Well 2010 has covered off alot of what I was going to say about last night. Decent crowd and atmosphere for a trial game, Tigers fans were pretty happy to win and I was disappointed at how **** we looked when we shuffled up the players and had to rely on our so called depth. First 30 mins we were full of energy and looked sharp with good offloads, hard running and minimal mistakes, Defense and attitude were great although still had little creativity in attack other than the odd kick Barba offered up with mix success. Our 2 tries to Gordon were well executed although nothing we havn't seen 100 times before.
Ennis was as I expected, good passing and kicking out of dummy half along with the occasional effective run, he is quality. I tell you this our team will turn to **** if for some reason he is not out there, so we need him fit and playing 80 mins all year. I like Politini but he won't get the job done.
Barba needs to get more involved, hardly touched it and hardly called for it either. Carney carried this team the last few seasons so if Barba can't step up and take on similar responsibility we could be boned although I will say again that having Ennis there makes a massive difference but not enough to offset Robson and a timid Barba. DCE is an absolute must, a less halfback from the market will only suffice if Barba steps up. Yes it's a trail and early season but just calling my fears as I see them.
Toops was good but looked to get buggered too early and too easily, should be fit as a fiddle but didn't look it...
Prior was our best player IMO, hard running, quality offloads and no errors I recall
Gallen was good and not too much nonsense, looks fit and strong
Beale has some class about him no doubt but could be the next myth in Sharks colours and will probably be in the starting round 1 squad on name and rep alone, not because he has been better than our other backs who probably more deserve a spot
Robson was unbelievable pathetic, he curses himself when he does a ****ty 5 metre kick but I don't know why, surely at his age he has relised and can accept he just doesn't have ability. Guess he wants to do his best for the club which is good and all as he always puts in but his decision making and kicking is bringing this team down week after week. Murphy isn't the answer, I gave Robson some **** over a settler I saw from the smoko hill when we were trailing by about 20 points with 10 mins to go and upon returning to my seat, 2010 had to correct me that it was actually Murphy. FMD I was gobsmacked
Great to have the footy back and I enjoyed my night but Flanno needs to pull his finger out if we are not to just grind out wins and scrape by like usual
I will say this, there seemed to be more depth in our backline with them standing further back in attack but it didn't amount to us really creating anymore space or opportunities as once they got to the line they were receiving a typical flat pass trying to barge over or forcing the miracle ball
