I'm not worried

[Ray Stehr]

A combination of an off night, some bad refereeing and a very wet surface, not to mention having to play the Storm on a night like that. The positives were the great crowd plus we have a bye. It's obvious that two very hard games on the road against Manly and the Cowboys had taken a toll. I'm sure they'll come out firing after the bye. Plus it's a good lesson that the Storm handed them and I'm sure Robinson will learn a great deal from' alls good, Plus the Dragons lost.

[Parkway_Drive]

Ray has summed up my thoughts...I got a feeling we may be playing them again in week one of the finals..

[Johnny.]

My feelings are the same as they always are after a loss.

The suns going to rise tomorrow, I'm still alive and Sammie Rhodes has made a lot of scenes.

[Geohood]

A couple days after the event and I actually feel happier that we lost. The experience of lessons learned are sometimes more important then the result of individual games in a season this long, provided you are winning most games.

In other news, Coggie starts a positive thread after a loss.... What has the world come to?

[Andrew Walker]

I am supremely confident we will beat Storm if we play them again

[Bansai Pipeline]

Was it wet?

Saturday was a glorious day in Sydney.

[Guest]

The loss notwithstanding, I reckon that game reinforced the fact that we're the real deal. It was always going to be a task to beat them after they'd been through a bit of a down period, and they still needed just about everything to go their way to win. The try on halftime was an absolute killer. Even the way we threw it around straight from the kickoff after getting to within 6 showed class. This team will go a long way into the finals. If we can just get some more out of the halfback, maybe even further

[Vasco]

Was it wet?

Saturday was a glorious day in Sydney.

A lot of dew.

[The Brain]

Points wouldve been handy as we will be missing a few with SOO on.
Nothing to stress about except we will get to see a few young hopefulls.
Robbo just has to work on teh repeat offenders who occasionally let us down ...but with SKD he must now sit in lower grades and work him self out

[Ray Stehr]

Was it wet?

Saturday was a glorious day in Sydney.

The ground was very wet.

[stsae]

I watched it again last night and we weren't that far off.

Melba didn't make an error till 34 mins in and then made a second which we scored off. They made 2 in the first 1/2 we made 3.

Coaching was the difference IMO, like with Souffs they attacked our weakness all night and it worked for them, SKiD and RTS.

Both teams were blowing hard with 20 to go, it was an extremely fast game. Both teams have had a few tough weeks and IMO it showed late in the game.

And we were still in it with 5 to go. We never gave up, like last season.

Sure there's some stuff to work on but against a side that's just won the GF and has been at that level for the past 8 years or so I thought we played well.

And I haven't mentioned the reffing, which definitely didn't do us any favours all night.

We are still well in the mix IMO.

They did a number on $BW. All night in his face. We need to use him as a decoy more often IMO. Teams well coached with smart players know where the balls going. There is no element of surprise anymore.

Not worried either.

[Guest]

I watched it again last night and we weren't that far off.

Melba didn't make an error till 34 mins in and then made a second which we scored off. They made 2 in the first 1/2 we made 3.

Coaching was the difference IMO, like with Souffs they attacked our weakness all night and it worked for them, SKiD and RTS.

Both teams were blowing hard with 20 to go, it was an extremely fast game. Both teams have had a few tough weeks and IMO it showed late in the game.

And we were still in it with 5 to go. We never gave up, like last season.

Sure there's some stuff to work on but against a side that's just won the GF and has been at that level for the past 8 years or so I thought we played well.

And I haven't mentioned the reffing, which definitely didn't do us any favours all night.

We are still well in the mix IMO.

They did a number on $BW. All night in his face. We need to use him as a decoy more often IMO. Teams well coached with smart players know where the balls going. There is no element of surprise anymore.
Not worried either.

That was my biggest concern that came out of the game. They pretty effectively shutdown SBW. I thought SBW was pretty ineffective in attack against Manly as well.

The better sides appear to be working out how to defend against him. SBW gets through a mountain of work as well - this has only been made worse with JWH and Moa out. In the last few games, it looks like this is having an effect on his explosiveness/impact in attack. Although SBW is incredibly fit, we certainly don't want his workrate to effect his attack.

[fletch]

my only real concern is the defensive combo of SKD/RTS, can we win a premiership with them defending out wide, the bunnies/storm have badly exposed them already this season.

how long will Robbo persist with SKD, one can only wonder what the coaches are thinking week after week reviewing his performances.

[Johnny.]

Perhaps, and this is just spitballing, SBW should be used as an impact player.

[Guest]

Perhaps, and this is just spitballing, SBW should be used as an impact player.

Would SBW be better served playing in the centres???

Positives of this would be:
- We solve the issue of SKD
- SBW does less work in defence, so has more energy for attack
- SBW plays on the same side as SKD so it is not a big step for him
- SBW played centres for NZRU, so he knows what he is doing
- We have a lot of backrowers, so shouldn't be left short there

Negatives:
- We have lost 1 of our last 6, so making such a drastic move is probably an overeaction.
- SBW's work in the middle is very valuable

I'm not a SKD hater, his defence has definately improved this year. He cops a lot of flack because he is an easy target. When he makes mistakes, he looks like a clown (as he does on teh big screen with his intro). However he is nowhere near his standard in 2010. He really looks down on confidence with his attack. When a centre can't make an impact playing outside SBW, there are issues!