In my previous blog about Michael Jennings & The Importance Of The Centre In Defence a few people were very fast to bring up a few of his attacking deficiencies such as his inability to lay the ball on to his winger. This got me thinking about attack vs defence and which contributes more to the success of a team in the NRL.
From my experience watching the NRL i would argue strongly that defence has a bigger influence on the success of a team. A couple of weak players in defence for any team will go along way into losing a footy game. Even though some players who are great in attack may score or set up a couple of tries a game, they might also let in 3 tries a game which counters all there good work in attack.
A good example of attack vs defence is the Canberra Raiders, probably the best attacking team in the competition. Players such as Joey Leilua and Jarrod Croker are major contributors to the raiders attacking success but are also the Raiders biggest weaknesses in defence. Against an all round solid defensive team such as the Cronulla Sharks the Raiders have no hope, such as there round 2 game against each other this year. I believe that the big games at the end of the year are all about defence, for this I see the Raiders crashing out in the first week of the finals, while the Sharks will progress further into the finals.
This is where Mitchell Moses comes into the picture. I was very surprised when the eels had signed Moses as I thought that he doesn't fit the fold of the type of player Brad Arthur wants in his team. A great attacking player with potential but also one of the weakest defenders in the NRL. From the many games I've seen of Mitchell Moses he has a big weakness when it comes to one-on-one tackles and tries to counter this by rushing up on the defence which then puts a lot of pressure onto the men on his outside. The tigers right edge since Moses has been in the team has been one of the weakest defensive edges in the NRL.
With Moses set to be defending on our right edge which is by far our weakest im a bit worried that we have wasted a lot of our cap on a defensive weakness. Im just hoping we dont have another Chris Sandow on our hands. Can Brad Arthur get Mitchell's defence up to scratch by the time he puts on the Eels jersey? Im not too sure.
Replies
Another quality blog King, i agree defence wins games.
Last season we won most of our games on the back our defence.
Defence is Moses biggest weakness, but if BA thinks he can hide him with a minder like Mau or Scott we can carry him. And it's not like he is Sandow bad in defence, once the Shoulder charge was banned he became worse than useless.
Sandow was the worst defender i have ever seen, and his attitude stunk.
Our pack and structures are much better than the rabble that the Tigers have been.
Moses was never my first choice Widdop would of been but i think we have the side that can make it work.
Agree that he will improve with age and maturity but when you're defending your line you've got to make those one on one tackles no matter who is running at you. If you don't have the trust of your team mates around you to deliver those one on one tackles then your whole edge is going to suffer in defence.
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