Lack of direction/cohesion

[Apey]

Am I the only one who thinks that this is one of the team's biggest problems? It wasn't just last night either, although perhaps the Dragons' intimidating defence emphasised it a bit.

I'm not really sure why at times the team just look as if they have no idea what they're supposed to do, or where they're supposed to be. It's not just a credit to the opposing team who can often have us flustered (although that may point to a poor mentality) - we seem to have this problem even when playing poor opposition.

A few examples of what I'm talking about...

A player will make a decent break, and will find the team standing back with nobody in support.

A player will crab across the field looking for a hard gap-runner, but nobody puts their hand up and they end up getting tackled with the ball.

A player will look for an offload, and either can find nobody or find someone who's standing completely still and may as well have just kept the ball.

A backline movement will begin, and it seems some players have no idea where they should be at the time, and a pass will go behind someone, causing them to slow down and either ruin the movement or come close to it.

To sum it up in a few words; they look lost.

Who's fault is it though? Is it the players in general, that is, is it a team failure, or is it poor coaching? lack of leadership? the lack of organisation from the halfback?? Poor mentality that leads to a lack of confidence? Inexperience? :?

Or am I just being too harsh?

 

[Gene Krupa]

Mate, the season is over, we can sit here and go through every game but the fact of the matter is, we didn't win enough of the close games. We had the potential to do better but it didn't clique. i'm just glad that we didn't lay down yesterday.


The old boys would have been proud of our team of 'out of towners' last night

 

[Noname36]

I would have agreed 100% if this thread had have come up 2 or so months ago, but I think our cohesion and attacking movement has improved significantly in the past month. We struggled a little last night, but we were up against the best defense in the comp by far, and we did still manage to put 18 points on them, and look dangerous most of the time. It was also an issue during the warriors game, but losing Mullen days before the game certainly didn't help.

However at the back end of the season we've always been dangerous. We've been able to destroy Manly, The Doggies and Brisbane. I agree that we could do with a little more structure, but I think saying we look lost is a little harsh. If you watch our first try to Gids last week against the Broncs for example, everyone ran their angle perfectly, allowing Mullo to pick up Gidley.

There's a lot of things we need to work on for next year...our ruck defense particularly, however I don't think our attack is a lost cause. Just needs a tiny bit of polish.

 

[SaltNVinegar]

Compared to how we used to play when Joey was around? We're a million times better off

 

[SaltNVinegar]

Compared to how we used to play when Joey was injured etc?. We are a million times better off atm

 

[Apey]

I would have agreed 100% if this thread had have come up 2 or so months ago, but I think our cohesion and attacking movement has improved significantly in the past month. We struggled a little last night, but we were up against the best defense in the comp by far, and we did still manage to put 18 points on them, and look dangerous most of the time. It was also an issue during the warriors game, but losing Mullen days before the game certainly didn't help.

Well yeah, I noticed it earlier in the year and thought it resurfaced again last night.

However at the back end of the season we've always been dangerous. We've been able to destroy Manly, The Doggies and Brisbane. I agree that we could do with a little more structure, but I think saying we look lost is a little harsh. If you watch our first try to Gids last week against the Broncs for example, everyone ran their angle perfectly, allowing Mullo to pick up Gidley.

Meh, I thought we looked shaky even during some of those games. I am a pretty emo fan though so I could be being a bit harsh :lol:

There's a lot of things we need to work on for next year...our ruck defense particularly, however I don't think our attack is a lost cause. Just needs a tiny bit of polish.

Defence is definitely important, however there have also been several games this year where we couldn't put a team away when it mattered most. I don't think our attack is a lost cause either, I just find it frustrating when at times where we don't get the mix of structured and unstructured play right.

 

[Newie is God's Country]

Rick Stone has all off season to sort it out mate. He has 12 months to prolong or end his career as far as the knight are concerned.