Turning point or no, there were a lot of things to like about the team.
Sure, there were some abysmally soft tries the Warriors let in to begin with (the first 3 tries from Manly were, as my old man said 'pathetically soft'), but those tries came off the back of determination. Marty's try from a tap'n'go standard was just plain weird, but how many guys did he have hanging off his coat-tails?
However in the 2nd half, the Warriors stepped it up a bit on their 1st half performance. Manly were up 26-0 and coulda cruised their way to 26-18 and a nervous nancy Alx, but as the warriors lifted, Manly absorbed it - and the Warriors didn't make it easy, and to be honest we didn't do ourselves any favours either.
So we let in a soft try, Warriors had momentum, and we then let in a REALLY soft try again..... except for Morgan Harper! That try-saver my friends was epic-level. Happened right in front of me. How the Actual F..k he pulled that off....regardless not long after Harper darted through the line to put Garrick over and it was the straw that broke the camels back.
Thats the thing - we bounced back, and we had a crap opponent sure, but we didn't do what we have done in previous games - let the opposition dictate the pace of play and drag us to their level (up or down). No Turbo, no DCE yet Schuster was fantastic - that boy's passes are so crisp, its like that first Sao from the pack.
Saab worries me tho - his def was plain awful; he defended that 2nd half right in front of me and was the obvious target. His Run-Metres figure was boosted by his intercept - sure that might be his role, but T8u on the other wing was frantic! His hit-ups have starch and his positioning is >Saab. Saab seemed to feed off Harper though - which confirms what I thought last season about those 2 having an on-field bond. Watch them - when Harper is on, Saab generally does Saab-ish things. If Harper is in a rut, Saab seems to go into his shell. Save some time in future - if Harper is outta form, drop Saab too.
Have we turned a corner, maybe? A solid win sure beats a marginal win, and both beat a loss. Fortress Brookie record stays intact, and we have Cowboys and Storm up next there to really test out that home-ground advantage. One thing is certain - No Turbo (and no Lawton now either I just read) so no cheat-codes to activate.
