A couple of things I noticed out of last nights game.
If Jamie Buhrer hadn't dropped that ball close to the line, Lote wouldn't have had the ball to run 70m downfield which resulted in their first try. Nine times out of ten Jamie doesn't drop that ball. Added to the piggyback penalties the refs gave Souffs to get them out of trouble and it killed all of our early momentum. Unfortunately for Jamie he had "Choc Hands Syndrome" last night and couldn't hold onto the ball to save himself. Ironically Choc himself didn't drop the ball once and had probably his best game all season.
Lote's run showed me that Jorge isn't fit right now and that his ankle isn't close to being right. Tuqiri is by no means the fastest winger in the comp, not even at the Vermin, yet he left Jorge for dead and it took Cherry and Killer flying across from the other side to bring him down (was impressed with Cherry's pace). That meant we had no one defending on the right and they did exactly what they should have done, threw the ball to their left and scored.
A worrying thing I have noticed over the past few weeks is that while our goal line defence is usually second to none, we are letting a lot of teams make line breaks coming out of their own half and its only been scrambling defence, or the brilliance of Snake's last line defence, that have stopped a number of runaway tries being scored. At least twice last night the Vermin would have scored from breaks in their own half had it not been for Snake's defence.
Possibly our best attacking play all night was just after half time when Killer kicked for Snake from a scrum win in our own half. Unfortunately though, while he got a good enough bounce to regather the ball cleanly, it was awkward enough to make him jump for the ball, slowing him enough to allow Johnston to tackle him from behind. If Snake had got a perfect bounce I think he'd have scored, if not under the posts then at least in the corner.
Last night should be a wake up call for Tooves and the boys. We were generally out-muscled and out enthused, while our normally sharp execution was well off. Though having a number of players suffering from the flu wouldn't have helped. Maybe being 4 points ahead of the competition for a couple of weeks so close to the finals has seen a bit of complacency creep in?
Finally, I have to laugh at the media carry on over last night. Listening to the Nein commentary team and reading the articles in the DT and SMH.....if you didn't know any better you'd think Souffs had just won the premiership. I think someone needs to remind them that its only August, Manly are still a game clear on top of the ladder and that the league stopped playing Grand Finals at the SCG after 1987.
Hope it wasn't Jono with that drum (ala Benny Hill) 
