Positives from Wire (CC semi)

Instead of a moment of the match (which was Eorl's cover tackle without doubt) I thought I'd open a debate about positives. I thought there were a number:

Cudjoe & McGillvary were really strong
I thought Murphy was pretty good too, other than one dropped ball.
Eorl was terrific as usual and I thoght Mason was pretty good in his stints, good aggresive propping.
Lawrence & Fergie did loads of work defensively and look a good second row if we can only find more props.
Scott Moore & Robbo are a very decent pairing at hooker
We still have Danny Brough
A very dubious try decision against followed by couple of poor tries conceded at a crucial time (6-0 to 6-18) did not lead to a collapse, there was spirit there.
The defence for the most part was what we have come to expect over recent years, tough to break down.


Yes there were negatives too but they look short term to me:

The score differential did not reflect the effort of our guys.
Kevin Brown was defensively poor again, but he is leaving (he gets too squared up and is easily stepped on the outside)
Nathan appears to have gone public on player disquiet over his selections, not a sensible move if he is trying to turn the season around. I assume he has given up, but he too is leaving.
Lee Gilmour just cannot catch the ball anymore, but he too is leaving.

In summary, Nathan's comments after the game appear to confirm that the majority of players agree what a lot of fans have been saying (pack to light and too many changes). It does look like all change at the Giants and we may have missed the boat for this generation, but there is a good core to build on, we do though need to sign another game lifting prop and a couple of workhorses in the Paul Jackson mould

The only real positive to come out of that game was (as you state) the spirit that the players showed throughout most of it to not get totally routed to the tune of a large number of points.

In truth it turned out the way I expected,we were well beaten.

Once again NB could not get our pack of forwards fired up enough as a unit to meet the severe challenge that awaited them.As you also state certain of them did good things at times but they were not consistently strong enough as a unit.

There were glimpses of improvement in attack,the first try was nicely created,Scott Moore as playmaker out of dummy half improved things to my mind.We needed to score in that period around the 20 minute mark when we had the good field position,but couldn't quite do it.Our attack has stuttered all season though so no real surpise.

After that Warrington's pack dominated us and we were almost totally on the back foot and any hope of a comeback slowly slipped away.

Thought Fairbank was good when he came on ran with the sort of aggression lacking in some of the others.

Overall though I repeat we were well beaten.

We were well beaten but that's the first bit of spirit i have seen from them for weeks, We were not disgraced just out muscled, and we know the reason for that, Well done to Eorl, for a prop to run down a Centre is going some, Reminded me of when Menzies ran down Offiah, Bet Bridge will not forget that.

Spirit was back, but heads still did drop from a few. Mistakes a plenty, but also a better defence and one or two signs of improved attack. Not sure I agree with the players getting so much say in tactics though. Hope PA doesn't resort to that.

The biggest negative was Brett. Man of the match two years after he left us. So who decided he would be no good for two more seasons?

matt01 wrote:

Spirit was back, but heads still did drop from a few. Mistakes a plenty, but also a better defence and one or two signs of improved attack. Not sure I agree with the players getting so much say in tactics though. Hope PA doesn't resort to that.

The biggest negative was Brett. Man of the match two years after he left us. So who decided he would be no good for two more seasons?

To be honest Matt i would be sounding him out to work with Anderson, In my opinion he still has a lot to offer. That whole situation was handled really badly, and unless it was KD himself ( which i doubt ) some one got away with a real mess of a job.

matt01 wrote:

Spirit was back, but heads still did drop from a few. Mistakes a plenty, but also a better defence and one or two signs of improved attack. Not sure I agree with the players getting so much say in tactics though. Hope PA doesn't resort to that.

The biggest negative was Brett. Man of the match two years after he left us. So who decided he would be no good for two more seasons?

Some bloody idiot!!