Our kick pressure was better this game than against Parra where Moses had more time (not quite enough with Tieg lol) though Moses was also having to stand deeper due to get time thank to our new found pushing up aggressive defense.
Our kick chase has been very good as well . These 2 things are attitude things and make a big difference to the yardage / pressure game and with that comes momentum and less energy spent defending the red zone. This is reflected in the kick return stats for the game, ours were close to double the Dragons.
Very noticeable this season compared to previous where we were constantly camped on our line and conceding line breaks all over the shop from down field.
Our discipline and handling was better too despite the poor conditions. Every week we are improving and we haven't hit the ceiling yet. Some numpty on Parra forum said the other week that is the best we will be (in Rnd 2), no more improvement in us - straight away I thought how wrong he was
Dragons tried to kick their way to victory in attack with grubbers, cross field kicks ect (out of ideas already ?) and we covered it up and instead in attack we run hard and straight and with our shape unlocked our backline and created space on the edges.
Forwards, spine and backline were fantastic and game plan well put together. Use of our bench and rotations is best it's been since Flanno days
That was one of the best 80 mins we have put together in a while , we don't seem to be clocking off under Fitz or taking easy options, we are fighting for the win the whole game
Hynes slotting his conversions this week gave us alot of extra breathing room too and made the Dragons even more desperate and demoralised
Good all round team performance, players knew their roles and did them well. We were a threat on the edges and up the middle all night.
If the Dragons didn't turn up it's because we didn't let them. Frankly our squad outclasses them
But the Dragons stuck with us for about the first 20 mins even if by then it was clear we were the better more dominant team but we eventually started converting that momentum and field position into points and didn't take our foot off the gas.
No second half syndrome was pleasing to see, we kept playing the same way that worked in the first 40 mins
Tough for Dragons to come back from that and they didn't
Our execution was impressive in those conditions , Dragons are lucky it wasn't a dry track or it could have been more, though their defense maybe would have had bit of easier time laterally and sticking in tackles ect.
We conceded a fairly soft try when Connor was down injured (game not stopped?) and got caught short for numbers and another from a good Ben Hunt kick. Had some close ones dissallowed for Dragons (correctly) but also stopped some over the line with some good scrambling and last ditch tackles / body positioning.
Overall our defense was almost as pleasing as our attack.
We are on our way in Season 2022! Let's keep it going next week against Knights cause I think we are gunna enjoy getting used to winning again and crave more and more and hopefully not have to scrape into the 8 but shooting for locking down a spot in the 4 which is looking realistic the way the 16 teams have started
