Five stages of dealing with a bad loss.

[Catch_20_2]

So what stage are you at....

 

[mickqld]

Grief

 

[NLSeaEagle]

Stage 2

 

[MadMarcus]

Still anger

 

[Volley]

Acceptance. If we were good enough we would've won. Sure the refereeing was corrupt, but Penrith are very ordinary and it should never have got to that stage where refereeing could decide it.

 

[The Who]

Disgust.
Ever since video refs were introduced a decade ago (or so) I have been railing against them. Their whole premise is wrong. Sport is not perfect, players make mistakes, referees make mistakes; our eyes may lie. But that's the way the game was for 100 years. And we loved it.
But, by trying to make the game perfect with imperfect and corruptible officials the NRL has killed my enjoyment of RL.
RL is not a video game.
Every match is now mired in controversy. I'm hoping that the grand final is decided by the video ref and one of the NRL's darling teams gets shafted. Maybe then the NRL will revert to letting the on-field referee judge the play as best he, or she, can.

 

[COMMANDER]

I said pre game that we are not yet mature enough or professional enough to go into last nights game without being influenced by the result from the week before. The first half attitude was appalling.

We dead set were walking around in the warm up and in the first half like we were king ****.

The ref decisions were poor, but we let ourselves down last night.

 

[sheridanstand78]

Reality. For all of the bad calls we copped last night. The overall performance was immature and naive at times. Vital lessons that will make our team strong!!

 

[Harvies elbow]

Anger. Always anger.
That's where it stays.
And everytime I see Turdburger's light bulb shaped f*cking head it gets exacerbated.
And parramatta.
That always brings on a sustained burst.

 

[wedgetail eagle]

Brooding over life's injustices.

 

[Deleted member 26876]

One good thing was our defence. But with the ball, we just didn't care enough

But yes, anger

 

[Technical Coach]

Better to have controversial decisions go against us at a stage in the teams development where we had no chance of winning the premiership than next year or the year after.

 

[Wyllie Eagle]

We should've known that Penrith were going to come at us with much faster line speed in defence and speed up their ruck play but we didn't seem to have a game plan to deal with it. Apart from some great hit ups from AFB etc, our attack was clunky and kicks in general play poor. That said, I'm still mightily f...n pissed off with the incompetence of the ref and bunker decisions. I don't want to hear, the best team won on the night BS. Fact is, they weren't the best team. Both were pretty even. It WAS the ref/bunker calls that secured the Riff that win. The second stitch-up in favour of them against us this year and I'm filthy about that too.

 

[Catch_20_2]

My feelings are in washing machine mode at the moment ..... some part of me is still in rage mode .... my blood pressure certainly attests to that .... other parts are in acceptance.

HK Eagle is 100% right ... we had our fate in our own hands last night ... we play anywhere near to what we are capable of and we win. Compare the team stats on the game day thread to see that there was nothing between the two teams. They had the more astute kicking game where we really should have had the edge ... Cleary came up with the clutch kicks. We made more critical errors and gave away penalties that ultimately gave them the field position and the opportunities they needed - all their points came from our inability to execute not from superior attacking ability.

I like many others are frustrated by the decisions that had an impact on the outcome .... but if you play like we did .... those decisions suddenly become a whole lot more critical. If we take our chances when they came these blunders are of less consequence in the overall scheme of things.

I'm 100% proud of the team and where they have come from. Last couple of years have been pretty dark and sadly these problems have played themselves out on this board more than they should. I hope we can all put the axes away, have healthy debate and agree to disagree, value each others contribution, though not overstep the boundaries of common decency and courtesy that I think we all pride ourselves on.

I drove past that accident scene in the city yesterday where three people lost their lives .... life's too short .... be positive .... find the good in people and the things they do ... and be happy that your biggest problem is that we need to wait another 5 months for our team to go around again.

I guess you all probably think I'm in the Dreaming phase .... but hey ... it's not such a bad place to be sometimes.

 

[mickqld]

It's anger because we know Penrith had nothing in attack. Anger at our mistakes from a team who potentially at its best is right up there. Anger at the bunker fools whose decisions decided the winner.

 

[The Indian]

Priority 1 for 2018.... a winger who has basic speed, good knees and can finish off half breaks AND can kick goals.

I know just who you can replace.

 

[fLIP]

 

[Catch_20_2]

Priority 1 for 2018.... a winger who has basic speed, good knees and can finish off half breaks AND can kick goals.

I know just who you can replace.

I agree .... but in saying that Wright played pretty strong.
He did what we could have expected of him .... he was really a depth signing who through circumstances was asked to do a job for the team and he gave it everything he had. He wasn't our problem last night .... the blame for that lies closer to the middle of the ruck.

 

[ALinda]

I drove past that accident scene in the city yesterday where three people lost their lives .... life's too short .... be positive .... find the good in people and the things they do ... and be happy that your biggest problem is that we need to wait another 5 months for our team to go around again.

That's very well said and certainly puts things into perspective, the morning after our season's ended.

Having said that, I'm shattered particularly with losing in controversial circumstances. If we'd lost fair and square, fair enough, but it was anything but fair. Guess that's what happens when you're Manly....

 

[The '47ers]

@The Indian Liverpool and Manly, you sir are having a crappy weekend!