Most of what I was going to say has been mentioned by others, but my thoughts:
Lodge and Haas were immense. Haas is just pure power and Lodge is aggression. Can’t split them, both as valuable as each other and are a premiership-quality front row pairing right now.
TPJ should look at that and have Will Smith in his head - “From now on, that’s how you drive”. Hard running and hard hitting, and the opportunities stem from it. The try and the assist are rewards that will come his way often through effort. Not by trying to force it.
Staggs is just a great footballer. All effort and grit.
Coates had a shaky debut but has a higher ceiling. I can see Farnworth retaining a spot because he seems more ready now, with Coates being sent back to Q-Cup to perfect his trade. Interestingly Coates looked way better when Staggs was inside him. Shiba just doesn’t seem to have the physicality for NRL.
Criticism of McCullough is unwarranted and misplaced. The fucker even made a line break and got the ball away to a supporting Boyd. Who’d have thought that sentence would ever exist.
Lastly, the fire is there. It just seems like we need a reason. Like the grubby Dogs a few years back, the knee from Flanagan made our pack take it personally. Woods was niggling all night and they finally retaliated after the knee, snotting him a few times to the point where he didn’t want to run so would pass, so we just snotted him as he passed instead. He’s one of their leaders and for mine, taking him off his game went a long way to putting the Sharks on tilt as a team.
So proud.
