Round 3 saw Trent absolutely bottle it and throw away all the positives we saw in the earlier 2 rounds by disgracefully dropping Jake only 2 games into the season. Nothing but pure panic all because our edges didn't ice the numerous chances we created the previous week in round 2.
Dropped from THIRD for line breaks to SIXTH with us only creating ONE tonight.
Dropped from SIXTH for line break assists to SEVENTH with us only creating 2 more than the worst team.
Dropped from THIRD for line engaged to FIFTH.
Dropped from SEVENTH for support runs to ELEVENTH.
Increased from SECOND for decoy runs to FIRST.
Dropped from FIRST for run metres to FOURTH.
Dropped from SIXTH for post contact metres to EIGTH.
Dropped from SECOND for offloads to SIXTH.
Dropped from EIGTH for missed tackles to NINTH.
Clear drop off in where we were at during the first 2 rounds, both with the eye test and on paper. Weather is not an excuse as we played in equally bad if not worse conditions against the cowboys a who are currently SECOND and BEAT them. Lack of any sort of combination play tonight and overall were just a shambles in terms of organisation and direction. Biggest concern was Burton, he was basically strangled out of the game and got junk ball towards the end of the set to kick it or aimlessly run it. The chemistry between him and Wakeham was non existent, JMK was also back to his uncontrolled best..again, chemistry?
Burton had 42 touches today and 5 runs. Time in possession 26.08m.
Round 2 he had 57 touches and 13 runs. Time in possession 34.48m.
Round 1 he had 56 touches and 9 runs. Time in possession 29.29m.
As you can see numbers are well down even when you consider the drop in possession. Wakeham handled the ball 40 times in only 66 minutes for comparison. Burton also kicked the ball with 13 of those possessions, so he kicked with almost a THIRD of his touches. Unfortunately round 3 was a clear step backwards for both the team and individuals. I was angry tonight, something i didn't feel the previous 2 weeks. i I will pass on this weeks Psychologist's bill to the club.