This week, every NRL coach will be pouring over videos of the Eels win against St George and asking themselves, “shit, what am I going to do about this?”.
Every few years, a coach manages to re-define how the game is played, and with it often comes a Premiership. Craig Bellamy’s obsession with winning the ruck at Melbourne brought a Premiership and changed the game, Ricky Stuart did likewise with the Roosters when he introduced the gang tackle, and Wayne Bennett pulled off a miracle at St George winning the Premiership off the back of perfecting the sweep play, which has been a staple of Rugby League attack every since.
I can’t help but think (wish) that Brad Arthur just may have done likewise with his shift away from the left-hand, right-hand structure that has dominated Rugby League for the last decade.
This is something that Parramatta has been doing since last year. Corey Norman and Kieran Foran (and then Clint Gutherson) would often make last-minute switches to the opposite side to try and stack numbers, and we saw on a number of occasions last year Semi Radradra leaving one flank to link up with the outside backs on the other flanks.
Somehow amidst all the Eels controversies and injuries, suffered last year, the success of this style of play seems to have slipped through to the keeper. I’ll say mostly, because I’ve noticed the Roosters halves playing in a similar fashion, albeit not as dramatically.
You don’t have to be Einstein to see why it works. When players are getting back in position, they don’t always have great visibility as to what the attack is doing or the ability to adjust to late shifts.
It’s far easier for the attacking side to change direction and make dramatic shifts across the park, then it is for the defence, which basically operates in a lateral, line structure. Whereas, an attacking player can use sprints to re-position themselves, defenders rely mostly on lateral shuffling. As soon as defenders get caught out of position and they have to accelerate to close a gap, they become vulnerable to shifts in direction.
Corey Norman is, of course, key to this. He’s generally the one that is deciding which way the attack is going to go, and he’ll flip late, and the rest of the team have now learnt to respond. When Norman moves he takes players with him and so the numbers don’t change by one, as has been the case when a fullback comes around the back in a sweep play. Quite often that can mean two even three players going from one side of the ruck to the other, and as had been shown already, that’s really difficult to defend against. This is something that Norman has always looked to do, but now the team has really been shaped around this ability.
What’s more, with this style of play, Clint Gutherson is a perfect foil. Because we so commonly stack both halves on the same side, Gutherson tends to play more like a fullback than he does a traditional half hitting the ball at pace as a second receiver.
And then you add Bevan French into that equation, who will bob up at the end of a play either as a third receiver or running an angle if needed. His experience (and success) on the wing means he’s incredibly adept at working in very narrow corridors, as was demonstrated by his try on the weekend. That’s very different to say Darius Boyd, where Brisbane’s sweep plays are all about stretching out the defence to allow Boyd to make use of space. French has speed, footwork and playmaking skills that allow him to create carnage despite having little space available to him. The fact that he has big, powerful outside backs running angles off him, makes for an electric flank attack.
Add to that, Parramatta’s aggressive and highly mobile forward pack, and you really do complete the equation. The best way to stop Parramatta is going to be to slow down their ruck, because that will allow you to respond better to any changes in their attacking pattern. The Parramatta forwards don’t necessarily need to bend the line back, but they do need quick play-the-balls to allow the side to play at a high-tempo.
As I’ve said earlier, I don’t think this is a secret any more. We’ve all seen the press that Parramatta has gained this week, and the positive accolades that commentators are handing out. However, I can’t see any team being able to copy what Parramatta is doing. As I’ve said this isn’t new to Parramatta, it’s what they have been working on for the past two seasons, and we’ve seen already this year that they have taken it to a new level. No team will be able to emulate it in-season. What’s more, we’ve got a side that has been built to play this way.
This is going to be a really exciting season for Eels fans - the way we’re playing is incredibly dynamic and a joy to watch. And if it does prove to be a shift in the way our game is played, it will be for the betterment of the entire code.
Replies
Good read as usual. Although, I think the Roosters are probably playing an equal, if not better style of footy than us at the moment. I think a few teams can emulate this style of play though - anyone who has forwards that can ball play (Matagi, Brown, Edwards, Manu do this for us) could try to mimick the style. What we are doing well is using our forwards as ball players near the line as 1st receivers - Semi's 2nd half try was Pritchard > Brown > Norman > Semi. The Dogs and Sharks have a times tried and failed to do this effectively as their halves didn't get enough quality ball. For us it works well because it isn't our standard play but it's hardly a trick either so gives us good variety.
