We were missing something in the Pack

[Jake the snake]

Our backrowers dont have a hint of skill about them. They played really well yesterday. Wagon , Morrison,Hindmasrh were very very good. I just believe that you need a ball player or 2 in the forwards. Someone that can slip the ball before the line or hit the line and slip a pass. I will get bagged for this but If Feleti was at lock yesterday we would have had that X factor that the game needed. We were too predictable. We can't alyways have those Robotic players we need some off the cuff type of skill.


Hopefully Feleti gets his shot next year.

 

[Twizzle]

we won 9 in a row with those three in the back row, and we have Widders to play the ball playing back rower

 

[Avenger]

Our backrowers dont have a hint of skill about them. They played really well yesterday. Wagon , Morrison,Hindmasrh were very very good. I just believe that you need a ball player or 2 in the forwards. Someone that can slip the ball before the line or hit the line and slip a pass. I will get bagged for this but If Feleti was at lock yesterday we would have had that X factor that the game needed. We were too predictable. We can't alyways have those Robotic players we need some off the cuff type of skill.


Hopefully Feleti gets his shot next year.

He will buddy, he will.

 

[Jake the snake]

we won 9 in a row with those three in the back row, and we have Widders to play the ball playing back rower

Widders is not exactly ball playing more like ball running.

We have 3 very similar types of players in the backrow Hindmarsh, Morro and Wagon. You need to have a balance IMO. When we needed something special all we could do was just hit it up.

 

[Jake the snake]

Avenger,


U should have saw him on Saturday in the rain. Standout! Again

 

[Stagger eel]

Avenger,


U should have saw him on Saturday in the rain. Standout! Again

I told him already ;-)

another bloke who would of played some first grade had he not injured his ankle was Weller, his got wicked hands good on his feet and get sniff a try, just needs to put on some more weight ;-)

 

[Avenger]

Avenger,


U should have saw him on Saturday in the rain. Standout! Again

Mate I get excited every time I see him play. I am also very happy when I hear that Blake is playing well. Remember he played with Mullen for the Schoolboys and was rated as good as him.

 

[Jake the snake]

Mate I get excited every time I see him play. I am also very happy when I hear that Blake is playing well. Remember he played with Mullen for the Schoolboys and was rated as good as him.

Eela our coaching staff find flaws in their games and tell them they are not good enough. They have been over coached and confused out of the game. Spoke to Willie Tonga the other week, put it this way he didn't give Brian Smith a rap.

Im glad in a way that Brian Smith and Taylor have gone Eela. Maybe just maybe now we can move on from the text book teaching/coaching style and let players with skill and players who play what's infront of them get a chance. Let players play with the Natural style.

 

[Bigfella]

Jake I agree that we lack skill in the pack. No question.

There is one other factor that we lack that say St George showed on Saturday night. That is the ability to run different angles, and provide more than one option for the opposition defence.

Dragons used runners angles back in behind the ruck, and from different widths, to overcome an aggressive defence and creeping markers.

We didn't use ballplaying, or angles, or decoys, and relied on head down bum up, yet we didn't really have the power or size to do so. We lost that battle for the last 3 weeks.

I don't necessarily agree that Mateo could have won us that game; I don;t think anyone was getting the ball on or near the advantage line enough to actually do any damage as a ball player.

It was heartbreaking that on average 3-4 of our hitups on every set were completely ineffectual. For that reason I never felt we could win the game despite the scoreline being pretty close.

If we can get some better structure in our pack; starting with the acting dummy half and then his runners (including the big outside backs) not only could Feleti blossom, but Hindmarsh and others could be more damaging in attack and Tim Smith could actually have some time to select his options better and to effect them with more precision.

Glad to have a coach coming from completely outside the current structure who will have a more objective eye.

 

[Jake the snake]

Jake I agree that we lack skill in the pack. No question.

There is one other factor that we lack that say St George showed on Saturday night. That is the ability to run different angles, and provide more than one option for the opposition defence.

