Kick off's and momentum

[marshall stalin]

Thought about this for a while and yesterday's Titans vs Manly game reinforced the view that teams are bereft of ideas in stopping the momentum when their defence can't.

Near Full time the Titans attempt a short kick off for reasons only they would know why as basically it was a pointless exercise as the game was well and truly lost.- Should have been doing that 30 odd minutes earlier.

I don't see the point in teams doing the same kick off time and time again after conceding try after try after try - You need to change things up to wrestle back some momentum at least and try something different.

The Short kick off / The Mick Cronin grubber Kick off from the late 70's and early 80's / kicking(whacking) the ball hard towards the touchline etc.

Same for line drop outs as well.

Need to make it a contest for the ball.

I can hear Warren "Wok" Ryan advocating again for a scorer kicks off - Not sure i would agree with that as a solution though

 

[Vee]

I agree with this. It confounds me that a range of kicks aren't used depending on circumstances. If a side can find touch on the bounce, it gets the ball back. After a couple of years in soccer, I could kick with either foot and regularly lined up to kick one way then ran around the ball and found touch with the other. I only played Z grade but I'm sure better skill sets than mine could do it at NRL level.

I really enjoyed Teddy's early, short dropout late against the Panthers the other night, so much I sent a texa to my mate about it as I am always bashing his ear about it. Before that I always thought that the Pat Richards / Kyle Feldt rainmakers would become standard fare but only feature sporadically. And don't even start me on dropgoal practice. Such a crucial skill in tight games and onion specialists knock them over routinely but our blokes just don't seem willing to put the work in to gain the rewards.

There's a dreadful lack of imagination limiting enormous benefits on offer for fairly simple skills.

 

[ayatollah_murdoch]

Not just that we should make every ruck, scrum and possession contested. Also we should have unlimited tackles, add two more players to plug the defensive gaps and introduce line outs.

 

[Game_Breaker]

Teams are over coached

The team kicking off has a good chance of getting the ball back if they mix things up. I don't think it's a low percentage play

 

[Warriors Fever]

usually a team has to blow a play or two if they defuse the short kick off meaning they probably only gain a few more metres down the field. For manlys case they have often (when on a roll) been marching 70+ metres on a regular kick off. Wouldn’t make much of a difference and your defensive line doesn’t need to move as much.

 

[gUt]

Not just that we should make every ruck, scrum and possession contested. Also we should have unlimited tackles, add two more players to plug the defensive gaps and introduce line outs.

Sounds excruciatingly boring. Something like that would rate behind everything.

 

[T.S Quint]

Love a good rogue apostrophe.

 

[Munky]

And don't even start me on dropgoal practice. Such a crucial skill in tight games and onion specialists knock them over routinely but our blokes just don't seem willing to put the work in to gain the rewards.

I think they practice drop goals but don't seem to practice the game situation.

Against a good defensive team getting into position for the drop goal takes three or four tackles of moving around the defensive line and getting the kicker(s) into good position. So many are just poorly set pot shots on the last.

Two of the most memorable are Thurston in the 2015 GF after Tamou forced an excellent quick play the ball to create the window and Luke Rooney's game sealing try in the 2003 GF. Every man and his dog thought Gower/Presto were going for the one pointer until Priddis spun it out to the wing.

 

[Perth Tiger]

The old Pat Richards style kick offs would result in a turn over every 3-5 times he put them up. When teams are getting pantsed by 50 you would think they could at least try one

 

[Vee]

I think they practice drop goals but don't seem to practice the game situation.

Against a good defensive team getting into position for the drop goal takes three or four tackles of moving around the defensive line and getting the kicker(s) into good position. So many are just poorly set pot shots on the last.

Two of the most memorable are Thurston in the 2015 GF after Tamou forced an excellent quick play the ball to create the window and Luke Rooney's game sealing try in the 2003 GF. Every man and his dog thought Gower/Presto were going for the one pointer until Priddis spun it out to the wing.

Fair point, they do need to practice as a team to give the kicker the best chance but I still think onion kickers are in a different class even off balance and/or under pressure.

 

[kdalymc]

remember when kangaroos played USA over there on a gridiron field, once Lockyer realised the field was only 50m (yards) wide he punched it out every kick off.

Not that hard to do it on our fields anyway, f**k kicking it to a prop, go for the sideline every time i think....

 

[Dragonwest]

If you go for a short kick off from a half way restart you'll lose the contest 7 or 8 times out of 10. That then allows the opposition a chance to attack your line at the end of the set and gives them a great chance at a repeat set. I don't see it being worth it.

Playing for the sideline corner or trying to make the second rower / winger pick the ball up off the ground from the sideline could have merit.

 

[Perth Red]

If you go for a short kick off from a half way restart you'll lose the contest 7 or 8 times out of 10. That then allows the opposition a chance to attack your line at the end of the set and gives them a great chance at a repeat set. I don't see it being worth it.

Playing for the sideline corner or trying to make the second rower / winger pick the ball up off the ground from the sideline could have merit.

TBF though if you practicesed I'm sure you could put it up high enough for it to come down on the 30m and still give your guys a chance at it. Thats only 20m running they need to cover. At worse you'd be conceding around 10m in the set compared to a long kick off which is usually brought back to the 20m line anyway.