The big positives from our ANZAC Day Game VICTORY.

[Bowie79]

1. The Cheese showed just how dangerous he is and what a good acquisition he is. Some of those runs were immense. He was gaining an extra 15-20 meters on occasion that he had no right to make, and his second phase offloads are always a threat. His best game of the season so far, and an indicator of what he is capable of

2. Suallii we've just discovered is a sublime goalkicker, especially for someone so young. 5 from 5 I believe and barely broke a sweat doing it. One of them was an absolute ripper...a Thurston-esque banana kick.

3. Gus and Sitili are back on deck and will be better for the run. Within the next several weeks you'll see both our attack and defence in and around the second row improve.

4. Egan Butcher had a blinder. Showed just what he is capable of, and put egg on a few faces I think. The bloke will be a future star forward.

5. Keary had a great game. Set up a lot of opportunities, and nailed a tasty field goal from 30 odd meters out to snag victory for the Chooks.

6. Although i'm not yet sold on Manu as a permament 5/8, he had some brilliant runs and was always a threat. That try to barge over was a cracker and he had a lot of work to do with the defence in front of him ...showed he has a bucketload of belief and confidence in himself to get those difficult jobs done (without needing to resort to the chest beating wanker nonsense that 'Trell carries on with in the same circumstances)

7. We WON THE GAME with one hand tied behind our back again. A ridiculous sin binning leaving us short staffed at a crucial part of the game, plus a couple of very questionable 6 agains handed to the Drags.

Agreed with all of those except for point 5.. Sad but one of Keary's best attributes used to be his attacking ability to crack through the line before his ACL a couple of years ago, and unfortunately he's obviously very trepid defensively which has every opposition coach having players attack his position. Being the weak link, the team cannot depend on effective one on one defensive efforts from Luke without assistance and that creates weakness in our line. His knowledge and experience cannot be replaced but on ability alone he's very much become a shadow of his past years (prior to head knocks and injuries). Being a legend of the club keeps Luke competitive and he's contracted for 2024, but I'm hoping he calls it a day at the end of this season with his head held high and sits in the coaches box from next season.