The block plays

[RufusRex]

bing

 

[Saint_JimmyG]

the new penguin?

More like John Carlaw.

 

[gonz]

I think its pretty funny how after 2 trials neither of which were terrible the whole forum is posting nothing but negative stuff.
The trials probably showed me that we have a lot of work to do, mainly in defense, but we have some real potential. I think if we can just work on a bit of diversity in attack we will be a strong top 8 team. Hunt to kick more, Widdop to play more direct, get Mann in the backline somewhere and its game on.
We have to be much better but I think/hope we will have a good season.

Any potential is negated by a buffoon of a coach

 

[Objective View]

The trials probably showed me that we have a lot of work to do, mainly in defense, but we have some real potential. I think if we can just work on a bit of diversity in attack we will be a strong top 8 team.

Mate, the same was said at the start of each year since Mary took over.

Your hope is in vain.

Straight Shooter

 

[ouryear]

I think its pretty funny how after 2 trials neither of which were terrible the whole forum is posting nothing but negative stuff.
The trials probably showed me that we have a lot of work to do, mainly in defense, but we have some real potential. I think if we can just work on a bit of diversity in attack we will be a strong top 8 team. Hunt to kick more, Widdop to play more direct, get Mann in the backline somewhere and its game on.
We have to be much better but I think/hope we will have a good season.

Crush, how long does it take to work on getting widdop to run straighter, create some more diversity in attack, select Mann, give your hooker the licence to run a bit, etc. etc?

If the things you mention were really on the minds of the coaching team, it can be implemented in a few training sessions.

Not years, not one year, not even months.
And how long has Mary been here? !

None of what you hope for will remotely happen while we have a coach who is way out of his depth.

Nothing is very hard if the desire and intent is there.

McGregor has to go, along with Young and Hornby.

Years.... Years of failure.

Time to wake up

 

[Slippery Morris]

Is the block play Mary or the defence coach that has that responsibility? Is Hornby/Young the defence or Wayne Collins? Or the bloke from the milk bar across the road....

 

[ouryear]

Is the block play Mary or the defence coach that has that responsibility? Is Hornby/Young the defence or Wayne Collins? Or the bloke from the milk bar across the road....

You made me laugh.
Yes, the milk bar owners grandfather.
I am sure, he was at training with blocks of clay telling the boys. ..I will teach you the block play

 

[Maxwell]

HOPE !!!!!! it covers a lot of things, but I am with every one else here, I hope MacPrice can do something different this year. But a question I have , why spend $1.2 million on a half back and he only touches the ball when the forwards don't want it. For that amount of money spent he should have his hands on the ball as first receiver every bloody time, that's what we got him for to be our Playmaker, our leader , our conductor, our main man and any thing else that will fit his title. JG and all the forwards should run off him, at present we are so stereo-typed , defences read us like a novel, its simple kick the ball to us and we have 2 wingers run from dummy half, 3 one out forwards run and than a kick a lot of times under pressure, and BINGO we have made a cool 40 metres, whoopee, coach a well thought out tactic and this lasts all game . We run sideways and back pedal in defence . Another great tactic by the Master Goose Coach . On team selections Lomax , who I only seen in CS game and looks the goods, good hands and steps well, Mann on the wing, and sorry Flo its Time to go . To slow in modern day game, yes he might score 10 tries and yes he might let 20 thru his side. But with Hunt getting the ball every time he can dictate the game make the plays, like dummy to first runner, pass in behind to 2nd runner, keep the defence guessing, short chip kicks early keep the defence on their toes. They rush up like soufs did against us in CS punish them, he can have some of them in defence not sure and than leaving gaps. And that's what its all about keeping the opposition guessing and in 2 minds .

 

[slippery5]

I think its pretty funny how after 2 trials neither of which were terrible the whole forum is posting nothing but negative stuff.
The trials probably showed me that we have a lot of work to do, mainly in defense, but we have some real potential. I think if we can just work on a bit of diversity in attack we will be a strong top 8 team. Hunt to kick more, Widdop to play more direct, get Mann in the backline somewhere and its game on.
We have to be much better but I think/hope we will have a good season.

