from nrl .com
Make what you want of the old lies, damned lies and statistics adage, but NRL.com Sta ots has crunched the numbers to pin-point the area each team must fix in 2018. For the Parramatta Eels, their post-contact metres are a cause for concern.
Parramatta's post-contact metres were one of the few areas they fell down statistically in the 2017 Telstra Premiership, with their 471 metres per game after first meeting the defence better than only the lowly Newcastle Knights and Gold Coast Titans.
In a chicken or egg scenario, the Eels also had the slowest attacking play-the-ball speed in the NRL – averaging 3.66 seconds and ranking 16th for getting a roll on when one or two opposition tacklers were involved.
In defence though, Parramatta did concede the second-fewest post-contact metres in 2017 at 468 metres a game.
Replies
This reflects our biggest weakness
would love to see TRex get his motor back as a middle forward
he was devastating when he debuted for us on the wing
still remember the Tigers game where half of the tigers pack injured themselves trying to tackle him
Willie, seems to me that the eels players are either too slow in their efforts to get up, except Mannah who is a player I would like to see the stats being broken up across the paddock, or the way the play the ball area is not or has not been properly refereed.
This season the play the ball aspect is to be worked over by the refs and the players have to play the ball properly, this is something I agree with IF its not going to be another 4 week thing and then drop back as its too hard to keep going.
The other aspect that has to be included in the play the ball is the way certain teams get away with murder, one in particular has a captain who always or mostly has his hands on the shoulder of the player playing the ball from his marker position, often the play the ball player is off balance but its a direct way to have the ball come out in a certain direction as that is where the defence has been set.
The marker aspect in the ruck is a dead set joke, and if it was penalised as it should be, the play the ball could be also faster and free the game up.
Speed of play the ball depends on the ref, you can't get up and play the ball if the those idiots running the game that night don't allow you to get up. But I'd rather focus on making that first tackle stick and stop the player than dragging the opposing forwards for 15 meters. It would be interesting how many meters were gained by the forwards at the back end of the half. You might find that we rack up 200 odd meters in the first 15 minutes of each half but after that the forwards are shagged and see the ground as a rest spot. Lets have the best defence first and let the brilliant crop of backs we have do what they are paid to do.
That's the whole point, the ruck area and play the balls are all part and parcel of the one thing, its not just one facet of the play, if the attacking player struggles forward then the ref keeps the pea silent, but in order to conserve his energy the players should be coached to know when to stop and play the ball, the ref also has to call held when there is no way the attacking player can really advance his play.
Thus the 3 phase is 1: deemed to be tackled/held. 2 defenders get off the play the ball player, 3: actual play the ball.
The way I see it the game is pushed on one side by the NRL et al, wanting to speed the game up, but on the other side of the coin is that the teams and the way they are coached devise tactics to slow the game down without incurring penalties. Wrestling in tackles saps more energy than surrendering, some players have the ability to do it and not lose as much energy, and are able to follow the flow much better than others.
Noone believed me. Saying "our forwards got us into the top 4 etc"
Maybe that is the reason why BA wanted more size in the forwards. More size generally means more punch in attack and more post metres after first impact. Is having a small pack a coincidence or not, I think so?
The small pack is the reason we were so good at stopping the opposition's post-contact metres. We were the best team in the NRL at getting numbers into the tackle. Because we have so many hard workers.
But we didn't win the GF did we? We need to go to the next level. Being stagnant would not have helped! More size and new players were needed.
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