Anthony Griffin

[TheFrog]

and Hook wasn’t the coach. A rookie was.

I was talking about Hook’s record against top 4 teams. 1 win from 14 games.

I was going to mention that. It was still his structures and fitness regime. If Ciraldo had skills Hook didn't, they still could have been used.

 

[TheFrog]

Can we get him a job, better than listening to him on fox.

They say people have a head for radio, Griffin has a voice for print media.

He sounds like a bloke on mogadon, but he understands the game. I think I'd prefer that to some of the screamers we are getting.

 

[Pomoz]

Look at it this way. We would’ve been cannon fodder in the finals this year, I see more benefit from not making it because it’ll force the club to try some new things. Fan pressure, media pressure, pressure for people to retain their jobs.

In my view the squad we’ve been building hasn’t struck the right balance between juniors and recruits. I know you probably disagree with that @Pomoz, so I won’t go into a deep dive on that. But I’m hoping the club is aggressive in the player market this off season & maybe next.

No, you need experience to win finals matches and letting go of Whare, Blake and DWZ just removed a load of experience out of the team. When Maloney leaves our average age will come down further.

I am a fan of making the club mainly juniors and selected recruits (hopefully stars), just like the Roosters, but that does not mean rookies. The two aren't mutually exclusive. To get a higher percentage of juniors you need to to do it over period of at least five years so there is enough experience in the team. We have just seen Yeo, JFH, Blake, DWZ, and RCG who are all juniors, become NRL battle hardened players. What we did wrong, allegedly (Gus isn't able to defend himself so I'm not taking what the CEO and Chairman said as being completely true) is pay them too much so we have to let them go. It is also possible they just don't get on with Ivan.

You can replace them with rookie juniors if your team has lots of experience but we don't and releasing Whare and Maloney next year just exacerbates the problem. Now we have to recruit some experience. The scary thing is our most experienced player in the spine is Cleary next year. We are West Tigers mark 2.

 

[herbert henry1908]

I was going to mention that. It was still his structures and fitness regime. If Ciraldo had skills Hook didn't, they still could have been used.

Im definitely not saying Hook doesn’t deserve any credit, I think he did some good things at the club, particularly instilling discipline & fitness. I just think he wasn’t the coach to take us to the next level.

 

[Abacus]

It is also possible they just don't get on with Ivan.

Or Nathan.

 

[OldPanther]

It’s pretty easy to understand why Gus wanted Hook, Gus loves the Brisbane system and tried to replicate it here, bringing in a guy knows the system was a no brainer to him. Griffin was also good at bringing juniors up into first grade and getting them settled.

For all of his faults at least he trained the team as hard as he could resulting in top level fitness and pretty good defence, unfortunately he has the Same issues Cleary has in attack although funnily enough at least we were capable of scoring from outside of the red zone, now we’re just useless with the ball all over the park.

I think sacking Griffin was the right move going forward but our recruiting strategy or lack there of coupled with some pretty big losses over the years and bringing back a bang average coach was pretty stupid, truth is we’ve gone backwards big time.

Our defence was regularly stated to be terrible.

 

[Abacus]

Our defence was regularly stated to be terrible.

Not in the 2nd half of games.

A large part of defensive effectiveness is fitness. And this year, our fitness this season was a couple of rungs below where it had been.

 

[OldPanther]

Not in the 2nd half of games.

A large part of defensive effectiveness is fitness. And this year, our fitness this season was a couple of rungs below where it had been.

True. We were rolling over teams as they got tired but also had bad first halves.

Hard to do when your PT session is running to the shower after playing catch for 15 minutes. Judging by this year I don't actually think they go to training honestly.

 

[martielang]

Our defence was regularly stated to be terrible.

Our defence was terrible, if you base it purely on missed tackles. We had the best cover/2nd line defence in the comp & the reason our MT were so high is because we defended with such an aggressive line with players shooting out which forced the opposition out of shape.

Anyway it’s all said & done now, I respect yours & @herbert henry1908 position on Hook... you’ll come around one day.

 

[OldPanther]

Our defence was terrible, if you base it purely on missed tackles. We had the best cover/2nd line defence in the comp & the reason our MT were so high is because we defended with such an aggressive line with players shooting out which forced the opposition out of shape.

Anyway it’s all said & done now, I respect yours & @herbert henry1908 position on Hook... you’ll come around one day.

That's cool yet very dependent on fitness which they now don't have and is much less effective against the best teams.

 

[franklin2323]

Madge, Des, Bennett

all these guys would’ve done better.

I am not disputing that but atleast management and coach are on the same page so that is an improvement

 

[franklin2323]

Our defence was regularly stated to be terrible.

No worse then this year. NRL.com has team stats from last 5 years and not much has changed

 

[OldPanther]

No worse then this year. NRL.com has team stats from last 5 years and not much has changed

Oh I know. Thought Ivan would fix that.

 

[franklin2323]

Oh I know. Thought Ivan would fix that.

It is because the coach always is blamed. It was the players committing those errors atleast now the right areas are being looked at

 

[tripster]

I don’t think we will improve unless we can get our fitness back up to where it should be.

There is undoubtedly a correlation between how fit the players in a team are and their results.

