Is attack our problem?

[oldmancraigy]

I was just looking at the statistics for tries scored this year, and found it quite interesting!

There are only 5 teams who have scored more tries then us this year!

Even more interesting is that those teams make up 5 of the top 6 spots

Clearly it is our defense which is letting us down (we all know that!) - with a better defensive intensity we'd probable be contending for a top 6 position! I guess missing some of our better players has hurt us in that regard!


The other interesting thing to come out of these stats was the number of goals kicked - we're ranked equal 8th - 2 spots below our tryscoring... I reckon we pass up too many shots at penalty goal, taking some of those would've helped in some of the tight games we lost earlier in the season (and even winning one of those would put us tied for 8th right now...).

With 2 games against the Warriors and 1 against the Tigers we should be able to rack up some big wins on the run home, we just need to sneak a win against either the Panthers or the Roosters to get us on track for the 8!

 

[Eels Dude]

Stats can be misleading at times. We were great in attack during the opening rounds, but since then have got worse and worse, the only attacking free game was against Manly. Apart from that we've struggled to get over the tryline, getting over by force rather than skillful play.

 

[oldmancraigy]

Ok - we've struggled to get across the line - but we've still scored more tries than all but 5 teams!!

The point is that we're losing games where we score enough tries to win! The Broncos game is a good example - 24 points should put you right in the contest with a great chance at winning - but yet we lose #-o
The Sharks game is another example - we score three tries but don't take penalty goal attempts, going for the big win and somehow we managed to lose!

The Cowboys game - we don't defend in the first half and find ourselves down 24-0... hard to win a game of footy from there - yet we almost did!

Even with the lull in our attack for a few rounds (when Thorman was in....) we still rank as one of the better attacking teams - and the signs of the last few weeks show we are back on track in attack.

Get the defence right and we'll be right.

Stats can be misleading, but they do show a pattern, a lack of defensive intensity!

 

[The Godfather]

Look at it this way...

We score a lot of tries
We let in a lot of tries.

Damn good entertainment value !!! 8)

 

[The Colonel]

Damn good entertainment value !!! 8)

For those that bother to turn up because we are on the wrong side of the ledger........ ;-)

 

[Utey]

Stats are very misleading, but if our defense isnt up to scratch we need to defend better. We defended well against Penrith and most of the trys were broken up in the middle of the park not in the wing lioke most have been. However i was never confident we could hold them out aftyer 3 reperats sets of six. Widders rushed up twice, twice Roberts score.

 

[Y2Eel]

how do we stand in the league in defence??

 

[oldmancraigy]

how do we stand in the league in defence??

The simple answer is "not good"!!!

We're 4th worst!

Only the Warriors, Manly, and Souths are worse - Cronulla are close (we're 10 points worse than them!)

Explains why we've lost so many games I reckon! It's been this way since last year... we lack quality players (injured) and so let in soft tries - and so lose games we should win and so don't make the 8...

 

[Misty Bee]

We let in soft tries when we were at full strength! Remember round 1?????

 

[bazza]

Attack is the problem

The team gets 10 minutes attacking the opposition line - and don't even look like scoring. Heads go down and the opposition strolls in

 

[The Engineers Room]

It is both ways we need to improve. They are not as independant as many believe. Watch the dominant tackle stats. We get almost none in defence but almost every tackle in attack. It is the defensive and offensive way we play.