Round 20 vs NZ Warriors

[Bourbon Rat]

An away loss ?
No - A defeat & one that did not need to happen
It has left an open wound in Storms finals campaign that is likely to bleed a lot

I walked away from watching it just before the half rather than argue with a brother I respect.
After watching a team whose performance I didn't.

[absentee]

These Sunday games are killing me since I work all day. I had planned to avoid the result and watch the replay tonight but I accidentally spoiled it for myself. Not in a rush to watch it now.

[yourhero]

We blew a number of tries as well.

Hoffman should have passed to O'Neill earlier, or better yet, Blair should have seen Mannering on his back and passed to O'Neill in the first place.

O'Neill bombed a certain try when he threw that forward pass for Sisa to cross. He hogged it in my opinion instead of being sure of the try and giving it to an unmarked Waqa.

Waqa should have caught that Cronk chip, Cronk got it just right but for some reason Sisa stuck one hand out. Was always going to knock it on from there. Had he caught that, I think he steamrolls Locke at short range.

I'm sure there were others as well but those ones stuck out in my mind.

Big props to Chambers for chasing down Locke. Once Slater missed I thought he was home but Chambers (much like Sisa a couple of weeks ago) came from the other side of the field to save the day. Well done champion.

[yourhero]

I had planned to avoid the result and watch the replay tonight but I accidentally spoiled it for myself. Not in a rush to watch it now.

As a game of Rugby League, it was outstanding. As a Storm supporter, I recommend keeping sharp objects out of reach and alcohol within reach.

[blazza18]

What really frustrates me the most is our lack of concentration in defence. There are times where we are a brick wall and then other times where we look like we have nfi what we're doing.

Disappointing really.

Bar a few mistakes, I thought Juzzy played his best game of the season.

[mattstormy]

I never thought we would win this game (Matthew Elliott is a genius at how he has transformed the Warriors and I seriously think they are going to make the Grand Final the way they are playing). It was great game to watch, but some of the mistakes were so frustrating (I haven't seen a poor performance from Billy for a while). Cam and Coops were terrific however (how good were those 40/20s?), Finchy tried his guts out, Chambers would have been close to man of the match in a losing side (his try saving tackle on Johnson was supurb). Juzzy and Sisa were good but had there moments. Bobby Blair was excellent again and it's a shame he's leaving at the end of the season. The same can't be said for all the forwards apart from Cam, as they simply looked second rate compared to the Warriors. Oh well, at least Matt Elliott can finally say he beat Craig Bellamy.

Overall, it was a good game despite the loss, but we seriously need to improve our error rate or the Raiders will completely dominate us next week.

[mattstormy]

Luke Patton would be given the sack immediately if we were a Sydney club. That's 2 certain penalty try's in the past 2 games to go against O'Neil by Luke Patton.
Disgraceful

The General is probably still not happy about the '99 GF .

[glennb]

How can he have his best game of the season with a "few mistakes". It must mean his other games this season have been not good. I know I am going to get flack from other people on this site, but I just can not see why people think O'Neill is a good player.

Supporters were always calling for Quinn and Duffie to be dropped because of their mistakes as wingers and to me this guy is worse than them.

[blazza18]

Was the first time Juzzy looked aggressive running the ball all season and he actually looked threatening because of it. 3 linebreaks and 6 tackle breaks which led the team today. Yes he bombed a certain try early but he also should have scored a try too.

He's been down on form recently but his involvement in todays game was nice to see. There was a clear effort by the team to get him involved.

[nacho]

games like yesterday are slowly becoming our 'typical' performance. the clinical and methodical playing style has been forgotten.

too much ill-discipline, rushing, and panic out on the field when the team does a few offloads or does a bit of a step

[Go Storm]

The 4 origin stars would not have trained with the rest of the squad for the last couple of months, so that creates effects their execution a lot. Also during their absence at training, and on field for 2 matches, the squad's been reshuffled to accommodate for their absence.
I'm not sure if the 4 trained last week, and for how many sessions. Personally I saw a lot of positives in yesterday's game that were overshadowed by the negatives. Some awesome skills were on display with 2x 40/20's, scrum set plays, Chambers' pace, etc.
A couple more weeks of training as a full squad will get back that cohesion we had at the back end of last year. I'm not expecting miracles next week, although I'd like a win. But the following week at home against the Bunnies will be a slaughter. And the rest of the comp will have to stand up and acknowledge that the premiers are back!!!

[storming]

i seen some good sign throughout the game! some nice set plays that opposition will find hard to stop even if they know they are coming. but i think some of our guys got try hungry, oneill not passing to waqa, hoffy not passing to oneill and they a couple of passes too late while getting tackled. i expect this to be talk about by craig during the review and from now on they will be scoring at will for the rest of the season.

[Bourbon Rat]

games like yesterday are slowly becoming our 'typical' performance. the clinical and methodical playing style has been forgotten.

too much ill-discipline, rushing, and panic out on the field when the team does a few offloads or does a bit of a step