Two tough games for sure.

Cows players backing up from origin is an advantage, beating the Cows would help us maintain momentum for the Broncos.

IMO if we complete high, defend well and attack well we have the edge. Both redneck sides great in attack and suspect in defence. 

We could get 2 wins, 2 losses or split them 1 and 1.

Cows game is the biggest of the season so far IMO, a win means that we are right in the mix.

BIIIIIIG DAY!!!...

Hayes making his debut - go Harry.

Well the Tits have laid down and taken it up the klakker. It is a mut win to stay in 5th because th sheagles now have a better differential than us.

I reckon the Sheagles winning is a good thing for our boys to shake off any complacency. Admittedly we are coming off the bye and this year we've been clunky each time we've returned from a rest. Now it's a must win as you say ODF. Come on boys,  fire up.

Seeing so many good things... Good things good sides do...
It's good fun...

Here we go, Welcome to the Gerard Sutton Show. Doing everything to bring Cowboys back into the game, 3 consecutive penalties and a sin bin.

We need another goal kicker. Sexton? anyone else?

Yep. let down once again by poor goalkicking

Hayward no try was the turning point.

We played well,  just the odd error here and there and goal kicking cost us.

Try all day...
Disappointing result ..

The Cows played better than I expected. 

The SOO players didn't fade.

Curran and Hughes great for us.

Tough game again next week. 

Something has to give. Sutton's bias against us is obvious. Why the fuck doesn't the club do something about it?
The boys fought hard but we need to land the conversions and limit errors.  

That loss kills our whole season. Fuck Sutton 

Hayward's try was legit any day of the week. Bunker is getting worse by the week.

50-50 perhaps but IMO just enough contact on the ball for a try.

Only saw the last 20odd minutes basically from the Hayward no try...

Game was there for the taking but we just dont have the confidence and swagger to make the play that counts. 

The pass from Dearden was forward all the way aa Pardue overan him but they mever seem to call those back....

Its a painful loss which i really hope doesnt break our back. Both our points and F/A are vulnerable to us dropping out of the 8 quick smart. 

This makes next weeks game all the important to win

We are still in the 8, need to try to find a way to beat the Broncos.

Can't afford to lose to the Raiders at Belmore. 

Every week is critical, we are still in in.

I was happy with how we played except for a few of the unforced errors.

Yep.
I still have more faith in us defending an error than us scoring points when we need to.

And that is what defines a top team. The ability to take advantage of field position or a half break and turn it into points.

There was sufficient time even after they scored for us to snatch it but we just couldnt come home strong. Someone should tell our guys that the hail mary plays with 1min to go is statistically the worst time to throw the ball around. 

Do it with 4 or 5mins to go. 

To me it looks like our F/A is better than most teams below us.

To be sure of making the 8 we need 5 more wins.

Top 4 is almost gone, we need 6 or more wins, or results to go our way.

The Cows defended a lot better than I expected. 

We seemed to attack OK, things just happened to break our momentum,  or a Cows player made a good tackle. 

I am hoping that the Broncos defence is a bad as I think it is.

Aside from anything else, Sutton is married to his whistle, that slows down the game and makes it more of a lottery.

Its still better but with each average loss of 10 points and average win by others by 10, it can get swallowed up. 

I would really like us to play a home final more than anything at Accor. I think its important for our fans to have an opportunity to attend a finals game. 

If Sharks or Manly or Dragons get a home finals spot, it means only few fans will be able to attend. If its interstate teams like Fins, Broncos, Cows etc it will be near impossible. Knights isnt bad but their fans will swallow up 70% of the tickets as they normally do.

Need to win enough games to make 5th-6th.

We had the game at half-time, the run of penalties and the sin binning at the start of the second half meant that we needed to win it twice.

We did that and the Hayward try would have sealed it.

Perhaps we shouldn't have taken the last penalty goal.

Kicks and Critter coped a knock, Preston just back from a long lay-off. We have some improvement in attack,  with halves played well.

