Hardaker wouldn't have made any difference to that game. He wouldn't start fullback if Myler plays there, so those mistakes would still have happened. The tries from near the line were mostly due to awful one on one technique and effort by other players, mainly forwards. Letting Wire get that close to the line set after set was due to to our passive defence not even slowing them down, let alone stopping them making big yards.
I do think the centre selection was wrong. Handley's played there before and just looks like a winger playing centre. Fusitu'a is a winger, and is the best we have at returning kicks so moving him there doesn't make much sense either. If he didn't trust Olpherts/Roberts e should have put Martin in one spot, as he may not be that quick but he's solid.
Its strange to have a got at our signings as below par. Lisone was very poor to start with, but he's an NRL player, not a Championship one and will hopefully come good. Olpherts was one of our best along with Sangare, and holding Roberts in any way responsible for that shower of a performance is nonsense. No, the players who let us down were in the main the same ones we had last year.
The whole display lacked intensity, as with the preseason. Pick that up, especially line speed in defence and working hard and we'll look a lot better.
