Our attack, and why it sucks

[perverse]

Ok, hear me out.

We've been struggling to score big points in the back end of this year, and it has also seemingly correlated with the team finally 100% buying into Bennett-football philosophy. I find it hard for anyone to argue that we're not playing the best football of the past ~5 years at the moment. Our confidence is high and all the key metrics for performance are miles and miles ahead of where they have been in the past... all except for the number of tries we've been scoring lately.

I'll also point out that earlier in the year we were comfortably putting big scores on in certain matches.

So, why are we here? I think there are a few factors contributing to our attacking slump:

• Adoption of Bennettball took longer than expected. A lot longer... and my general feeling is that Bennett has spent a comparatively (compared to other clubs) small amount of time working with our squad on execution and set plays, and much more time on conditioning, both physical and especially mental. That isn't to say that we haven't done such work, we clearly have and do... but it makes sense to me that Bennett wouldn't want to overload the team with too many plays or over-complicate things whilst they were still trying to learn how to walk properly.
• Attitude of the opposition. Every team we have played lately has turned up with the right attitude. Even the Dragons. We can harp on about how we've struggled to score points against certain teams... and sure, we have... but we take a lot away from the opposition when we do so. We haven't scored many soft tries at the back end of this year, we've had to construct and work hard for all our points.
• Nerves. Put simply, this is all new to us... playing in big matches, playing in tight matches. This is the domain of good quality teams. We've learned a lot about sticking in matches to the death regardless of the scoreboard, but timing those plays and knowing the right moments is something that evades us.
• Execution. This kinda folds back on point 1 due to the lack of skills/tactics training. Mullen created opportunities against Melbourne, loads more than we converted. It's always that last pass, or the catch on a kick... we squander far more opportunities than we convert, and I really feel it comes back to the training paddock. We're beginning to play more expansive the further we go along and aren't really afraid to spread the ball anymore, but we're making errors on the back of it.

So what do we do? Simply... keep at it. Keep training hard and wait for the bounce of the ball to return. We are playing hard football and competing hard, our defense is great and whilst ever these things are the case we're going to be in any match up to our eyeballs. The execution will come... I don't know if it's going to be in time for the finals, but we've taken such massive steps forward this year in so many other departments that I'm not too worried if it does or doesn't. Bennett's plan is working, and if we can get our execution right with the talent we have in our backline, we're going to cause problems for the competition at some stage. It's going to be interesting to see what Dobson brings to the team next year... a calm, steady hand with a good boot could be an absolute boon for us at half. I get the feeling Tyrone needs to be involved somewhere... he just has that x-factor about him and can create things... but he's possibly not the halfback we need right now. I like him, and I hope he continues to develop because there is a lot to work with there. I've been really impressed with his improvement in defense this year. He goes well for a little bloke now.

 

[Joker's Wild]

Pretty much mate. Compared to the Broncos and Dragons sides Bennett had to work with, our boys were a little more "special needs" and were always going to take longer to uptake the Bennett playing structure.

 

[Yosh]

We don't have any inside balls.. we always go wide... Would love to see someone hit the ball up hard against the grain once in a while...

 

[Bring it home Knights]

The impression that I have gotten is that Bennetts approach involves building the team gradually. At the start of the year it's about the absolute basics, before getting more advanced as the season goes on. He understands that is better to grow and keep improving, rather then to start off all guns blazing, then fall away as the season goes on due to not perfecting the fundamentals.

What concerns me is how much time we spend setting up the play when we are in the opposition red zone. Out of a set of 6, we generally do one attacking play. Sometimes our sets of 6 don't even have an attacking play and the team plays safety first and relies on the kick. It must be so easy for the defense to contain us on their line. When we defend, it feels like 2 or 3 times per set of 6 that the opposition attempts to score off an attacking play. This is an area that I really hope we address. Gower has been overseas in a format that isn't as structured as the NRL. Hopefully when he gets back on the field, he will be able to play what's in front of him and allow us to be more threatening.

