RABK
Referee
- Messages
- 20,694
I wanted to start a discussion to specifically address members opinions on the make up of our pack in 2014 for three main reasons.
The strengths and weaknesses are both pretty obvious. Toughness, experience and defensive commitment vs lack of flair, inconsistent punch up the middle and the hooking role. The strengths will only get better next year as the younger guys in our side and the team as a whole experienced finals success together. That melbourne game will do wonders for our belief next year.
With the weaknesses Packer will aid us immensely in providing go forward up the middle. Like Snowden he is not afraid to take the first hit up of every set to provide a platform for other forwards to work on, it will do wonders for both of them to have each other backing each other up. They both attract 2-3 defenders each run and often get quick play the balls. Having two players provide this will help us roll through teams and expand to our potent backline. There will be no shortage of players putting their hand up for an easy 10-15m run after a Snowden or Packer charge.
I see Gidley as our starting hooker next year, and as any regular here knows i am one of his strongest critics. He can not play in the halves, it's simply an abortion. I however think if he can purely focus on distribution, the occasional scoot and RARE kick from dummy half i think he can be a great asset at hooker. I have no issue with his defence bar his injuries been a liability. If we can keep Gidley on the park and he plays smart, with Clydesdale nutured into more minutes as the season progresses i don't think we necessarily lose overall with Buderus retirement. Gidley has heart like Buderus and is a leader, what he lacks in Bedsy's football brain he makes up for with enthusiasm. He has shown, evein in Origin, at hooker he can put that enthusiasm to good, measured use.
The lack of flair is the big one. What is flair? Most would think of an Ali Lauitiiti, Sonny-Bill Williams or Frank Pritchard type is what we lack but that's a very stereo typical view of 'flair'. To me flair is variety - basically the opposite of Dan Tolar. Ryan Hoffman and Aidan Guerra are forwards with flair, their footwork and line running are suberb and give headaches to their opposition. Glenn Stewart and Feleti Mateo have flair, their ball playing is slick and up with the best halves. Anthony Watmough and Sam Thaiday have flair, they use footwork and link well with their outside man to create overlaps or holes for themselves - the opposition has to make decisions when they run.
As it stands we wil go into 2014 with this been our biggest issue. The return of Snowden and Cuthbertson + the addition of Packer will help somewhat as all are known to possess a handy offload and some second phase always has it's place, even in Bennett ball. However this isn't the real issue as the lack of offloads was a tatic. Bennett obviously thought the best strategy was to simply reduce the errors to an absolute minimum so we win the field position battle on the back of Mullens boot and maximize our posessesion in the oppositions 30m zone where our backline could strike. All well and could but it often failed at the last hurdle which brings me to what i think, and a lot here also seem to agree, is our biggest weakness. The lack of flair in our edge backrowers.
To say we are weak in our edge backrowers is almost harsh such is the efforts of Scott and Rochow this year, but there is sadly some truth to it. They simply don't offer enough questions of the opposition with the ball or hand or one pass from them. No footwork, ball playing, line running. Rochow has shown some here and there but not enough to commit defenders. Alas 90% of our attacking plays in the oppositions 20m are shutdown because the opposition can spread effectively to cover us man for man.
So am i suggesting we drop rochow or scott? No. But i think two forwards next year need to be playing wide in attack, especially in the oppositions 30m, and that is McKinnon and Mason. Whether that means in defence McKinnon and Mason continue to play tight but in attack they move outwide so be it. They are the two forwards i see that can pose a genuine threat due to footwork, ball playing and line running and make the opposition ask questions 'do i drop off him and spread or do i jam up in on him'. Ask them that question 10 times a game and they will get it wrong a couple of times. At the moment there is no question with Rochow or Scott, it's simply jam up in on them for an effective shutdown. The tries we score outwide are the result of either Boyd, Roberts or Mullen producing great passes to create overlaps. We would be so much more potent anywhere on the field if it didn't require a perfect pass to make a break but also simply giving a fringe runner early ball and letting them try their hand.
8. Snowden
9. Gidley
10. Packer
11. Rochow
12. Scott
13. Smith
14. Clydesdale
15. Mason
16. Cuthbertson
17. McKinnon
So after a 500 word essay and naming a pack that 80% of people would name, whats my point? We don't have a lot of weaknesses but our largest is a fixable one from the stocks with got. No huge changes, just when Mason and McKinnon are on the park simply push them right and left respectively and tell them to run outside mullen or roberts and give them an option so you ask questions of the opposition line. I think Mason is wasted as a battering ram and so is McKinnon. People might think once Snowden and/or Packer are subbed we will lose punch especially if we push big boppers wide, but effective fringe running thins the ruck which will give Gidley, Boyd, Smith, Mullen and Roberts opportunity back up the middle.
We've got the defence to hold out our line and the punch and boot to win the field position battle. It's time we take full advantage of our potent backline to murder teams outwide ala Manly, Melbourne and The Roosters.
