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01 Jan 1970 12:00 minute |
There's one thing I took away from that game... and keep going back to, trying to figure it out:
I just can't understand that rationale behind the position changes. I keep looking, thinking, but I can't...
Let's look at this rationally - we were without our chief playmaker, our main man in attack and thus it was always going to be the case that our attack was a little disjointed (which, lets be frank, it can be at the best of times anyway)... so given this, would it not make sense to put players in their most familiar positions, to create a sense of cohesion? I just don't get why you would take our left centre - who's played there all year, in a game where his partner in crime on that edge is coming back from injury, thus rekindling that combination - and put him on the other side of the field, where he's not played all year, and with someone coming back into the side from injury and who is playing his 4th(?) game?... Then, you take someone who's been our right centre for the last few years (admittedly, with many interruptions in that time) and put him on the left edge, where I'm not sure he's played in FG at all in his career, or if he was, on very few occasions... Again, pairing them with two players coming back from injury.
I was all for bringing Simon and Ben to the edges, seemed like a great idea to me, but again, I cannot fathom why on earth you would put Mutts, who was nigh on unstoppable on that left edge at times last year, and put him on the right, and take Simon who had by and large been your right edge back rower for the last few years, and put him on the left...
Then, probably the most confounding, you place our left edge playmaker - who has in his entire time at the club, only played left edge - on the right, and put our rookie on the left, again utterly altering the make-up of our combinations...
The heck?
Our entire back line and edge attack was changed for this game. What did you expect to happen? There was NEVER going to be any cohesion in our attack with that many changes, and it was obvious from the get go. Don't kid yourselves, our tries were very flukey - they were absolutely not the result of great attacking structures and smart, enterprising play. Go back and what that first half, we had absolutely no idea what we were doing on attack. At all. Sure, Townsend and Tomkins - bar getting us a few repeat sets - were truly pathetic, but no one had any idea what they were doing out there, where to stand, what lines to run and when to run... We had enough ball, enough territory and enough penalties to win 2 games there, but our attack was so poor in the areas of the field where it really matters, that it made NO difference.
This is on the coach...
The two that have really stood up for me this year are Vete and Lolohea. Stellar years. Hopefully Lisone will continue to improve too. One I must admit that I never thought was good enough was Gubb. I have to say that he has been excellent and his defence off the bench when momentum is swinging away from us is invaluable moving forward to next season. Stand up and take a bow, Charlie.
I've been screaming about our absence of support runners for years now! We have/had some of the best offloaders in the game whose talents have been wasted by our almost complete lack of awareness that offloads might occur. How many times have we seen a player unexpectedly receive an offload and go "shit! I've got the ball! whose feet can I throw it at"Sigh.... Should have nailed that with all those repeat sets but sadly just proved what everyone was saying. We got nothing in attack without Johnson.
I'll echo what everyone else is saying about Townsend... Not sad he's leaving at all.
How bloody hard is it to have a support runner off Muts. Lost count of the number of times he ran at a small dude out wide and could have easily offloaded, but had nobody in support.
McFadden and Mannering said in the press conference (to paraphrase) that the energy, intensity was there on attack but what ultimately cost us the game were defensively soft performances by our left edge that let at least one easy try in.
The really frustrating thing is that we all know nothing is going to change there.
We haven't had a proper support playing fullback since McKinnon. The Sheck will hopefully fix that problem to some degree next year but to be honest I haven't seen him running much off the forwards either. The best support players in recent times have been Maloney and Johnson.I've been screaming about our absence of support runners for years now! We have/had some of the best offloaders in the game whose talents have been wasted by our almost complete lack of awareness that offloads might occur. How many times have we seen a player unexpectedly receive an offload and go "shit! I've got the ball! whose feet can I throw it at"
Great post.Let's look at this rationally - we were without our chief playmaker, our main man in attack and thus it was always going to be the case that our attack was a little disjointed (which, lets be frank, it can be at the best of times anyway)... so given this, would it not make sense to put players in their most familiar positions, to create a sense of cohesion? I just don't get why you would take our left centre - who's played there all year, in a game where his partner in crime on that edge is coming back from injury, thus rekindling that combination - and put him on the other side of the field, where he's not played all year, and with someone coming back into the side from injury and who is playing his 4th(?) game?... Then, you take someone who's been our right centre for the last few years (admittedly, with many interruptions in that time) and put him on the left edge, where I'm not sure he's played in FG at all in his career, or if he was, on very few occasions... Again, pairing them with two players coming back from injury.
I was all for bringing Simon and Ben to the edges, seemed like a great idea to me, but again, I cannot fathom why on earth you would put Mutts, who was nigh on unstoppable on that left edge at times last year, and put him on the right, and take Simon who had by and large been your right edge back rower for the last few years, and put him on the left...
Then, probably the most confounding, you place our left edge playmaker - who has in his entire time at the club, only played left edge - on the right, and put our rookie on the left, again utterly altering the make-up of our combinations...
The heck?
you are right BUT both centres need to learn to read the game better and don't miss tackles, that's only part of it. woke up this morning with another bloody nightmare????So fucking angry at that performance! Not because we lost, but because every time we had attacking field position, we sent it through our edge backrowers hoping to crash over, so much for not changing the game plan cappy, you minge, didn't once see us try to free our outside backs, and what was the point of changing sides with kata and Konnie? Did nothing except ruin our edge defence... Fucksake
McFadden and Mannering said in the press conference (to paraphrase) that the energy, intensity was there on attack but what ultimately cost us the game were defensively soft performances by our left edge that let at least one easy try in.
The really frustrating thing is that we all know nothing is going to change there.
I think you might be putting too much on Elliott's Manly comment. He was probably more referring to how Manly play smart and always make the defence think and work.Second point. Townsend is a split halves kind of guy who does well with a structured attack on his left edge, and Tomkins offers that structure from the back, but Hurrell and Manu don't give any structure at all...
Third point. Cappy inherited a team that his predecessors tried to turn into Manly and didn't even get half way into recruiting players who could play the Manly style. Not only that but our club is now being pushed into a full ad lib footy club with the new signings coming through. Does Cappy even know how to coach an ad lib footy side?