The Washup at the end of the day, following the final whistle
Again, I'll say it wasn't too bad. Then again, that's only because of what I'm used to. I thought our we actually did show some signs of structure in attack and the halves pairing starting to gel today. Unfortunately, it will probably come together when we're out of finals contention, and they won't be together next year. Barrett lacked runners on the left all day, we missed Tupou and even Pomeroy- anything but Tautai.
Today demonstrated the deficiencies in our squad really clearly, because Penrith are far from the 'complete' footy side as someone here posted, but they do have a couple of better players in key offensive positions. In particular Coote>Gardner, Jennings>Collis. If Coote and Jennings had played for us, we would have won for certain.
Dean Collis is never going to be a 'strike' centre, but he is a very very good second centre (certainly Collis>Purtell). We do lack that 'gun' centre who's our go to edge runner- Penrith have that.
We need a fullback who is creative and has some 'freak' about him. On the one hand maybe Gardner is the guy, we can't tell yet. I thought he was okay, except for the rash of dropped bombs (again). Coote, on the other hand, killed us and I finally saw what all the hype was about. Again, I think Jake Mullaney's management has to be contacted- as the commentators said, the ball just falls for Coote, and its the same for Mullaney.
We desperately need another prop to rack up some metres. The 'riff front row of Petro/Grant/Bell/McKendry were superb. We only need one more bloke of the quality and size of Bell/McKendry/Grant and we'll be sorted there. (How good did that Tim Grant go??)
Luke Lewis outplayed his opponent because our real lock had already played for the Gold Coast this weekend. We still miss him in physical games like that, and at the least, we must look replace his creativity and get Gal back in the 2nd row where he belongs.
But most of all, that game highlighted the lone hand our best players play every week. Dougie and Gal were absolutely tireless. Barrett had one of his best games for us. We missed Toops, but Brod Wright was good. But the heart of the matter is: the rest lacked the experience and confidence to keep our high intensity style of play going for 80mins.
But on a more positive note, there's a core of a very good team there. With a few additions to the roster and some experience under the belts of Fergo, Gordon, Gardner, Wright and Vave, we'll be a very good footy team- better than Penrith are now, dw.
Again, I'll say it wasn't too bad. Then again, that's only because of what I'm used to. I thought our we actually did show some signs of structure in attack and the halves pairing starting to gel today. Unfortunately, it will probably come together when we're out of finals contention, and they won't be together next year. Barrett lacked runners on the left all day, we missed Tupou and even Pomeroy- anything but Tautai.
Today demonstrated the deficiencies in our squad really clearly, because Penrith are far from the 'complete' footy side as someone here posted, but they do have a couple of better players in key offensive positions. In particular Coote>Gardner, Jennings>Collis. If Coote and Jennings had played for us, we would have won for certain.
Dean Collis is never going to be a 'strike' centre, but he is a very very good second centre (certainly Collis>Purtell). We do lack that 'gun' centre who's our go to edge runner- Penrith have that.
We need a fullback who is creative and has some 'freak' about him. On the one hand maybe Gardner is the guy, we can't tell yet. I thought he was okay, except for the rash of dropped bombs (again). Coote, on the other hand, killed us and I finally saw what all the hype was about. Again, I think Jake Mullaney's management has to be contacted- as the commentators said, the ball just falls for Coote, and its the same for Mullaney.
We desperately need another prop to rack up some metres. The 'riff front row of Petro/Grant/Bell/McKendry were superb. We only need one more bloke of the quality and size of Bell/McKendry/Grant and we'll be sorted there. (How good did that Tim Grant go??)
Luke Lewis outplayed his opponent because our real lock had already played for the Gold Coast this weekend. We still miss him in physical games like that, and at the least, we must look replace his creativity and get Gal back in the 2nd row where he belongs.
But most of all, that game highlighted the lone hand our best players play every week. Dougie and Gal were absolutely tireless. Barrett had one of his best games for us. We missed Toops, but Brod Wright was good. But the heart of the matter is: the rest lacked the experience and confidence to keep our high intensity style of play going for 80mins.
But on a more positive note, there's a core of a very good team there. With a few additions to the roster and some experience under the belts of Fergo, Gordon, Gardner, Wright and Vave, we'll be a very good footy team- better than Penrith are now, dw.