Was Moses playing wider for his tries a play practiced through the week or something Moses saw during the game. Did Barrett come up with it a while ago but BA was to fixed into a structure so now we can use it or did someone else help behind the scenes.
I know Sivo is injured but more rookies debuting again shows a vastly different approach from the BA way. Why has Barrett taken this long to make these player and attacking structure changes? Maybe the new coach is having conversations with Barrett in the background already, similar to what Bennett is doing with Hornby.
The best players have to be given freedom to play like Moses did in Origin and as he did on the weekend. Just as strong ball running centres and wingers should be encouraged even instructed to roam infield more or swap positions for different plays. Most centres have played a bit of wing and vice versa now days anyway. All it needs is good communication within a team to ensure someone else covers your spot if roaming. Talagi showed more in attack at fullback then Gutho offers so why not let Talagi swap in attack at times but keep Gutho there for defence until Talagi learns fullback positioning, communication and the defensive side of it.
Until we get more speed in the backs Moses and Dylan should run the plays off the scrum wider but also on the occasional 4 or 5th tackle to mix it up. Hands used to be half so can play first receiver on these plays or even Junior who fancies himself as a half. We tried running Junior out wide off scrums for years and I can't remember 1 try off it and Moses got 2 tries in 1 game. Dylan has the ability to score in similar situations to Moses beating the defender on the outside, but always trys to goose step or step inside. It looks spectacular when it works so he gets praised for his running game as he then has to beat 3 more cover defenders as he allowed them to catch up, but if Dylan just tried to run to the outside of a defender, he has some speed and can break the line or bust the tackle and get an offload if defender catches him.
Unfortunately Sivo is injured but I always thought he should be moved infield 1 or 2 places for some attacking plays as it would hold up the defences as they have to cover him if he receives it and he has shown he is strong enough to knock players over opening up offloading opportunities. If we played short to Sivo 2 or 3 times then next time out the back to a flying Moses or Dylan against a hesitant defence our edge would be much harder to defend against. Sivo has done well on a couple occasions years ago he swapped with Jennings for a few plays but it wasn't persisted with cause he stuffed a few chances. It wasn't worth the risk for the risk adverse BA. Chasing the collision didn't apply to Sivo who had to stand and wait on the wing letting our smaller players get smashed
I think the set left and right edge structure of NRL is ready for a shake up. Defences are so good now (not eels but other clubs) due to video analysis so clubs know every detail of plays teams run, and individual player habits and strengths. All NRL players can play the game (once again not the eels but other clubs) but the best players stand out because they can mentally maintain that for 80mins. We don't mentally fatigue teams as they know what we are doing.
Some clubs have very simple attacking structures which work because they have super star players and also defend very well but all clubs try to mimic them with inferior players or shit defence, instead of trying to find a different way.
If each edge defender has to learn opposition player strengths before a game such as player A steps off his left foot but Player B steps off his right, player C can step off both, but rush up on player D because it's Reece Walsh and the tactic is to decapitate the pretty boy., you make him mark up against a different player for different tackles even the centre or winger from the opposite side. Similar to the old inside outside centre days but taking it another step further and even having 2 wingers together for some plays. Confusion adds to mental fatigue and mistakes in the defence. The teams who played against Walker brother coached teams talked about mental and physical fatigue was greater playing against them due to the style of play regardless of they won or lost.
When you leak points and give away possession like the Eels you need to fatigue the opposition in others ways. By throwing different structures and plays at them it will keep them guessing and hesitant which opens up opportunities for heads up footy from the likes of Moses, Cartwright, Dylan etc...
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Sivo running hard when there's no try line 5 metres away .... I'd like to see that.
I remember we did that when Jennings was there and we scored a couple tries of the scrum. Sivo would either be used as a decoy or would be able to get an offload away.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycU3TQkkAKU
0.50
Only that we ended up losing I thought we'd be talking more about the tries of scrums. It was good to see actually.
I'd like to see Sivo used as a decoy playing out of our end. It's so predictable that 2nd hit up is Sivo and has usually 3 players tackling. This is where he should pass before the line and spread the ball on the compressed defence. With space Penisini can usually beat his man, just need to make sure there is support on the inside like Moses or DB who are our quickest players
Sounds like a good variation. If you can come up with this why can't the dopes getting paid.
Barrett needed to show his hand to the selection committee in order to try to get the gig. However, our attack was/is a secondary problem to our defence. That needs to fixed before anything else. If he fixed that in 4 weeks he probably would have got the HC role by now.
Yes it was good seeing MM swing to the left and use his speed. I would be playing Penisini out side DB.
