I'm trying to stay positive about the potential for us to wind up being one of the dogs in this premiership fight. But so far what the club has said and their actions on the field haven't matched. and I see signs this week that we've taken on a poor mentality.
this week when we should have had the Raiders on the ropes with their limited number of players and and interchanges we see the team get dominated by a spirited Canberra forward pack. Pay told us that even if we were on the losing end of the scoreline this year, that we would have taken the game to our opposition.
The reality is that this week when the going got tough the tough got going, but they were wearing green jerseys. When the Raiders forwards started to show pride and were running hard, our pack started to backpeddle in defense. Our forward packs of the past would have said a big fuck you and the collisions would have been immense in a game like that. I can hack a loss and in reality the Raiders deserved the win with the spirit they showed. But our coach promised a return of the fighting spirit we used to show and this match was a huge step away from that spirit. I know some players were trying hard, but it looked like a lot of them just thought, "we should have this opposition on the ropes, but they're fighting back, where did I leave that too hard basket?"
I still have high hopes that we'll turn things aroiund and start to compete this year, but it was a huge step backwards this week to see our defensive line retreating.