Nathan needs to be better. Luai needs to do something.....bloody anything. Started the year so well then has been coasting. His personality should mean he'll fire here
Your too hard on luai.
Imo the issue is the way hes being used.
As i said last week ivan has him stuck to a structure.
Wouldnt it be good to see him jump into 1st reciever and play the yeo role, say, 6 to 10 times throughout the game. Especially at the back end of halfs when yeo is fatigued but also the other teams middles are fatigued..
Thatd be what id so if i was coach..get him imto first reciever in the middle of the field. Play direct at the line and use his speed and step..
Do it a few times and if he runs every time itll drag players in closer together in the middle. Than on the 3rd or 4th time.. dig in deep in to the line but instead of tacking the tackle spread it wide to nathan.. defence should be jammed in so itll create space for the outside men.
Weve essentially seen luai do the same thing for 2.5years now and that has to be down to coaching....
Ivan needs to wake up sto himself and get creative. Luai is a weapon running the ball but he just isnt doing it enough.
My theories on why are:
1. that now he plays exclusivley on the left... so hes running into halfs and 2nd rowers who are more mobile.
2. The halfs and 2nd rowers arent getting fatigued as much as weve gone away from the patience game and we try and score off every play. So theres less clear oppurtunities for him to run.
I think this can kinda been proven too. Throw back to 2020 we were the best team in the comp at getting set restarts... it was probably the best year luai had in terms of running the ball. Wed just get 3 or 4 sets in a row and luai would pick his time to run and carve up exhausted blokes..
Last year pre origin we were playing similar and luai was in insane form.
Since post origin 2021 we seem to have gone away from that patience style of game plan. We grubber for set restarts less than 1/4 of what we used too.
So the oppurtunites for luai to carve up tired defenders just isnt coming about as much..
I understand that sometimes you dont need to get set restarts against the poorer teams as we can just score when we get down there with ease.
But yourself and others never complain about luai when we are smashing teams by 20 and scoring with ease..
Its only after a tough hard game when he isnt carving up or running as much that he gets a hammering.
We dont utilise luai as much as we should.. a lot of that comes back on ivan and the game plans.
Needs to give him more control and trust him..
Weve seen in the past what luai can do when he just plays hes natural game at first reciever. He can carve teams up..
Issue was last year with nath put he wanted both burto and laui to play like nath and cleary and it just didnt work.
If i was coach id be giving luai way more control and getting him into first reciever at the back end of the halfs.