mills was pretty shakey under the high ball last night, surprisingly
Was Mills up against Luke Burt? Poor bugger, from what I saw it was Mills and Pat Malone defending the high kicks.
i thought he tried to do to much coming back from a knee injury
i also thought that despite how incredibly bad porter was, he should of styed and not been hooked for morris
Yeah, hooking a player when the teams getting asmacked all over the park seems rough. Not a good look for our coach and definitely damaging to Porter.
Porter is pretty solid in defence, but the lack of combinations really showed i thought.
Really enjoyed the game. Well, it was more domesticated meat really... the Wenty does a great roast dinner.
On the Sharks Vs Parramatta front...
It seemed like the kids were out there on their own while dad was away for work. I can only sum it up as a timid display. Not without effort, just direction.
Porter could almost be a first grader but doesn't seem to have either the confidence, skill or licence to be creative. Not sure if it's the coaches fault or Porter's as he is definitely not playing the role in the team that Kelly would.
Even if Gordon is half a season or more off first grade standard, at least he slots into the Gardner style of play and helps keep the game plan consistent week in week out. You couldn't say the same for most others who have had to step up; the result is little cohesion or combination. I think this is one of the major issues, whether it's just the players available or coaching, players who step up into first grade need to try and emulate the positional play of those they are replacing.
The lack of variety in clearing kicks meant that Parramatta started no deeper than their 30 yard line every set it seemed. More kicks from dummy half? That seemed to actually work and might take pressure off our halves.
Apart from that, the result was only a little worse than expected given the players out, but the last thing I'd want to see are wholesale changes. This will be more of a test for our coach than the players. Let's hope he doesn't get caught in the player merry-go-round that Stuart found himself in, to the detriment of the players and the club.
