Im going to say what a lot of people might fear to say but I ll call It as it is. Firstly Id like to say I love parra and Im a season ticket holder. A lot of people might have a go at me for what im about to say but I ve seen most of the failures of players in front of me pretty much every home game.
Here I go. Most of the year our forwards have done a great job, They make good metres and run hard as weve seen with moi moi, horo and mannah. And most of the creative play is coming off the back of a cayless or mateo offload.
Heres the part most people on this site wont be a able to fathom. I think that our backline has been a let down.Whenever we make a break the play breaks down when the ball reaches the centres. Guys like tahu and reddy are playing out of position. Both are wingers in my view heres why.
Neither can draw a defender and give the right pass for the play or run the correct line as a centre. I ll use last nights game as example but its happened all year. I LL start with tahu. I thought on at least 2 occasions he murdered great chances. parramatta had all the attack when it was 14- 6 to tigers and 15 mins into the second half. the best of our chances came off the back of a mateo offload which went to ground. The tigers defenders on that side of the field were all out of position when Tahu picked the ball up there were no defenders in front of him. the ball was on the 30 metre line of the tigers side of the field. The closest defenders was on the fullback on the tigers 10 metre line. Tahu had 20 metres with no one in his way till he would reach the full back and what did he do, Give the ball to burt as soon as he picked it up. which allowed the tigers defence to slide and shut down burt. this was a classic example to draw and pass. The tigers defence was shattered and there was a massive overlap on the edges, all tahu had to do was run hard draw the defender and then pass to burt who probably would have scored in the corner untouched. Tahu has not been able to do this all year he either passes to early or passes to late and his winger is taken out by the defence. Inu does this very well he allowed burt to score many tries last year with his positional play and draw and pass ability, so for me he should have stayed as that centre position of last year all the of this season. We also know that tahu rushing out of the line has created many chances for opposition teams all year and he as at fault for the 2nd and 3rd tries for the tigers for sundays match.
Now to Reddy, Seems like a lot of people on this site have a lot of love for reddy and i do too but hes not a centre. tuquiri knocked down 2 passes from reddy to the winger after the eels had created the overlap again. he trew the pass in front of tuquiris face and we were quite lucky that he couldnt take the intercept. Reddy could have quite easily ran behind tuquiri, draw the opposite centre and then given the pass behind tuquiris back. Another great example of how to draw and pass. It seems our centres arent composed enough to pick the right lines to run and give that final pass.The play has broken down many times when the ball is in reddys hands. I truly think our best option in the centres is INU and Wright. We need the centre to back himself to get through the line and then offer the pass. Reddy should be on the wing and as for tahu the club made a bad buy there. Theres my take guys. Watch the matches more closely and you ll all see in attacking position the play breaks down whenever the ball reaches our centres. Its happened all year, Its not easy being a centre because by the time the ball gets to you the defence is in your face and you need to have some composure. easier said than done.
Thats my take guys, now have a go all you want but thats the way It is.
Replies
Firstly Tahu and Reddy are both tough, big, and fast. And the skill level in both are of high quality.
The problem in attack, we just dont get the fluency from the start of the play the ball to the time it reaches the winger in most of our set plays. And this has got to be a problem from the lack of vision n experience from our no.9, no.6, & no.7
I honestly think Hayne is our best ball player and his vision is second to none. Persist him at no.6 and chuck matchstick Burt at fullback to cover up the play well in defence (thats his only value in the team besides his goal kicking).
In defence, i think we are not to bad and when we dominate possesion we can hold a team out to minimal points. If you look at the stats and watch ourgames, it just seems like we always inviting teams into our half to easy and we cant get repeat sets. Tahu & Reddy can tackle and Reddy has been great in defence. I see ur pt about Tahu rushing up, but at the same time he occassionally stops the play with his rush up defence and pulls off a massive hit to pump up the boys.
We need better wingers that can difuse bombs, make metres coming out our line, and with more speed. Also a better defensive fullback and Hayne at no.6. Thats my opinion.
and yeah....
If we pick up Quade you wil all see what a good half with a good passing and kicking game can do to the backline. It's really not fair to blame either Tahu or Reddy for the lack of descent ball or opportunities that the rest of the backline gets.
Having said that I really feel that Tahu is an established centre these days with his defence and attack but Reddy is a winger full stop. I have been saying all year that we need creative halves with a good kicking and passing game, a centre to partner Tahu, a winger to replace Guru when he goes and a hooker but we have resigned Mitchell now
which is awesome. The rest of the positions are well covered but once we fix those positions up we will be unbeatable.
of the back
Fair enough you reckon that Tahu has disappointed but to try to justify Krisnan Inu's ambivalent season (as you have done more than once in this thread) at the expense of Tahu is demonstrating laughable bias!
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