It has been an interesting first week for us in lock down up here on the Sunshine Coast made more challenging by the way we performed against the Melbourne Storm last weekend.
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I'm not going to lie, all the boys were a little rattled and deflated after the game by the way we played, as we should be. It wasn't anywhere near up to scratch.
We spoke ad nauseam in the build up to the game about not giving the Storm anything. No cheap possession, no repeat sets, no freebies, nothing.
You just can't afford to give sides like Melbourne a leg up and allow them to comfortably get into their groove because as they have repeatedly shown, they can destroy you.
I thought our first defensive set was really solid but then came some errors which they scored a pretty simple try off the back of and all our old bad habits resurfaced again.
Instead of rising to the challenge and fighting back, we went into our shell and it was almost like 'here we go again'.
But dwelling on a performance like that won't help us beat the Sydney Roosters on Friday night. Adz [coach Adam O'Brien] has put everyone on notice and it's now up to us to respond.
The Roosters have had the wood on us for a while and embarrassed us at home earlier in the season. They have plenty of strike in players like James Tedesco, Joey Manu and young Sam Walker at halfback and I have all the respect in the world for Jared Waerea-Hargreaves up front.
They have copped some injuries but are still a quality side. All of our games from here on in are crucial but a win over the Roosters would be massive for us.
As for living up here in the bubble at Twin Waters with three other NRL clubs including the Roosters - it's been interesting to say the least. There has been a lot of planning involved to get things to operate smoothly with a lot of co-operation between the clubs.
There is really only one training field so we have to book in to avoid a clash which means you might not train when you really want to. We have to book to use the pool area and for massages and the like.
Each club has its own big meeting room where we do our video sessions but it's also where we have breakfast, lunch and dinner. All the meals are brought in but we are not allowed in there with hotel staff.
We each have our own rooms and we have to make our beds, change our sheets and do our own washing. One thing we do have is plenty of time to kill in and around training and team meetings.
Most of that time is spent in our rooms, playing cards or ping pong or just hanging out with each other. We can't complain because we are still playing footy which is what it's all about.
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