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In my view, Taylor has not done what he set out to do (Improve the defence) nor has he helped any of the players improve. In one season we saw more positive signs from Potter with a less talented crop of juniors to work with, and an equally f**ked up salary cap.
So let's have a look at the players
Brooks - To me he looks like more of an old school halfback, who played under the 5 metre rule. He throws deep passes, he passes early if he's going to pass wide or he runs to the line if he is going for a short flat pass. It is easy to spot most of the time. The thing is, every halfback only has a few tricks and they are usually easy to spot. What makes them good is having options either side of them, and they pick the right option more often than not. The problem Brooks is having is that his outside men are always playing flat and he never has any options. The return of Lawrence will finally give him someone committed to being an inside decoy/straight line runner which has been lacking. The coach needs to have running options either side of Brooks on different lines and he needs the outside backs on Brooks' side to not play so flat
Buchanan - Same as he was last year. Stagnation for a rookie is bad. He should be improving.
Farah - Has clearly been told to take a back seat and look what it has done to our attack. Sure he would have some shockers when he was involved more, but he won us much more games than he lost us. Now he's playing stifled and frustrated. Taylor is f**king crazy for forcing Farah to play like this, because we have an equally skillful and talented hooker coming through in Cherrington, we should be maximising this unbelievable riches at hooker and allow Farah and Cherrington to have more involvement and freedom.
Galloway/Halatau/Richards - You get the same every week. It's not good enough any more. Galloway and Richards will be gone for next season. Halatau should be as well. Been great servants, but their best is well behind them.
Hoeter - Still not convinced on this kid. Being in and out of losing sides is hurting his confidence and performance. The good coaches try not to put rookies in sides that have come off losses. Not Taylor.
Lawrence - Best season since 2011. Still not what we expect of him, but he has become clearly our best second rower at the club. Runs hard, runs straight, runs great lines, is near impossible to tackle 1 on 1. If we can keep him for one more year, add a little bit of extra muscle to him and improve his passing game, he will be Ellis-like. He is having to do a lot of inside defence which he has struggled with in the past, but seems to be coping better with it now that he's defending infield a little bit more. He can rely on his strength to stop tries now and not worry so much by the attackers step or turn of pace.
Lodge - Get this kid to sort out his off-field shit. Don't take away his aggression though. Has shit tonnes of potential. Needs to be a regular benchie next year or he will just follow in the steps of Buchanan.
Lovett - Clearly meant to be a Fulton clone, but hasn't got the attacking game that Fulton had (and Fulton's attacking game was very limited). Barely runs as a decoy option, and barely dents the line. Kid needs some muscle.
Moses - Disgracefully slow start but has improved a lot in the past month. Gets frustrated easily on the field and needs to fix that. Defence is horrendous, but he is at least having a dig and has no fear. Teach him to tackle around the legs. He needs to trust his instinct more, especially with his kicking game. The pathetic mid-field bomb is just pointless now, especially when players can have blockers to protect the defender attempting to catch the ball, it's essentially a free hand over every time. try some grubbers, kicks against the run of play, run the last etc. All will make him a bit more unpredictable and thus make that mid-field somewhat slightly more effective.
Naiqama - I wish he would hold his place in the defensive line better. Rushing up ahead of everyone else is fine sometimes, but most of the times it just leaves a yawning gap in the frnge defence which a back rower has to cover, which is hard to do if they've been committed to covering a decoy runner. Is either rocks or diamonds. Having him at centre has helped the side, because he no longer has to field kicks, which he never looked comfortable doing.
Nofoaluma - His run at centre was just horrible. Much better and comfortable on the wing. Hasn't improved on last year at all though.
Santi - Just doesn't have any presence for a back rower like Sue or Tapau. Needs to improve big time if he wants to be an NRL player. Has gone backwards this year.
Seumanufagai - All class and easily our second best prop.
