We need to take the good from each of the past 3 seasons and stitch it together. We also need to improve in a number of areas.
We need to:
- Bank points early as we did in 2018 and continue to find a way to win. Even though the second part of this had alot of us in fits for a large number of games this year.
- Be consistent with our defence. This is what I believe truly let us down in 2018. We went from world beaters, bashing our opposition and dominating the middle third to complete pea hearts and vice versa. This happened within games and from week to week. We just didn't know which Panthers side would show up from half to half and week to week. The Sharks game epitomised our season. We couldn't go shot for shot with a red-hot Sharks side in the first half. You can't give away an 18 point lead to a top 4 team and expect to come away with the win.
- Keep it simple and play more direct. Stop throwing the ball from one side of the field to the other. Give our ball players options to hit a straight runner short or wide.
- Again in keeping it simple - don't force the pass, don't pass to a bloke in a worse position than you. Take the tackle and reset. We were horrible in this regard.
- Choose our moments - we were a very predictable team for a large proportion of our game time. Get rid of the midfield bomb every second set. Kick early on the 3rd tackle if we are pinned. Kick the ball into touch and reset if we are losing the arm wrestle. There is a time and place to play off the cuff, adlib football.
I think we have the team to finish top 4 in 2019. But would I be genuinely surprised if we finished anywhere from 9-16th? Probably not.