Dragons used runners angles back in behind the ruck, and from different widths, to overcome an aggressive defence and creeping markers.

We didn't use ballplaying, or angles, or decoys, and relied on head down bum up, yet we didn't really have the power or size to do so. We lost that battle for the last 3 weeks.

I don't necessarily agree that Mateo could have won us that game; I don;t think anyone was getting the ball on or near the advantage line enough to actually do any damage as a ball player.

It was heartbreaking that on average 3-4 of our hitups on every set were completely ineffectual. For that reason I never felt we could win the game despite the scoreline being pretty close.

If we can get some better structure in our pack; starting with the acting dummy half and then his runners (including the big outside backs) not only could Feleti blossom, but Hindmarsh and others could be more damaging in attack and Tim Smith could actually have some time to select his options better and to effect them with more precision.

Glad to have a coach coming from completely outside the current structure who will have a more objective eye.

Well said mate, All I was trying to say is that we need a better balance in the forwards something other than the normal bump and grind.

 

[Bigfella]

Absolutely. In the wash up, from the moment we got back to 12-6 until the end of the game, we didn't actually play much footy at them. We were brave, and we completed our sets, and we held them out ... but I never felt like we were going to score again.

We showed a heap of ticker, but not the full set of tricks we could have thrown at them. I think that is the thing to llok most forward to about next year - hopefully getting the best out of some of our players in the club at all different levels.

 

[eloquentEEL]

Our backrowers dont have a hint of skill about them. They played really well yesterday. Wagon , Morrison,Hindmasrh were very very good. I just believe that you need a ball player or 2 in the forwards. Someone that can slip the ball before the line or hit the line and slip a pass. I will get bagged for this but If Feleti was at lock yesterday we would have had that X factor that the game needed. We were too predictable. We can't alyways have those Robotic players we need some off the cuff type of skill.


Hopefully Feleti gets his shot next year.

is it that they don't have skill? or was it more that the gameplan called for them not to take risks with offloads, etc?

 

[strider]

i think the skill comes on the back of some good strong play to get the defense on the back foot - without Fui we struggle to get teams back peddling - Fui is our platform setter up front

 

[Sean7]

To be honest, I think the entire side was picked in the hope of being able to hang on and maybe grab a win if the Storm are a bit off their game. I wonder if they really gave themselves a shot. I know Tim Smith cops a lot of criticism, but if you were the one and only creative force in an entire side, you'd struggle too. And once McKinnon was gone, there was the last player that could turn nothing into something.

I do agree that the forward pack would've been better off with a ball player somewhere, but the same can be said for the backline. The were way too many dead-ends attack. I don't know if you can play it quite that safe when it comes to finals football.

Brian Smith always preferred to plug gaps rather than find the real answer and I do think that has cost us in the past and it cost us yesterday.

 

[PIG]

We have problems in alot of areas....our effort and desire, as well as Melb being slightly off enable us to stay close.

That and we have Hindy- he cleans up almost every half chance be it inside balls, players beating the irst man, players splitting the markers....he is an absolute marvel. We dont have him yesterday and the scorm score over 20 easy.

 

[Phillips]

we need more aggression

 

[strider]

Brian Smith always preferred to plug gaps rather than find the real answer and I do think that has cost us in the past and it cost us yesterday.

yes, we must reference brian smith along with every loss from now on for no particular reason what-so-ever

 

[eels_]

our pack is/was fine.

It was our halves that were the issue against the storm. Our last tackle options were diabolical most of the time. That was the major factor in our loss if you ask me.

Our forwards handled their forwards quite well. We were not out muscled in this game.

 

[Twizzle]

we need more aggression

we need more Fui

 

[Stagger eel]

I thought our pack did well but as Jake said we missed a bit of craftiness, players who can do a little bit with the ball in their hand and I believe we'll have that next year with Weller and Feleti.