It wasn't part of the plan for me to play almost 74 minutes straight against the Bulldogs in our opening round win over the Bulldogs.
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But I'd put my hand up to do it again on Friday night against the Warriors if it was needed to help get us win number two.
I don't think Adzy [coach Adam O'Brien] wants us playing that long but you do what you have to do to help the team and DSaf [Daniel Saifiti] and me put our hands up to help carry some of the load out of necessity because of the number of interchanges we were forced to chew up in the first half.
As it was, we hung in there until we had a spell at halftime and I managed to almost get through the whole game after getting a second wind with the trainers checking on me from time to time to make sure I was all good.
All's well that ends well they say but I've got to admit I was looking for a big hole to crawl into early in the game after they scored the first try after only a few minutes immediately after I coughed up the footy.
It was my first hit-up of the game, my first hit-up for 2021 and I was gutted to lose the ball in the tackle down our own end. All the boys were laughing at it later because of how much I was blowing up at myself out there over it but it's not a great feeling knowing your mistake has cost your side a try.
It crossed my mind that we don't have a great record of winning games after conceding the first try either but thankfully, we hit back through DSaf pretty quickly and then really rolled up the sleeves and got the job done for our huge contingent of fans who braved the weather to support us.
It was a real team effort to get the points but I was really happy with how everyone in our pack stood up. Our pack is a really tight-knit group of guys who come to training and get stuck into each other and make each other accountable.
There are no cutting corners and it's all about getting the best out of each and everyone of us. I thought everyone put their hand up and made a great contribution to the performance.
But the challenge is there now for us to do it all again against the Warriors.
I thought their pack was really strong in their win over the Gold Coast Titans and Browny [coach Nathan Brown] looks like he has them playing a real power game with no mistakes and high completions.
It looks like it might be a wet track again too for us so whatever they bring to the table in that regard we are going to have to at least match them and fight fire with fire if we are going to come away from Gosford with a second straight win.
Thankfully, our injury situation wasn't as bad as it looked after the Bulldogs game too which is a real bonus but whoever runs out for us will have the confidence of the rest of the boys.
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