 

[voltron]

i dont think our attack sucks
we have the sixth best attack in the league
when we put them on, we pour them on.

i think its more that when the going gets tough we find it hard to jump over that hurdle
we dont have those clutch players we can trust to pull one out of the fire consistently
the whole "give it to...."
mullen can and has improved, but we know what happens when he gets into a wrong head space
he goes abit in his shell
i guess this comes from not having much origin experience and finals experience in those crucial positions

1. boyd - peaheart, he could and should be this for us but isnt
6. Mullen - already talked about him
7. Roberts - is developing well, but doesnt have the composure of other good half backs
9. Buderus - He's old and gets tired fairly quickly i notice. this wouldnt be a problem but he works his butt off in defence (for which i entirely grateful) but unlike locky who hide in defence bedsey doesnt.
14. Gidley - he was clutch for that one great year, but now we can see he just doesnt have great footy vision. i think he can see one play a head, but not two or three kind of thing. his vision is limited compared to others.

18. Gower - well he hasny played enough for me to judge tbh, especially in his preferred halves position.

 

[Rod]

Mostly agree with all your points there perverse, that's a good summary. I've said in a couple of other threads today that I'm very confident about the Cowboys game and the other games ahead, and a lot of it is because we are playing really very well, but just haven't converted the opportunities we've created for ourselves. Basically my thoughts on us recently are:

1. We haven't played a poor game since our Round 13 capitulation against the Dragons. The first half of the season was an inconsistent mixture of great attacking footy combined with rubbish. Since then the closest we have come to a poor game was the Broncos game and even then I think the Broncos played a very good game that night, they were desperate.

2. Continuing on from that first point, we may not be scoring tries like we were in the first 10 rounds but we are playing better. The only games we have lost (and consequently also the games where we haven't been up to scratch offensively) have been 2 against Melbourne and 1 against the Roosters, all of them not unexpected although I had hoped we would nab the game on Sunday. All 3 of those games followed pretty similar patterns, we competed and even were on top for large portions of all those games but lacked that extra 10% of polish and class that the top four teams have to close the deal.

3. Agreed on the execution. Leading on from the point about how we've been on top even during the Storm and Roosters games, we've had plenty of field position and attacking opportunities in those games but couldn't come up with the right kick or play at the right time, or the opposition kept conceding penalties on their line which affected our rhythm. Joey said in commentary the other day that <10m out from the tryline is actually the hardest place to score a try from.

4. Our attacking strategy. It mostly relies on set-plays with decoys runners with very little room for ad-lib play. We don't have traditional support for runners when they poke their nose through the line because our attack is so structured. If these set-plays don't work then for the most part we simply don't score tries.

5. Lack of different attacking options. Follows on from our attacking tactics just mentioned, except of all the attacking issues we may have this is probably the only long-term one we may have, as it is squad-related. Right now apart from Mullen and Boyd when he feels like it, we don't have a lot of other strikepower in terms of creating (although individually our backs have a lot of strikepower). We don't have an attacking/offloading backrower as everyone often points out, except Cuthbertson and his second-phase play has proven very effective for us, nor a reliable playmaker to complement Mullen.

So basically all up, our attack isn't a huge concern for me as a) I think it is still improving and will end up being quite dangerous considering the backline we have at our disposal, and b) I don't think it will ever be in our gameplan to blow teams away with incredibly enterprising attack involving multiple offloads and fancy passes anyway. I think it is reasonably clear that our strategy under Bennett is to restrict the opposition to 2 tries or less and then score 3 ourselves, and any more than that is a bonus.

 

[1qaz]

Lack of punch through the middle.
Lack of ruck plays involving the 9, 6/7 and 1.
Lack of inside balls involving Boyd.

Put Dane in the 1. Trust me.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

What I'd like to see more of:
-Forwards running off forwards. some support play and building on momentum there
-Forwards hitting the line more. Not waiting for the 6th tackle to hit make a play
- turning the ball back inside more. We have shown glimpses of that.

It took me ages to get the full idea behind "Bennett Style Play". I think I get it now.

We are capable of "flair" and throwing the ball around and Bennett has even said in games that he he wants to see more of that. Build a platform first, however.


I think it has just taken us so long to get that right that we have lost a bit of "freestyle". We are capable of it and it will come with more confidence. We need to know we can win games from any position and not in one part of the game or another but by being consistent and having more belief in our capabilities. Semis will be a good time to show that. They reckon it is a different ball game then (I don't) and maybe getting that far will lift us.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

Lack of punch through the middle.
Lack of ruck plays involving the 9, 6/7 and 1.
Lack of inside balls involving Boyd.

