Putting in and hanging in there for the first 15 mins then falling to pieces is some serious John Morris era bullshit, the sort of thing I would hope be behind this team by now.
It also concerns me that we are still capable of turning up like that and getting blown off the park. Penrith don't win every single game they play but they rarely get destroyed like we do a few times a year now at least. It's not typically at the hands of a team like the Tigers though but usually a genuine top 8 contender that puts the cleaners through us.
Penrith are always in the game even when they play bad.
Panthers bad is no where near our bad. Expectations are much higher at that club as is accountability. They have an assembly line of talent waiting in the wings to take someones place if they **** the bed and their coach doesn't get played for a fool. When we get destroyed coach just shrugs and says yea I dunno - yea well he should know.
I would have been ok with the errors ect, heck even a loss if we had shown the energy, defense and attitude of the first 2 weeks to hang in an turn them away while we work on getting better with the ball later in the game but it scares me how quick that mindset seemed to evaporate.
I struggle to believe the Tigers were that good with the ball to blow us away like that but it makes we feel like maybe our D hasn't improved as much as I had hoped and that the first 2 rounds had shown. Sometimes teams are gunna come from no where and ambush you, we need to be ready for that and handle it better when it happens.
Dunno if I want it to be more an attitude thing or a structural thing cause we have struggled with addressing both post Flanno.
I agree with BWB, we did not need a loss or a lesson, especially not this early in the season as we are just building our campaign. We needed the 2 points in a game we had every right to show up with our heads on and take them.
We have had enough lessons and getting embarrassed like that is only going to serve to motivate us and improve us for the next game. The bounce back factor isn't going to sustain us long term or carry us deep into the season, it can help us against the Raiders while it's still fresh and stings but I don't see any long term benefits beyond this coming weekend to dropping those 2 points and we are still only 50/50 to beat the Raiders.
If it was our first loss like that yea sure maybe some long term lessons to take onboard for the long term good about but the last few years have shown me we are slow learners when it comes to complacency so why will it be any different this time?
If Dale and Cam want to prove their worth as on field and off field leaders at this club, lay down the law with your fellow players, you blokes are the captains tell them that was not acceptable, not was some rank BS and it WILL NOT happen again under their watch.
Gallen had to cop this sort of thing on the chin back in the day cause we had no money and no players but that is no longer the case. Alot of time, effort and resources have gone into turning this club around and building it towards long term success on and off the field.
The players have to do their part in living the culture and setting the standards of what putting on that Sharks jersey means. It's no good just talking about it and doing it for 2 rounds, you gotta meet that responsibility and expectation week in week out.
I get that this was just 1 game and there is an entire season ahead but it is still 1 game that shouldn't really happen if we are serious. The tigers are a team and club that will be doing well to even push for a finals birth and I know we are not silly enough to think we are already there and a lock for the top 8 but we are a better team than them. It wasn't the Panthers that dusted us, that's almost expected.
But if we make the finals again (which we should) are we gunna turn up and do another round 3 Tigers on ourselves?
Spose our good run of beating up the cellar dweller teams had to come to an end sometime but I wish it wasn't like that.
