Dragonslayer
First Grade
- Messages
- 7,694
Watched todays game closely and its starting to really stand out that our attack, in particular, has lost its venom from the early rounds. Our defense, our brick wall so to speak, has deteriorated at an alarming rate.
What has gone wrong so fast?
Attack:
As we started losing games, we have gone away from the structure which worked so successfully at the beginning of the season. Offloads hardly exist, as are line breaks. Clunky, stop start, and sideways running has become our norm rather than the direct approach in the first half of the season.
Why has this happened?
I'm no psychology expert but to me 2 events happened that impacted our forward motion. 1. Representative season took more out of our players than they would like to admit, both physically and mentally. Refusal to rest or admit to niggling injuries is like a time bomb, it gradually wears away at the player until what was simple and normal only weeks before now becomes a task. But they will still do it, even to prove how tough they are. Not understanding how even a 5% drop in intensity can impact their play. They are proud and many have fooled medical staff and trainers throughout sporting history. 2. This is connected to point 1 in some way. Once losing nature steps in, they try to play harder (harder as in try harder) doing things that are normally second nature and turning them into a more difficult task. When it repeatedly fails, confidence drops and they try harder to make it happen. We have discussed/argued/debated at length various players but to me its more obvious that this losing confidence factor has impacted almost everyone in the team.
The other point I would like to make about out attack, is the team approach has been replaced by the individual approach and this is probably related to the points above. How many tries have we scored over the last month or so that were created from great team play? I have trouble thinking of many. Most have been from individual play. Players are trying the magic play thinking this will spark not only the team but themselves, unfortunately, its more frustrating when it doesn't come off time after time.
Defense:
Again noticing today, we are committing too many to a tackle and when we do we are not locking up the ball. Look at the Warriors tries today scored from offloading when we had 3 or 4 players committed to the tackle leaving gaps (yeah we had Dufty in the bin, but the point still applies). Also, as mentioned in the commentary JDB is taking a long time to get back into the line after a tackle, this also wasn't happening at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, our right side defense is almost becoming an open invitation to score tries against us.
Its obvious that our coaching staff have little impact on preparing and developing players. Basically, just go out and play week after week after week. Bad performance, its okay do better next week. Feeling unfit, its okay you can play. Zero accountability both on coaches and players.
It's not about going back to basics, they're not u8's, they need to be prepared so much more intently than what they are now, from both mental and physical aspects. Our coaching staff is incapable of this. Rolling out the same team sheet week after week is testament to that.
We are not the laughing stock of the NRL, but teams must be falling over themselves at the opportunity of playing us in the finals. Sad really.
What has gone wrong so fast?
Attack:
As we started losing games, we have gone away from the structure which worked so successfully at the beginning of the season. Offloads hardly exist, as are line breaks. Clunky, stop start, and sideways running has become our norm rather than the direct approach in the first half of the season.
Why has this happened?
I'm no psychology expert but to me 2 events happened that impacted our forward motion. 1. Representative season took more out of our players than they would like to admit, both physically and mentally. Refusal to rest or admit to niggling injuries is like a time bomb, it gradually wears away at the player until what was simple and normal only weeks before now becomes a task. But they will still do it, even to prove how tough they are. Not understanding how even a 5% drop in intensity can impact their play. They are proud and many have fooled medical staff and trainers throughout sporting history. 2. This is connected to point 1 in some way. Once losing nature steps in, they try to play harder (harder as in try harder) doing things that are normally second nature and turning them into a more difficult task. When it repeatedly fails, confidence drops and they try harder to make it happen. We have discussed/argued/debated at length various players but to me its more obvious that this losing confidence factor has impacted almost everyone in the team.
The other point I would like to make about out attack, is the team approach has been replaced by the individual approach and this is probably related to the points above. How many tries have we scored over the last month or so that were created from great team play? I have trouble thinking of many. Most have been from individual play. Players are trying the magic play thinking this will spark not only the team but themselves, unfortunately, its more frustrating when it doesn't come off time after time.
Defense:
Again noticing today, we are committing too many to a tackle and when we do we are not locking up the ball. Look at the Warriors tries today scored from offloading when we had 3 or 4 players committed to the tackle leaving gaps (yeah we had Dufty in the bin, but the point still applies). Also, as mentioned in the commentary JDB is taking a long time to get back into the line after a tackle, this also wasn't happening at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, our right side defense is almost becoming an open invitation to score tries against us.
Its obvious that our coaching staff have little impact on preparing and developing players. Basically, just go out and play week after week after week. Bad performance, its okay do better next week. Feeling unfit, its okay you can play. Zero accountability both on coaches and players.
It's not about going back to basics, they're not u8's, they need to be prepared so much more intently than what they are now, from both mental and physical aspects. Our coaching staff is incapable of this. Rolling out the same team sheet week after week is testament to that.
We are not the laughing stock of the NRL, but teams must be falling over themselves at the opportunity of playing us in the finals. Sad really.
