There's a lot in what you say, yet I can't reconcile myself to believing we are as good as you outline. There is an ongoing trend in all our games, regardless of the strength of the team, that we surrender totally in the final 10 minutes before half time, and the last 20 minutes of the game. The team looks unfit for a full 80 minutes. Canberra won on enthusiasm and energy. We ran out of puff, and lost the will to win.
We ran out of puff yes but as outlined down Kas who played for 10 minutes RFM couldn't come back and Fualalo only had one stint due to fitness and concussion test if it were any other team all you would hear is 'what a brave performance' blah blah blah our boys dont even get that from the supporters maybe a bit much to expect from commentators. I knew it was a premiership year from the Trial at Belmore against melbourne that was the day i realized this is finally the year we win it all, yes it was a trial but Melbourne threw everything at us Cronk is a fantastic half one of the best and the same goes for smith at the 9 they tried every trick in the book to get through us and simply could not do it they finally baited Klemmer and thus why he got suspended but still could not put points on us the thing that majorly impressed me was they were trying to bait Reynolds and kept sending proctor and Harris straight at him he tackled and handled all of them one on one i thought wow Josh's defense has never been this good and defence is ATTITUDE. Our attack looked the same as it generally does except Lichaa was a machine he has not played like that since the Manly game and the injury may have something to do with that but its like they went through the motions and clicked when necessary and thats what the teams in this comp lack.. Gears. (Except Parra before salary cap)
There is no question luck is 50% of the equation case in point in the GF 2015 the only first grader not playing was Mcguire for the broncos outside of that both teams were at full strength and no surprise both were in the GF if we stay injury free get through the hardest of hard origin draws (absolute disgrace our draw) and come out of it still in 5th pushing 4th than the seasons ours to lose. Make no mistake Reynolds will take us there but yes we will lose some more games, look ugly, slow and with no direction or shape but guess what ,watch any NRL game watch any team on any given day and that is how they may look and that is football any team can win on any given day. Why are we superior?? we are an occasion team, clutch if you will we simply don't lose in golden point and have the footy smarts to grind teams out of the contest when it matters it doesn't always work but 60-70% of the time it does and that is crucial.
Watching Ben hunt and Milford in the last month is really starting to show how average they both are Hunt had numerous chances against the cows, tigers and penrith to win the game and simply couldn't do it he simply can not win games of footy and milford just goes missing when the pressure is on teams have realized finally Milford does not pass, he simply dummies and runs same thing almost every time kinda like Tolman always getting the ball on the 4th tackle lol. Outside of the cows who do have thurston who is very much clutch i don't fear any team on the big occasion i think we will win on a combo of two things
1 Grinding boring and at times predictable structure not straying from it and causing other teams to play badly (Which is our strength)
2 The NRL lacks genuine gamebreakers and superstars at Full Strength no team has as good a squad as we do so class and experience will prevail time will tell
