"Get our start right, kick long to the corners and tackle and chase hard"
BA has an absolute obsession with starting fast. He says it every week, if we lose he and the players say we didnt get our start right. Ironically, we haven't been getting many starts right. The obsession with it is at weird levels. No other coach says it. Melbourne have a culture of coming at you for 80 mins They rarely take a play off. Its gotten to the stages where teams are saying they need to match us at the start and take the game deep. Because if they do, we regualarly drop our intensity through the game and run out of bullets.
He really is an completley 1 dimensional coach. A great man manager who builds strong relationships with his players and within a team, but tactically he is a complete spud. Long passes in the wet , a shot to one side, bring the ball back to the middle and a shot at another side x 100000. Its very frustrating football.
$1.01 he will be saying we need to start fast during the week.
Replies
Can't disagree.
Hes very limited tactically, wish he would mix it up a bit depending on the opposition.
Just looked at the weather, it should be dry but I'm willing to bet that the weather forecast will change on Thursday just to fuck us over.
How many games have we played in the wet lately? I think it's 4 or 5 now. We are deadset useless in the wet - we need it dry and with no dew either to have a chance vs the Storm.
I agree ! Sivo and a couple of the forwards looked very heavy legged at times tonight.
For mine we've played the same style in wet /dew games for a while now. The long passes from dummy half we use successfully in dry conditions dont work at night. We seem to still use them in the attacking 20, but in carrying the ball out we play ultra conservative. Sivo and Ferguson are used as one out battering rams.
There is no real plan. In dry weather we can try and make the ball sing and use the speed of our halves and offloading to get the line retreating and tire teams . In the wet the game plan is to go side to middle and try and get a repeat set and do it again. It's terrible football. BA and Murph need to step it up.
I said in a couple of blogs regarding last nights match, that the drags were either going to be walloped big time as per usual or they would win in order to send Mary off with a win, how come they play so bad with him as their coach overall but when he's going they play to give him a drovers farewell outing?
From what I saw of the match before turning the box off with 10 to go, there are two players that should be dropped, & not to the bench, and they are our 2 & 5 they are both all over the place and run in too early leaving their wings totally open so even a snail can get through. To watch Sivo against his Fijian opponent is embarrasing, likewise is his running game where he is run down/ or squashed in tackles, the drags two tries were scored by their Fijian winger. Fergo goes into the middle of the field to run, but he's caught out in the same was as Sivo is, he offers nothing atm. At least Blake did some work and made a break, to me better than our two wingers combined.
Have read a fair it of put down on lane for his game, up to a point I agree, but I don't blame Lane as the sole problem, last year he was getting good service from Drown that was putting him through, I am not seeing that combination this year.
The last comment on the game is that its two weeks in a row that we have played on heavy tracks, with last weeks game being the heaviest, and this one probably not quite as bad, I would suggest that despite the training through the week on dry grounds, the players would have each had heavy legs during the match that actually showed with some of the players especially the backs not running as fast and hard as normal. Our best player though I believe was Nathan Brown with his hard runs, but even with some of those runs he was down on his normal a bit.
The dogs game was bone dry
GWF spot on as usual.
we need a decent attacking coach ASAP, Murphy has been there for too long. 7 years and we are still clunky AF.
Murph has a touch background. We look our best when we play fast football , almost touch football like , on a dry track.
I don't know what Joey is teaching the halves / if he works exclusively with them on their skills. Be good if he is working with Murph and identifying ways to ask more questions of the defence.
Melbourne are going to bring line speed and an up and in defence. We need to find a way to ask them Q's because this style of defence, along with slippery conditions , has been our down fall for a long time. Even the Dogs have had success against us using this defence. As have Penrith.
If we bring the same again , even if we nail BA's 'fast start' , we'll struggle to score a point.
Yep agree
If we are stuck with BA, the least he can do is to freshen up his assistants. Murphy has been around for ages and as you said nothing has improved on the attack front. Would Murphy even get another gig elsewhere?
I guess that's what BA likes - assistants that don't threaten his job.
What we should do is get a feel for the game. have no expectations. Because when the PLAN is to start fast and we don't achieve that we panic. And etc etc.