I agree, I'm very much a realist & I actually saw some things in the CS that I haven't seen for a long time.
1. Kicks to open space, including balls spinning backwards.
1A. No 7 set tackles.
2. Our 6 & 7 creating numbers on the same side & asking questions of defence.
3. A winger given open space down the sideline inside our own half. (unfortunately lack of speed gave defence time to cover). but really when was the last time you saw that?? thanks Lomax..
4. More runs from dummy half from our 9 than he did all last year.

 

[Dennis Papaioannou]

The man has no idea (McGregor) its really frustrating that he has persisted year in year out and as we can see it DOES NOT WORK its dumb coaching

He doesn't do it on purpose, he just doesn't know any better.
It's called aptitude.
We are competing with genius coaches (Bennett, Green, Bellamy, Arthur, Flanagan, Clearly) compared to our guy who has the coaching IQ of a toddler.
That's why the advisors are in the background but it is the blind leading the blind and the top coaches can read us like a book and devise tactics accordingly.
Everyone keeps talking about our white hot start to 2017 - "leading the comp in the early rounds" "third at the half way mark" etc.
The reality is that we caught the opposition by surprise until we got to the likes of Parramatta and Brad Arthur who devised tactics and caned us. After that it was a downward spiral procession all the way to the end of the season.
Fast forward to 2018 and every coach in the comp will be ready and waiting for our "Power Game"
The element of surprise will be gone and we will have to face facts that we are just not competitive with the top teams.
Individual players such as Hunt, Widdop and Graham may influence the outcome of games occasionally but the coach influences the performance of the side over the duration of the season.
If the ultimate measure of success is winning the comp, we are miles away.
If we are just happy with scraping into the 8 then that is a middle of the table finish which we may or may not achieve.
What's worrying is that our Management seem to regard that as an acceptable outcome to be perpetuated.
For me, while the current coaching set up is in place, the club is not serious about success and I feel it is incredibly unfair to impart this massive weight of expectation on a couple of new chums in Graham and Hunt.
They, by themselves cannot suddenly change our fortunes.
Rant over!

 

[Life's Good]

He doesn't do it on purpose, he just doesn't know any better.
It's called aptitude.
We are competing with genius coaches (Bennett, Green, Bellamy, Arthur, Flanagan, Clearly) compared to our guy who has the coaching IQ of a toddler.
That's why the advisors are in the background but it is the blind leading the blind and the top coaches can read us like a book and devise tactics accordingly.
Everyone keeps talking about our white hot start to 2017 - "leading the comp in the early rounds" "third at the half way mark" etc.
The reality is that we caught the opposition by surprise until we got to the likes of Parramatta and Brad Arthur who devised tactics and caned us. After that it was a downward spiral procession all the way to the end of the season.
Fast forward to 2018 and every coach in the comp will be ready and waiting for our "Power Game"
The element of surprise will be gone and we will have to face facts that we are just not competitive with the top teams.
Individual players such as Hunt, Widdop and Graham may influence the outcome of games occasionally but the coach influences the performance of the side over the duration of the season.
If the ultimate measure of success is winning the comp, we are miles away.
If we are just happy with scraping into the 8 then that is a middle of the table finish which we may or may not achieve.
What's worrying is that our Management seem to regard that as an acceptable outcome to be perpetuated.
For me, while the current coaching set up is in place, the club is not serious about success and I feel it is incredibly unfair to impart this massive weight of expectation on a couple of new chums in Graham and Hunt.
They, by themselves cannot suddenly change our fortunes.
Rant over!

Thanks Dennis. I really enjoy how you break things down. If I can summarise your post the gist is ‘Sack McGregor’.

 

[Dennis Papaioannou]

Thanks Dennis. I really enjoy how you break things down. If I can summarise your post the gist is ‘Sack McGregor’.

That is so much easier - thanks for putting it into a nutshell

 

[Crush]

Crush, how long does it take to work on getting widdop to run straighter, create some more diversity in attack, select Mann, give your hooker the licence to run a bit, etc. etc?

If the things you mention were really on the minds of the coaching team, it can be implemented in a few training sessions.

Not years, not one year, not even months.
And how long has Mary been here? !

None of what you hope for will remotely happen while we have a coach who is way out of his depth.

Nothing is very hard if the desire and intent is there.

McGregor has to go, along with Young and Hornby.

Years.... Years of failure.

