I sat in the stands yesterday to see that nothing has been done to change the positional play of our backline on both sides of the field since the capitulation games of a couple of years ago. The coach does not insist that the whole 68 metres in width of the field has to be covered and allows just 40 metre coverage to be acceptable to him. During the second half when we really needed to pull our finger out there was Sivo and Ferguson lining up 15 metres in from the touchline with the Manly winger and outside centre standing wider than our winger. With the Manly fullback rushing into the line it gave them not a one man overlap but a two man overlap.Simple stuff that should have been addressed at half time, but no, not this coach.Both Manly wingers stood not 5 metres from the sideline and their opposite number was almost centrefield. Crazy backline positional play shown to be present for several years but still not a priority change for the coach.
Every top team will play us the same way in that you move the ball wide to score or just kick over the head of our wingers and run around them to score. Just simple tactics but they work every time against us by the top sides and while the coach retains the Public Servant mentality of not sacking someone for failing to do their job we can forget about greater glory.
I do not know if it is by instruction or not but from week to week I get frustrated when the number of our offloads differ. In some games we rarely offload, as happened yesterday, and in other games we are applauded as the team offloading more than any other team. My view is that we are harder to defend against than most teams when we decide to move the ball around.
I would like to see D Brown to the centres,Gutherson to five eight and a new fullback with the acceleration to capitalise on field breaks because at the moment we do not have enough leg speed throughout the squad.
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The only frustration I have brissyeel is watching our shortcomings being repeated season after season. Was it 2 or 3 seasons past that George Jennings scored three tries against us down the sideline when he was at Souths and that is where it is still happening in 2021. Or do you believe that Souths will score more tries under the posts than out wide this week? Until we cover the full width of the field, history will be repeated but that is not to say that we will not win this week but our weakness in defence on the sidelines is massive and has been unchecked for seasons.
Agree we need a X factor in the spine, or someone to help moses cos he can't handle big games
Brissey what he is saying is spot on, especially when Waqar plays. Watch the game again, Manly had 12 on the field and twice had the overlap. Same problem in 2020.
The run home will sort out the contenders, we will finish 5/6.
The Eels lack 2 ingredients to be real contenders, speed out wide, ball playing leader.
I agree we beat some top sides we got the 2 points and that's all we got. Other teams don't care who we beat.
If 2 the blakes play together next week, Souths will put 50 on us..