Tonights game (Cows V Storm)

[TonyP]

Was a strange game for mine. Beats me how we managed to score 40 points given we were so sloppy in attack, and gave the Storm so many opportunities in our own 20/30 metre area. Injuries again made our attack disjointed, but our defence was again pretty solid. Couple of tackles that stood out were Bear's (i think) in the first half right on our line, and LOD's in the 2nd again right on our line, on a rampaging forward. Showed some good committment.

All in all it wasnt the standard of game you would expect from these two high quality teams, even given the injuries. We will have to be a lot better over the coming weeks to remain undefeated. Hopefully we can reduce the number of injuries and that will help our cohesion.

Good luck to Tybo. Hope it's not as serious as it seems to be. Anyone know how Sweeney and Lillyman are? I havent heard how serious
they were injured. Nothing too bad hopefully! Still thankfully we have some good depth, and the Guns are in good form. If we can get Mu back next week, maybe Payney, and bring up Hannay & BB we will still have a solid looking team on paper. Fingers crossed we dont get too many more serious ones, especially to key personnell.

[gamkac]

I agree with everything you said TonyP. I listened to the game on the radio (due to only having one car now) it sounded like the Strom were their known worst enemy, they had a horror game and I feel that’s where most of the 40 points came from.

[Roo]

I hate to say it, but the Cows were handed that game on a platter by Russell Smith. If you take your Cowboy hat off (and I have for this post) then you would have to debate whether Rusty is up to NRL standard. He got so many calls wrong, but at the same time got some right by reversing decisions via the use of Graham West (Video Ref). His calls on Billy Slater and Cam Smith were very dusty. Also cautioning Kaufusi when it should have been LOD as 3rd man in. He seemed so very biased (or should I say influenced) to the home side......and whilst I am more than happy in the result this time....it makes you wonder what will happen when he is reffing us during an away game??

We still would have won the game, but with any other ref I think the score would have been closer to 22-12.....don't get me wrong though.... I'll settle for 40-8!!!

Big Charlie Webb was average at best. Don't know what's going on there. He had very little impact and just when he was looking like making some decent meters would come up with a handling error. Here's hoping he just needed to blow out the cobwebs.

......and what about JT. I just can't give him enough wraps. He is a dead set superstar in the making. I'm seriously thinking about changing his nickname to JC as I reckon this bloke could just about walk on water at the moment.

and finally on the 2 up and comers in Scott and Bull (Lillyman) they are getting better and better with every game.....they both remind me of Bluey when he got his shot....and if they keep the same work ethic as him I think you'll find they will be in the first grade side for a long time to come.

[beave]

agree with you all entirely. The first try we scored was from a pass that went at least 2 metres forward, if the storm had scored off it I would have been furious. The reffing was woeful, he handed us the game on a platter. Don't be fooled people, if we play the knights or anyone decent with the same ineptness as last night, the boys will be handed their a$$e$ back to them whipped nicley. Webb, I don't know why he has to offload on every hit up, he is better if he takes the yards and gets a good play the ball. Matty bowen, it is starting to get frustrating watching him play, that milking penalty he did when he got brushed late after the chip through, I was not impressed that he laid down. It was barely worth a penalty IMO. I went home not that impressed with the boys at all. I may be expecting too much from them but the amount of drop ball and other little things that happened just really left me feeling like the lads have about 30% improvement left in them.

[nq_gurl]

Roo I'm going to have to agree with you. People sitting around me at the game couldnt understand my complaints for calls going in our favour as i was wearing the beloved cowboys jersey. HOWEVER i dont think it was a great game. Russell Smith was just out and out CRAP! how can one person change his mind so often. Its little wonder that Cam Smith felt the need to question his choices - he had a good chance of getting the result turned in HIS favour!!!

40-8 showed no true indication of the standard of play last night. Melbourne's defence was actually quite good - regardless of the fact that we managed to score 40 points.

As for players - Thurston ... well what can i say that hasnt already been said. just fantastic. Bear looked great for someone who may not have ben playing. I think the Storm had paid close attention to Singy's game last weekend as he didnt get a great deal of creativity in his game. Webb ... what can i say except put him back to the guns for another week at least. I know I should be ducking for cover but seriously folks. Yes he could power through the defence but then he'd undo all the hard work with a stupid attempt at offloading DESPITE my screaming of not to do it! Ty - unfortunate that was. Which Innisfail supporter told him "break a leg" when he was up there on Thursday!!! Judy Slater perhaps ;p nah ... in all seriousness he was doing well before he was taken off. I cant recall if he ended up on report or not for the tackle on Webster? Spose if he did he just serves time whilst out injured. Also a big thank you to him for allowing the cameras to follow him on the emotional trip home. I have to say I had a tear or two watching the footage. Watching the town where I grew up being nothing more than a jumbled mess. Cant wait to get up there next weekend and experience it myself. Sweeney - still running pretty hot and cold.

