SEA Eagles stalwart Anthony Watmough has provided a blunt assessment of his side’s second half capitulation to the Melbourne Storm last Saturday saying it wasn’t up to NRL standard.
His descrip
tion comes as the team yesterday regrouped ahead of Friday’s showdown with the Rabbitohs at Bluetongue Stadium.
After leading 20-4 halftime Manly suffered a 23-22 golden point loss to the Storm in front of their home crowd.
“We pride ourselves on our defence, injuries happened in games, but we have to adapt better and we can’t use that as an excuse,” Watmough said.
“We put ourselves in a good position but (by) our standards, NRL standards, that just wasn’t up to it
“It was just simple mistakes, simple errors, silly penalties and you can’t do that in this day and age.”
Watmough said the Sea Eagles were guilty of playing “silly football” and have to be better.
“We have a lot to improve on, but we know we can do it which is the good thing and we have a good test this weekend,” he said.
Watmough said the team also did a lot of good things against the Storm.
“We can’t just take the bad out of the game, when we were on I don’t think we have looked that sharp in many years,” he said
Teammate Jamie Buhrer echoed Watmough’s comments after the players reviewed their performance today.
“We were all filthy about the way we played especially at Brookie in that second half,” Buhrer said.
“We did our video this morning, hashed a few things out and what is to be expected- we are all well aware, we are all professional athletes.”
He said the team will carry some of that anger and the lessons they have learnt into the Rabbitohs’ game.
“The good thing is that it is round one, we still have plenty of footy left to play so we can only learn from it,” he said.
Jon Geddes
Manly Daily
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/northern-beaches/sea-eagles-star-anthony-watmough-talks-tough-in-wake-of-storm-loss/story-fngr8iii-1226851594131
