Absolutely splendid discipline by cowboys tonight, to only concede one penalty in general play. That's one in 80 minutes to our ten conceded.
A lesser side might have been tempted to slow down the play the ball or not get back 10 metres in defence, but to their credit they played by the rules for the entire match in spite of spending a great deal of it standing behind their goal posts watching Maloney line up conversions.
We on the other hand are an embarrassment. Once again we gave the match officials (including Maxwell who must be so sick of having to punish us) no alternative other than to give the cowboys repeat sets of six (usually late in tackle counts) to help them up the field rather than letting them have to do so by playing football.
I thought the penalty count should have been 20-2 or 30-2 against us, not 10-2. Make no mistake, we can't rely on the referees continuing to be kind to us like they were tonight and turning a blind eye to most of our infringements as they did this evening. For one thing, they know they are accountable so they can't be seen to be favouring us like they did tonight and have been for about 10 years.
So really, I'm afraid to say this was a bit of a hollow victory this evening. I'm sure you'll agree had the referees been more impartial and penalised us as we really deserved, the score surely would have been closer - maybe roosters 28 cowboys 6?
A lesser side might have been tempted to slow down the play the ball or not get back 10 metres in defence, but to their credit they played by the rules for the entire match in spite of spending a great deal of it standing behind their goal posts watching Maloney line up conversions.
We on the other hand are an embarrassment. Once again we gave the match officials (including Maxwell who must be so sick of having to punish us) no alternative other than to give the cowboys repeat sets of six (usually late in tackle counts) to help them up the field rather than letting them have to do so by playing football.
I thought the penalty count should have been 20-2 or 30-2 against us, not 10-2. Make no mistake, we can't rely on the referees continuing to be kind to us like they were tonight and turning a blind eye to most of our infringements as they did this evening. For one thing, they know they are accountable so they can't be seen to be favouring us like they did tonight and have been for about 10 years.
So really, I'm afraid to say this was a bit of a hollow victory this evening. I'm sure you'll agree had the referees been more impartial and penalised us as we really deserved, the score surely would have been closer - maybe roosters 28 cowboys 6?
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