Scotty, tick, double tick to what you say and thanks much to Blue for some Sunday Valium for we epoxied-on Reds fans. Seriously Blue, that's helpful, and congratulations, Scotty and I think you will unleash a new intercontinental ballistic weapon upon the world with that team
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What worries me is this: all that you Blue say, our coaches should have known, if not more so. I could live with a loss at Loftus for all the reasons we can all agree upon. But what I saw in the first 15/20 mins was a Reds' forward pack that played as though they had been briefed to prepare for a friendly with Norfolk Island A. They appeared completely underprepared and disoriented with what was presented to them, as though they entered entirely the wrong party.
If you know you are going to be hit with a hungry, marauding, vengeful wall of massive Bulls' world-class forwards, you surely work out in advance how you'll cohere at the breakdown, and open with a consciously conservative, possession-protective game plan with your forwards flooding in pods that at least minimises the risk of easy turnovers, one outs, pushed short passes and scrappy offloads under pressure, etc. You work for what's gold against a team like this, consistent possession, and you work with caution and patience until you (hopefully) find a way to build phases and gradually move to the opposition's 22. And you wait for holes or penalties and you are happy with moderate advances over the gain line. You have to respect such formidable opposition in its fortress. What you don't do is from the first 5 mins fancy that light work at the breakdown coupled with a fast mobile attack (led by a green rookie 10) and loosely dispersed forwards is necessarily going to win you the game. Maybe that confidence and tactics are OK vs a weak opposition, but against these 2012 Bulls (for which our coaches have loads of video), nah.
So for me, we just seemed wholly unprepared and so ready to be shell-shocked, from about 3-4 mins in. That is, we may have never won, fair enough, but there's something very, very wrong inside a so-called top S15 side that lets in a PD of 50+.