Simona - Hasn't been getting the opportunities or space he has enjoyed in previous seasons due to the indifferent form of the halves and the lack of option runners on the inside of the halves, meaning defences can slide and put two men on Simona. I would've have liked to see him drop back for kicks this year instead of Richards, who despite his size, makes the softest hit ups in the competition. At least with Simona back fielding the occasional kick, he would have space to move and more chances to get 1 on 1 with a defenders and use his powerful fend.
Sironen - This kids development has been completely f**ked around with so much that I cannot accept he is just a bad player. He was a very good five-eighth but overnight was turned into a back rower without a step in the middle and now he's just in limbo. His try on the weekend shows that he still has a five-eighth's instincts even after 2 years as being a back rower. If we cannot get a coach to work intensely with Sironen and change his game and style permanently to be a genuine back rower, then he is going to be the exact same quality and style of player every year from now on, which isn't good enough.
Sue - Has a good running game. Needs to work on his tackling technique and needs to run as a decoy/option more often, especially when we are within 20m of the try line.
Taupau - Just as good as he was last year. Has dominated playing wider of the ruck. Needs to get his minutes up.
Tedesco - The kid is all class and while he hasn't improved he hasn't got worse and he is already brilliant. Needs to develop some more play options with both the halves other than chasing short kicks.
Woods - This kid has got slightly better than last year thankfully. Being the future leader has made him play more maturely which has worked wonders for his game.
Taylor has failed in every aspect of trying to improve the teams defence. They still do not defend as a unit, there still appears to be no communication when defending and Brooks and Moses are still left isolated in defence far too often. We have only conceded 80 points less than last year. Given we let in 631 last year, 80 points is not good enough for me to believe that there has been any significant improvement. We have only kept opposition sides under 10 on 4 occasions this year (Dragons in Rounds 2, Parramatta in Round 5, A Cowboys side without it's Origin players in Round 11 and a Souths side without Inglis and with Reynolds returning from injury after a long lay off).
Our attack has never consistently clicked either.
Our worst seasons
2013 - 7 wins, 17 losses, Pts Difference -301
2002 - 7 wins, 17 losses, Pts Difeerence -144
2003 - 7 wins, 17 losses, Pts Difference -128
2015 - 7 wins, 15 losses, Pts Difference -107
So let's have a look at the players
Brooks - To me he looks like more of an old school halfback, who played under the 5 metre rule. He throws deep passes, he passes early if he's going to pass wide or he runs to the line if he is going for a short flat pass. It is easy to spot most of the time. The thing is, every halfback only has a few tricks and they are usually easy to spot. What makes them good is having options either side of them, and they pick the right option more often than not. The problem Brooks is having is that his outside men are always playing flat and he never has any options. The return of Lawrence will finally give him someone committed to being an inside decoy/straight line runner which has been lacking. The coach needs to have running options either side of Brooks on different lines and he needs the outside backs on Brooks' side to not play so flat
Buchanan - Same as he was last year. Stagnation for a rookie is bad. He should be improving.
Farah - Has clearly been told to take a back seat and look what it has done to our attack. Sure he would have some shockers when he was involved more, but he won us much more games than he lost us. Now he's playing stifled and frustrated. Taylor is f**king crazy for forcing Farah to play like this, because we have an equally skillful and talented hooker coming through in Cherrington, we should be maximising this unbelievable riches at hooker and allow Farah and Cherrington to have more involvement and freedom.
Galloway/Halatau/Richards - You get the same every week. It's not good enough any more. Galloway and Richards will be gone for next season. Halatau should be as well. Been great servants, but their best is well behind them.
Hoeter - Still not convinced on this kid. Being in and out of losing sides is hurting his confidence and performance. The good coaches try not to put rookies in sides that have come off losses. Not Taylor.
Lawrence - Best season since 2011. Still not what we expect of him, but he has become clearly our best second rower at the club. Runs hard, runs straight, runs great lines, is near impossible to tackle 1 on 1. If we can keep him for one more year, add a little bit of extra muscle to him and improve his passing game, he will be Ellis-like. He is having to do a lot of inside defence which he has struggled with in the past, but seems to be coping better with it now that he's defending infield a little bit more. He can rely on his strength to stop tries now and not worry so much by the attackers step or turn of pace.
