Donstuie wrote:
I don’t care about the first half.
I don’t care about the umpires.
I don’t care about the injuries.
I don’t care about the coaching.
What matters to me is that we again had an opportunity to evolve a little more, to elevate ourselves above opposition we should be dispatching, and we again @#$%&! blew it. Outside of Richmond and Port, every opposition has been beatable, and we’ve got one W to show for it.
I said this after the Sydney and GC games, and I’ll say it again. We’re not going anywhere until we put teams like this away. I’m past green shoots, “moments of brilliance”, and “if <player> wasn’t injured we’d have won”.
This team needs to rise above this shit and start winning 50/50 games. That’s what the Lions are doing, that’s what the Saints are doing. They’re put in these situations and are finding a way. Meanwhile our guys continue to back down when the challenge is made. Only exception was against a team mentally weaker again.
I don’t doubt they’re giving their all and leaving nothing left, but there’s not an ounce of ruthlessness in this team, and even mid-table opposition can sense our moment of weakness and exploit it. Oppositions know when they start to push us around, we back off. This again comes from our introverted senior leadership and filters down.
This game was lost upstairs, and the moment of bathwater-consumption was the red rag to the bull. Until they pull their heads out of their arses and demand ruthlessness on days like today, they’ll have to continue suckling on green shoots.
Norf next week presents a similar challenge to today, and a perfect opportunity to see if we’re capable of learning. They’re shithouse but physically they’re more developed, and have been put under the pump in da meedya. They will throw everything at us and superior ability alone won’t get us over the line. Ruthlessness, not backing down and not accepting any outside excuses are what will win us next week.
At some point, encouragement awards aren’t going to cut it anymore. Get the @#$%&! job done.
/Rant