I think the problem with our attack is the coaching or lack thereof, AOB has said on a few occasions we focus heavily on defence and seems to indicate we don't do a lot on attack.. it hasn't helped we got Clifford half way through the season and Ponga was injured and we had Hoy in the spot all off season.
I dont expect much out of this final series on current from yes we scraped out a bit of a win streak on bottom placed teams, we need to learn how to attack in the off season and if we start off 2022 with the same clueless attack questions need to be asked of the coaching staff.
Yes defence wins games but a lot of the top sides have good defence but who is going to win games the teams that are threatening multiple times a set across the park stretching the defensive line and building pressure or the Knights who 1 out ruck it until we get to the opposition 20 and then put on a hand full of predictable plays on theb5th that you can see coming a mile away.. the only times we seem to score against the top sides is an unbeatable pass from Ponga. One of the sides is going to have a lot more energy for defence.
At NRL level of coaching how much does a coach really define the playing style of the club?
I mean you have head coach, attacking and defensive coaches, individual halves coaches etc. Players who like to play a certain style, on a certain side etc. Is a coach in there telling each player exactly where he wants them to be and do, or is he more there as a guiding influence to bring out the best an individual/team can provide.
I watch games and I can't for the life of me understand what we do at training sometimes!
Just an example from the last game.
Our attacking scrum set play on their 20 I think it was. Watch Penrith do it and they are silky smoth, well oiled machine and executed that play perfectly resulting in 2 tries out of I believe 3 attempts.
We ran a similar play but instead of running to the short side we have Watson run it in to the middle away from Bradman best, who you would think would be the target of such a play. The purpose of the play is to create the man overlap and put their Centre/winger under big pressure to make the right decision, yet we run it to centre field where their D can easily compress and slide. This honestly doesn't seem too hard to execute.
Set up scrum with Pearce feeding it, and Ponga too his right (in field) if running an attacking raid to the left wing. As the ball is fed the left Prop holds the opposing prop in the scrum, lock traps it, Ponga takes off to the left side of the scum, Pearce collects the ball at the back and runs a little to the line, passes to Ponga who then
A) Dummy to centre and run through to score.
B) Passes short ball to Centre running a line to score.
C) Cut out Pass to winger with Centre running decoy line and winger scores.
Likewise, kicking for touch from a penalty. What is OB doing here? Pearce takes the kick and puts it in to touch 10m further down field, yet we have clifford who could easily kick it 20-30m downfield. Is field position worth soo little these days?
General attacking play has to be heads up instinctive footy. Set up with a deeper attacking line and move the ball quickly, with a fast moving line. Then get it to your halves and let them play what they see. Has their Centre jammed in, then look to exploit it with a grubber through or get in behind the centre and put our own centre through. Or has their D line not slid as one, turn it back inside for Barny or fitz etc etc.
For the first time in ages last night, we looked to be trying this attacking style and it didn't come off. But for mine, that is because we have only tried it once. Spend pre-season and the first half of next year playing that style and I think we can rise to seriously contend for a top 4 berth.