Lodge - Get this kid to sort out his off-field shit. Don't take away his aggression though. Has shit tonnes of potential. Needs to be a regular benchie next year or he will just follow in the steps of Buchanan.
Lovett - Clearly meant to be a Fulton clone, but hasn't got the attacking game that Fulton had (and Fulton's attacking game was very limited). Barely runs as a decoy option, and barely dents the line. Kid needs some muscle.
Moses - Disgracefully slow start but has improved a lot in the past month. Gets frustrated easily on the field and needs to fix that. Defence is horrendous, but he is at least having a dig and has no fear. Teach him to tackle around the legs. He needs to trust his instinct more, especially with his kicking game. The pathetic mid-field bomb is just pointless now, especially when players can have blockers to protect the defender attempting to catch the ball, it's essentially a free hand over every time. try some grubbers, kicks against the run of play, run the last etc. All will make him a bit more unpredictable and thus make that mid-field somewhat slightly more effective.
Naiqama - I wish he would hold his place in the defensive line better. Rushing up ahead of everyone else is fine sometimes, but most of the times it just leaves a yawning gap in the frnge defence which a back rower has to cover, which is hard to do if they've been committed to covering a decoy runner. Is either rocks or diamonds. Having him at centre has helped the side, because he no longer has to field kicks, which he never looked comfortable doing.
Nofoaluma - His run at centre was just horrible. Much better and comfortable on the wing. Hasn't improved on last year at all though.
Santi - Just doesn't have any presence for a back rower like Sue or Tapau. Needs to improve big time if he wants to be an NRL player. Has gone backwards this year.
Seumanufagai - All class and easily our second best prop.
Simona - Hasn't been getting the opportunities or space he has enjoyed in previous seasons due to the indifferent form of the halves and the lack of option runners on the inside of the halves, meaning defences can slide and put two men on Simona. I would've have liked to see him drop back for kicks this year instead of Richards, who despite his size, makes the softest hit ups in the competition. At least with Simona back fielding the occasional kick, he would have space to move and more chances to get 1 on 1 with a defenders and use his powerful fend.
Sironen - This kids development has been completely f**ked around with so much that I cannot accept he is just a bad player. He was a very good five-eighth but overnight was turned into a back rower without a step in the middle and now he's just in limbo. His try on the weekend shows that he still has a five-eighth's instincts even after 2 years as being a back rower. If we cannot get a coach to work intensely with Sironen and change his game and style permanently to be a genuine back rower, then he is going to be the exact same quality and style of player every year from now on, which isn't good enough.
Sue - Has a good running game. Needs to work on his tackling technique and needs to run as a decoy/option more often, especially when we are within 20m of the try line.
Taupau - Just as good as he was last year. Has dominated playing wider of the ruck. Needs to get his minutes up.
Tedesco - The kid is all class and while he hasn't improved he hasn't got worse and he is already brilliant. Needs to develop some more play options with both the halves other than chasing short kicks.
Woods - This kid has got slightly better than last year thankfully. Being the future leader has made him play more maturely which has worked wonders for his game.
Taylor has failed in every aspect of trying to improve the teams defence. They still do not defend as a unit, there still appears to be no communication when defending and Brooks and Moses are still left isolated in defence far too often. We have only conceded 80 points less than last year. Given we let in 631 last year, 80 points is not good enough for me to believe that there has been any significant improvement. We have only kept opposition sides under 10 on 4 occasions this year (Dragons in Rounds 2, Parramatta in Round 5, A Cowboys side without it's Origin players in Round 11 and a Souths side without Inglis and with Reynolds returning from injury after a long lay off).
Our attack has never consistently clicked either.
Our worst seasons
2013 - 7 wins, 17 losses, Pts Difference -301
2002 - 7 wins, 17 losses, Pts Difeerence -144
2003 - 7 wins, 17 losses, Pts Difference -128
2015 - 7 wins, 15 losses, Pts Difference -107
