A bit of retrospect

[Jono078]

So after round 1 we all thought the team looked promising and our defense had improved quite a bit.

And just about all of us said give it about 4-8 weeks til we start seeing some big improvement and start looking like a top calibre team.

So basically the question I want to get out is; just how much do you think we have improved since then? And do you think we'll have enough improvement over the next 10 weeks to make a splash in the finals series?

I personally don't think we've improved that much. We have a nervous crop of players and are struggling to settle on them especially front rowers and the bench. Yes a set play has come off since. But not at the rate we had all imagined.

At least we can look forward to a win next week if our form guide is anything to go by - LWLWLWLWL.

 

[Newynut]

Most players seem to be trying hard and playing OK in their own rite but not playing as a team.
Wouldnt that point at the coach. Buggers me.

 

[The Showstopper]

Too much too soon is taking it's toll on some players. Bottom line is trying too hard won't fix things. The media have got to them IMO. Mentally fragile.

 

[Jobdog]

I will say one thing.

At times (regardless of if they're producing points or not) our attack looks pretty good, players in motion, players knowing what they're doing.

At other times we look like a park footy side who has never played together before and throw unnecessary panic passes hoping for a miracle.

Sometimes these two things happen in the space of five minutes ...

 

[Burwood]

Our defence has remained fairly solid, unfortunately we just don't have the attack to take full advantage of it.

The biggest concern for me has been the apparent lack of improvement in players. Who in our first grade squad can you look at and seriously say that they are a better player now than in previous seasons? McManus is returning to the form that saw him play SOO and Mullen is finally showing a bit of consistency, but other players look the same, or even more alarmingly worse, then when Bennett got here.

I thought Edwards may have had "Cory Paterson Syndrome" at the start of the season, but he's just ended up replacing the other redheaded nuffy we used to have on our books.

 

[Spot On]

Bennett has always preached the basics. Keep it simple. The same formula that has worked for him for over 20 years. Simple.

Simple is proving extremely difficult for the cattle he has to cope with apparently.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

Let's all remember a very important factor. Injuries.

As usual we have had some of the worst luck with injuries so far this year. Our captain (and a very high involvement player) plays about 3 games not even in a row and is out for the year and our most experienced player gets injured at the wrong time when we really need to start stringing together a few wins.

Not to mention they are both playing in key positions and are part of our spine which as a result has had to be tinkered with a few times now.

Now compare this to a team such as Melbourne, who's lack of injuries to key players is astonishing. Maybe our next big signing should be the Melbourne Storm physio!? just joking, but never the less how is it that their 3 best players play about 6 straight seasons with each other and miss maybe 5-6 games between them from injury during this time?

While we have injuries all over the place every year and aren't even able to put the same set of halves on the field 2 weeks in a row.

Obviously you'd put all this down to luck, and I know that ranting about it here has no bearing on the outcome at all. But I would like for us for once to have a year where our 1,6,7 and 9 all get to play pretty much the full season together. Then maybe we'd be able to see what this team is really capable of.

Anyway obviously we haven't had much of a season so far and haven't looked to have improved, I just wanted to make the point that injuries have played IMO a big part in that.

 

[aqua_duck]

Most players seem to be trying hard and playing OK in their own rite but not playing as a team.
Wouldnt that point at the coach. Buggers me.

I think you're being very kind saying most players are playing OK. I'd say our entire pack has been below par.
It's a miracle we've even won 4 games considering the amount of ball we seem to drop, we also seem to love dropping the ball 1st and 2nd tackle aswell.
The most basic equation in rugby league is possession usual equals victory. You can't score points without the ball and only once this season have we had more ball than the opposition and that not surprisingly was when we looked the best, the dogs game

 

[Rod]

I'm not sure how much we can blame on injuries, I actually think until Kurt we have had pretty good luck with injuries this year. Probably the only loss we could largely put down to injuries is yesterday, because we lost our two leaders during the week leading up to the game.

