Round three vs The Storm

[WestyLife]

Umm? Maybe you need to watch it again mate. That's not what happened at all.

We numbered up 3-3. At the last minute hynes switched sides to make it a 4 on 3 situation. Even still, I think it could have been stopped.

Momo come in, thought it was going to olam and got set flat footed to make the tackle. By the time they'd sent it out the back he had to turn and chase.

Dean whare was the best at defending those situations and was so good at stopping them. He'd just continue to slide and not get caught flat footed where he locked himself into guessing who would get the ball.

Was only the 2nd try off us in 3 games, was well executed by melbs. Something for that right side to work on.

That close to the line that was virtually impossible to stop if they execute it right and Melbourne usually do execute their set plays right. Without numbering up it was going to take something exceptional from Momo or Staines to stop that. The defence has to adjust in that situation, we had May packing in where Edwards usually would be and Luai standing at the scrum where Nath would be.

When Edwards packs scrums defensively he keeps his head up for as long as possible scanning the attacking side, almost every defensive scrum we have you can hear the ref telling him to pack in properly but he leaves it to the last second so he can work which way to break etc

Yeah that play results in a try 9 times out of ten. It was just well planned and executed.

 

[Girds89]

Yeah that play results in a try 9 times out of ten. It was just well planned and executed.

Yep I've said a few times it was well executed..
My issue isn't that we didn't stop it. Just our structure was not right. Regardless to the extra man or not.

It's pretty common and has basically been the defensive staple for a long time that if you are short on numbers keep sliding and push them to the sideline OR everyone jam in and push up fast.

Neither happened. Momo got caught flat footed and Staines kinda was just in no man's land.

I'm sure they will go over it this week and look how they could've done it better. Would a perfect structure have stopped it. Probably not, but I saw whare stop stuff lie that countless times. Not trying to compare to him but should but put some video work of him in his prime defensively. Would be good for the boys to learn off.

 

[MugaB]

According to StatsInsider you are right.

Melbourne conceded 51 tries last year. 49% on the right edge, 37% on the left edge and just 14% in the middle

https://www.statsinsider.com.au/blog/nrl/nrl-2021-where-does-your-team-need-to-improve-defensively

Centres are storms weakness, always has been, we have the luxury of critta, and momo this year, plus luai and nath who are a lot better in defence than the bulk of the NRL halves out there, it helps when your team doesn't have a maloney getting all the traffic

 

[Luke Bowden]

Yep I've said a few times it was well executed..
My issue isn't that we didn't stop it. Just our structure was not right. Regardless to the extra man or not.

It's pretty common and has basically been the defensive staple for a long time that if you are short on numbers keep sliding and push them to the sideline OR everyone jam in and push up fast.

Neither happened. Momo got caught flat footed and Staines kinda was just in no man's land.

I'm sure they will go over it this week and look how they could've done it better. Would a perfect structure have stopped it. Probably not, but I saw whare stop stuff lie that countless times. Not trying to compare to him but should but put some video work of him in his prime defensively. Would be good for the boys to learn off.

If you watch the game Momo actually stops very similar shape several times. He just got beat by the pass on that occasion.

 

[chrisD]

Overlaps are not the fault of centres and wingers, if they manage to break down an overlap it's a bonus, but can't be expected.

The try was a simple overlap from the scrum, if it was the plan to make up the extra number by our player breaking from the scrum it was a shit plan, because our player (think it was Capewell?) was too slow to break and keep pace with the Storm player that ran around the back (their fullback?). There was another scrum in a similar position later and this time Burton tracked the Storm player who went from one side of the scrum to the other.

I'd like to think it's on Burton or the team not having prepared him correctly, and if Cleary was playing he'd have tracked the extra man to the other side of the scrum the first time.