Eels Next Coach

[hineyrulz]

For 15 years now, we have lived here. Before that time, I was a pet of my master Yoshi. When we were forced to come to New York, I found myself for the first time without a home, wandering thew sewers, scavaging for whatever I could find. And then, one day, I came upon a shattered glass jar and four baby turtles.

We could paint Bea Arthur Green and he could become the 5th Ninja turtle Splinter son.

 

[IFR33K]

What sort of tactics would you like to see us employ? What is the coaching squad getting wrong?

Gary please don’t take offense to this. You come across as a highly intelligent/educated person. But honestly you pull some dumb one liners out every now and then.

 

[Gary Gutful]

Gary please don’t take offense to this. You come across as a highly intelligent/educated person. But honestly you pull some dumb one liners out every now and then.

It’s not a dumb one liner. I’m testing what someone sounding off actually knows.

Have a look at the post that I quoted. Not an ounce of detail - just rhetoric. I was chasing details FFS!

Even when responses were provided, the majority of it was just a description of a problem rather than an outline of tactics that would address the problem.

Next time you think I am asking a stupid question, be aware that it’s likely informed by razor sharp intellect and ruggedly handsome good looks.

 

[hineyrulz]

Gary wants pie charts dammit!!

 

[Gronk]

Gary wants pie charts dammit!!

Take it to the Pie Thread merkin.

https://forums.leagueunlimited.com/threads/pies.482694/

 

[Eelementary]

What sort of tactics would you like to see us employ? What is the coaching squad getting wrong?

I know the question was not asked of me, but please allow me to proffer my opinion.

I think Pou touched on it earlier - we are very disciplined side, and while it is nice to see in many ways, I think we should consider pushing the envelope more, and particularly when we start to give up fast play-the-balls, and start to have momentum wrestled away from us.

I think the coaching staff should tell the team that it is better to give away a 6-again, and slow the play, than to play by the rules, and give up 60 metres per set, where we are effectively on the back foot.

I am also of the belief that our defenders need to pay with more aggression; not in the sense that they need to look to smash merkins on every tackle, but in the sense that we need to get in the attacker's face, and meet them at, or before, the advantage line; I have noticed that we employ what I like to term a "reactive defence", whereby we move up 2 or 3 metres, and then wait for the attackers to come to us.

Granted, this style of defence is probably a safer way to defend (you are likely to have fewer gaps in the line, the line is more likely to remain straight, etc.) - however, I am of the belief that good teams attack with their defence; even when the good teams are starved of the ball, they can try to wrestle momentum back, by moving up aggressively, and forcing the attacking team to make split-second decisions under pressure.

Currently, our "reactive defence" allows our opposition to determine how the game is played, and I believe we need to change that.

I think our attack is generally fine, unless we are behind on the scoreboard by three, or more, tries.

Another tactic that I think should be explored is to encourage our edge forwards to complete tackles one-on-one, and to have the trailing defenders push out wider, to try to shut down attacking raids.

Currently, I believe that we employ the group/gang tackle tactic too frequently out wide, and combined with our "reactive defence", it can lead to situations where our defenders are on the back foot, running to shut a play down, and there is an overlap created.

I recall a tactic used to try to mitigate the damage that Sonny-Bill Williams could cause in his early days - the "umbrella defence" - whereby you would have one lead tackler try to stop SBW, and one defender on either side of the central defender, ready to stop a player from receiving an offload; if SBW did not pop the ball free, then the umbrella would close in on SBW, and effectively cut his time to make plays significantly.

I believe we have a solid enough roster to compete; we just need to be more proactive, and intelligent, in how we play.

Fire away!

 

[Gary Gutful]

Gary wants pie charts dammit!!

I’d even settle for a couple of pie crumbs at this point.

Edit - Eele delivers!

 

[Eelementary]

After making that big, long, dry, boring post, I sort of became convinced that Brad can remain as coach, if he enacts some changes to fine-tune our defence - he's certainly a capable coach.

I guess the issue is whether he will elect ti fine-tune the team, or not.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Which teams have superior rosters? I hope you’re not just going to list the teams above us on the ladder and can give a more nuanced response.

All the sides above us other than the Sharks have better rosters, plus the Roosters are better. Cronulla, Canberra, Manly are about on our level.

 

[Gary Gutful]

All the sides above us other than the Sharks have better rosters, plus the Roosters are better. Cronulla, Canberra, Manly are about on our level.

No way. We are level with Penrith and Stormz!

 

[Poupou Escobar]

It’s just a Pou cop out to support the fraud of a coach, time and time again it’s the players are not good enough or they are just lazy. And don’t forget the lack of resources. It can never ever be the coach or his staff.

I mean I thought the coach did a good job against Manly, simplifying the game plan for Jakey. It worked well especially that second half. What does Sir Baldalot do??? Totally change it up and give the keys to Nepotism Gnome Jr and it fails miserably. But let’s blame the players for not changing what was not working because it couldn’t be the coaches fault not ever nah hah!! Just bad luck I suppose……….

Where's your proof the game plan changed you simpleton? Drown and Arthur's involvement was nearly identical in the two games:

Statistic	Drown vs Manly	Drown vs Souths	Arthur vs Manly	Arthur vs Souths
Touches	55	57	43	46
Passes	39	37	31	28
Runs	11	12	3	6
Kicks	10	7	12	13

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I know the question was not asked of me, but please allow me to proffer my opinion.

