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Message: [QUOTE="Brett, post: 2594300, member: 8361"] Hit the nail on the head there, rnabokov. Thaiday's presence was immense. Even during the warmup he was getting the forwards fired up and you could see the effect it had. I think it took a lot of pressure off Parker too, which in turn bettered Parker's game. I watched the replay when I got home last night. [B]1. Barba -[/B] Did some really good things. He's starting to break free a bit the more confidence he gets. The cross field kick was perfect, his footwork at the line is coming along and his backline chime ins are starting to work. He finally looks to be free of his injury too, which you can see is helping with his speed. One little cool thing I noticed yesterday, it was like the 4th tackle and Maranta had dropped back for the 5th tackle kick. He was deep and on the sideline. Barba called to him, "Lachy, come in" and pointed for Maranta to come infield about 15 meters and move up. The ball was kicked straight to Maranta where Barba told him to go and he caught it on the full and made about 15 meters on the kick return. Just great game reading from Barba and is a really good sign. [B]2. Vidot -[/B] Absolute monster and easily our best buy since Folau. He was often about 10 meters from where I was sitting at the game and dead set, he has thighs like a cyclist. Biggest legs in league? He was great and was getting plenty of encouragement from my side of the stands. The fans love him, and rightly so. Should've had a try and worked well with Reed to shut down Lyon all game. [B]3. Reed -[/B] Don't know what happened to Reed, but he seemed like his old self in that game. Maybe it's a confidence thing for Jack? The early try might have helped. He was great. Perfect defense on Lyon and good positional play in attack. Him and Vidot even tried a short side play, even though they're easily the slowest outside backs in the comp, lol. [B]4. Copley -[/B] I was ready to give it to Copley in the first half. He was noticeably limping in the first half too. Some of those handling errors were NYC quality. To his credit he came out in the second half like a different player. His right foot step remind you of anyone? *cough* Hodges *cough*. He's gonna be a great replacement for Hodges. [B]5 (14). Maranta -[/B] Played a good game without being outstanding. Safe again and took some hard meters when the team needed them. Showed good pace at the end of the game to put 10 meters on Gillett in 50 meters. [B]6. Hoffman - [/B]Still a weak link unfortunately. Had a decent game, but seemed to be troubled by cramp, or an injury of some sort. Had a nice kick for Reed, but blew a couple overlaps on the left and was largely ineffective with his running game. His defense was solid though. [B]7. Hunt -[/B] Fantastic game. Maybe not his best of the season, but he's getting help from guys like Barba, Gillett, Parker, Hannant and Moose. His kicking game was very good - only one kick went straight to Stewart, the rest were quality. His pass for Reed was the mark of the player he is for mine. Like Gould said in commentary, the vision to see the Winger had compressed in and the Centre was lining up Barba, then to put the ball on the outside shoulder of Reed was just pure class and Lockyer'eske. [B]8. McGuire -[/B] Huge game. Ran for almost 150m and made 25 tackles. This guy screams Origin player to me. Relentless work rate, hits hard in defense and runs all day. Him and Parker were our best forwards for mine. [B]9. McCullough -[/B] Solid game from Macca. Nothing flashy, but provided good service and put in a couple nice little kicks. [B]10. Parker -[/B] Corey was fantastic. He really put the team on his back at times and led the way forward. 130 meters and 3 offloads tells the story. [B]11. Glenn -[/B] Glenn toiled hard and made some good meters through the middle when we needed them. He still gets in the way a bit down that left side though. [B]12. Thaiday -[/B] Inspirational. We have missed him sorely. He provides the mongrel to the pack that we've been missing. 100 meters and 20 tackles is a great work rate for a guy who's been out for like 6 weeks. [B]13. Gillett -[/B] Hot and cold really for Gillo. The brain fart defensive effort on Foran close to the line, the running back to the centre of the field plays when we have numbers out side, but then the 95m solo effort at the end of the game. [B]15. Lowrie -[/B] Gotta say, Todd had a good game. He keeps our middle third reasonably tight with his tackling and even offers some hard meters. [B]16. Oates -[/B] Quiet night for Oates. Don't know if you guys saw it or not, but he actually got knocked out in a tackle, but was still standing and staggered back into the defensive line. He looked shot after that. Really struggled to find his head and looked gassed big time. [B]17. Hannant -[/B] Big game from Benny. 100 meters, 25 tackles and set up a try. He's proving a lot of us wrong around here. Providing some real impact for us off the bench when he gives Parker a rest. [B]18. Wallace -[/B] Didn't get too much opportunity, but seems like a kid who likes to rip in. I just feel we played really well as a team. We were not perfect by any means - still some poor options on the 5th tackle and that clanger of a kick from Hoffman was pretty funny. We have all the ingredients there, we just need to turn up with that same intensity every game. I said it when I was watching them warming up. There was something about the way they were ripping into each other in their drills. Our right side defense is still suspect for mine. We need to work on that big time. Other than that, really pleased with a great win. [/QUOTE]

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