Not the end of the season we wanted, was it? But sadly typical - couldn't even lift to get a win against one of the bottom ranked teams. Sure, injuries, but you'd have thought they would really, really have wanted to get the "nine losses in a row" monkey off their backs, and they couldn't.
We're all somewhere between sad and mad, but let's at least acknowledge a few people who gave it a proper go in the game - Issac Luke in particular, who I thought at the time was flying around the field and when I checked I found he did indeed score the most Fantasy points for our side. Haven't always been a fan of how he's gone this year, but he gave it heaps last night. Hat tips too to Mannering as always, Matulino,
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, Lino. And at least our defensive line speed looked like a proper side's, unlike the "stand there and wait for them to come to us" that we've been lumbered with in some previous games.
What do we need to do to have a better season next year?
- Recruit. Even after
Tohu Harris we're short at least one big line-bending forward, preferably with offload skills
- Develop our own talent better. We've got relatively inside access to the Kiwi talent pool and we should be bringing it through better. Whereas there are any number of war stories of how players have done better elsewhere than in our system. As just one example, from last night, Tui's no saint, and not a superstar for them yet either, but he's done better at the Tigers than he did with us.
SK said last night that we've lost the plot in bringing players through, and he's right. He'd better be right that he's starting to fix it
- Blind Freddy can see we've taken the imagination and initiative out of our attack. And I know why: incoming coaches (and I remember it happening in Cappy's early days too) go into "get the basics right" mode. That's right, but it's only part of the answer: it's not enough on its own. Five one-out runs from the play the ball and then a kick aren't going to win games. And we have some players who could be league-topping attackers:
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck literally was, in his Roosters days, and we know what Shaun can do
- Sort the psychology. I don't mean "culture" either: I don't know what goes on inside the club. I mean what we can all see on the field: we're not good enough front runners (we relax) and we're generally not great at fightback either (not always, but we can wilt). Get someone (from any code, actually) who can do the head games to harden us up
- Under no circumstances whatsoever agree to any more games in New Zealand away from Mount Smart, or in off the beaten track places in Australia. And while we're all puzzling why we can't win on the road, maybe someone should figure out what Craig Bellamy is doing when the Storm have an better away record (11 -1) than at home (9 -3). Playing away doesn't appear to bother the Sharks, either. If "away" is still messing with our heads in 2018, and we do anything like this year's away performance (1-11) we'll miss the eight again
Here endeth the lesson. Been hard to stay constructive the last few months, but what the hell - you've got to hope for better to come. If we're still not seeing it say halfway though next season, it'll be another story. As I mentioned after our last home game, it was worrying to see that even some real die-hard faithful had already flagged away turning up. Another bad season and I'll be going feral, too!
But let's keep hoping that we know what to fix, and can do it, and get the club back to where it ought to be.
