4 or 5 of the Panthers 6 tries came on the back of piggy-back penalties handed to them, which doesn't excuse the poor line defense (which has been one of our strengths). Some penalties were warranted, others (especially those in the first 15 minutes) were ridiculous!
Our Origin backrowers looked tired, especially Thaiday was horrible in the ruck defense, missing five tackles and opening holes for their dummy half runners to exploit because he wasn't getting back onside in time. He ended up redeeming himself with some terrific runs in the second stint.
Can't see why people blame Copley, as his only "mistake" was not catching the ball that Idris batted back.
Barba has always been dodgy under the high ball, even in his Dally M season, let's not kid ourselves. The bomb he tried to kick fell really short and he went for a low percentage/high reward kick, which you really can't do in your own half after defending 5 tackles, but I'm not sure he could've reached the ball to actually catch it tbh.
I think our defense and discipline let us down, with Thaiday, Lowrie, Hunt and Hoffman the biggest culprits.
Let's see whether Barba at 5/8 and Hoffman at FB makes a difference. Like someone said, maybe the time spent at 5/8 might make Hoffman a better fullback when in possession of the ball...