Put Dane in the 1. Trust me.

I reckon McManus might make a good #1. He has the take and is already involved up the middle a bit. Give him more of it and he might shine.

 

[Noname36]

We need the forwards to start playing some footy instead of just taking simple hitups in the opposition's 20. That and Boyd pulling his finger out and getting up there to run off them would help a lot IMO. Challenge them up the middle and bring everyone in then spread the ball to Gags and BJ.

 

[aqua_duck]

I think we play abit too flat and don't have the quality power runners in the forwards to keep the defence honest with decoy and block plays

 

[Spot On]

We definitely lack attacking options out of the dummy half position. We are really lacking in that area. No disrespect to Bedsy but he even admits he lacks a kicking game which the modern hooker must have. A gun hooker is a must.

 

[Chicken_Hunter]

The only forward we have with any ball playing ability is snowden and dare I say it, Costigan.. The rest are just hard straight runners of the ball. From what I have seen, sims looks to have a good offload or 2 in him. I would kill to have someone like Glen Stewart in our team.

 

[Zoidberg]

But Costigan hasn't been offloading lately, which is good because he makes a mistake half the time.

This may be extremely wishful thinking, but I am expecting Boyd to pull some great stuff out of his bag in our finals match/es.

 

[Frederick]

The only forward we have with any ball playing ability is snowden and dare I say it, Costigan.. The rest are just hard straight runners of the ball. From what I have seen, sims looks to have a good offload or 2 in him. I would kill to have someone like Glen Stewart in our team.

And Cuthbertson, but he ain't available

 

[Yosh]

Lack of punch through the middle.
Lack of ruck plays involving the 9, 6/7 and 1.
Lack of inside balls involving Boyd.

Put Dane in the 1. Trust me.

I doubt WB will suddenly change the structure he has been putting into place for the last two years purely because Gagai goes into fullback. We just don't do support running for some reason...

If anything Aku should be sniffing around the ruck way more than he does now (he doesn't do it all actually). We have our best strike weapon waiting out on the wing doing nothing most of the game...

 

[1qaz]

I doubt WB will suddenly change the structure he has been putting into place for the last two years purely because Gagai goes into fullback. We just don't do support running for some reason...

If anything Aku should be sniffing around the ruck way more than he does now (he doesn't do it all actually). We have our best strike weapon waiting out on the wing doing nothing most of the game...

What structures? The second man play? Boyd is a lot like Hunt. Both run the second man play well but both struggle to break the line and support the ball carrier.
Back in 06, WB switched Hodges to fullback and Hunt to the wing late in the season. This was the catalyst to their 06 premiership.

 

[Nuffy]

My view is that our attack inside the 10 just refuses to be patient.

We are looking to score within 6 tackles and using contested kicks which become a crap shoot.

Rarely do we exhibit patience and composure of a sustained nature.

We've got to have the mentality to say its just not working, roll in a grubber and start again. Then we've got to be willing to have 18 shots at them if thats what it takes. It's purely a composure issue.

Adding to this we need more help for Mullo, Roberts needs some basic tricks in his kit bag as well as perhaps one or two of the forwards as ball players. Inside 10 Mullo is having to do everything and the opposition knows this and they pressure him.

Look at our close attacks against the Storm, it was either contested kicks or passing moves that ended up with Jimmy or Uate diving for the corner. Teams know that and defend accordingly.

 

[Bring it home Knights]

I doubt WB will suddenly change the structure he has been putting into place for the last two years purely because Gagai goes into fullback. We just don't do support running for some reason...

If anything Aku should be sniffing around the ruck way more than he does now (he doesn't do it all actually). We have our best strike weapon waiting out on the wing doing nothing most of the game...

I'd love to see Uate play a similar role to that of Nathan Blacklock. Starting from next season, we are paying Uate big bucks, so I'd like to see the knights utilise his capabilities more. Uate injecting himself against tiring forwards would surely add to our attack.

 

[The Showstopper]

Attack should roll off of defence. We still play too wide. Easy to defend forwards who rarely unload the ball. If you can't create gaps in the ruck you can only push wide. We should move a mountain to sign Hayne. He would turn this club on it's head. The most powerful ball runner in the game for me.