With you there on the way the game was officiated. I guess all you need to do is lie down when the momentum is going against you and the play will be stopped every time... not gonna get in to the holding down but I'm with you (and so was a Souths fan sitting behind me who didn't particularly care who won, just wanted to see a good game). It may have been smart of the Chooks to take advantage of silly refs but let's also not miss the fact that it was poor refereeing.RedRaider wrote: ↑August 12, 2019, 12:23 am
This was the longest game since the 1969 Grand Final and for the same reasons. The Roosters players, often 30 to 40 meters from the action would go down 'hurt'. The refs would then stop the play. This killed all momentum in the game. The play the ball was atrocious from both sides but I would say the Chooks, who held down far more often and longer than the Raiders and no action was taken. Whatever happened to a couple of penalties for the hold down, warn the offending captain and then use the sin bin. Instead we were treated to WWE set after set.
We did not start the game with the aim of driving the Chooks backwards in tackles. Why the hell not? This should have been played like a finals trial and that is what we should have been doing. The Chooks stopped Jack very close to the line and that was great defence from them. I have to question the flat footed attack of the Raiders. Too often a player took the ball standing still. Then the player did not run straight. Far too much cross field wandering during this match. In the final 20 minutes we seemed to have put away the grubber kick to the ingoal. I simply don't know why. We had plenty of opportunity but just didn't execute it. I hope for better against Storm next week.
Also agree that we just weren't there in attack. It seemed like the communication wasn't there yesterday and things looked very disjointed at times. Some of that comes down to the opposition's defence but our decision making and execution was off, and our kicking game wasn't up to scratch... we barely put pressure on them in that field.