I was looking thru the stats for last year 2016 (season finishes 31 Oct) and for Parramatta to be competitive, really competitive it just requires a small improvement in both attack and defence. Last year we scored 79 trys and conceded 79. While our defence was good our attack was not.
To be competitive enough to make the top 4 we need to improve both of those stats and by a smaller amount than you probably expect. As a minimum we need to score 90 trys (approx.1 try more every 2 games) and concede 70 trys (approx.1 try less every 2.5 games) and of course win the requisite number of games.
Do we have the personnel and talent to be super competitive this year?
Replies
Ummmmmmm - sorry but this year's season is OVER !!!
Can't improve our performance for this year now.
Now for season 2017, stick this year, last year and every other previous years stats where the sun don't shine - all we have to do in 2017 is win about 18 games and who the feck gives a rat's about what the scoreline is.
A win - is a win - is a win, no matter how you try to dissect it.
To paraphrase that quote from what's his name?
You are only as good as the win you have TODAY.
Do we have the personnel and talent to be super competitive this year? = YES!
TCT have reported that the forwards have been practising offloading just before the line etc.
BA is big on defence, so I think we will see improvements in both next year. I don't think there is any need for concern?
I think if you run an eye over the top 25 and then some of the Wenty boys we are in a far better position going into 2017 for back ups in just about every position.
Problem is going to be who is top 25 imo.
We can only use Wenty lads if we do not have a player capable (or semi capable) of covering an injury in a specific position.
Hence you see Manu in the centres, Scott in the centres - and anyone who doesn't fumble the ball consistently in the halves.
At one stage i thought Timmy was going to be in the halves this year.
Hi Glenn, our positive and negative stats have been highlighted by fans and journalists from early in the season. To recap when we lost our competition points we were running 4th in defence and running 12th in attack. When you consider we had Foran, Norman, Peats and Paulo for most of those earlier games it was very poor for us to be running 12th in attack.
I think the new players we signed will only reinforce our defence and we may be able to move into the top 2 or 3 for defence. But I can't see us improving much in attack unless Semi moves from the left to the right and French continues to score a try or more a game.
If Semi stays outside Jennings it will be another wasted season. Semi is a complete waste being positioned outside a non ball playing centre and needs to be positioned outside Taka. We need to lift our 12th attack ranking up to top 4 and a quick way to do this is put Semi outside Taka, or move Semi to fullback. The old adage of saying I don't care you scores the tries is just dumb thinking as we need to generate more tries and by playing Semi outside Taka will give us more tries. As Semi is right handed he will feel more comfortable playing on the right wing and I think Semi will be far more happy outside Taka and have heaps more opportunity to score a try (ie., we don't have to go out and buy elite attacking players, just be smarter where we play our attacking players. Additionally, having Jennings and Semi on different sides of the field gives us a more balanced attack and is less one sided. Semi will also help out Gutherson and Taka in defence as he does clean up a lot of half breaks).