ok i know this is late to the party but i have only just watched the whole game.
Also i had everyone's comments in mind as i watched, so it might flavour my comments.
i thought i saw lots of improvement in the team overall. happy with the refereeing as well (never seen Smith get hammered that bad by the refs and timing of the penalties look ok to me).
Lolo stood out as being the weak link to me but i even thought until he went to FB that he was playing better.
I think
Sk got it wrong then. when
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck went down he moved lolo to full back,
Fusitua to wing and brought in bodene to centre.
Fusitua was strangled on the wing and lolo went afk. bodene did fine. And it meant that 2 players were playing out of position.
if instead he had left lolo on the wing, pushed
Fusitua back and still bought in bodene i think they would have had more attacking flair. And left the team much more cohesive in its plays.
Ata, made a few blunders, but i can see why so many rate him, Bunty played great and i love seeing new talent come through. I dont think
Lisone should get the ball late in a set unless its inside the opposition 10.
Shaun Johnson is an amazing talent, he did some phenomenal things in that game, but when he gets the ball on the 5th with little to no space he goes to his set play and just kicks the ball. Almost always this goes deep and the opposition have all predicted it and are sitting there waiting for it. I actually thought most of the chasers were really good, but they just cant get close enough to contest the ball given the distances. I would love to have seen him try a chip and chase, a grubber or move it on to someone else to kick. (i see Ata has a towering bomb as well, but his had more chance of getting warriors to contest it). Kicking on the 5th was what won it for the storm IMO.
i also noted that the storm were really quick on the second defensive tackle often limiting the warriors to less than 2 metres. Due to the number of players running in at full sprint This could have been capitalized on by shifting it wide early and then running in behind the early movers, it was obviously a strategy to close down the warriors flair. It was only when they got tired that they stopped. And in the second half when they weren't doing it the warriors often had no issues getting over the 50 early on in the count. (i think that this is why so many posters thought the Storm were being held back less than 10, because when it happened they were supper dominant).
there were other things but those were the main ones. overall i was satisfied that this is not the same team as last year.
This however is not a pass mark as i still want wins not losses.
Bring on the doggies.
24 - 12
