We were the worst team in the NRL for converting time in the red zone into tries. Worse than the wooden spooners. There are three things to consider there:
1. We spent much of the season with inexperienced halves due to injuries and mental health issues. If anybody doubts whether experience helps, take a look at the difference between Maloney and Cleary. We also spent last season without an organising half. Watching Moylan toil away at the Sharks was like deja vu for last year. He plays what's in front of him and if the opposition are on the back foot then he just carves them up like a joint of roast beef. When the team has good defence, he seems to lose his way. As did we, repeatedly.
2. Cleary has yet to show that he can lead the team as an elite level halfback like Maloney has done for us in the last 3.5 weeks. His kicking game is limited and needs a lot of work and he doesn't seem to be able to organise the team to build an attack and find gaps. I'm sure spending time with Moylan and Cartwright as halves partners wouldn't have helped. Those two just make it up as they go along, but the good teams can do that and also structure their attack for set plays. Last year we had a good , inexperienced halfback, who isn't really an organising half and has a limited range of kicks. Let's hope Cleary can change that description in 2018.
3. If you accept that poor attack is both a coaching problem and a player problem, then Hook has to take some blame for last year and he didn't address some of the issues in attack. Whatever has happened this year, which I believe includes getting more help from Brandy and Gus, seems to have helped. Also having an elite level half who can read the game, organise the team and provide a lot of variation with their kicks, seem to have made a massive difference.
This year we have managed to win against teams with big forwards (Cowboys, Souths) and with good defence. We wouldn't have beaten South's last year. Our forwards made us stay in the game this year. We wouldn't have beaten the Cowboys because their forwards would have got on top and even with JT off his game they would have powered home. We couldn't crack their defence last year and only just beat them.
This year, our forward pack is a lean, mean league machine. There are no bulky Marty Tapau types in our team. They are all lean, aggressive, mobile and fitter than a Kenyan runner. JFH is doing a passable impression of Nigel Plum and just quietly goes around bashing people so hard they briefly enter a different dimension, whilst they look around to get the number of the truck that just hit them. I love the fact he does none of the Brown type histrionics, he just does them in like an SAS trooper, two shots to the head with a silenced Glock, next! After the game against us, JT checked in his wardrobe when he got home to make sure JFH wasn't in it. Merrin is clearly angry about something and long may it continue, Kikau doesn't need to be angry, he is so f*cking big he only has to fall on you and you lose the will to live and RCG is continuing on where he left off with the Kangaroos (a bit down the last few games though).
In spite of the protestations that we have only played shit teams, in the forwards we have faced Scott, Bolton, Woods, Klemmer, the Burgess boys, Hess, Taumololo, Proctor, Arrow and Dally M 3 point winning Nathan Brown (WTF Joe?). Our forward pack has held its own against all of them. The Titans were smashed into submission this week by a black steam roller called the Panthers. They held on well for 30 minutes and then the relentless power of our pack just drove them backwards until they started to drop like flies at a Baygon factory.
Does that mean we can beat the Tigers, Warriors and Dragons? Who knows, but this constant belittling of any team we play as shit undervalues the effort the team has put in.
