Ok sorry for getting cranky.
The first thing a coach of an NRL team will do when picking his team is say right, we need to make 240 tackles in the game (of course it will be less if you play well and more if you are rubbish or unlucky) and he will allocate them according to position. As I said earlier because the majority of the traffic goes up the middle the coach needs to be sure that his middles (8,9,10,13) are up to the task and there is sufficient cover on the bench for the shortfall. When I say up to the task I mean; can they handle the line speed and wrestle AND do everything else required on the field; because if you lose the yardage sets through the middle you have lost the game. It's fundamentals and it's also why Gallen is so important to our team, one because he is so reliable in the wrestle and particularly as he offsets Fifita who isn't a great defensive prop but we cover that because he's so effective in attack. It's also why Heighno is one of the first picked. You won't see Bird at 13 because it's too taxing a position defensively, I'm sure he can make the tackles but it will blunt his attack.
Move him to an edge and let him do what he does best with ball in hand.
It's got noting to do with being robotic either. If you can't contain the opposition in the middle of the field you don't win. The Walker brothers sides actually exploited weak middle defense with their constant turning the ball under on an A line fatiguing reggies level players who don't have the aerobic capacity to absorb that much "shutting the gate" which is code for closing the gap from the inside.
no problem at all, you come at with me with a rise and you'll get exactly that in return
and appreciate the informative response back
now my rebuttal
if i'm the opposing coach to a team playing yours, and I tell my forwards to take the ball up either edge, like the old days to open it up for the backs, how will your defensive pattern react to that?
keeping in mind your halves are on either edge and and my big boppers are targeting them? my forwards arent playing through the middle third, they are playing at the edges
and then my team sets for an old school back line movement, half 5/8 and centres all on the same side
i pretty confident you will have to adjust your defensive line to accommodate, with width and depth across the field your forwards are very susceptible to an incorrect defensive read and are unlikely to be able able to match the speed or agility of the players running at them, most likely inside or outside centre
this is my whole point, yes what you say might be correct, now, but that is because the attack has become predictable so you can plan for it accordingly
the play book in league is identical in nearly every club, and limited, you have those who can pull it off like clock work and those who look f**king geniused attempting it
the coach has become too prominent in the modern era of league, guys like langer, cliff lyons, terry lamb etc dont exist anymore because the natural instinct to play what they see is coached out of them in exchange for "structures" which are repeatable, coachable, predicatable and most importantly boring as f**k
in regard to bird, play him at lock on both sides, give him command to rove
defensively bring wade graham into the middle
he likes the front on contact big hits anyhow and he is f**king good at it