Storm players - Inglis was very quiet. I was expecting a huge game from him and was sadly disappointed. I think they missed Matt King also. Billy was having a good game in my opinion. He was directing the troops. Talking to individual players about tactics and plays and he always looked dangerous when he had the ball in his hands. Will be interesting to see the outcome at the judiciary with his hit on Ty. Walker's on Walker's off ... what more can i say? Did Crocker play? hope not cause he certainly didnt stand out in my opinion. Cameron Smith showed why he was one of the "Senior Leaders"/captain of the team. Whilst he didnt have as spectacular a game as I have previously seen and come accustomed to I still think he had a good game. Cooper Cronk doesnt seem out of place in the halfback role.

So where to from this game? I assume Hannay will be called back to fill his centre position next weekend. Shall be interesting.

Thats my ramble ....

[Stido]

I said it last year & I'll say it this year, time for Russell Smith to go back to the old dart. If I was a Storm supporter I would have been p'ed off big time watching the game last night. :mad: Give him credit he went back after receiving assistance & changed some of the wrong decisions, but he should have got them right in the first place.

Our defence last night was good. The boys have only had 8 points scored against them in the first half so far this year & scored something like 68 points (I can't remember the exact for figure). That is wonderfull! Even though we are winning there is still heaps of improvement in the team. It's only round 3, so there are excuses for some of the sloppiness.:)

At this stage I think we have troops that are more than capable of covering for our injuries. But no more please, it's gunna start hurting soon.:(

[TonyP]

I don't necessarily agree with you about the Slater & Smith penalties, Beave. They were close calls to be sure, but if the situations had been reversed i think you'd have a hard convincing a Storm supporter that a penalty wasn't deserved. To be fair to Smith these two decisions were made for him by the touchie (Slaters) and the Video Ref (Smiths).

I thought Smith (Ref) was very ordinary (So was Cameron Smith!) and highlights the lack of quality referees in the NRL and elsewhere. What is the NRL doing to develop better Refs? ANYTHING??!! As far as i'm aware all they are doing is trying to get Clarke to retire so they dont have to spend money on his contract! For mine, they should be putting the 'best' 10-12 Refs ON contracts so they can do it fulltime and hopefully improve. Because at the moment the biggest problem facing the League/which they arent addressing (IMO), right now is the poor quality of reffing. The fact Simpkins and Clarke are considered the two best Refs going around speaks for itself.

As for cautioning Kafusi after the Ty high tackle and resulting "push n shove", i think he should have been cautioned, as he came charging in and started some push n shove of his own, i dont think LOD did that (i've not seen a replay of the game or incident 'cept what they showed on the big screen) but Smith should also have put the tackle on report, as well as the forearm to Ty's head by the 'victim' of the tackle.

I can't really remember any obviously wrong decisions Smith made, My problem with his 'ability' at this level is that he seems to make his decisions too slowly, and is too reliant on the video ref . That and he lets things get away from him. He should have stamped his authority on the game earlier by ensuring quicker play the balls and cutting out the niggle. I think this played some part in the sloppy football, not that guys at this level should be looking for excuses for the poor play on display.

My concern is that when we have looked sloppy in our first 3 games this year, we havent had the nous to go back to basics. We have continued to play like millionaires in spite of looking like paupers. We need to realise we need to be able to change gears when the situation demands it or we will come a cropper real soon.

[Stido]

I forgot, Thursty. What can anyone say. He is a very special talent, a superstar in the making & best of all HE'S OURS. :) :p Gee I hope we can keep him!!!!!! Qld has finally found someone to fill Wally's 6 jersey.

[TonyP]

I forgot, Thursty. What can anyone say. He is a very special talent, a superstar in the making & best of all HE'S OURS. :) :p Gee I hope we can keep him!!!!!! Qld has finally found someone to fill Wally's 6 jersey.

BLASPHEMER!!!!! :-P

Seriously though, he has been playing well, and if we didn't have him in the team we probably wouldn't be 3/3. He'll certainly look the part in the Qld No. 6, Hope Locky remembers how to play fullback?!

[nq_gurl]

we're on a winning streak!!!!

[Bernster]

At least Russell was polite...He was always using his P's and Q's...

[#CowboyDavid]

I didn't get to see the game as I was on the road and radio coverage in South East Qld is appalling. Based on all the comments above, I guess we didn't play so well but still managed one of only a handful of 30+ winning margins in our history. Imagine the scoreline when we play well.

It seems that Carl Webb could learn a bit from his fellow forwards. Making a great hitup followed by a quick play the ball is a much better option than continualy trying to offload when such a small percentage of them seem to come off for him.

[RHINO]

As happy as i am with a big win watching the game was liek watching an episode of lsot, jsut refused to go forward and flow. Way to much drop ball, Russell was pretty ordinary but whens the last time we got to say that on the other side of the fence, storm supporters can whinge but they still would have lost.

