AOB literally said after the game that it was a preview of what the attack will look like next year when DylBro arrives. He went into a fair bit of detail about how "dangerous" it will make us having Kalyn, Fletcher & Dylan, three guys who can play on the first layer like a halfback, or on the second/third layer like a five-eighth or fullback. It was 100% planned. If the plan has been steadily abandoned it's because it started to look crap almost immediately after that.
I took that more as a standard AOB defensive snap back in retrospect. We’d been copping it a lot in the media about the Brown signing and it was almost a “see this could work” comment from him after he’d seen something that could justify Brown fitting into the team.
Ponga playing first receiver more was obviously planned to allow Sharpe to ease into the halves, but my point is that the amount he was doing it suggested to me it was because he wanted his hands on the ball more. In the Dolphins game he didn’t purely play first receiver. He also played a lot on the end of shape. He just wanted his hands on the ball.
I didn’t see it as being steadily abandoned, tbh I saw it quickly abandoned which was very much in line with Ponga’s decline in form. Was that a complete tactical change or Ponga being out of form and not wanting his hands on the ball as much? Probably a combination, but to me it’s pretty obvious when he’s high on confidence he wants his hands on the ball all the time regardless of being at first or second/third receiver, but when he’s low on form he avoids it more and just wanders behind the ruck or waits on his normal edge and takes a run or passes if the ball comes to him.
FTR I did like that in GP on Thursday he wanted his hands on the ball. His execution is still struggling but hopefully a step in the first direction.
