The Dogs have the lowest points scored of all teams in the finals.
Last night, apart from field goals, we scored all our points in the first 20 minutes.
We spent a lot of the next 20 minutes - around ten sets, on Manly's line at the fifth tackle and did not produce any points.
When you look at the kick options taken - they didn't put us in a position to score. They produced line drop outs and more pressure on Manly, and we still didn't turn that into points, or in a couple of cases kicks by Reynold's were caught by opposition players who took off down field. Luckily they didn't score.
A pass from Hodkinson to Brown was too high and sailed into touch on a certain try resulting in Graham giving Hodko a spray. Brown got another spray for a weak offload losing us possession near the line.
Yes - we should have gone in to the sheds at half time at 30 - 6. The possession and completion rates were ours.
It is this one thing that came back to curse us in the second half when it was a good arm wrestle for 25 minutes before Manly again scored. Their tactic of taking us on at the side of the posts to score produced the results for them, including Ennis fumble. Cherry Evans up and unders going real high and giving Manly time to get to Perrett resulted in a number of fumbles from him and is something Penriths coach will have noticed for sure. Brown's ball control is another issue - he was stripped twice.
Manly ran more metres than we did in the second half.
We dominate in the first half and need to turn that domination into more points going into the next two games to win them.
We seem to match the opposition until we tire toward the end of the game and then let them in for points.
It comes down to 5th tackle kicking options on the line. THAT is where we can score more, and be impossible to be run down late in the game.
Hodko and especially Reynolds need to do this a lot more effectively
Last night, apart from field goals, we scored all our points in the first 20 minutes.
We spent a lot of the next 20 minutes - around ten sets, on Manly's line at the fifth tackle and did not produce any points.
When you look at the kick options taken - they didn't put us in a position to score. They produced line drop outs and more pressure on Manly, and we still didn't turn that into points, or in a couple of cases kicks by Reynold's were caught by opposition players who took off down field. Luckily they didn't score.
A pass from Hodkinson to Brown was too high and sailed into touch on a certain try resulting in Graham giving Hodko a spray. Brown got another spray for a weak offload losing us possession near the line.
Yes - we should have gone in to the sheds at half time at 30 - 6. The possession and completion rates were ours.
It is this one thing that came back to curse us in the second half when it was a good arm wrestle for 25 minutes before Manly again scored. Their tactic of taking us on at the side of the posts to score produced the results for them, including Ennis fumble. Cherry Evans up and unders going real high and giving Manly time to get to Perrett resulted in a number of fumbles from him and is something Penriths coach will have noticed for sure. Brown's ball control is another issue - he was stripped twice.
Manly ran more metres than we did in the second half.
We dominate in the first half and need to turn that domination into more points going into the next two games to win them.
We seem to match the opposition until we tire toward the end of the game and then let them in for points.
It comes down to 5th tackle kicking options on the line. THAT is where we can score more, and be impossible to be run down late in the game.
Hodko and especially Reynolds need to do this a lot more effectively
