Happiness on getting the first win
Of course, we are but we've been very close in two games. We understand it's a bumpy start and the expectation around and questions been getting pre-game but we could see some good bits we needed to keep doing and needed to encourage to play more with the ball and free-flowing footy we've got within us. Some inclusions certainly helped from a quality perspective.
The manner of the first half performance
We wanted to see that, despite the conditions, there can be a tendency to play competition, kick-chase footy but I thought we played plenty, we had good ball movement in good position, we didn't thread the needle too much and completed at 91 per cent. I thought we scored some nice tries.
Second half performance
I don't think we eased off, I thought it was more stop-start first ten minutes, a 6-1 penalty count in the second half, that's something we need to look closely at. We've been the least penalised team in the comp, in the first half our discipline was excellent then it was 6-1. We need to look closely if there's anything we can do around that, then the last 15 minutes with 12 men and a couple of kick tries, we got stretched a bit in those dying five-ten minutes of the game.
Kruise Lemming's sin bin
I don't know. From the bit I looked it just looked like a good tackle but where we are, if there's any slight doubt he's caught him a bit high then penalty, is it a sin bin? It seems to be in some instances and not others, we just have to cop it and do our best to change our behaviours.
Blake Austin and Jack Walker
Blake is a HIA, he's fine. Harry just in that tackle felt his hamstring a bit so just precautionary, coming back off one we decided to withdraw him, so fingers crossed on that one.
Ash Handley and England
I think that's the type of kid Ash is, rather than kick stones and sulk he'll set his stall out to make his form as good as it is and make the coach change his mind, as he has done in the past. He's always going to pick on form and he's to be applauded for that, the challenge is on our guys to play well enough to get people thinking about them, we haven't really played as well as we can do so that would be key. But it was a great response from Ash tonight.
Jack Walker's improved performance
He needed that after the last couple of week, but this is adding some understanding for people, he's been out for two years and he's had a major, major injury. he didn't train a lot with the team pre-season, we trained with Richie Myler as our fullback because basically Jack wasn't on the field a few weeks until we kicked off, so he's had little time to bed in with our halves, especially from a structural point of view, that's the bit what we can all see. I'm pleased he's responded in the right way because it can dent your confidence a little bit, but the response was good.
