if there has been one consistent complaint about BAs coaching its his use of the Interchange bench
People are very quick to criticise takka's role or lack there off but im going to actually give credit where credit is due.
Keeping takka on the bench means were able to Interchange our middles more regularly as was displayed yesterday. Whilst maintaining cover for our backline the plus side to takka on the bench is 1 to 7 has cover that won't cause as much disruption as if he wasn't with the way the HIA is it is almost foolish not to have cover on the bench without takka there if we loose any of the backs we are reshuffling the forwards aswell matto goes into the centres People move in or out depending on the injury.
I think its a good move wither it be Takka or Field or Smith the utility player is a must have so well done to BA on this one. For next week getting brown back in it comes down to peni or Kaufuasi to Drop out.
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Short term strategy PENI.
Long term strategy, KAUFUSI.
I said this on another blog, if you go through every game since the restart you'll find that most, if not all, coaches are shortening their benches. By that I mean, instead of having a plan to use all 4 of the bench players for roughly 20-30 minutes each, they are now using just 2, maybe 3 of their reserves in their regular rotation, whilst keeping one guy fresh for the end of the game, sometimes, as in the case of Taka against Manly, not even even using the last guy at all. If you look at the numbers from our last two games, the only bench guys to get meaningful minutes have been Evans & Terepo. BA has shortened his bench to 2.
Coaches are also clearly preserving their interchanges for late in the game as well when the fatigue really kicks in, a bit like an NBA coach keeping his timeouts up his sleeve for as long as possible. So what we're seeing is BA keeping Taka fresh so that when he brings him on in the last 20 he can really inject something and lift the overall tempo. Now whether or not Taka is the right guy for that kind of role is a different question, but the good thing is you can bring him on without having to take off Mitch, Dylan or Reed and he can still be effective.
It makes the use of the bench much more tactical as opposed to the generic roll em on, roll em off style we had become accustomed to.
I'm not so sure Taka is the correct person for the job. Yes, he has no doubt more experience than Ray Stone or Jai Fields but both Fields and Stone need to be given more time on the field to get the experience. Jai Fields would be a great inclusion in my opinion due to his speed, experience in a couple of key positions, his general kicking game and he can kick goals as well. Taka is a wasted space.
The Takka situation annnoys me so much.
everyone says oh Takka is there because he covers so many positions in the backline. Isn't that what makes matterson so valuable. If something goes wrong in the backline for matterson would be the one to shift. We need to carry a hooker on the bench.
I agree that Taka, with the aquisition of Matterson, has become obselete. Matto can play as a half and as a centre as a stop gap solution. Taka's fine as a back up centre if either Jenko or Waqa are injured but we need a forth forward or Jai Field who can add some zip with his quick feet. I think he could yet make a career as a backup dummy half. Needs to beef up a bit first.
Agree! 100%