Well, my take on things for what they are worth.
The first quarter of the match the Spirit were on fire and if we had kept 15 men on the field I doubt the Fleet could have gotten back in the game.
I think the Ref actually had a pretty decent match in all aspects other than the penalties.
The forward passes were forward, the knock ons were knock ons (except for one I can think of) and the calls from touch were generally correct.
HOWEVER!!!
Hilgers was admittedly late but it was totally milked by De Bartolo and both players knew it. Certainly a Penalty, hardly a YC.
Browns first YC was borderline at best, he was a part of the tackle. His second was an absolute joke, getting called for a punch with an open hand.
Brownie was in disbelief when he reached the sideline.
The Cummins YC was a total disgrace, Cummins was totally committed to the ball and from a perfect front on replay you can see that not even his eyes drop on contact.
Hennas had a blinder despite being crueled by the Ref all day at the scrum base.
The fact that the Spirit got as close as they did with 13-14 men for most of the match is quite remarkable.
Added to that the Tilse try was VERY suss, not just for probably short but also for his continued wriggling which to me was double movement territory.
In the first half the Spirit's skills were quite remarkable and it didn't really drop off too much into the second half.
The knowledge and resultant game plan from the Fleet from many having already played the ELV's was quite noticeable with some excellent continuity from passing in the tackle.
There was some great signs across the team for Perth but we really have to tighten up on the discipline, and that's not re the YC's, if we are to pull ourselves out of the basement.
Any more and I think I will start to swear