Brian McGuigan: "“Yesterday I Lost Faith [in Nathan Brown]"

[TooheysNew]

I have been a fan of Browns efforts to get rid of the dead wood with hopefully more to come.I too have an issue with some of the selections & recalling Hodkinson to me is not doing the team any favours or Brown himself. My issue with Brown & all his assistants, is their inability or unwillingness to get the backlines defence in order. Week after week the opposition swings the ball wide & every time we are cut to pieces , whether left or right.The players don't number up or communicate, there is always an overlap, together with just plain dumb defensive reads across the board. Either these guys are as dumb as they come to make the same mistakes, time & time again, week after week or they are products of absolutely pathetic coaching from day one in their careers. Youth or inexperience is no excuse for this or the half baked arm tackling & attempted jumper grabbing we witness each weak, if nobody in the coaching staff has the smarts to get some decent defensive strategies in place maybe we need to look for someone to come in who can.At the moment all our opponents well & truly have our number because of this deficiency.

As much as you don't want to hear it, I think you'll find a lot of that is because they are kids. Defensive reads in the backline are bloody hard. Sure, there are some young players that do it well, but it's not usually something that you just know how to do without experience or a really good defensive centre.

Tackling, yep, you're right. No excuse for jumper grabbing, but as far as positioning and reads, I don't think it's purely a coaching issue.

 

[Spot On]

I can't agree more with you Scar Tissue. I thought the side looked much better in defence over the first 2 to 3 months this season when they were getting off their line all game. Now we've reverted back to this shit we've always seemed to do on the edges and that is be caught on our heels, moving back at times, wait and watch the ball to be moved and then slide across in a mad panic and have our winger come in and try and jam some bloke that usually doesn't get or have the ball to leave a 2 man overlap for the opposition winger to walk over. I don't get it????


On another note, Mitch Barnett has captain of the jersey grabbers. Starting to really shit me that bloke.

 

[Burwood]

Not to mention that our backline gets chopped and changed every second week. It's hard to build up a reliable combination when the player your are alongside keeps changing. Only Sio and Pete have had consistency with their position this year.

 

[Pedge1971]

Canmot excuse the jersey grabbing but to be fair to the guys on the edge we are getting so badly towelled up on the middle it is only natural for blokes to push in and help put the ball carrier down and/or stop the offload.

If/when we do get parity or dominate heaven forbid I think yoju will find we wont be as vulnerable on the edges.

Not sure there is a lot the coach can do in that situation but our desperation and desire in defence has improved year on year compared to 2016.

 

[Scar Tissue]

Pedge I can see where you are coming from, but if you watch closely this pushing in wouldn't be needed if our tackling was dominant & aggressive.The trouble is we usually have three players doing a half hearted waltz with the ball carrier & then a fourth man becomes interested rather than sticking wider with his man, he ends up contributing bugger all, either caught in no mans land or by the time he puts hands on the ball carrier the offload has already happened.Its all about judgement & communication/talk between defenders.With such a passive defensive line we then get involved in wrestling/holding down too long to get ourselves time to reorganise & manage to give away ridiculous penalties again & again as a result.If a few blokes would start putting their bodies on the line each week(the best form of defence is attack), with some venom(not stupidity)in their tackles we would need less men in tackles & the opposition wouldn't be getting up as quick.Spot On, I was a Barnett fan last year, but am rapidly losing patience as he seems to be overthinking everything attempting to be a spoiling, smartarse type, rather than sticking to his strengths (in your words) run hard & tackle hard & the rest will flow from there.Final point would love to see Watson come to the club, as in all that I have seen of him he competes on every play as if it is his last, both in attack & defence, plays well above his weight & has plenty of energy & aggression,(an old style scrapper) which would hopefully rub off on some of our stars (or athletes as the wankers call them), who seem to be in cruise control!

 

[Spot On]

I like the cut of your jib Scar T. We're on the same page!

 

[Spot On]

Canmot excuse the jersey grabbing but to be fair to the guys on the edge we are getting so badly towelled up on the middle it is only natural for blokes to push in and help put the ball carrier down and/or stop the offload.

If/when we do get parity or dominate heaven forbid I think yoju will find we wont be as vulnerable on the edges.

Not sure there is a lot the coach can do in that situation but our desperation and desire in defence has improved year on year compared to 2016.

I agree here somewhat but I don't think we are defending the same way as we were a while back. We had really good line speed throughout the game in all positions on the park and I just can't see that anymore.