Time to wake up

I'd prefer to wait until we get into the season proper before I think about giving up and purely focusing on nothing but sack the coach.
We have a new number 1.7.8 who are all very talented exciting players.
Maybe you are right and they won't be able to make an impact and the coaching staff will have to go but personally I will wait a few rounds of 2018 before I make that call.
I prefer to be positive at this point.
Ill "wake up" when the writing is well and truly on the wall if you don't mind, not after 2 trials one of which we won the other lost by a try.
Cheers.

 

[Dennis Papaioannou]

Crush, how long does it take to work on getting widdop to run straighter, create some more diversity in attack, select Mann, give your hooker the licence to run a bit, etc. etc?

If the things you mention were really on the minds of the coaching team, it can be implemented in a few training sessions.

Not years, not one year, not even months.
And how long has Mary been here? !

None of what you hope for will remotely happen while we have a coach who is way out of his depth.

Nothing is very hard if the desire and intent is there.

McGregor has to go, along with Young and Hornby. that fans are ready to accept and believe because they are just so keen to see the club do better.
But give a coach a second year to tweak and get it right but with McGregor its gone past a joke.
So what if we have

Years.... Years of failure.

Time to wake up

Reading Crush's response gives an insight into the mentality of some of us fans.
The club through some, not so clever spin doctoring, continue to provide glimpses of hope and optimism in order to justify and rationalize McGregor's appointment/extension and his performance.
By recruiting Hunt and Graham (which was a jaggy fluke due to Canterbury's salary cap woes) they are conveniently feeding that hope and optimism while at the same time deflecting attention away from our coaching malaise.
If Crush is still waiting to see how things pan out mid way through the 2018 season then it will be too late as it was in 2016 and 2017.
I totally agree that Young and Hornby are part of the problem and should also go..
All involved have been given plenty of opportunities to improve things and it just hasn't happened.
A few recruits will not make some magical difference.
My simple litmus test is to ask whether any of our other NRL counterparts would tolerate this situation?
Given that high profile coaches such as Hasler and Maguire were not immune to getting the sack not to mention Henry, the installation of Cleary, the coaching changes all over the place. what can you say about our situation?
We are all still waiting around for McGregor, the anointed one, to serve his apprenticeship and become a first grade caliber coach.
So from Bush footy, to reserve grade middle of the table to FG middle of the table or worse.
What is there to be optimistic about??
I am just seething will frustration at his ridiculous situation and it is ashamed that loyal supporters like Crush are getting sucked in to believe that success is just around the corner with McGregor at the helm.

 

[gitano]

Block plays are a blight on the game. Even when they come off they are boring to watch in my opinion.
I want sides, especially ours, to have their own look.

Thinking back to how we were in the Browny days, it was such entertaining footy. Granted we had a better backline then, but we can't compete with the Storm and Roosters playing their game.

I'd look closely at our options at hooker. We need more spark, hey I'd even settle for another kicking option out of there. Watching Damien Cook and that real threat out of dummy half shows what we lack. It's not just what he does, but the time he affords his halves by defences second guessing him and compressing. We don't force near enough decisions from defensive lines, especially playing as before the line as we do. It's one left field decision away from turning around I reckon. I'd love to see Field play at hooker from the bench. His defence may not be up to it, but only one way to fix that .

 

[ouryear]

I'd prefer to wait until we get into the season proper before I think about giving up and purely focusing on nothing but sack the coach.
We have a new number 1.7.8 who are all very talented exciting players.
Maybe you are right and they won't be able to make an impact and the coaching staff will have to go but personally I will wait a few rounds of 2018 before I make that call.
I prefer to be positive at this point.
Ill "wake up" when the writing is well and truly on the wall if you don't mind, not after 2 trials one of which we won the other lost by a try.
Cheers.

Crush I know you are a loyal great supporter, we need more like you.

The thing with Mary is after a few years of coaching he still has not worked out some VERY BASIC things.
He has not progressed as a coach, he makes the same mistakes as he did 3 yrs ago, he brings no new ideas, no new methods, no new strategies... and continues to have the team playing in slow motion.

