From the kick off the it was apparent the dogs knew they had nothing to lose so they were well aware they could push the envelope and take as many risks as they liked so they went the niggle with the aim of unsettling a young and inexperienced bunch of rookies. Four times they stripped the ball in the tackle in the first half – they got pinged once for it. Three illegal turnovers for one penalty is great odds in any game.
At the 20-minute mark, dogs’ number 4 comes in and slams Isaako’s head and shoulder with his hip when he’s on the ground being tackled. Nothing was said by anyone. I’m not sure if the dog knew Isaako was playing with a needle there, but the act was still uncalled for anyway. Now if Isaako had laid down we might have got the penalty, but he chose to play on (good on him). Contrast this with Lewis who play acts he has been crushed in the second half and he even has the presence of mind to flick his head back as his hair is in eyes immediately as he sits up and gives the game away? Thankfully that was captured by the camera (little shit).
Three times I saw the dogs rip off our player’s boots in the tackle (Staggs and Haas x 2) again nothing was said by the ref or Boyd to the ref and the refs must have been aware of it as at one point the ref threw Haas his boot back on the run. 6 minutes before half time and Glenn attacks their line Boyd moves to dummy half and while he’s waiting for Lexie to get to his feet he turns and gestures to the team with open arms and shrugs his shoulders as if to say ‘eh what are we doing here?’ this from the guy who is supposed to be guiding our attack. Right there I knew Darius has no clue about attcking structures and is simply winging it. In fact last night I'd go as as to say he phoned it in.
Our attack will remain like a clusterfuck so long as we persist with the current spine. Boyd is not leading, he is not organising our attack and to say he had a man of the match performance last week is quite laughable. He made one break scored a try and that was about it. Fifita, Haas and Isaako were much more deserving of that award. Boyd did have a good game last week (compared to his normally poor standard) but he reverted to type last night. I have to say he was abjectly shit throughout the game. I mean what other 5/8 stands idly by the dummy half when their team is on the attack? He was guilty of this on numerous ocassions last night.
On the bright side maybe we done ourselves a favour by losing. I used to live in Sydney and when I attended our games at Brookie we invariably got ambushed and made to look shambolic. This was in the days of Langer and Walters too. For some reason we turn to shit at Brookie. In contrast, we have Bankwest now which I consider as mini Lang Park, the atmosphere may well be hostile, but I think it will suit us more than what Brookie would. Added to this, coming off a loss will ensure the boys get caned all week and are hopefully bursting to make amends. I’m quite confident that if we play SOS at 7 and Turps at 9 we’re a chance. If Seibs thinks he’s better served sticking with what he’s got, then I don’t fancy our chances.
In summary, the dogs gave us a lesson in how to niggle a team into defeat. The young guys lost their heads and were too interested in protesting the injustices instead of playing to the whistle. Sure, we got some hellish calls, but good teams with a winning mentality don’t let shit calls affect them. Staggs was perhaps guilty of trying too much and despite Isaako’s wing leaking tries I’m sure it doesn’t happen if we have a proper half defending three in on the right. Turps was way out of his depth last night.
Finally, I mised the game last night and watched it this morning. As I was watching it I kept feeling sorry for all you guys that had to watch that live, it must have been hell.
