When Batley got on the roll we had no leader grabbing the flag and going at em.
Our 6,7 and 9 were dominated. Duffs is not a ball playing 7 they ruined him tonight by having pace at 6/7.
When we went 24-10 down I said we needed to throw everything at them for 10 mins - we upped tempo and they were rattled - more composure and a better 7 performance and we would have won.
Kear totally outcoached Paul, which is to be expected, and what Paul must realise is that refs in this division are crap and we must learn how to manipulate them. Its no good allowing them a QPTB when the ref is allowing them to slow it down and its no good giving away a deep 10m when he allows you to move up before the ball is played.
Batley dominated for 50 mins yesterday after we had them on the ropes at 10-0. Played great, gutsy percentage RL with well drilled halves. They got in our faces and read our repetitive plays easily.
Its not the end of the world, how you finish is key, but we have found out that Briscoe is a year off playing week in week out, Worrincey is a winger, Duffs should not be in before Nicho and we have the halves wrong at present.
The crowd was what I expected, Batley brought a few more than normal, and we have a lot of commercial headaches ahead if their gamble backfires.
Good news is that we didn't have to pay out winning bonus