Positives

[Matabele]

Seriously:

1.  We should have been flogged 50-0 but by not giving up we limited the bleeding.
2.  If the rotten calls went for us rather than against us we are a slight chance of beating them.
3.  We were disrupted with injuries to key players but the bit part players stepped up.
4.  Kite has his mojo back and MUST remain in the front row.
5.  Bani is sensational and is worth a try in the Centres.
6.  Cuthbo looks better when he plays more minutes.
7.  Hall was effective off the bench.  It is good to have him back on the ball.
8.  Orford will not be missing from the side because of Origin duty and we will have little disruption when we meet the Broncos 40 hours after the test.

Isn't it a shame we didn't use Monaghan as a stop gap for one more year in 2006 and made a play for Prince?

The real pity is that unless there are injuries, Des will revert to the same old for next week, when it is obvious Cuthbo and Hall offer so much more than his favourites.

 

[Ryan]

Deleted - I need to calm down.

 

[Matabele]

Deleted - I need to calm down.

  Damn.  Missed it.

You weren't even watching the second half!

 

[Garts]

hahaha I saw it, gave me a laugh Ryan.  I am pissed off, nice to see someone worse than me!!!!

I could see some positives through the negatives.  I must say our attack looked better, Storm defence was just great.  Although why did Orford not try and build pressure by getting repeat sets is beyond me.  Put the ball on the ground into the in goal ffs.

 

[Chip and Chase]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......... Prince.

Wouldn't that have been nice, he's probably the most consistent half in the comp and knows how to run a team to get the best out of it. Problem is that he wanted to get back to Queensland so I'd say we would have had next to no chance of signing him.

 

[Canteen Worker]

We are never going to get Prince. Despite our disatisfaction we have to build with what we have. Orford is half and Captain but needs another ball player on the paddock. It is not the problem of no Monaghan but that Beaver and Willo are not 6s. Sure - vent - I don't like losing but I am not sure what form 2nd graders people want to use to replace Bell, Orford and co.

When a side defends for virtually all the first 20 minutes is no coincidence that the subs look fresher and make more metres.

 

[willstyles]

Positives....

- Hall was very good. Has Bryant's spot when Perry comes back in my opinion.
- L'Estrange looks dangerous when he runs it, created more opportunities than Ballin when he was on.
- Robbo/Brett/Bani still safe as anything under the high ball.
- Glenn Stewart showed a bit of fire (but also missed a thouuuusand tackles)
- Choc had a good game until his injury.

Not a whole lot else. We were completely outplayed (refs and video refs aside...).

 

[Ryan]

I have to say once again - very much looking forward to the return of Matai for some reason.

 

[Ryan]

[quote author=Ryan link=topic=177311.msg181990#msg181990 date=1207916898]
Deleted - I need to calm down.

  Damn.  Missed it.

You weren't even watching the second half!
[/quote]

This is the 1st game in 3 years where I actually stopped the recording. I just couldn't pallet it to be honest.
I turned over and watched Chapelle.

I couldn't decifer which comedy act was more laughable though - Manly or Chapelle?

 

[Zep]

i didn't watch a minute of the game, they had the titans/eels game first up here, saw the score on nrl.com, run into my room and cried for half an hour, re-checked to make sure it wasn't a mistake. Ran back into my room and cried further for another 30mins... I hate to say ti but from what i have seen, menzies should have retired last year.

 

[NYEagle]

[quote author=Matabele link=topic=177311.msg181993#msg181993 date=1207917181]
[quote author=Ryan link=topic=177311.msg181990#msg181990 date=1207916898]
Deleted - I need to calm down.

  Damn.  Missed it.

You weren't even watching the second half!
[/quote]

This is the 1st game in 3 years where I actually stopped the recording. I just couldn't pallet it to be honest.
I turned over and watched Chapelle.

I couldn't decifer which comedy act was more laughable though - Manly or Chapelle?
[/quote]

Yeah I turned off the TV with 10 minutes to go, it was getting boring and I still don't know or care who scored the Manly try

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

I cared, it was Bani, which recouped a bit of my coin i spent at the TAB

 

[Ryan]

I cared, it was Bani, which recouped a bit of my coin i spent at the TAB

What bet you put on mate?

 

[willstyles]

I cared, it was Bani, which recouped a bit of my coin i spent at the TAB

Bani is in my fantasy team, so I cared as well.

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

[quote author=Kiwi Eagle link=topic=177311.msg182070#msg182070 date=1207962144]
I cared, it was Bani, which recouped a bit of my coin i spent at the TAB

What bet you put on mate?
[/quote]

Had him to score a try, was only paying $2.20, but was enough to bring me back to near even for the weekend. Also had Beaver who was paying $3

 

[fLIP]

We were robbed. Not only with 2 decisions that led to trys but on the Steve Bell try also.

18 - 10 has a decent ring to it and without the ref **** up's that would have been the score, given we didn't get a boost from being just 12 behind with 30 to go.

The positive for me is re-inforcing my beliefe that all ref's are taught that melbourne need to win.

 

[PONTIAN SEA EAGLE]

We were robbed. Not only with 2 decisions that led to trys but on the Steve Bell try also.

18 - 10 has a decent ring to it and without the ref F**k up's that would have been the score, given we didn't get a boost from being just 12 behind with 30 to go.

The positive for me is re-inforcing my beliefe that all ref's are taught that melbourne need to win.

The funny thing is bell's try looked more of a try than bani's video refs are kidding.

 

[ManlyBacker]

There were so few positives.

For mine I thought Choc was our best. Bani was terrific again and is a great find. Kite looked good and had a lot of game time.

But on the other side we have improved only about 15% on the GF and we need about 100% to be competitive. Yeah, we got injuries that played havoc and some poor ref decisions were at the wrong times but the bottom line was they looked just like they did last year, wave after wave of kicking our butt.

For all the raves about the Messiah coming and delivering a few results - for mine I am still incredibly underimpressed. Kicks rarely come off. Bell finally did something, but he is down on what he was delivering a year ago and if it had been Matai rushing out of the line the blood-fest posts would be going for a month.

I'm going to put that game down to the Storm being supreme athletes doing all the right things. Their defense just snuffed us. As a positive maybe they have peaked early It is a very long season and anything can happen. My biggest disappointment is that I would have put us on an absolute minimum of 6 points and hopefully 8 (never expecting to win last night), but 4 is not the start we have had the previous two years and that may hurt us later.