Finals are on us and the competition starts again.
Have we learnt from past campaigns where your football isn't enough to get over the line, your use of the media and knowing your referees limits is essential for victory.
Gamesmanship however can prove the difference in tight games.
The simple things like getting off your line early , going early from marker ,escorting like all teams will be doing. The finals require a little more disruption to create maximum frustration.
Treading on opposition playmakers hands and legs after a tackle accidentally of course.
Standing alongside the play the ball after fielding a kick disrupting the defensive line as well as standing in the ten metres of the defensive line as they chase said kick gains us valuable metres.
Late attempts to strip the ball to give our defensive line extra time to set.
Interfering with markers and disrupting the opposition attempts at kick pressure.
Raking the ball using your shoulder in gang tackles or pulling away the arm holding the ball.
Slapping at the dummyhalf arms from marker.
lead with the head in tackles of playmakers.
Everythings on the table in finals and if we want to win you have to get down and dirty and often go lower then the opposition no matter the ensuing outrage.
If we want to win it's time to embrace the hate and sail closer to the wind. We've played nice in past campaigns while others who enjoy success push the boundaries, it's time Parra lead the way in that regard .
If we don't the drought won't break , get creative brains trust.
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Good points but we play fair and straight. Not easy to change styles when you don't have grub players. It's a well know fact Parra are clean skins. Least penalties, 0 dogshots, least suspensions etc.
When defenders challenge us with their linespeed it kills our power game. We need quick play the balls and our 1, 6, 7 and 9 to run out of dummy half to catch markers off guard or to get a penalty for not being square.
There is a good article on this subject Bup,
Re-Focus on What You Can Control
You can control attitude, effort, preparation, and the present moment. These are factors that sports participants have 100 percent control over, and are less likely to be stressed or let anger turn negative. The ability to re-focus your attention to the right thing at the right time is a key element in controlling anger.
About the Author
Brian Baxter is the director of the Sport Psychology Institute Northwest in Portland and a prior US Lacrosse Convention (LaxCon) speaker.
There are a number of good sites from Sports psychologists who address this subject[Google} In some situations with some players it can help to get angry and with a focus on disruption. In many cases with some players, it can work against you and when you get in that mindset it is difficult to regain your focus and composure --High risk
This blog is good in theory, but I don't like it much in practice. We are a clean side, its too late to change that. There is an art to getting away with grubby tactics and it needs to be trained and practiced on game day. You can't just roll it out as a first dress rehearsal in week 1 of the finals.
There are also advantages to being clean. We give away far less penalties and cop less sin bins. Our discipline is good as well, which helps us maintain high completion rates, which then converts to possesion and field position - that's the way we beat the Storm.
We don't need to be grubby to beat Penrith. We didn't have Mahoney or Sivo last year, and Blake was playing centre (not wing). I think we win under regular circumstances, but I'm very concerned the Panthers will start too strong because they have all been rested. The first 10 to 15 minutes will be telling. We have to go with them in that period and not lose the ruck.
None of this will happen, we concede the least amount of penalties so BA is big on discipline, penalties conceded are in the following order with top 8 teams 1.storm 2 roosters 3. Raiders 4. South's 5. Sharks 7. Panthers - it's not in the Eels make up to niggle, one thing this team definitely lacks is aggression, roll the dice and get fined
Parra get pressured into playing other teams game we will simply lose. We can't afford the pressure of repeat sets on our line because we crumble. Play parra style we win any game. Play other styles we lose.
If we play the way we have in the premiership rounds we'll be rolled.
In finals you have to be able offer football albeit in patches that the opposition doesn't expect that gives you momentum and disrupts the oppositions fluidity.
In BAs tenure our finals football barely differs from our premiership style. There's a reason we haven't been effective in the latter part of the season and doing the same thing isn't going to be the answer.
The fact we're considered clean skins and the fact the referees put the whistle away plays into hands if we get dirty.
Every other season we have made the finals we have been falling backwards and limped into the finals out of form.
This year we are actually coming into form and hopefully that improvement continues.
That I hope is the big difference this year.
I also think there maybe a crack down on foul play because of media coverage a few incidents have created in the last couple weeks.
Can guarantee if we tried some of the things certain players do then we would get pinged in a heart beat.
Well we do have Ennis as a consultant, a legend in the art of pushing the boundaries
I like the way you think.
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