Hook has showed us the potential of our team simply with an extreme level of fitness and an aggressive style of play (and little to no game plan).

Imagine you combined that level of fitness with better discipline and higher completion rates. If you can get that right you will win more games than you lose and put yourself in finals contention every season. Rugby league isn’t a super complex game.

I have heard a number of players interviewed who used to play under Bennett who said he never coached attack. What did he coach was extreme fitness, self belief, not giving away penalties, not dropping balls and playing for 80 minutes (and of course was then blessed for a large part of his career with having naturally talented halves who could spot and convert opportunities when they arose).

Unfortunately our fitness has gone backwards dramatically this season compared to last year, and it is hard to find a single area where we have improved other than the first 20 minutes of games where we aren’t getting behind as often. We probably also make slightly less dumb errors compared to last year but not greatly so.

We no longer play for 80 minutes, and if we got behind by 14-0 (like we did in many games last year) we would never get back in front. We rarely score many points. Our defence is also much less aggressive.

Unless we make a change in the off season to our fitness regime then next season is going to be just as disappointing as this one.

 

[Pomoz]

I don’t think we will improve unless we can get our fitness back up to where it should be.

There is undoubtedly a correlation between how fit the players in a team are and their results.

Hook has showed us the potential of our team simply with an extreme level of fitness and an aggressive style of play (and little to no game plan).

Imagine you combined that level of fitness with better discipline and higher completion rates. If you can get that right you will win more games than you lose and put yourself in finals contention every season. Rugby league isn’t a super complex game.

I have heard a number of players interviewed who used to play under Bennett who said he never coached attack. What did he coach was extreme fitness, self belief, not giving away penalties, not dropping balls and playing for 80 minutes (and of course was then blessed for a large part of his career with having naturally talented halves who could spot and convert opportunities when they arose).

Unfortunately our fitness has gone backwards dramatically this season compared to last year, and it is hard to find a single area where we have improved other than the first 20 minutes of games where we aren’t getting behind as often. We probably also make slightly less dumb errors compared to last year but not greatly so.

We no longer play for 80 minutes, and if we got behind by 14-0 (like we did in many games last year) we would never get back in front. We rarely score many points. Our defence is also much less aggressive.

Unless we make a change in the off season to our fitness regime then next season is going to be just as disappointing as this one.

Its hard to be aggressive when you are trying to breath in so you don't pass out from asphyxia. What genius decided to get rid of the fitness staff? If it was Cleary he has proven he is a grade A, 24 carat muppet. His current regime of light stretching, 3 games of poker and a trip to Pie Face has yielded a team heading for a wooden spoon next year. Katoa looks like he ate a cow, Kikau looks permanently gassed and like he smokes 40 a day. Blake, before he left, went from gliding across the ground to ploughing down the ground like he is wearing divers boots and attached by invisible elastic to the back fence.

There is always an exception that breaks the rule and I can only assume JFH is actually from the planet Krypton, because in spite of the Love Boat over 70's aerobics sessions, he is superhuman and makes 4 billion tackles a game and still has the energy to give away 2 penalties and top the metres gained most weeks.

 

[Abacus]

I don’t think we will improve unless we can get our fitness back up to where it should be.

There is undoubtedly a correlation between how fit the players in a team are and their results.

Hook has showed us the potential of our team simply with an extreme level of fitness and an aggressive style of play (and little to no game plan).

Imagine you combined that level of fitness with better discipline and higher completion rates. If you can get that right you will win more games than you lose and put yourself in finals contention every season. Rugby league isn’t a super complex game.

I have heard a number of players interviewed who used to play under Bennett who said he never coached attack. What did he coach was extreme fitness, self belief, not giving away penalties, not dropping balls and playing for 80 minutes (and of course was then blessed for a large part of his career with having naturally talented halves who could spot and convert opportunities when they arose).

Unfortunately our fitness has gone backwards dramatically this season compared to last year, and it is hard to find a single area where we have improved other than the first 20 minutes of games where we aren’t getting behind as often. We probably also make slightly less dumb errors compared to last year but not greatly so.

We no longer play for 80 minutes, and if we got behind by 14-0 (like we did in many games last year) we would never get back in front. We rarely score many points. Our defence is also much less aggressive.

Unless we make a change in the off season to our fitness regime then next season is going to be just as disappointing as this one.

Quality post.

 

[martielang]

It's just crazy the difference in mentality as a supporter (& the football team) when comparing the last few years to this year. The toughness & ability to fight back is just non-existent. It's just depressing watching the team.

 

[OldPanther]

It's just crazy the difference in mentality as a supporter (& the football team) when comparing the last few years to this year. The toughness & ability to fight back is just non-existent. It's just depressing watching the team.

It's the one thing I always feared losing Griffin. That fitness and ability to mentally stay in the game. I always said he needed good tactically minded assistant coaches.

 

[tripster]

It's just crazy the difference in mentality as a supporter (& the football team) when comparing the last few years to this year. The toughness & ability to fight back is just non-existent. It's just depressing watching the team.

I think the two things are related. It is much easier to fight back and believe you can still win when you are fit and have the energy to keep going even when the score board has gone against you.