Personally, I think our attack from our tryline to the opposition 10m is very good for the cattle we have. Our centres followed by our wingers are our biggest weapons and we are one of the few teams in the competition which give our centres early ball. Against Melbourne, Gagai was 12 runs for 129m with 17 receives and BJ was 15 runs for 127m with 20 receives. For the Storm, O'Neill 10 runs for 77 metres with 12 receives and Chambers 7 runs for 54m with 10 receives.
Our centres ran for a combined 256m from 27 runs. Our entire backrow (lock and both second rowers) ran for 237m from 27 runs, and that's with Robbie Rochow making 116 of those metres. They also only broke 1 tackle between the three of them, compared with 8 for BJ+Gagai.
Which leads me into my next point - our attack inside the 10m zone. Giving early ball to our centres pays dividends when we are on our way to the tryline but it just doesn't work inside the ten, since there's no chance to give the ball to the centre with much space or momentum. So, instead we rely on a) Mullen kicking to the corner b) Boyd running his play on the left or c) Get the ball to Aku or Jimmy and hope they do it all themselves.
Boyd's play on the left isn't working well for two reasons. Firstly, that is because of our second row. What we are lacking is, like JW mentioned, a guy like Boyd Cordner. Rochow, McKinnon and Scott are all good players but of all their traits, busting the line, running holes and scoring tries are hardly their greatest attributes. For that block play to work, it is imperative that the forward is a massive threat to the defence close to the line.
Ben Creagh is much maligned but in 09/10 he knew his way to the try line with 8 tries and 10 tries for each season.
That can be covered up by the man with the ball being a threat, which imo, Darius isn't. He rarely takes on the line in that play. Even at Saints, one season he had 20+ try assists but only 1 try or something crazy like that. Luckily that left edge was stacked, so he never really needed to take the line on.
It's about time Aku comes back into the attack. On the left shift, I'd love to see Uate come off his wing and run on the inside of Boyd. There, the defence can't slide too early because if they do, Uate will be there to slide over the line.
So yeah, I wrote more than I expected lol, but in summary:
Our attack is good for the cattle we have up to the 10 metre line, which we need to try some new plays on. What our team is lacking is a strike second rower ala Boyd Cordner. Aku needs to be more involved.
