Of late weve been in great positions to put big scores on opposition who are nowhere near our class, but weve been fading in the back end of games.
Whats your opinion of why this is happening after a good start to the season?
Mental?
Fitness?
The use of the bench and selection?
Injury?
Mid season slump?
All of the above?
Genuinely interested to hear peoples opinions.
Replies
I agree. Even if he says he can play the 80min who cares. Coaches, espcially Robinson always rest their key players, and considering we are guaranteed a final birth letting Reed have a break is fine. Rather him fresh and at his best during the finals even if we may struggle a bit from dummy half during the times he is not on the field.
That looks to be the plan Offside. Stoney will also add some starch to the defense, which no doubt will be his key job. Actually we have seen in the last couple of years Mahoney can't go the full season playing 80 min each game. Hopefully with Stone back he can get a rest at some point.
Up until the last couple of weeks, we were one of the best, if not the best second half performing teams.
I watched the game again last night as I tend to always watch one replay if we win.
We didn't play that badly. Our first half of was actually very good - good intent, physical. The dogs aimed up and we took it to them. Yes we dropped off a bit in the second half but full credit goes to the dogs. They are a much better side than where they sit on the ladder at the moment. I think Pay was stifling them and Georgalis has given them a new lease of life.
They actually have an excellent pack on paper and some really good young players who may not be able to perform every week but on their day are electric. Young Avarillo for example could be anything.
Foran was also playing well and going to the line.
In the end even though the dogs had all the footy in the second half we did what we had to do and defended out the win.
Yes I watched it again as well and agree with you. The dogs played very tough and skilful in the second half and I think would have scored at least 6 tries against an average team so Parramatta defence great when it was needed. And also in the second half despite limited possession the eels missed scoring at least 3 or 4 tries very close.
I think the tendency on here has been to say we took the foot off the gas. I just don't think that gives credit to the opposition. Every team in first grade is entitled to make a game of it and not get flogged by 20 points.
Yea i am not gonna lie. People are so rude to the dogs. They don't play like a 16th placed team espcially with Kieran in good form. They always seem to lift when playing us and they were coming of a good victory against the knight. Also the past couple of years, dogs always seem to go on a winning stream once their finals hope are already gone.
On Sunday we simply lacked intent. No other explanation. We lacked intent against Manly in the first 30 minutes. We lacked intent against the Tigers in the first 25 minutes. We lacked intent against the Knights.
We had the Raiders well beaten but poor communication between Matterson and Waqa let them back in the match. (twice)
Against the Dogs was frustrating because it was easy to see we had them well beaten. If we upped our intensity in defence, even for a 10 minute period we would have put them to the sword. But we didn't and in the end struggled to go with them. Our defence was reactive and passive rather than making a statement in defence like we have previously. Rememebr what we did to the Raiders, we made one of their players cry!!
I feel there are a few individuals in our side who need a reality check. Premierships are won on effort and a few of our guys are cruising. Lane, Sivo, Fergo, D Brown for starters.
As Brett said it's the dog days of the comp. The middle part of the season with a long way to go still. Wins are what matters right now. However if we are to be serious contenders come Finals, all 17 players need to up their defensive intensity for the full 80 minutes.It starts with defence!
Absolutely agree with your last statement. As you said, another 10-15 minutes of ruthlessness on our part and we would’ve put the Dogs away. We invited them back in, and the longed that went on the more confident they became. I still think there was a lot of merit in the way we dug deep though, even though the situation was of our own creation.
It was interesting to note that BA asked the boys whether they wanted to sing the team song or not. Maybe he’s spotted that indifference and has decided to let them learn the lesson the hard way. He has that luxury at the moment.
Every team lacks intent in stages in a number of games throughout the season. What gets teams like the storm through in this period is a critical game plan that they nearly always stick to. We sometimes take unnecessary risks when under pressure.
We still lack spine experience. Mahoney & Brown have 50 games between them. Were in a great position future wise but teams like the storm have the edge at the moment experience wise.
Our time will come and to win a comp this season the halves really need to take the next step.
-
1
-
2
-
3
-
4
-
5
of 5 Next