As for JT in origin, as much as it ****es me off to say it, lockyer will not get dropped from the australian and qld team at no.6 just out of shear principle. I lost all my faith in rep selectors along time ago. Even though prince aint quite firing all pistons at the moment, he and thursty would be a devestating combo. Lockyer at fullback could work but would be rusty and have guys liek mango and slater to fill that spot.

[beave]

I don't necessarily agree with you about the Slater & Smith penalties, Beave. They were close calls to be sure, but if the situations had been reversed i think you'd have a hard convincing a Storm supporter that a penalty wasn't deserved. To be fair to Smith these two decisions were made for him by the touchie (Slaters) and the Video Ref (Smiths).

I thought Smith (Ref) was very ordinary (So was Cameron Smith!) and highlights the lack of quality referees in the NRL and elsewhere. What is the NRL doing to develop better Refs? ANYTHING??!! As far as i'm aware all they are doing is trying to get Clarke to retire so they dont have to spend money on his contract! For mine, they should be putting the 'best' 10-12 Refs ON contracts so they can do it fulltime and hopefully improve. Because at the moment the biggest problem facing the League/which they arent addressing (IMO), right now is the poor quality of reffing. The fact Simpkins and Clarke are considered the two best Refs going around speaks for itself.

As for cautioning Kafusi after the Ty high tackle and resulting "push n shove", i think he should have been cautioned, as he came charging in and started some push n shove of his own, i dont think LOD did that (i've not seen a replay of the game or incident 'cept what they showed on the big screen) but Smith should also have put the tackle on report, as well as the forearm to Ty's head by the 'victim' of the tackle.

I can't really remember any obviously wrong decisions Smith made, My problem with his 'ability' at this level is that he seems to make his decisions too slowly, and is too reliant on the video ref . That and he lets things get away from him. He should have stamped his authority on the game earlier by ensuring quicker play the balls and cutting out the niggle. I think this played some part in the sloppy football, not that guys at this level should be looking for excuses for the poor play on display.

My concern is that when we have looked sloppy in our first 3 games this year, we havent had the nous to go back to basics. We have continued to play like millionaires in spite of looking like paupers. We need to realise we need to be able to change gears when the situation demands it or we will come a cropper real soon.

I had the sports ears on and I thought both the ref and cam Smith were quite polite to each other early on then towards the end Russell was starting to lose his cool with the storm players.I will admit they were giving a bit in the tackle (grubby stuff) but IMO that has been their go since they entered the comp. I just thought some of the decisions on the field in regards to officiating the game itself the ref heavily favoured us (i don't think the crowd had a factor becuase the crowd has gone back to it's dismal zombie like state). IMO the matty bowen incident was milked big time and it was line ball.

The NRL has now adopted 1 year contracts for it's refs (which means these guys go full time as refs) which they have said is good for the game as it makes the refs perform or else they get the chop pretty quickly, me personally i would like to see 2 year contracts, but thats me

[cphil83]

We can thank JT for another outstanding performance his consistancy is getting even better from last year. I don't know why people are still rating Barret and Anasta ahead of him I reckon he should be the leading candidate for the Australian no. 6 jumper seeming they are going to put Lockyer at fullback.

[TonyP]

Beave, I can't recall any decisions Smith made that clearly favoured us. Maybe i'm to blue/grey/yellow/white eyed?? I know that we got a few penalties in a row early on which would have helped. But nothing sticks out as being blatantly in our favour (Hope i can get Austar connected this week in time to catch a replay!). I know he could have penalised them a lot more for offside and **** in the tackle (as you said). Maybe he could have pinged us for the same things?

As for Bowen's penalty. I think it was line ball but i dont have a problem with it being penalised. IMO it was late, and Smith did change his line to obstruct Bowen. Whether Matty "lay down" to play up the penalty i dont know. I thought at the time it should have been penalised.

I'm glad to hear the Ref's are on contract, but just for 1 year? why bother? Should be 2 years minimum as you said. Would also be interested to know how much they are contracted for. Is it enough to live off or do they still need "day jobs"? IMO they should be contracted long enough and for enough that they can devote their entire time to it, just like the players.

[Ianc]

I think the fulltimers are on $100,000/yr

[beave]

Thats correct, they get $100k. Not bad money really.

[WACowboy]

Agree with much of what has been posted. Way too much dropped ball, especially in our own 20m however the defence on the try line was outstanding so made up for this (perhaps it was a ploy to practice try line defence).

In regards to the refereeing, was very much biased towards the Cowboys however the Storm were fairly dirty in a lot of tackles (e.g. two penalties for attacking the head of Bowman, the second one should be cited today) and I think Smith just started to get sick of it and started to favour the Cowboys.

Outstanding game by JT though, all class.

[Stido]

I don't think Mango milked the penalty!!!!!!!!!