One thing I dislike and have done so since last year is our sweeping plays - we keep using centres as decoys instead of the second rower as Bennett introduced. It may work at times but it's trying to get so wide on the field that it's hard not to run out of room as Flash did for us all year in 2016. I'd still like to see us create the traditional 3 vs 2 with French on the fly, rather than trying to get French outside the opponents centre - which opposition coaches will learn to defend because there is less space. Having said that, the plays where French is throwing dummies on the inside to Jennings or Semi or Manu cutting back on an 'X' or 'switch' line are great because they utilise his speed as the defence has to stop in case the ball gets given to one of the guys steaming onto the ball - that's how he scored on the weekend. These plays are much better IMO than those where we are really just trying to get outside the opponent.
Wouldn't mind seeing a few early kicks by French to Semi as he did in the trial game, or for Hoffman. Think it would give us tremendous variety and really keep the defence guessing. Also prevents them flying in to shut the sweeping plays down.
Interested to see our ability to score on Friday given the wet weather forecast for the game. That's where we see what are our other options are and how well we can adapt to the conditions (in many ways, wet weather sort of mimics a good defence because you can't get around them and have to go through them using more direct plays instead).
I'm already tipping a Roosters vs Eels grand final. They are going to be forced to play a little bit differently to us because Michael Gordon isn't a playmaking fullback, so they'll have to play a lot more off the shoulder of their halves. They'll continue to have multiple decoys coming off their halves, which is basically how they've played since they won the grand final. Teams have gotten pretty good at defending that, but they've added a bit of variety into it this year. I still think Gordon is a massive limitation though and it seems MItchell has found his home in the centres.
Using forwards in the middle still achieves the Eels objective which is to get our wingers into try-scoring opportunities. Re: YOur point about running out of room - and this was my point all the way through last year, that's why you have to have a player like Bevan instead of Gordon orchestrating play on the edge. Flash is flat out running a standard sweep, never mind a complicated end to a play in 10 metre corridor. French can do that. I don't think it's going to be as easy to defend as you suggest because at anyone time you've got three guys - Jennings, Semi and French who are a pretty good chance to score if you give them a one-on-one opportunity. Don't worry those guys will be running all kinds of angles...
We actually do score a lot of tries of kicks. I'm sure teams will do as you say and they'll push up hard from the outside, and that's when those kicks in behind are going to really come into play. Saints didn't defend like that, so don't think we needed to go that route yet.
I fully agree that the roosters are probably more effective at this than us at the moment. Nearly every try they have scored has gone through Pearce's hands onto a fast running Keary. Thurston and Morgan have also been doing this for a few years and I even noticed the knights doing it with Hodkinson linking up with Lamb quite effectively.
For this to work, the team needs a dominant half who controls everything, Norman, Thurston, Pearce, Hodkinson are all very dominant halves who all have a running 5/8 outside them. The only downside to this is you take the dominant half out and their half partner will generally struggle. Keary was terrible at the Rabbitohs last year because he was expected to take too much control. Gutherson doesn't have enough experience yet nor does lamb. You take any of those dominant halves out and the whole team will crumble. It is a risk versus reward strategy.
We've conceded 3 tries on our own goal line in 2 games - 1 of which came when the game as well and truly over (Blake Green for Manly). Apart from that, 1 barge over by Vaughan and a decent set play by Manly to get Kelly over. The other 2 tries came from 30m out or more.
I agree George; round 10 is the time to check ladder and injury toll etc.
We can only beat who we play, and hope we stand up well against the heavyweights; each game is tough but some teams do not relent for entire 80.
We have looked ok, but i hope our defence is solid.
Fair point there Phil - although until I see French or one of our wings score when we use that block shape with Jennings/Taka as a decoy I won't really rate the play, hopefully I'm proved wrong. We haven't scored of it yet this season and hardly did so last year either even though aforementioned Flash was a big issue there. Specifically, where Norman gets it going cross field > dummies an inside ball to Manu, then has Jennings hitting a short hole with the fullback out the back, we don't create that 2 vs 1 near often enough IMO. Probably need to hit Jennings on the short hole much more frequently - we scored a good try of it last year against Canberra at Pirtek, Jennings was nearly untouched because opponents just slide off and cover the shift.
Brad Arthur comes from the Craig Bellamy style of thinking. Get the best out of your players and always keep them on their toes with new techniques, new plays, new ways to play.
Get them fine-tuned to that style and the result will come as we're seeing. And it'll be some time before the clubs adjust to it because it's such a new concept in the NRL.
Arthur's the best coach this club has ever had and his style of play and the approach to the game and his players are the reasons why.
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