I am not going to talk about our defence or BA sacking in this blog. The start of this year and especially last year we loved to play of second phase footy. Last night, there were plenty of instances where players could of offloaded such W Blake or Lane but no one was ready in support. Gutho used to be so good at being a support player but that has now vanished. Gutho is too focused on play making that he is not around the ball that much anymore waiting for offloads which was his biggest strength. The best fullbacks in the game are ready in support but then run to their position for set plays. This also helps in making your shape less predictable as players get into position late but with enough time to execute the play effectively. Too regularly Gutho is just set into position a play before the spread which makes it so easy for the defence to read. During the game there were a couple times sivo could of supported Blake but as coming the norm in 2021, sivo was lazy and day dreaming. This lack of cohesion could be a factor of ba losing the dressing room, lack of effort, etc
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There is no support play. The players are constantly out of position and the game plan has become all one out running.
It's either one out running from the back end or going sideways in the opp red zone. But according to BA we are threatening teams in attack because we throw many passes to each other 😂. Honestly when he said that, I wondered how he is an nrl coach.
He might have been a really good nrl coach if it was 1998 as his game plan suited the time.
He is way out of touch with what is required today in the nrl especially with the 6 again rule
Agree EE. Sivo became so lazy as soon as he signed his 3 year contract. I suspect that he avoids heavy contacts now because he is afraid of getting injured that might jeopardise his playing career. But it might bite him if this is his thinking since no one will want a lazy player.
So as Moses, I think he do not want to straighen his attack and runthru the line to avoid getting hit. Watching now Warriors half back Sullivan and he he keeps on going to the line thus creating space for his players.
I also agree EE that no players seems to be running in support. They just watched when someone go theu the line and seems to wait for the next play.
Hope things will change sooner than later.
James Graham?
Maybe that's what he said.
Oh I didn't see it. We are moving away with what worked
You make some valid points.
we do lots of offloads which get shut down very easily..Paulo,s biggest asset for us is simply not exploited. Moses and Brown are indecisive .I am not blaming them There supports don,t gel with them, poor timing, and poor structures..Our outside backs rarely have open space and rarely can make a 10-metre run before being shut down. Our players are inhibited from playing to their potential..Gould summed us up quite easily. We play as individuals not as a team. Importing a star center will not improve us that much as the system we have will bring him down .to our individual style of play.On the rare occasions we get it right we look very good and think WTF . where did that come from?
Good question Coryn. I think the best game we played was against the Storm. We had a lot of good things happening.Our intensity, our discipline was great. We started the season with a variety of good solid patterns coming out from dummy half. Our game was quicker. our defense was solid. Points were difficult to score against us. We never looked like having 30 or 40 points scored against us I think BA looks at that game as his best and that is probably where his "front-loading " mantra is coming from. We seemed to gradually go backwards from that game.Things also went sour with some silly mistakes Fergo had which sent our disciplines backwards. I would be interested in how some of our players responded to the question you raised mate. I think it is abit like a maze you are trying to navigate to get out. It starts off with a bit of fun and gradually frustrations and anger make you start to panic as you can find no way out.You then stop thinking as you have tried everything and you still can,t find your way out. Mentally and physically you fatigue and give up.I think that is where we are at. I would not be surprised to see last week's game repeat itself over the coming weeks.I think BA is lost himself. He has an impression in his mind what worked against the Storm and wants to replicate that but a lot of the variables have changed. Poppa mentioned that he doesn,t believe BA is very smart.. Stubbornness and resistence to change is usually associated with a lack of being able to see other options. I think JA had a good first game and that blinded BA.{As a father I can understand that}. I suspect him persuing with JA may have caused some resistance from some team members. Bad Karma..Do you have any observations as to why you think things have changed is such a big way.I usually don,t like to be critical of people on a big downer.If they have some insight into considering they may need to listen,to others, question themselves with and doubt there strategy I think that is a good thing. Sadly I don,t think BA is doing that.