So I set myself a task as to what I would do, if I was given the playing talent that Parramatta will assemble next year to come up with a structure purely based on the talents that we have available to us. And to not be afraid to head out to left-field if need be.
Ladies and gentleman, I present to you:
1. Hopoate 7. Paulo 6. Norman 9. Kelly/Sandow 13. Hayne
There are a few key elements to this system. The first is re-imagining the half-back role a little. Now traditionally the half-back is a zippy player, who can kick. Their job is to keep the inside defence honest, steer around the forward and generally to kick.
With Joseph Paulo in that position, I'm instead relying on him playing a lot of short-balls to hard-running forwards. I think Paulo has the best pass in the Parramatta roster, and I think he'd do a great job of first-receiver. However key to this plan is returning the fullback position to a traditional fullback role with a support-oriented speedster, who plays a lot through the middle. With this position restored (and its one that I see being increasingly lost to the modern-game and certainly at Parramatta) I'm looking for my forwards to take more risks with offloads looking for their trailing fullback. I've put Hopoate there, but I think Jake Mullaney could play that role very well too shifting Hopoata out to centre. I would have Paulo defend in the middle in a traditional lock position.
I've got Norman in 6 and Hayne in 13, but I would basically have both players interchange regularly to keep the opposition guessing. In my revised structure, the 13 is basically playing almost like a wide fullback and would generally sweep into the attack around the back of a lead runner, like your fullback does in the traditional structure.
I would have a playmaking nine who can kick to make up for Paulo's inadequacies in that area. They need the ability to set up a blind-side play their self, as I'm moving away from having a half either side of the ruck. This spot would be up for grabs, but I'd probably start Kelly there and have Sandow come off the bench - and he could come into seven or nine depending on where you felt that you needed some extra thrust. I've often suggested Sandow's greatest impact could be as a super-sub, and it means opposition defences can't make a plan to target him as they will never be sure when he's going to come onto the field and exactly where. As well as doing a lot of kicking out of dummy half, Hayne probably becomes the primary long kicker. When close to the line, I'd be swapping my seven and nine, to get a better short kicker into the game.
I think you could get relatively close to this structure this year, playing Paulo at seven, Hayne at six and Maitua staying at 13 but again switching around a bit with Hayne depending where you want Hayne to get the ball. I think if Ricky wants to win any games this year, he has to start with getting the defence right and that team I've described doesn't have anybody under 90kg in the defensive line (bar the hooker).
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It's in interesting thought Phil but it just wouldn't work. Our team is hopeless when it comes to effectively confusing the opposition. We tend to confuse ourselves more. This, whilst it could prove to be a stroke of genius, could also fall through spectacularly. Having Sandow and Kelly both at hooker means you miss a genuine rake. Yes they might be quick out of dummy-half but at hooker they have to defend in the middle. We don't have a lot of offloading forwards and as I understand it Norman has never played in the back-row so having him swap with Hayne would be foreign territory for him. I see a spine of this would be more damaging to the opposition:
1. Hayne
6. Norman
7. Sandow
9. Aiton/Kingston/MK if he stays
14. Kelly/Pritchard/Clay.
Norman can organise a team, I've seen him do it in a finals match. He can play to a structure and play off his own back. This means Sandow and Hayne can play naturally. The starting hooker I see as someone who can be an organiser and threaten the opposition. MK can run out of dummy-half effectively he just needs to do it more. Youngsters on the bench are used for the last 15 minutes of each half or there-abouts. Their primary role is to take advantage of forward momentum, using their speed around the ruck. Also, the 7, 6 and 1 should all kick throughout the match but the primary call goes to the halfback. If Kelly shifts to hooker/utility he too should kick. This will prevent pressure being piled on the kicker as you can't pick one. I feel this is a major problem at the moment as Kelly is doing very little kicking.
The lock, whether it be Paulo or Maitua needs to run as much as he can at the opposite halfback. If he's on the same side as Loko even better as there is more chance of getting him one-on-one with the bigger man. Both Maitua and Paulo can hit a gap, it's up to them and the halves to try and position them to hit a gap. The lock can also act as an extra ball-player but also the front-man for our second-man play, using Hayne as the decoy out the back. The more defences are forced into making decisions the more chance there is of them reading the wrong play.
You still have Sandow defending in the line, though. I'm doing this on the basis that I don't think we can ever consistently win games with Sandow defending in the line.
did you re-imagine a 40 000 seat stadium as well?
Hayne is not a 1.
He has more talent and vision and raw strenght than all of our side combined so put him in the line FFS.
Phil - I know we are all desperate at the moment but having your marquee player/current nsw fullback making 30 tackles a game against the big gorillas does not make sense. Also, Norman signed to be five eighth, another unhappy punter if you play him anywhere else.
This is all to compensate for Sandow not tackling ? Surely we need to do the financially painful task of offloading Sandow or at most play him off the bench as a (very expensive) strike weapon.
Luke Kelly at hooker sounds good but he already misses lots of tackles, not a good start for that position
Regularly impressed by your knowledge of the game and your ability to think outside the box, Phil. Sometimes a little TOO FAR outside the box, but, still.. ;)
I think you could achieve a similar sort of game plan without making such drastic changes with the overall positioning. IE. you could've described a very similar game plan with the players wearing numbers like so:
1. Hopoate 6. Hayne 7. Norman 9. Kelly/Sandow 13. Paulo
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