Last Cows try us why the Broncos game will be dangerous,  a top class player can come up with a try when their team needs one.

The only improvement can come from fewer errors, better combinations in attack and Fox and King returning. 

Team selections are right,  the players are trying hard, our kicking game and defence is much improved, 

3 trys off kicks, good to have those weapons. 

Fins game is critical for a 5th-6th finish.

Not sure why Patolo only played limited minutes. 

We are still lacking size in the forwards,  sometimes a big body running hard close to the try line is all it takes.

I will be annoyed if TPJ plays great for the Fins against us. The guy rarely put in a shift for us.

We need Fox back asap. He gives us an extra try or two. When Burton made that clean break and nobody was near him it summed up our season. Just no support. We need a bit more class. 

Team has played well above its ability.

We have had just enough injuries to break up our flow. We need a run of games with no new significant injuries.

We are just lacking a bit of class and finishing in attack and that might be Fox.

I can't remember the last time Fox played 5 games in a row for us. I can remember him out for more than 5 games at least twice. Perhaps he has only played 30% of games in the last 2 seasons?

It matters for us as we don't have enough class players or enough big forwards.  We need all of the cutting edge that we can get.

Cirro's presser summed up another reason why we lost, no sin bin for kneeing Hayward in the head. Hayward needs some acting lessons even if that is risking a HIA. 

In another game the Hayward incident might have been an 8 point try and 10 in the bin. Probably try 75% of games, 10 in the bin 99% of games.

Also no disruptor when Wilson dropped the ball. NRL always has a new rule which is enforced zealously right up to the time when it mysteriously disappears without notice. 

I said at the start of the year if we finish 10th or higher I would be happy and surprised. Now if we miss the finals I would be devastated. 

We have Toups and  big Tom Amone signed for next season.

We need one more big body perhaps one of the Saifiti bothers who is unwanted by Newcastle, but possibly overpriced. 

Not sure why Patolo only played 8 minutes I hope that he isn't injured, 

Hayes showed that he can handle the middle. 

Curran was massive but ran out of petrol at the back end of the game, Critter also impacted by SOO. 

Defence was excellent especially considering that we didn't have King and Salmon, 

I hope that we stick with the same team next week and gives Hayes and Patolo more time in the middle.  Attack looked sharp at the start of the game.  But the end players didn't have the energy and we became a bit disorganised. 

I still think that we can do something this season,  we deserve to make the 8.

Starting next season with the current spine and a bit more depth in the forwards should be a receipe for doing even better,  hopefully finishing top 4.

I would also like to add one more good centre. That way we can be stronger without Critter. 

I had similar predictions.
As with most sports, you revise your goals through the season and its normal for both fans and team to feel underwhelmed if we were not to make finals from here. 

Not sure how the run home is for us and the competing teams around us, but im sure there's going to be some huge "4 point" gamea in there.

Need to win those

Just about every game, but especially the next 2 weeks.

Dragons and Warriors might be out of the mix, but might still be motivated to revenge an earlier loss or end our season.

I just hope that there are no more injuries.

Beating the Broncos would definitely take some pressure off us.

For the Cows game we were the best aide except for 3 key moments.  The easy try we gifted them at the start and the trys Preston and Hayward didn't score. Though Hayward probably scored. 

Against the Broncos we need to take all of our chances and not gift them easy points. Hopefully the ref puts the whistle down his sock. Sutton always wants to be the star attraction.  It says plenty wnen both coaches didn't like the way the game was reffed. 

Broncos v Knights gives me some reasons for optimism. 

Best went off after 9 minutes,  Knights had to replace him with a forward. 

Broncos 14 errors, 317 tackles, 43 missed, 30 ineffective. 

Dogs v Cows 8 errors, 338 tackles, 33 missed, 12 ineffective. 

I think that our game was higher quality. 

While Reynolds has a good kicking game,  the Cows kicking was pretty good.  Seems like we definitely played in a higher quality game.

The Broncos do play better at their home ground, limiting the errors, penalties and 6-agains is the key to our chances.