I've just about got over the game now so will offer my two pennorth.
There were loads of reasons why we lost. In no particular order I reckon the main ones were:
* A worrying lack of speed and movement or fluidity in attack. I like the idea of beating up the opposition with drives but they need to think the ball may be passed or it is easy to defend. We didn't pass i out enough, and seemed worryingly static an pedestrian with way too few runners and options. Easy to defend.
* Panic and an inability to execute. Prime examples were the holding down, yes it was a clear sinbin but how did we not score? Worse, the 3 man overlap when we again panicked and unforgivably screwed it up with a forward pass, when we were queuing up to walk the ball in.
* In the face of incompetent officials, having nobody on the field who could take a lead and overcome Worky's grubby tactics and endless aggravation and laying on. It was by a distance the most stop-start, rubbish spectacle with disruption every 30 seconds, and we were (as Kear observed) definitely "old manned".
I don't understand trying to use 3 halfbacks. Keyes has been good all year so what message does it send to any of them if they are spelled like forwards? Pick your halfbacks and they know they have 80 minutes. It didn't work.
The most disappointing thing for me was the overall impression of speed and agility. Despite having a very young side, Workington just always looked the more lively, and seemed to make great inroads and disrupt our defence far more than we theirs. I hoped we'd come out in the second half and start to play, but in fact, Workington remained on top.
And yes, had we not blown it, we could easily have won, and certainly we didn't get much rub either, but to me overall Worky, who have the double over us, just out-enthused us and showed more ability to think and create. I'm not here to slag Worky - like Kear I don't give a toss, I'm talking about the Bulls, but its not the result, is more that we didn't play like we should be playing at this stage, at home, in a key game, and we were unable to cope with a game plan that was reasonably predictable.