As we go 3 and 5 with a Bye / Brisbane / Melbourne / Bunnys and the Sharks coming up, all logic dictates that we could quite easily find ourselves rooted to the bottom of the League table. Our season in shambles, the volcanic pressure to replace the coach mid season will heat up like never before. Last night with only a 72% completion rate, literally a dropped ball every 3rd set. The terrible service that our dummy half provided at times, the goal kicking accuracy of under 8's, the loss of an elite half back, playing the game with 12 men for 20 minutes, a lopsided penalty count against us, a team that looks and feels fatigued. A Manly team in the top 4, full of international players with their goalkicker kicking 5 from 5 all over the place. I have just one question that really bugs me.
How with 10 minutes to go - We have outscored Manly 4 tries to 3.
Let that sink in for a moment. With 10 minutes to go we have scored more tries then them, kick our goals and in a fantasy world we are actually in front 26 -20 with 10 to go.
Im so confused by this team, every inch of me wants to blow the team up, sack the coach, bring in better players. Tear the joint down, sack the football board, sack the retention committee, sack the CEO.And that is probably valid. But the truth is with 10 minutes to go we had outscored a current top 4 team full of internationals.
So where is the truth in this team, are they that hopeless, what will it take to finish games, and ice the moments. Is it a coach change, is it a Captain change, is it a senior player returning to the team, is it an off field culture. Something has to change, but im not sure if its a wholesale change. We outscored Manly 4 tries to 3 and Im dumbfounded that that was the case, it didnt feel like that. Do they need time off over this Bye fortnight with a holiday to relax and re focus, or should they be heading out to Holsworthy Army Base and the Blue mountains with an SAS like mini preseason of hard work and team building skills for a fortnight.
Is it a major change and shakeup that we need, or will some tweaks with players minds and buy in's rectify our season. Im not sure.
I sum up our team a bit like Mika Sivo. The representative figure of our season. He scores a hattrick of tries, but a lot of us want him gone. Now that is confusing in any ones language. But thats our reality. Like the Eels team, how can we do so many things right and still get it so wrong.
Surely its between the Ears of the players ! Isnt it.
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1000% agree. It is the IQ that seems most of our players lack. They don't play smart, they just used their brwans, not their minds.
Look at how Melbourne plays - they are thinking players not tied to their structures as robot when the oppurtunity arises,
Melbourne players improvises and play what is in front of them. They are also well drilled and maintains great spacing between them in defence. They think, they adjust which our players do not do.
Maybe, we need to require players that are to be recruited to take an IQ test and pass a certain level before contracting them.
Yes, Melbourne is the best 'eyes up' team in the competition and have been for years.
Melb players don't accept arm grab missed tackles as they have an honesty session and hold each other and themselves to account every week, not just after a massive loss.
They also have players like Munster, Grant, Welsh and even Tyson Wishart who will never be the biggest, strongest or fastest in their position but they all have footy smarts and compete for 80mins.
Missing out on Welsh when he was available after his ACL injury really hurt us as a club. He would have been great forward leader for us. Fox sports covered it well last night by saying that our forward pack lack that player who does the dirty stuff other players don't want to do. They used Welsh as an example and also Dolphins Max Plath but I think Reuben Cotter is best example. Smallest front rower in the game but I would love a player like him in our pack. Ray Stone was that player for us, lacking size but had a never give up attitude but didn't get enough game time as BA prefers big strong players to chase the collision rather then picking players with heart and skill who will never give up.
It shows in our backline as well while other clubs have small pocket rockets who carve up fatigued defences while we have big over sized team who get fatigued. Most sides feel their team can still win if they have couple minutes left and down by 2-4points, but as a parra fan we don't have the speed or fitness required to win a game in dying minutes.
It's called the wonderlic test in the NFL and they do that sought of test as a given in the recruitment process.Down this part of the world they value talent over that more so.
Melbourne are and have been a robotic team over the years even Bellamy mentions his key to his coaching is repetition so things become automatic.What your seeing from Melbourne now is basically the game trend now the rucks been sped up little men are more prominent.
We are / have been in recent years a good footy team due to:
1 - gutherson being a winner
2 - Moses' long kicking game
3 - elite middles
Take one of those three things out and we immediately become a wooden spoon playoff side because for whatever reason this club is just mentally weak. How that gets reversed or fixed is beyond me and it seems beyond anyone. We are basically wasting our time even contemplating the possibility we could be successful. Nothing I have seen since my birth and subequent upbringing as a Parra fan could convince me otherwise. I'm almost tempted not to get my kids into footy to avoid their eventual future mental anguish haha.
Lack of focus, we had a lot of errors in that game that came from lack of focus. Manly are not a top 4 team. Top 8 yes. They did try tonight, BA got them up reletively well. I did hear that Mark Levy mentioned when he interviewed him BA said if they lost that could be his job. So not sure what to take from that. It was brought up he named Sanders to save his job, a lot to put on a 19 year old but Sanders did really well.
Still a few miss haps, Lane looks over it, Hands miss on Saab was ridiculous. Yeah Turbo was offside but they were gaining momentum too before that. 8-0 penalties in 2nd half was poor but mixture of focus and referee decisions being a bit how you going. Defensively in stats we were much better than Manly but 9 line-breaks in second half is not good enough.
It is a weird feeling as they tried and do not want to go at BA he got them up and they showed something for him but could it of been them doing it for themselves? Manly not being great either? I don't know, a new voice i feel is still needed. BA seems to be coming to terms with it all.
Hands miss on Saab, yes a bad error, but the big man standing next to him who didn't raise an arm was Lane. Second try short ball from Brown, guess who missed the runner coming through, without again even lifting an arm. You bet Lane again. Lane lost us that game, Sivo just put the nail in the coffin.
Lane plays with what appears zero hunger. He is one of the most experienced and should be leading by example. Maybe the way he is leading is giving others a get out of jail card. He and Sivo need to be dropped asap. I'd rather someone with less skill but more heart.
May also explain why our left edge is always weak.
On these two mistakes alone, i don't know how he looks at his team mates in the eyes, during video session. Surely he has to be dropped on that alone.
Lane doesn't want to be there
he needs to go off do his psychology and leave us the fuck alone
Please rewatch the video of those tries. It is shocking to me. If my 10year old son did that he would be ripped into by his coach. Just screamed, lack of presence.
He doesn't touch anyone anymore
we should call him teflane
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