I think despite our mostly average performances to start the season, most of us thought it was a case of when, not if, we clicked and started playing some really good footy. After 9 weeks I honestly am having doubts as to whether that is still going to happen. Maybe that is just a bit of emo hangover from yesterday I don't know.

I will say that even despite our lapses in the second half yesterday our defence has been mostly very good all year. The problem is there is no point defending like Melbourne if you can't make the opposition pay at the other end of the field.

I am loathe to suggest that I know better than a coach like Bennett, so I say this with a lot of caution, but I'm not sure how much our low-percentage one-off the ruck hit-up strategy is working. We don't have the ball control or discipline to make a plan like that work. Other teams know what we are going to do, so they just rush up and belt our forwards. At least if we spread it wide early at least once a set it puts the defence in two minds about rushing up. One of our most effective attacking options over the last few years has been simply Mullen spreading early from in our own half out to someone like Naiqama or Mad Dog and seeing what they can create with a bit of early space (and Uate).

Of course that above paragraph comes with a big disclaimer, because it indeed might all suddenly just come together and the boys start rolling forward and that allows us to play some attacking football on the back of that. But at the moment it looks like we are a long way off looking like a team who knows what they are doing.

 

[The Showstopper]

I just live in hope that Wayne has a plan in place to make us competitive in the back half of the year where we can string a run of wins together. Confidence crisis would appear to be a significant problem. Darius Boyd is not the only one playing below expectations. I think an end of season clear out is inevtiable now. The forwards are letting the backs down.

 

[Joker's Wild]

We simply dont have he size to compete with the sides who do

Snowden and now Mason are our only dedicated go forward piggies. Next we have guys like Taia who is a wide runner, House the same, Eddie and McKinnon who are gap runners, Faas tries hard but is too small to run at multiple defenders and lastly Waltzing and Costigan who are backup hookers and tacklers.

Too many guys who play their best footy when others are doing the go forward, not enough guys who actually get that go forward for them

 

[RABK]

Probably the best explanation of our main problem i've read on here JW.

 

[aqua_duck]

Eddie a gap runner? Has he ever run through a gap before?

 

[RABK]

He ran through one yesterday after Hilder got 'stripped' of the ball at DH. I do agree but - he is just so god damn useless. A complete nuffy who needs to be shown the door. I never saw anything from him in juniors and i didn't let two big hits cloud my opinion of him like 98% of those on here.

 

[aqua_duck]

Lol he tab though half a gap after the opposition had all stopped because they saw a knock on. The bloke is just useless in attack

 

[RABK]

McKinnon ain't much better. Running up the middle he gets bent over like a thai ladyboy every run.

 

[The Showstopper]

Edwards, Fas, Hilder, and Cuthbo all need to be shown the door. We are a club looking to become the elite. We need to start buying big game players and forget the press and local reaction to our juniors being pushed aside. In short, be arrogant about it. Right now our juniors are either not ready or not up to it. We need Bird as a minimum start.
We need a big bopper with presence. Surely there is front rower out there willing to play under Bennett. Weyman a possibility? Matt Ballin still allegedly deciding on our offer. You add hypothetically Weyman, Bird and Ballin to our pack and we look very different. Aggression plus go forward all three of them.

 

[perverse]

We do have issues with the pack, there's no doubt about that... but it's really the drop ball that is murdering us. If we would just respect the ball more, we would be travelling a lot better. While it's true that we could be playing a lot better with some bigger boys, we're making things so hard on ourselves at the moment getting the basics wrong. What we currently have is capable of a lot more, that's what really shits me off.

 

[aqua_duck]

McKinnon ain't much better. Running up the middle he gets bent over like a thai ladyboy every run.

I'm prepared to cut McKinnon some slack, he's still very young and has had some decent performances this year, Eddy is 24 now, you really have to wonder how much improvement he's got in him

 

[Newynut]

I am getting the feeling that Bennett wants Gidley and Danny to get fixed for next year because he has written off this season.