In attack it's obvious we lack speed and a attacking fullback. With a couple of speedy outside backs our attack would be up there with the best, it would bring out the ball skills of our halfs.
It's our defence which needs alot of work. Not only structural all so technical. Last week we had 4 players miss 9,7,5 and 4 tackles in the middle. When I read that I watched the replay again. Most of our forwards were just grabbing, bar Joe O none were hitting with the shoulder and wrapping the player up. The other thing is our line speed, we wait for them to meet us.
Against the Knights we had 27 missed tackles after 40 minutes, now that's on individual players not structures. We are simply lazy in defence and won't put our bodies on the line.
Paulo and Lane are the worst for not hitting in defence and Carty and Matto not far behind them.
We all know our defence out wide is diabolical, but our middle defence is not much better.
Agreed eith everything you said espically the Penisni switch. The way Moses attacked against knights, he needs a pacey centre on his outside. There were number of times Moses was able to use his pace to get to Best and create the overlap. However, all the time when Moses passes to Penisni, Best had the pace to slide and get to Penisni. So Best essentially covered 2 attacking players himself because our centre is too slow. Lomax won't solve that issue either. This is where Simmo was so dangerous for us when he played centre. The only other time we look dangerous down that side is when Carty is doing his offloading trickery.
The only reason I think Penisni plays on the right is because when we play to the left, the centre is always a decoy and rarely gets the ball. So that doesn't help when the club view Penisni as our strike centre. Whereas on the right, there are times we gives Penisni early ball. Personally, I would still switch Penisni to the left but just change our attack to the left a bit so Penisni still gets early ball. Russel goes to right centre for now. He does have a decent top speed too so perhaps in shape when the players are already running he would do better. The guy just has slow af acceleration and turn.
I know our attack isn't as bad an issue as the defence, but a varied attacking structure can be used to fatigue the opposition physically and mentally. We fatigue late in the first half and don't seem to recover while other teams seems to have plenty of energy still. Despite the defensive deficiencies we still compete well in the first half.
It takes multiple players to get Sivo down so as a coach I would be demanding he take more hit ups in the middle to help the fatigued forwards. It would give our forwards a break leaving them fresh for defence while making opposition forwards get involved to assist in the tackle.
We are a top 8 side based on our first halves before fatigue sets in. That is after we give late tries in the first half as well. Even if we miss tackles we can scramble and make up for it early in the game but not later in the game so it is either a mental issue or fitness.
We are a very predictable team without stars to question the defence outside of Moses and Dylan a couple times a year. We also don't seem to have changed any structures or styles of play for years. The top sides adjust each year with different plays and structures to suit the squadband changes in the game.
As pointed out in various replies here, improvements required to our attacking structures and roster are very clear. We need pace outwide, we don't currently play to the existing players strengths or have the ability to adjust outside the structure/plan when it doesn't work. Add a couple speedy backs, improve fitness of the squad and swap 1 of the ageing slow towards for a mobile forward and we have a squad that can compete with the right coaching.
The same with our defensive structures, we haven't adjusted for years but don't need massive changes. Improved fitness helps a lot of our issues. We win plenty of first halves with the same defensive structures.
Watching the game on the weekend from high in the grandstand, it was clear that our outside backs don't know how to slide or retreat. They always rush up or get caught flat footed. They know how to do it as we see it on rare occasions which again points towards a coaching issue and not player skill.
By backing off and sliding it allows the cover defence more time to get across and forces the attacking team towards the sideline. We are probably the worse team at using sliding defence and making teams run out of space. You may give away a few extra metres each play but you prevent a clean line break or a try.
By charging up in defence it leaves very little option but to get the ball out to the winger as quickly as possible where he has open space or little kicks behind the line. That is why we struggle so badly against the Rabbitohs. It will be interesting to see if Barrett can get the defence sliding to stop Johnson getting a couple tries untouched as he has the last few games against us.
Watching the Knights game our edge forwards especially Lane were the worse for not following the play and giving up meaning the outside backs even if they did slide or retreat a little bit, with a simple step or pass back inside they find massive gaps. Tualangi was actually alright in this regard helping with cover tackles after a line break or stopping the ball runner having unmarked support players.
Lane was also the last man back behind the ball after the opposition kick and even took to play 4 on a few occasions to get behind the ball and help us out of our own end. Swap him for a mobile forward and it goes a long way to fixing a few defensive and line speed issues.
said it a couple of times, i would rather blaze playing wing in defence and FB/roaming in attack. He does offer more than gutho in attack. I think his injuries has affwcted his ability this year
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