I’m getting good vibes, same vibes as pre-Parra game and I stand by saying we beat Eels if we don’t suffer the injury fate we did…
We have to do four key things very well:
1) apply a serious amount of heat to Nico Hynes, it all goes through him + he seems to have way too much thinking time and often crab across field linking up with others… just beeline for him and place him under pressure all game.
2) kick chase & discipline - if we get Cronulla working out of their end, we will make life that little bit more difficult for them, but equally important, we need to maintain discipline, cheap meters against good teams will punish us. We can’t be perfect, but we need to be smarter in this area, particularly on 4th and 5th tackles.
3) defensive resilience, we have shown an incredible amount of commitment on our line and in stages in the games under pressure (despite what score lines in recent weeks suggest) - our D has to be the cornerstone to a positive outcome with the Sharks sure to challenge us in a big way, but if we can repell and drain their confidence - we’ll be on track.
4) last but not least, with our forward stocks taking a hit, we have to promote ruck speed for 80mins, not for 20, 30, 50, 75mins…. But 80mins. Players should be wiggling around like mo-fo’s and desperately trying to play the ball to keep Sharks on the back foot retreating and placing pressure on the officials to give us some charity.