We've seen numerous times this year, our defence under the pump pretty much on the goal line, managing to take possession after a couple sets of brave defending, we take 4-5 hit ups in the middle third and then followed by a hail mary with MM kicking the ball as hard and as farthest he can which usually lands on the opposition 40 m line. This scenario repeats itself until we end up buckling under the pressure as the ball usually ends within our 10m line or the opposition scoring.
What most teams do in similar situations is take 2-3 hitups in the middle, then spread to ball to the backs in order to give the best opportunity for the kicker to find the touch line (even if it's on the half way line) so the whole team and in particular the forwards can have a 30 sec- 45 sec breather. The Storm and Roosters excell as this. They know when to bring the game tempo down, we don't have the faintest...
I just don't get why we don't do this. The question I ask if these are our coach's tactics decided before the game or if it's off the cuff stuff decided by MM? How hard is it to marshall the team to a particular field position within our own half and find touch? I'm pretty sure we're the team that finds touch the least.
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A couple of reasons IMO.
The first being that we haven't has a 'proper' 6 for most of the season to spin the ball wide, take the initiative and spot possible holes or tacklers slow to move up out wide.
The second is Mahoney still has a bit to learn and is a bit green in some areas which is to be expected being so inexperienced. He will learn this in time.
A final reason is, it's OK to just get the big boys to run straight and hard early tackles off our line, but we don't quite have enough big boys with the mongrel to bend the line back. Probably why we are chasing Lodge, Burgess and possibly RCG.
We are not far off.
The more concerning trait for me is when we are actually up around our 40m, we just have one forward taking a hit up instead of several bodies moving up to at least create some confusion for the opposition. Also, it's common place in today's game to have wingers and centres taking the early hit ups and this is fine if the defensive line is still not settled, but so many times we have a centre or similar get thrown the ball and bent back towards our line. Mahoney and the bigger boys need to identify when they need to get in and take the early hit ups. Even Fergo in recent times has been getting lined up early in the count because opposition teams know he will be given the early ball and get numbers up on him. Our play makers need to learn to read the game and not just go with preconceived ideas all the time. They are young and hopefully will learn.
Great input , Grunts!
I do also see this trend and it must be addressed sooner than later. It's a challenge for both coaching staff and players. We seem to be too predictable and one dimentional coming off defensive sets in our 20.
My read on this, though, is because we have such big outside backs, they very often come in and do that grunt work in the middle. Sivo and Ferguson are always active coming out of our own half and Jennings too sometimes. And I don't think this is just limited to kick returns either. SO if our outside backs have come insider we can't really spread it out. I think what we will tend to do even before asking the props to get involve is use the second rowers, a little wider as we get into the count and I think that's worked pretty well.
Generally, my gut feel is that the game in general went from blowing a penalty every set to being very lax on the 10 and I think all teams are finding it pretty difficult to get out of their own 10. I remember the Souths game in particular, even with their big pack we did a bloody good job of keeping them pinned.
Sounds like you might be targeting Mitch a bit there Hillman. :} Just to even it out a bit here are;
Mitchell Moses stats so far this year in the NRL - against all others.
1st. In All Kicks , 1st in Try assists, 2nd in Kick metres
5th. in all Points, 4th in Most Goals, 4th in Line break assists
I think the forwards really need to put their hands up and bend the opposition backwards, and we need to stop gitfting the other team penalties and dropping the ball before we complete our sets. These would help with the field position.
Go Parra
I'm not. Making critical comments on observations. MM is my favorite player and I was praising him yesterday.
He needs to learn to get us out of trouble with his boot.
Doesn't matter how far you kick. Is your kick effective is more important.
I'd like to see Mitch kick early in the count more often, particularly in night games. I see us as a team that really needs field position to be successful. Kicking early in the count more often will just put the opposition on its heels a bit.
When MM has the forward pack he has to play behind, often he will be found kicking from in our own 40, has very little protection from them and is our ONLY kicker in general. He is a very easy target until Mahoney takes more responsibility or Brown returns.
Oold mate reckons you just have to pass and score to win, so i say go with that method of play. Don't worry about kicking, tackling or running - just pass the ball, cos you know you are going to score.
Maybe even to the extreme like in under 6's and 7's - stand next to each other and just pass it to the next one.
It's simple remember.