Meli was great all round tonight I thought. Had he played like that in previous Grand Finals we'd probably be licking our wounds about a won 3 lost 2 run.

I agree, he played quite well. He did get caught out in defense down that side a bit though, for gleeson's first try and tomkins' try he missed tackles. However, no mistakes from him and a definate improvement from the past couple of years.

Yep, he did well defending those two tries he let in. they made up for the one he scored. Same old, same old for mine. Except he caught two balls.

Along with the outside backs, there is a distinct lack of pace / power in the backrow (unless Roby starts at 13 and most of his work is up the middle - he runs in harder than most props do).

You have to go back to Scully of pre 2006 really before our back rowers had the speed and power and the ability to break tackles. Wilkin and Flannery made 28 and 22 "tackle busts" this season, Joel Tomkins made 64. Wilkin and Flannery made 9 and 11 clean breaks respectively, all season. Thats one break every 2 or 3 games! In 2004 Scully made 25 clean breaks - more than those 2 put together. I wish we could get Dick Huddarts stats!

Unfair comparison really though seeing as sculthorpe is one of the best players to ever put a shirt on!

Speed did not have a great deal to do with our performance in the Grand Final. We just weren't organised in defence or attack. Hopefully our new coach can sort that out.

Quite so. But the comparison with Tomkins is extremely valid. I put Scully in there as an indicator as to what can be achieved.

I did acknowledge this in my opening post....but...think of the very few opportunities our wide men had, ball in hand. If I remember right, Meli had some space in the 1st half were he could have done much better, and Foster had a few on the other. Admittedly, they were only half chances. If they had some pace, they'd have got us much further up that pitch or created a chance for a supporting player to run on to. What happened though, Meli got quickly closed down, tried to go inside & tackled easily-chance gone. Foster, tried to kick past the covering defence. Which is creative play to be fair but he didn't have the speed to chase the ball, despite the defence having to turn.

I'm not slagging them off in terms of quality, but in terms of pace our backline doesn't trouble the opposition like we used too. This might sound a bit daft...but wingers (and centres) are supposed to be very fast! As usual, there seems to be a lack of respect for the wing position in this country. We throw players who are centres, stand off's, scrum halfs etc in the Youth team on the wing in the 1st team???!!! ie. There's a lad who plays stand off in the youth team, they all harp on about him being next big thing. So what do we do, we promote them to the 1st team & throw them on the bloody wing. If they're not good enough to trust them to play in the same position as they do in the youth team then don't pick them!! The winger position is a specialist position & should be treated as such.

Sorry for ranting, but just to add...what if you're signed from an amateur club & you play on the wing. And you watch the lads playing in the halfs being promoted to the 1st team to play in your specialist position. You'd be gutted. No wonder the Aussies always smash us in the backs.

I think he defense was utter shocking on our left along with lomax. They was all over the place and wigan knew it.

He's good with ball ball but the fact he can't catch when in the wing and can't defend in the centre means he is always going to be a target for other teams.

We should get shut, his weakness by far out weigh his positives.

Speed was a massive factor in losing the game last night i thought. We had players giving Wigan the outside and then not being able to get across the cover it, due to not being fast enough. Also, we make breaks and in the past we'd have Sullivan, Newlove, Albert, Lyon etc. flying up in support, but now we just can't finish it off when we make a break. We lack pace, in the outside backs especially, and it needs sorting, but it has done for the last few years.

I agree but next year we will have shenton and prob wheeler in the centre which is more pace than gidley and meli at the moment.

Also, we will have kyle and pryce back and they ain't slow either.

Get shut of both meli and gardner and we will be alot better outwide.

Can Wheeler, Eastmond and Lomax keep fit though? There useless if they can't.

Pryce and Eastmond inject pace into the halfbacks, no doubt about it, but out wide at the minute we have nothing, and i think its harsh to blame Meli for yesterday, defensively they ripped his side apart but Lomax was awful in defence IMO. Meli has had a very good season.

Get a motorbike.