sitili shouldn't have been sitting this week out after his high shot last week. He was pretty good in defence but not good enough to help out poor Walker.
- I understand the desire to give it to kid Walker ('welcome to first grade son') but I will refrain for now...it'll be interesting to see how he bounces back, I actually feel a little sorry for him after that.
- TPJ is a fucking homing missile. He was my fav player a couple of years back until he went off the rails a bit...I can comfortably say he's back up there as one of my faves again and I really hope he keeps it up.
- At one point in the second half a Rooster attacking with the ball drove his shoulder into the head of our defending player (one of the young guys, don't remember who)...and it looked worse than some of the hits in defence which had been penalised and/or binned. I said it last weekend and I'll say it again...how long until we see an attacking player binned for intentional contact with the head, or doesn't it count because they have the ball?? If the NRL is serious about this then ALL contact with the head, in attack or defence, needs to be assessed.
- Lodge, Hass, TPJ...fucking IMMENSE. That's a permiership worthy starting pack right there and literally almost an Origin pack. Letting Lodge go would be a mistake IMO, he's coming good. 200+ metres, he's got the aggression to put the opposition off and he's got an offload and a wicked short pass too. Very complete player in my opinion and the leader of the pack.
- I can only think Oates made way for Mead because of injury or Dave is training better, but geez Mead deserves to stay. I love him, he does get caught out defensively at times but his experience was a huge part of us winning that game lastnight. Coates can go back to reggies and we should run with a Mead/Oates wing pairing IMO.
- Kelly looked good, he was certainly busy. He's won himself another jersey for sure.
- Honourable mentions to pretty much everyone else in the team as well. 90-something percent completion rate is what is needed with the current state of the game, clearly something they've been working on and it shows. I thought Turps was good, as was Asiata. The younger guys played well, though I do feel for Bull being stuck on the pine for 80...he's been very good in his stints so far, I'd love to see more of him.
Very satisfying to stick it to the Rorters. Having said that, the game was a farce. We got lucky on a couple of calls but **** me, so did they. The "escort" penalty on Copley that led to their second try was bullshit of the highest order. A few forward passes were pulled up but a few were let go too, both ways. And these new rules, deadset...anything above the shoulder and everyone just fucking stops and waits, hands in the air, for the ref to blow his whistle. DO. NOT. LIKE. Constant stoppages, it's completely ruined the flow of the game that the NRL have been trying to increase with the 6-agains. Totally contradictory, fucking hate it. Give yourself an uppercut, Vlandys, the game's having an unwarranted identity crisis.