What showed up tonight ?

[Waylander]

I think what we saw was the adage - you can't put old heads on young shoulders.

Despite all the doom and gloom I have seen enough this year to suggest that we are not far off and a bit of experience and a couple of key players should make all the difference next year - we will be in the eight and building.

Exactly. We have plenty of talent, but they currently lack direction on the field, make some dumb errors, and are generally inexperienced. Maloney will bring a lot to this team. He adds football smarts, composure and a very good short kicking game. As soon as we saw Moga making metres every time he got the ball without a wall of forwards in front of him, Maloney would have started getting him early ball, just like he does with Hurrell now.

And assuming SBW is here (and I'm convinced he will be, and for more than just one year), Maloney is also a great support runner. It won't take long for some others to learn to do the same, when they actually see quality offloads that lead to field position, not useless flops out the back of tackles for the sake of it.

I firmly believe if one of the senior players (Anasta or Mini) took the time to say before the last kick-off "right, all we have to do is keep calm and hold a straight defensive line, and we win this. They will only get about 3 tackles, so lets stay alert, work with each other, and don't rush up on anyone. 30 seconds more of effort and the game is ours." the result would have been different.

I would still like to see one old hard-head at prop added to the side, but we will still have a very competitive team next year.

We missed JWH last night. His defensive workload would have made a difference.

[TDK]

souffs are a waste of a semis spot.

The contary, I think Souths will do a Tigers05, Parra09 and Roosters10, they have a strong balanced team and after last night will be beaming with confidence.