Benji Marshall used words like “disappointed” and “embarrassed” to describe the Wests Tigers’ 64-0 loss to Melbourne on Sunday.
“[There are] probably a few other words you could use,” Marshall said.
Tigers fans, no doubt, came up with no shortage of colourful terms.
Melbourne were always going to be primed to bounce back after their Magic Round loss to Canberra, and always save their best football for day games at home, including blistering starts against Parramatta and the Warriors. There was also an afternoon carve-up of Manly at Brookvale this season.
Coach Craig Bellamy was also aware of the second-half comebacks over the weekend, and was never going to let his players take their foot off the throat of the Tigers.
As Marshall flew out of the Victorian capital late Sunday, there would have been five big moments that left him feeling “disappointed, embarrassed … and probably a few other words you could use”.
Papenhuyzen magic
Greg Alexander said on post-match television coverage that Marshall’s video review only needed to last four minutes.
That was when Papenhuyzen grubbered for himself on the last play, kicked the ball again before chasing hard and somehow planting it down. The game had barely started, yet four Tigers defenders stood around and showed little urgency to dive on the ball.
Fonua Pole and Samuela Fainu looked at each other, and Brent Naden hesitated. By the time he reacted, it was too late. It set the tone for the Tigers’ afternoon, and their level of desperation did not improve.
Turuva targeted
The Storm sent a lot of high kicks towards winger Sunia Turuva, even though he was defending on the shady side of AAMI Park, and not forced to defuse any bombs staring into the sun.
The height advantage of Xavier Coates was factored in, but Turuva has struggled defensively at times this season.
Turuva has been a breath of fresh air with his energy and positivity, but he still needs work in defence. He could also do with a new pair of boots, given he slipped trying to stop Grant Anderson, just as he did trying to stop Parramatta’s Josh Addo-Carr last month.
Tiring out Terrell
The Storm wanted to play up the middle with quick play-the-balls in the hope of tiring out front-rower Terrell May.
May did an excellent job of coping with the heavy workload, but was always going to feel the pinch, including late in the game when he could not muster any speed to stop Cam Munster charging into a gap and sending Bronson Garlick over for the final four-pointer.
May was given a rare seven-minute breather, which would have been longer had starting prop Fonua Pole not suffered a knee injury. But expect teams to adopt a similar blueprint with May moving forward.
Where are the chasers?
How on earth were Melbourne allowed to get back into the field of play after a Brent Naden chip kick approaching the hour.
Cam Munster raced back and grabbed the ball, and instead of a few Tigers defenders forcing him over the dead-ball line, he passed to Papenhuyzen, who passed to Coates before they started their set 45m from their try line.
Where were the chasers? Where was the effort? The lack of orange jerseys was telling.
Chopping down NAS
Nelson Asofa-Solomona has made plenty of rivals look silly when trying to stop his giant frame.
In his second game of the season, Asofa-Solomona was unstoppable off the bench, making metres for fun and finishing with nine tackle breaks.
Marshall played Test football for New Zealand with Asofa-Solomona, so more homework and effort should have been put into rushing up in numbers and stopping him. It sounds simple, but look what happens when teams don’t.
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