I think Pou touched on it earlier - we are very disciplined side, and while it is nice to see in many ways, I think we should consider pushing the envelope more, and particularly when we start to give up fast play-the-balls, and start to have momentum wrestled away from us.

I think the coaching staff should tell the team that it is better to give away a 6-again, and slow the play, than to play by the rules, and give up 60 metres per set, where we are effectively on the back foot.

I am also of the belief that our defenders need to pay with more aggression; not in the sense that they need to look to smash merkins on every tackle, but in the sense that we need to get in the attacker's face, and meet them at, or before, the advantage line; I have noticed that we employ what I like to term a "reactive defence", whereby we move up 2 or 3 metres, and then wait for the attackers to come to us.

Granted, this style of defence is probably a safer way to defend (you are likely to have fewer gaps in the line, the line is more likely to remain straight, etc.) - however, I am of the belief that good teams attack with their defence; even when the good teams are starved of the ball, they can try to wrestle momentum back, by moving up aggressively, and forcing the attacking team to make split-second decisions under pressure.

Currently, our "reactive defence" allows our opposition to determine how the game is played, and I believe we need to change that.

I think our attack is generally fine, unless we are behind on the scoreboard by three, or more, tries.

Another tactic that I think should be explored is to encourage our edge forwards to complete tackles one-on-one, and to have the trailing defenders push out wider, to try to shut down attacking raids.

Currently, I believe that we employ the group/gang tackle tactic too frequently out wide, and combined with our "reactive defence", it can lead to situations where our defenders are on the back foot, running to shut a play down, and there is an overlap created.

I recall a tactic used to try to mitigate the damage that Sonny-Bill Williams could cause in his early days - the "umbrella defence" - whereby you would have one lead tackler try to stop SBW, and one defender on either side of the central defender, ready to stop a player from receiving an offload; if SBW did not pop the ball free, then the umbrella would close in on SBW, and effectively cut his time to make plays significantly.

I believe we have a solid enough roster to compete; we just need to be more proactive, and intelligent, in how we play.

Fire away!

Honestly, I don't think our pack suits a faster defensive style. We defended quite well last year with this pack. The only difference this year is Papali'i is defending inside Moses.

 

[hineyrulz]

Lol @Poupou Escobar the ultimate defender getting abusive once again, what were the stats like the in the first half you Jizz mop??? If you can’t see that Jakey took a back seat for Brown that second half you are huffing more glue than Gutful.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Jakey took a back seat for Brown

EUPHEMISM?!?

 

[hindy111]

For 15 years now, we have lived here. Before that time, I was a pet of my master Yoshi. When we were forced to come to New York, I found myself for the first time without a home, wandering thew sewers, scavaging for whatever I could find. And then, one day, I came upon a shattered glass jar and four baby turtles.

That would make a great cartoon. Want to go into a partnership? 60/40 my way. And you make the coffee and bring breakfast in the mornings.

 

[IFR33K]

After making that big, long, dry, boring post, I sort of became convinced that Brad can remain as coach, if he enacts some changes to fine-tune our defence - he's certainly a capable coach.

I guess the issue is whether he will elect ti fine-tune the team, or not.

our attack also needs fine tuning.

our game plan revolves around being a highly disciplined team. Holding the ball, no penalties/repeat sets, high % possession and field position. We’re reliant on forward domination with a long kicking game from Moses. We wait for teams to make mistakes to take advantage. Then we try and crash over, playing ba ball. Only problem with this is if our forwards meet their match, we struggle. We need to mix it up a little. No set moves from the scrum, yet we’ve conceded so many tries this way. We also try and play bash and barge inside the opposition 20. If they withstand our ‘attack’, turn up the pressure on us, we fold like cheap toilet paper. We don’t seem to spread the ball in our own half like other teams. We just try and play to conservatively.

the roosters game we won a few weeks ago, we played a more flamboyant type of game. Ran different angles and lines. Had bodies in motion. We need more of that.

 

[lucablight]

All the sides above us other than the Sharks have better rosters, plus the Roosters are better. Cronulla, Canberra, Manly are about on our level.

I disagree. The Rabbitohs have some key star players but we should be better than them overall because they also have alot more fringe players in their starting side. Don’t know how the Broncos are now suddenly better than us after we’ve owned them for the last few seasons. We should be better than the Sharks and Cowboys as well. (Sharks have had an easy draw and the Cowboys are overachieving but have come down for the last couple of weeks). We should be around the same level as the Roosters and Storm (without Papenhuyzen) with this roster.

 

[Gary Gutful]

Lol @Poupou Escobar the ultimate defender getting abusive once again, what were the stats like the in the first half you Jizz mop??? If you can’t see that Jakey took a back seat for Brown that second half you are huffing more glue than Gutful.

You got stats to back that huffing glue comment up? I bet you f**ken don’t merkin!

 

[Gary Gutful]

That would make a great cartoon. Want to go into a partnership? 60/40 my way. And you make the coffee and bring breakfast in the mornings.

Only if the turtles’ catchphrase is “F**k me in the half-shell!”.

 

[hineyrulz]

You got stats to back that huffing glue comment up? I bet you f**ken don’t merkin!

Of course not, no one knows how much glue your Snoz consumes you mad merkin!!