Hey guys . Great pod on Sunday . I gotta say I 💯 disagree with Steve and his comparison to Cleary .
Clearys whole game is built on his kicking , same as Reynolds . As they’ve matured ,both have developed running and passing games .
Theyre Unicorns . I wouldn’t even put DCE in thier league , as far as kicking . Only really Moses maybe . So to compare luai to them is extremely unfair and not really true in the first place .
We lost that game through IMO, trying to play a style of game that relies on a certain dynamic with the referee . Ie. pushing limits until the ref tells you where that line is . The problem was that dynamic didn’t exist , especially with Klein , and what we saw was the outcome of that . Should they have foreseen it ? Yep definitely. Was it a naive gameplan ? Yep . Was it fair ? I personally don’t think so .
But heres where we truely lost the game . The defence didn’t compress with a man down . They removed the player from the middle , as that makes sense , and the middle collapsed . The edges didn’t tighten and force the cowboys to play to the edges. And as such it was a highway through the middle for 20 minutes .
The attack was really good I thought . They gave early ball to the strike edge in Toa , and Luai was straightening and forcing players to miss on him , creating second phase . The kicking game was 💯 on point .
anybody talking about finding grass , it’s really difficult with modern fullbacks . They’re just so fit , and fast and well positioned , so if you’re off by even a Fraction, you’ve just given the fullback a leg up out of yardage.
the idea is to drop it on the numbers , with a set line , and attack with your defence .
we just have too many guys like Seyfarth , who I’m actually a fan of , who get pushed back in defence . Even May , doesn’t whack you when you run at him . (On a side note I saw that he doesn’t put much time into his weights , and I actually think it shows . He needs to get stronger and slightly bigger IMO. Reducing his volume from 80 mins to 60-70 mins . Or have a lock who buries people . It’s why I think Hetherington from the broncos was a smart choice) .
The attack is almost there IMO. I thought luai spraying bird was a sign of this . Bird over ran the ball and screws the play up. Luai driving these standards is a good thing . Api had a similar thing close to the line where he just chucked it up and no one was there .
IMO , there’s too many people in the team looking for excuses , and not being where they should be when they should be .
That’s the reason we lost that game. To blame it on the half who was instrumental in turning a 28 point deficit into a 4 point because he didn’t put in a 40/20 … I mean I gotta disagree there .
to blame him for the sin bin , yea he either needs to communicate better with the officials , or he needs to get better at understanding that who is officiating the game matters . I thought his lying in the ruck was slightly too long , but I’ve been clear on the fact , when you listen to the audio , there was no “get off him , let him up “ or even prior to that “last warning Jahrome”. So yea .. no excuses … I just think it’s a breach of the social contract between a player and a ref on the footy field . Like players spend thier whole life with the dynamic I just mentioned , only for Saturday to totally go against it ….