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Rumours and Stuff

lucablight

First Grade
Messages
6,064
This might sound really, really daft, considering we have come off the back of two consecutive thumping, but...

At our absolute best, I honestly believe we can match it with Penrith.

The issue is I don't have much faith that we can get to that level.
No question. We were one of two teams to beat Penrith last season.
 

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
84,179
Penrith don’t have that much more origin and finals experience than us.
I think you'll find they do, and by finals time they will have a lot more Origin experience.
You could also argue we don’t have better finals/origin experience because we haven’t performed as well as we could have due to the coaching deficiencies.
We have picked up six games' worth of finals experience in the past four years. That's plenty more than most. As for coaching keeping our players out of Origin, we have been in the top six every week since July 2019. We are winning plenty of games, despite lack of big game experience, and the best explanation is that it's because of coaching, not in spite of it.
 

lucablight

First Grade
Messages
6,064
I think you'll find they do, and by finals time they will have a lot more Origin experience.

We have picked up six games' worth of finals experience in the past four years. That's plenty more than most. As for coaching keeping our players out of Origin, we have been in the top six every week since July 2019. We are winning plenty of games, despite lack of big game experience, and the best explanation is that it's because of coaching, not in spite of it.
I disagree with your assertion that we are winning because of coaching rather than in spite of it. We have a very good roster on paper. I don’t think the attack is good enough considering the amount of possession we’re able to obtain through our power game and there’s an obvious issue with how we defend on the edges. That comes down to how the team is being prepared in my view.
 

hineyrulz

Post Whore
Messages
148,327
I disagree with your assertion that we are winning because of coaching rather than in spite of it. We have a very good roster on paper. I don’t think the attack is good enough considering the amount of possession we’re able to obtain through our power game and there’s an obvious issue with how we defend on the edges. That comes down to how the team is being prepared in my view.
No no no no!! The new narrative is the squad is poor and Arthur is a coaching genius to have us 9 and 3. But stay tuned this could all change to suit his defence the club at all cost narrative. Blind Freddie can see we look poorly coached in attack and defence, once we come up against the strong squads with quality coach it’s Portuguese chicken time!!
 
Messages
19,104
I disagree with your assertion that we are winning because of coaching rather than in spite of it. We have a very good roster on paper. I don’t think the attack is good enough considering the amount of possession we’re able to obtain through our power game and there’s an obvious issue with how we defend on the edges. That comes down to how the team is being prepared in my view.

The power game does not give you possession. The fact that you play it simple often means that you don't lose possession as frequently, but that can also mean that your attack is not as flashy otherwise. But we did score 30+ points for a number of weeks in a row. The biggest problem is the edge defense.
 

Glenneel

Bench
Messages
3,433
I think the problem is that BA and the coaching staff are asking players to shoot out of the line and attack the ball player while the inside players rush across and cover the opposition winger.

I don't think Fergusson is up to that task, Tom and Jakob are no where near fast enough to cover the kinda of ground required and finally latrell is way too skillful with his quick hands to be troubled by that.

Shame BA and his staff can't indentify these issues before the game.
Well its now confirmed. Finally, Pou was right, for once, and we were all wrong. Waqa wasn't the culprit apparently the scapegoat is now Fergo people. And also Jake who is not good with his defensive reads as yet. Hopefully our right side will improve dramatically once Dyl comes back as Waqa will permanently be on the left now.

Despite the above I still believe we need a new defensive coach. With our compressed defence our sliding is poor. Part of that could be with our slow backs. In the Knights/Moanly game yesterday, early in the game, Knights spread ball from right to left in 3-4 quick passes yet Manly still had 2-3 defenders there waiting. If that was us our furthest defenders would have been 20 metres infield scrambling to get across.
 

Glenneel

Bench
Messages
3,433
Could be. I recall Moses saying it's the first time he's ever been coached at half back play so I was hoping to see some special touches this year. I applaud the club for bringing him on board. I suppose I was expecting more.
Hard to shine with the forwards being dominated last 2 games. They were down which you could see from the beginning of the game so have to ask why was that happening?
 

TheRam

Coach
Messages
13,461
If those clubs play their best and we play our best we will lose. And it won't be anybody's fault. At full strength they are better than us. Why do merkins need a scapegoat?

If those other teams play their best and we play our best it would be one hell of a game and if we lost I would be disappointed but proud. The problem is that we generally don't play anywhere near our best against these better teams and even if we do play reasonably well, the next week we play like absolute crap.

It is not a fitness thing either, but either a game plan and or mental thing.
 

84 Baby

Referee
Messages
28,033
If those other teams play their best and we play our best it would be one hell of a game and if we lost I would be disappointed but proud. The problem is that we generally don't play anywhere near our best against these better teams and even if we do play reasonably well, the next week we play like absolute crap.

It is not a fitness thing either, but either a game plan and or mental thing.
Be honest, would you be able to identify if we have played our best and just not been good enough? Losing those games, like any other game, are going to come down to a failure in our defence, someone making an error or our inability to break the other team’s defence.
You too @hineyrulz
 

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