Went to the game tonight and it was disappointing.
For all the talk of Walmsley, don’t get me wrong he is a quality prop, however he goes on the back of two or three quick play the balls from Grace, Percival and Makinson. At no point did we control the exit from Saints, they made easy meters over the first couple of plays, had us going backwards and we then cannot stop Walmsley etc.
The things we need to work on for me are:
1. A better kicking game - hopefully a fit Gale, Sezer and Austin address that issue
2. We need more from Myler/Walker, handley and briscoe or another winger in the first couple of sets. We are steady but we lack pace and we rarely get quick play the balls to allow Mik, Prior, Tet to come onto it without heavy line speed coming at the. To me we need another winger and I hope Walker can get fit and give us some zip from full back next year.
3. Better line speed - I don’t know if this is purely coaching or that players are gassed as we rarely get a quick play the ball in early tackles. I think this is a coaching issue
4. A more cohesive game plan, we do often look out of ideas, appreciate we have a hooker playing half back but we seem to have one shift play wide and that is it. I would hope with Gale, Sezer, Austin and Leeming at 9 with Walker/Myler at full back we can have more options moving forward.
Overall I think we have to remember how tough we have had it this year. We have done well to get to that game and we weren’t good enough. Saints are a better team than us this year. We just need to make sure we continue growing and improving and putting ourselves in a positon to be more consistent over a full season.