Two areas I have not seen improvements on, and I dare say they are not being coached properly. Clearly the coaching staff and players have not learnt from their GF loss to Penriff.
(1) RUCK SPEED - post contact metres are a thing of the past. Players showing no urgency to get up quickly and being constantly put on their backs.
(2) DEFENCE - bottom 8 in defence for a couple years now. The old cliche, defence is what wins you the GF... not X-factor!
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The lack of a fast moving , aggressive defence has been lacking in this team for years. Arthur just doesn't get it or he and his defensive coach can't get it across.
We had some individuals moving up quickly yesterday which is a welcome change and improvement.
Now just need to move as a unit.
Hodgson is spent and needs to go. Russell experiment is a success.
the sample size for both Hodgson and Russell is too small to say whether its a success or failure.
I think I'd typically agree but Hodgson seems physically incapable. The effort is there but he seems legitimately broken functionally
Jed, I don't agree with your comment that Hodgson seems physically incapable. In fact I think he's been very physical in his defense.
He must be doing something right for BA to keep persevering with him.
Our biggest problem is the wrestle we let them up to quickly
I've watched this for many years under BA and we always seem much slower than our opposition.
Pretty pathetic..
The Tigers V Eels match was my first live match in ages ... and you can really see how slow our ruck speed is and how poor the service is from Hodgson. He is very very very poor and really should retire and we should try and develop hands who can improve and is better for the short term and long (possibly). If we had Api at 9 geez
I saw it too and I thought in his second stint he was a lot better in his passing, he was starting to throw it wider along the ruck and we looked better for it.
Also our forwards never tried to push forward with their legs. They seem to just submit to the tackle especially Sivo. They tend to immediately drop to the ground. You can compare the St George forwards and Ravalava who were always trying to win the tackle and push with their legs. Likewise, our players don't help in 'pushing' forwards our guys unlike other teams.