He still has not:
1. Worked out how to use the bench, the team is 17, not 16.
2. Worked out that we need speed.
3. Figured out that a hooker needs to help OPEN up the opposition defence by sometimes running, NOT just passing. Continuing to JUST pass allows the opposition to set their line knowing what's coming.
They never have to second guess.
It's called predictable
4. Constantly running predictable block plays will not win enough games.

Mary as coach is meant to create and coach other plays, other strategies. Anyone can coach a block play, even an under 8s coach.

Predictable for most defences.

As well, his communication style is boring, not inspiring, and mainly not passionate.

And he let's our players... and the team off the hook by making ridiculous excuses for losses such as...If only the field was 2 metres shorter, tries from kicks, and so on.

It's clear he is out of his depth.

I would not even choose him as an assistant coach. He cannot coach.

He has no idea Crush. None.

 

[emu62]

Block plays are a blight on the game. Even when they come off they are boring to watch in my opinion.
I want sides, especially ours, to have their own look.

Thinking back to how we were in the Browny days, it was such entertaining footy. Granted we had a better backline then, but we can't compete with the Storm and Roosters playing their game.

I'd look closely at our options at hooker. We need more spark, hey I'd even settle for another kicking option out of there. Watching Damien Cook and that real threat out of dummy half shows what we lack. It's not just what he does, but the time he affords his halves by defences second guessing him and compressing. We don't force near enough decisions from defensive lines, especially playing as before the line as we do. It's one left field decision away from turning around I reckon. I'd love to see Field play at hooker from the bench. His defence may not be up to it, but only one way to fix that .

FMD ! Gitano i dont believe it , I actually agree with you . I Better get to the doctors quick this must be serious

 

[SEAT 1A]

When they get it right, shines a light on the players skill. The plays that require a CSI investigation not so much.

 

[hazzbeen]

Block plays are a blight on the game. Even when they come off they are boring to watch in my opinion.
I want sides, especially ours, to have their own look.

Thinking back to how we were in the Browny days, it was such entertaining footy. Granted we had a better backline then, but we can't compete with the Storm and Roosters playing their game.

I'd look closely at our options at hooker. We need more spark, hey I'd even settle for another kicking option out of there. Watching Damien Cook and that real threat out of dummy half shows what we lack. It's not just what he does, but the time he affords his halves by defences second guessing him and compressing. We don't force near enough decisions from defensive lines, especially playing as before the line as we do. It's one left field decision away from turning around I reckon. I'd love to see Field play at hooker from the bench. His defence may not be up to it, but only one way to fix that .

Agree we need to be playing whats in front of us , need to chance our hand , the more unpredictable we are the more chances of beating the big guns . Ok to have our set plays but need to be looking outside the square when its on ......

 

[Maxwell]

He doesn't do it on purpose, he just doesn't know any better.
It's called aptitude.
We are competing with genius coaches (Bennett, Green, Bellamy, Arthur, Flanagan, Clearly) compared to our guy who has the coaching IQ of a toddler.
That's why the advisors are in the background but it is the blind leading the blind and the top coaches can read us like a book and devise tactics accordingly.
Everyone keeps talking about our white hot start to 2017 - "leading the comp in the early rounds" "third at the half way mark" etc.
The reality is that we caught the opposition by surprise until we got to the likes of Parramatta and Brad Arthur who devised tactics and caned us. After that it was a downward spiral procession all the way to the end of the season.
Fast forward to 2018 and every coach in the comp will be ready and waiting for our "Power Game"
The element of surprise will be gone and we will have to face facts that we are just not competitive with the top teams.
Individual players such as Hunt, Widdop and Graham may influence the outcome of games occasionally but the coach influences the performance of the side over the duration of the season.
If the ultimate measure of success is winning the comp, we are miles away.
If we are just happy with scraping into the 8 then that is a middle of the table finish which we may or may not achieve.
What's worrying is that our Management seem to regard that as an acceptable outcome to be perpetuated.
For me, while the current coaching set up is in place, the club is not serious about success and I feel it is incredibly unfair to impart this massive weight of expectation on a couple of new chums in Graham and Hunt.
They, by themselves cannot suddenly change our fortunes.
Rant over!

Dragon 83 Over the last 3 or 4 years under Mary we were satisfied with anywhere from 9 to 15 as long as we didn't get the spoon , then Doust and the rest thought we had a successful year.