Us Parramatta fans, who are we kidding? we were never a finals team, but we dared to dream and our hopes got crushed. We ignored the symptoms and kept just kept hoping, lying to ourselves we are better then we really are.
It is no secret what it takes to win at the business end of the season, accept to us blind loyal Parramatta supporters,"defence" we never had it! we were all mesmerized by our attack, excuses were made for our losses, "ball control","field position" and "attitude" were all mentioned.
The truth is, every team has days when they drop the ball or don't show up with attitude, I've witnessed the Bulldogs, Storm, Manly, Cowboys, Roosters and Souths all turn up with a poor attitude and walk away with 2 points. They do it off their defence, I'm going to go out and say defence is not a attitude, it's a mentality!
We have too many guys in the team with the wrong mentality and we just gave up too many soft tries to be a finals football team. Our offence was working so hard to get points and then our defence would fall for the most basic plays and cough up points like a first time pot smoker.
Ideally you want players that can do both attack and defend at a high level, we have a handful of guys of this caliber, Jarryd Hayne, Tepai Moeroa, Ken Edwards, Manu Ma'u, Nathan Peats and David Gower. There are some other guys that show promise but 6 out of a squad of 25 is way too low.
The rest of the squad mostly lean to an attack mentality with a few the likes of Ben Smith, Corey Norman, Kaysa Pritchard, Mitchell Allgood and Lee Mossop that lean more to a defensive mentality.
This results in us playing more like an under 20's team then a NRL contender, If you go back to 2005 when the West Tigers won their maiden premiership, most people accredited their premieship to their amazing offence, but if you actually watched them they were the best defensive team of the finals series.
Defensive players are unheralded gems, when our defensive system breaks down we most likely concede points, A defensive player can read the failure and attempt a compromise and create pressure on the offence often saving certain points.
I've witnessed Steve Matai make 3 or 4 defensive reads that have stopped certain points in just one game, that sort of play is just not recognized enough these days. There have been games this year when William Hopoate were achieved similar results but is far to inconsistent.
I hope with another off-season and shoulder surgery William can gain back some form and the addition of the defensive Beau Champion will strengthen our decision making on our edges. I believe Ryan Morgan would be a good replacement for Ken Sio purely on his speed and height advantages while still being a quality finisher.
Our second-rowers are all quality with the exception of Pauli Pauli's fitness issues. We have major defensive issues in our middle forwards. Young Jnr Paulo and Peni Terepo while being a offensive powerhouses have problems sticking after good contact.
Tim Mannah and Joseph Paulo are good at sticking but their contact is poor and there is zero chance of forcing an error.
Our halves will continue to be scrutinized while our team is a defensive basketcase, It only takes one good offensive play to win a game and these guys are being asked to make 5 to 6 a game to "outscore" the opposition. I'm not willing to judge them under that sort of pressure.
All in all the highlight for me this year, has not been the style in which we play but the talent we have unearthed, Tepai, Manu, Ken Edwards, Junior Paulo and Peni Terepo all come out of no where and i hope Brad Arthur can give some thought to picking more defensive players in our line-up.
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Hear hear, "defensive players are unheralded gems"
I'm probably one of the few Mitch Allgood fans here, he is a great one on one tackler whose tackles stick. Thing is people bang on about our lack of defensive prowess and yet can't wait to see the arse end of hardworking pure tacklers.
Maybe it's about getting the balance right!
Another little gem of 2014 has been David Gower.
He is one player who can honestly say has given 100% every game.
You saw us against Manly at Parra Stadium what we can do. Do you think we would have had that same result if the match was played at ANZ or Allianz? Unlikely. The thing is like a lot of the sides in the NRL teams only seem to be able to perform in their own fortress. Eg Newcastle,Cowboys,Penrith etc. Why do we give away home games to ANZ and Darwin. Wins are difficult for us away from Pirtek Stadium. Wake up Parra officials and keep our home games at Parra because we have difficulty winning away from there.
Although I agree with you in regards to taking our home games to ANZ, our form at Pirtek only masks our problems when it gets tough, games at home are easier in regards to rub of the green and confidence, take away that security and best teams stand up, we did not do that.
I still havent seen it...cash is invloved.
Until we are rid of Sandow our right side defence will struggle.
Ahh ATTITUDE IS MENTALITY????
im legally insane......not delludional.
Im dead sexy man candy..
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