So it's been close to a week since we got belted in the the GF, what if anything would you change in the lead up if we get another chance?For me it would be.....
(1)I don't wanna hear anyone especially BA say "we are treating this like just another game"
(2) I don't care if you don't wanna do a training run at ACCOR stadium but at least for fcuks sake, get the players there and get your bearings or even go for a walk on the field at night with the lights on, prepare the most inspired speech you have ever made, fuel the tension.
(3) please please please take team whole team on a bus on the day of the GF, minimise the risks having 18 players separately attend the game on their own in their own car with the risk of having a bust up with the misses about the money she's spending on clothes. Keep the focus on the GF.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, But I did call out number 3 before it happened.
Anyway it just suks we lost.Up The Eels!!!
Replies
1. Coach
2. Some players
Probably start Nathan Brown. More so for that aggressiveness earlier on. By the time Brown got on to do the role you intended for him, the game was gone.
My eyes are playing up this morning I thought the last line said.
SUCK IT UP WE LOST.
I don't get the whole bus thing. Homebush isn't that far from Parramatta. Wouldn't the time to get to Kelliville or where ever for the players to get on the team bus, then bus over to Homebush be a greater travel time then just have the players drive in? I mean do the players get a bus when they play at Commbank?
if you are looking for the largest contribution factor as to why we lost it was the Panthers had more energy than us. They rested players going into the finals. They had the week off in the finals. They didn't travel to North Queensland and back.
So there's nothing you'd change to the lead up? Other than finish higher and not travel to Nth Qld?
Yeah finishing higher would have helped the most. Being able to rest players is massive.
I would have played brown more in the regular session. I know he had injuries but there where times he was not injured and not playing first grade. I would have played Carty on the bench instead of JA - we could have done with another forward on the bench. I would have tried to develop hooking skills in a forward so Mahoney could come on after the first 20. He looked gassed.
And I agree with you on doing a training run at Accor.
I don't think we lost because of the week, I think we lost more because we needed to be better over the season. I don't think anything we did on the week could have overcome our problems we had over the season.
Agreed Hellmut. We need to aim for top 2 next year. That gives a much better run into the GF and also means no travel for finals. I don't think any of the issues above are really big contributing factors.
If Stone didn't get injured he would have been our super sub, giving energy off the bench and offering an alternate dummy half option. That could have made a significant difference to our season. We need another Stone next year. We also need to consdier what our bench looks like next year. I feel that we had plent of players but not really many who were knocking down the door to be selected. Our 1-13 picked themselves however,
Would have started Jake Arthur with Mahoney on bench
Nothing in the final week would have made a difference, the seeds were sown for the gf performance during the regular season.
How about this - have a goal of trying to have our forward pack as fresh as possible for the finals series:
come up with a way of using the bench properly so that papalii and lane get a rest during matches.
at the start of the season ditch mahoney to cup, play a combo of rein/hands one of them off the bench - better than having forrest gump developing hemorrhoids on the bench and giving a future bulldogs player the chance to further develop (he didnt and regressed).
develop a plan to rest the forward pack through rotation of players from NSW cup, Greig and El Zakhem, seem like a couple of candidates who could have performed a role of a rested nrl starter, Nathan Brown should have been used. Lane and Papalii were flogged to death Papalii's wheels fell off in the last few rounds. Penrith looked fresh as a daisy and played accordingly, we looked fatigued.
If I were BA and in game action where penrith are up by 2 tries and rolling us easy in the middle, send the message to Mitch to kick into touch every set, slow the game down, slow their momentum and get your defensive line set and bash them.
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