- We have one of the best 3 backlines in the comp, our 1-7 is set
- Our pack polarises opinion because it has some great strengths but glaring weaknesses
- Those weaknesses are the only thing stopping us from been a genuine top 4, premiership winning team
The strengths and weaknesses are both pretty obvious. Toughness, experience and defensive commitment vs lack of flair, inconsistent punch up the middle and the hooking role. The strengths will only get better next year as the younger guys in our side and the team as a whole experienced finals success together. That melbourne game will do wonders for our belief next year.
With the weaknesses Packer will aid us immensely in providing go forward up the middle. Like Snowden he is not afraid to take the first hit up of every set to provide a platform for other forwards to work on, it will do wonders for both of them to have each other backing each other up. They both attract 2-3 defenders each run and often get quick play the balls. Having two players provide this will help us roll through teams and expand to our potent backline. There will be no shortage of players putting their hand up for an easy 10-15m run after a Snowden or Packer charge.
I see Gidley as our starting hooker next year, and as any regular here knows i am one of his strongest critics. He can not play in the halves, it's simply an abortion. I however think if he can purely focus on distribution, the occasional scoot and RARE kick from dummy half i think he can be a great asset at hooker. I have no issue with his defence bar his injuries been a liability. If we can keep Gidley on the park and he plays smart, with Clydesdale nutured into more minutes as the season progresses i don't think we necessarily lose overall with Buderus retirement. Gidley has heart like Buderus and is a leader, what he lacks in Bedsy's football brain he makes up for with enthusiasm. He has shown, evein in Origin, at hooker he can put that enthusiasm to good, measured use.
The lack of flair is the big one. What is flair? Most would think of an Ali Lauitiiti, Sonny-Bill Williams or Frank Pritchard type is what we lack but that's a very stereo typical view of 'flair'. To me flair is variety - basically the opposite of Dan Tolar. Ryan Hoffman and Aidan Guerra are forwards with flair, their footwork and line running are suberb and give headaches to their opposition. Glenn Stewart and Feleti Mateo have flair, their ball playing is slick and up with the best halves. Anthony Watmough and Sam Thaiday have flair, they use footwork and link well with their outside man to create overlaps or holes for themselves - the opposition has to make decisions when they run.
As it stands we wil go into 2014 with this been our biggest issue. The return of Snowden and Cuthbertson + the addition of Packer will help somewhat as all are known to possess a handy offload and some second phase always has it's place, even in Bennett ball. However this isn't the real issue as the lack of offloads was a tatic. Bennett obviously thought the best strategy was to simply reduce the errors to an absolute minimum so we win the field position battle on the back of Mullens boot and maximize our posessesion in the oppositions 30m zone where our backline could strike. All well and could but it often failed at the last hurdle which brings me to what i think, and a lot here also seem to agree, is our biggest weakness. The lack of flair in our edge backrowers.
To say we are weak in our edge backrowers is almost harsh such is the efforts of Scott and Rochow this year, but there is sadly some truth to it. They simply don't offer enough questions of the opposition with the ball or hand or one pass from them. No footwork, ball playing, line running. Rochow has shown some here and there but not enough to commit defenders. Alas 90% of our attacking plays in the oppositions 20m are shutdown because the opposition can spread effectively to cover us man for man.
So am i suggesting we drop rochow or scott? No. But i think two forwards next year need to be playing wide in attack, especially in the oppositions 30m, and that is McKinnon and Mason. Whether that means in defence McKinnon and Mason continue to play tight but in attack they move outwide so be it. They are the two forwards i see that can pose a genuine threat due to footwork, ball playing and line running and make the opposition ask questions 'do i drop off him and spread or do i jam up in on him'. Ask them that question 10 times a game and they will get it wrong a couple of times. At the moment there is no question with Rochow or Scott, it's simply jam up in on them for an effective shutdown. The tries we score outwide are the result of either Boyd, Roberts or Mullen producing great passes to create overlaps. We would be so much more potent anywhere on the field if it didn't require a perfect pass to make a break but also simply giving a fringe runner early ball and letting them try their hand.
8. Snowden
9. Gidley
10. Packer
11. Rochow
12. Scott
13. Smith
14. Clydesdale
15. Mason
16. Cuthbertson
17. McKinnon
So after a 500 word essay and naming a pack that 80% of people would name, whats my point? We don't have a lot of weaknesses but our largest is a fixable one from the stocks with got. No huge changes, just when Mason and McKinnon are on the park simply push them right and left respectively and tell them to run outside mullen or roberts and give them an option so you ask questions of the opposition line. I think Mason is wasted as a battering ram and so is McKinnon. People might think once Snowden and/or Packer are subbed we will lose punch especially if we push big boppers wide, but effective fringe running thins the ruck which will give Gidley, Boyd, Smith, Mullen and Roberts opportunity back up the middle.
We've got the defence to hold out our line and the punch and boot to win the field position battle. It's time we take full advantage of our potent backline to murder teams outwide ala Manly, Melbourne and The Roosters.
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