Walker Bros Coaching Manual

There was some comment on this in a earlier blog but should BA adopt some, all or none of the innovative things done by the Walker Bros. In case you don't know them they are joint coaches of Ipswich Jets Qld Cup team that won premiership and yesterday easily won Interstate Cup.

Some of their plays include:

Time in possession is the key. Let them chase you as waste their energy.
Short kick offs and line drop outs - their idea is to contest every ball with a chance of getting the ball back which they do about 70% of time they said.
Almost no block plays or decoy runners, less chance of try being pulled back for obstruction.
Run along the defensive line looking for lazy defenders. If none pass ball to fast straight runner.
Waste little energy in defence, very little wrestle in play the ball.
Let them wrestle you and waste their energy.
Defend in the defensive line with 3 players to stop attacking player. One to make primary tackle with 2 players to assist.

Yesterday, I think with 3 drop outs, they successfully got the ball back. It is a high risk strategy as need to defend line well if doesn't work.

For those that saw the game what were your thoughts. Jets far smaller pack dominated Knights large pack easily.

For mine I think BA could cherry pick some of these strategies as could work in NRL. Thought Jets defended very well and maybe BA could adopt their strategy as so far our defence has been poor.

The defence won't work in the NRL, allowing those quick play the balls against players like Thurston, DCE, Foran, Johnson, Hunt, Milford etc would be a recipe for disaster. You want to have a set line going up against them and moving forward, they already pick out slow and out of position defenders, imagine what a retreating defensive line would look like to them?

Be interesting to see how the attack would work. Not 100% convinced it would all work as you have better defenders in the NRL than you do in reserve grade. And teams are better at scoring from errors in first grade than reserve grade, which the style doesn't seem to care about.

It certainly is a good structure for reserve grade if you want that sort of environment but I don't think the philosophy would work in the NRL as there aren't any part-time players.

"JT would be the only one who comes anywhere near Moses, but he was at the twilight of his career and one played one season with us. The rest aren't even on the same paddock."

Replies

Ham Sammich October 5, 2015 at 2:47pm

The defence won't work in the NRL, allowing those quick play the balls against players like Thurston, DCE, Foran, Johnson, Hunt, Milford etc would be a recipe for disaster. You want to have a set line going up against them and moving forward, they already pick out slow and out of position defenders, imagine what a retreating defensive line would look like to them?

Be interesting to see how the attack would work. Not 100% convinced it would all work as you have better defenders in the NRL than you do in reserve grade. And teams are better at scoring from errors in first grade than reserve grade, which the style doesn't seem to care about.

It certainly is a good structure for reserve grade if you want that sort of environment but I don't think the philosophy would work in the NRL as there aren't any part-time players.
Matt Peterson's Hair October 5, 2015 at 3:25pm

It's very innovative. I think it would translate well to the NRL with a few tweaks. Massive risk for the club involved if one decides to go with the Walkers. I can see a team like the Tigers who by their own admission are going into rebuilding for a few years and have nothing to lose going for it. They also have a team that at least on paper would do well in that style of play.

It's not for Parra. As you said you need good line defense to justify the risk and with the eels defense never seems to be a strong point.
- Mark Laurie's butler > Matt Peterson's Hair October 6, 2015 at 7:20pm
  
  The Tigers defence is just as bad as ours.
Braeden Kelly October 5, 2015 at 10:33pm

I think that if they did in the the NRL they would get smashed. The game is twice as fast at NRL level, you cant run side way in the NRL because players like Bird, Papali, Napa would just cream them so hard they wouldn't know what hit them and then it would be all over.
DK Eel October 5, 2015 at 11:00pm

I think in a second tier competition, the sort of coaching tactics employed by the Walker brothers works fine.

Defence at that level is not up to the same regular standard that the average NRL team plays at.

Most of what they played works well in the second tier level. Most.

The short kick offs won't always work because most NRL teams are structurally better .... again ... MOST !!!

The most attractive part of their play was not seeing as much wrestle in the tackle, which I think is the biggest blight on the modern game of Rugby League.

If NRL clubs would adopt one thing from the Walker brothers "coaching manual", it's dumping the wrestle.

All the same though, good blog and some thought provoking questions raised.
- Gower Power > DK Eel October 6, 2015 at 2:44am
  
  It was great to see the game sped up by less wrestle
Mark Laurie's butler October 6, 2015 at 7:29pm

I've watched most of the Jets TV games this year and they have been the same all the way through the season. The best thing about them is that they get people interested in the game. I know Gould harps on about it, but he's right about 10-12 NRL teams playing exactly the same way. Boring lifeless football. He mentioned in commentary during the NRL grand final , as did Sterlo, that this is the way the game should be played. That was a nice guarded insult to the majority of teams in the comp who have no concept of fast, attacking football, without that awful wrestle.
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