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Interchange and not using players

itsme

Juniors
Messages
135
I dont understand why time after time we finish a game and have only used 16 players.

If Mary doesnt have the confidence to use a guy on the bench, why wouldnt he pick someone he does have the confidence to use?

We have had no injuries and our forwards are playing big minutes (with origin). I just hope they dont burn out at the back end of the year.

Today we played with 15 till the last 5 or 6 minutes. In recent weeks we have had JDB playing with injury and possibly a few more. I dont see the point in leaving a fresh guy and not giving him a run. To me its very frustrating to watch. What are all your thoughts on this??

On a positive note im very happy we got the win!
 
Last edited:

Frank Facer

First Grade
Messages
5,069
I dont understand why time after time we finish a game and have only used 16 players.

If Mary doesnt have the confidence to use a guy on the bench, why wouldnt he pick someone he does have the confidence to use?

We have had no injuries and our forwards are playing big minutes (with origin). I just hope they dont burn out at the back end of the year.

Today we played with 15 till the last 5 or 6 minutes. In recent weeks we have had JDB playing with injury and possibly a few more. I dont see the point in leaving a fresh guy and not giving him a run. To me its very frustrating to watch. What are all your thoughts on this??

On a positive not im very happy we got the win!
Mary wanted his best players on the field as much as possible. It makes perfect sense to me. We won, we are leading the comp. It is pretty simple for me to understand.

Maybe Mary is preparing for the reduced interchange too.
 

itsme

Juniors
Messages
135
Mary wanted his best players on the field as much as possible. It makes perfect sense to me. We won, we are leading the comp. It is pretty simple for me to understand.

Maybe Mary is preparing for the reduced interchange too.
Point taken. My concern with that is the effect the increased workload is having.

Another thing is that these fringe players would greatly benefit from the time/exposure in being on the paddock. These are the guys we will be banking on if we do get hit with injuries.
 

Dragonslayer

First Grade
Messages
7,679
McGregor has many weaknesses as a coach, but the use (non) of the interchange bench has to be #1. He either is lost in the game and forgets that he has fresh reserves, or, doesn't trust them to do the job in close battle situations, or, just thinks everything is sweet as long as we're winning.
 

watatank

Coach
Messages
13,973
It's pretty clear there are only so many players that McGregor trusts, which is < 17. It was a tight game, we needed our best players out there, we got the result we wanted. It's not a long term solution but McGregor isn't really interested in that.
 

ouryears

Bench
Messages
3,195
Mary wanted his best players on the field as much as possible. It makes perfect sense to me. We won, we are leading the comp. It is pretty simple for me to understand.

Maybe Mary is preparing for the reduced interchange too.
When you play the game and you are working your arse off, against other fit, big and strong players, it's a scientific fact that once you feel tired, your performance drops by 20% and your error rate doubles.

Coming off even for 5 minutes reinvigorates you, and your performance stays at a high standard throughout.

Not giving tired and exhausted players a strategic break is Mary's way of telling us he is an idiot and has no idea.
 

Frank Facer

First Grade
Messages
5,069
When you play the game and you are working your arse off, against other fit, big and strong players, it's a scientific fact that once you feel tired, your performance drops by 20% and your error rate doubles.

Coming off even for 5 minutes reinvigorates you, and your performance stays at a high standard throughout.

Not giving tired and exhausted players a strategic break is Mary's way of telling us he is an idiot and has no idea.
Yeah, and Mary interchanged his best players this game. I noticed that he replaced Vaughn in the first half and then brought him back on in the first half.
 

hermidale1

Juniors
Messages
353
It has nothing to do with the team leading the comp at all. History shows the coach has done this several times since 2016. It has everything to to with the coach and his coaching career. He has no confidence of anyone outside of his 16. If the game is closer than 18 points with 10 to go, then there is no chance any players younger than 23 will get a look in.
How can anyone possibly think he's preparing for the less interchange.
 

ouryears

Bench
Messages
3,195
It has nothing to do with the team leading the comp at all. History shows the coach has done this several times since 2016. It has everything to to with the coach and his coaching career. He has no confidence of anyone outside of his 16. If the game is closer than 18 points with 10 to go, then there is no chance any players younger than 23 will get a look in.
How can anyone possibly think he's preparing for the less interchange.
No one really thinks that.
It's their way of apologising for Mary's stupidity.
 

Frank Facer

First Grade
Messages
5,069
It has nothing to do with the team leading the comp at all. History shows the coach has done this several times since 2016. It has everything to to with the coach and his coaching career. He has no confidence of anyone outside of his 16. If the game is closer than 18 points with 10 to go, then there is no chance any players younger than 23 will get a look in.
How can anyone possibly think he's preparing for the less interchange.
I was actually joking when I said that maybe Mary is preparing for less interchange. lol
 

giboz71

First Grade
Messages
8,895
I keep thinking back to that 1st game against Souths when the game was in the bag only for Leilua to almost gift the game away.

Think Mary is still a bit spooked to stick less experienced players in tight games still in the balance, hence he stuck Nighty out there instead of Host.
 

ouryears

Bench
Messages
3,195
I keep thinking back to that 1st game against Souths when the game was in the bag only for Leilua to almost gift the game away.

Think Mary is still a bit spooked to stick less experienced players in tight games still in the balance, hence he stuck Nighty out there instead of Host.
But there will be a do or die match where we might get a few injuries and he has to.

Then they are not ready, still inexperienced and still prone to errors.

Taking a risk during the season VS final games......what can I say?

No big picture vision from Mary.
 

giboz71

First Grade
Messages
8,895
But there will be a do or die match where we might get a few injuries and he has to.

Then they are not ready, still inexperienced and still prone to errors.

Taking a risk during the season VS final games......what can I say?

No big picture vision from Mary.

We need to get to those do or die games first.

Losing close games to teams like the Dogs will ensure we won’t make it to those games anyway. Take last year as an example.
 

MilanDragon

Juniors
Messages
902
I think what’s happening is LAM is playing more minutes than most interchange forwards do.

Mix in that Sims and Frizz play 80 minutes, that’s why there is a bench player playing 0 mins essentially. So the question is do you bring on say a Host/Sele to replace Sims or Frizz? Which then you’ve also got to bring the original player back on, burning two interchanges.

If we do that, then Vaughan or Graham play longer minutes. For example yesterday:

Vaughan: 48mins
Graham: 46mins
LAM: 47mins
Latimore: 28mins

Yet for the Dogs, Klemmer played 57mins, Woods 49mins
Tolman: 47mins
 

ouryears

Bench
Messages
3,195
We need to get to those do or die games first.

Losing close games to teams like the Dogs will ensure we won’t make it to those games anyway. Take last year as an example.
True, but putting nighty in the forwards yesterday surely isn't as good as putting host or others in there.

Plus the games we have won by 14 or more, he still didn't do it.

It's a balancing act that Penrith, storm and rabbits can all do, if you don't want to suddenly have to do it in the finals....you got to do it sometime now.
 

muzby

Village Idiot
Staff member
Messages
45,708
I wonder if it’s a strategy to get our players to have a higher stamina than the opposition..

Get them used to playing with one less man than everyone else..

Then in the run to the finals actually use a proper 4 man bench and run rings around the other teams..
 

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