I dont say this with anger, its a back handed compliment in some ways, its smart play really.....but fair dinkum the Storm show year after year they are the best cheats in the league. If you make a break all support players will be jostled and nudged back by Storm players. When tackled after making a break they will hold down to the very last millisecond and if they give away a penalty they have time to regroup. If you try and put the ball over the try line knees, hands and feet will be thrust out. In key moments they will stand up offside knowing a penalty gives them time to regroup. Every bomb you put up will have blockers galore so very few chasers ever get near a kick. Every intentional foul they make is calculated risk which often gains them more advantage, regardless of whether they get penalised or not , by way of stifling an attacking play which is forming. They choose their moments very well. I think they play on the fact that referees dont like lopsided penalty counts so many of their indiscretions go unpunished. Its not with bitterness I say this, hats off to them in some ways...but if we meet them again we have to meet fire with fire.
Everything they do is designed to gain every second they can grab. One of the tactics I have noticed from the this year, is that after a tackle, they try to leave one player tackling from behind, that player usually ends up in the way of the ruck, if it is before the play the ball, they get up and run back between the dummy half and the play the ball, it makes the dummy half hesitate for a fraction of a second. it doesn't sound like much but it actually has a fair impact on the play and squeezes a second here or there. They do it within the rules and that is what is frustrating. Watch Ryles he is still learning the tactic, so sometimes he finds himself on the backside of the tackle he goes to get up and run back to the line, hesitates and runs back through the play the ball. I watched one game with a mate this year and I mentioned that tactic and bang they did it 3 times in a row as soon as I said it, for the rest of the game we watched them and it appeared like a deliberate tactic
They got away with murder in the ruck last night. It seemed as though we were playing under different rules.
Yep Dan forgot about the 3rd man in to the tackle and his work in the ruck/play the ball - hes the last one in and latches onto the legs of the runner when 2 men have immobilised the upper body and locked up the ball. 3rd man then peels off into the ruck area and makes himself into a roundabout while trying to act innocent. They do it well.
