Blue and Gold Head Coach Brad Arthur was pleased with his side’s 34-16 victory over the St. George Illawarra Dragons at WIN Stadium tonight, but knows there are still areas the Blue & Gold needs to improve on moving forward.
Arthur was critical of some of the tries let in during the Round Two clash.
“I thought we started alright, our energy was good and our game management really improved at this Club over the last couple of years,” Arthur said.
“I thought that our halves, off the back of what our forwards had given us, controlled the game and gave us good field position.”
“A couple of the tries were soft and not good enough and we need to address it.” He added.
Arthur had praise for his forwards that allowed the developing combination of Corey Norman and Clint Gutherson to manage the game.
“He is growing, and still hasn’t hit his straps but continues to gain match fitness,” Arthur said of Norman.
“I think on the back of what our forwards provided for him, he is getting the ball in good situations but is just showing a real level of patience and maturity with his options. He sticks to the plan really well.”
“I thought especially in the first half when he played fast, and really went at them, he looked dangerous over time but he will get better and better at that with conditioning.” Arthur added.
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However this was just game two into a new formed spine of Bevan French, Gutherson, Norman and Kaysa Pritchard.
“The combination got better and we are game two into a developing spine with Kaysa there and Bevvy out the back. But we still have a fair bit of work to do there,” Arthur said.
“He [French] is a talent, and we managed him okay last year. We didn’t throw him straight in, we played him on the wing to get a bit of confidence, Flash was good for him and helped him out and his teammates have been really good for him.”
“The thing with Bevan is he is a good level headed kid and he wants to get better and he will give us every opportunity. If the spine doesn’t work, it’s not their fault, it will be mine.” He added.
And with winger Semi Radradra crossing for four tries, his first four try haul in his career, Arthur said the winger had the licence to roam the field and benefit from the platform and hard work the rest of the team laid.
“Semi turned up in all the right areas and benefited from a lot of hard work from the rest of the team,” Arthur said.
“Semi has a licence to go and get the footy. He is one of our strikes, so we don’t want to pigeon hole him to only playing one side of the field. Its very hard to plan defensively against him when he is doing things like that.”
“He likes being around his team mates, and his teammates have been fantastic for him. He has a bit of clarity around him at the moment, and we like to see a happy Bula.” Arthur added.
