LeonardCohen
Bencher
Now that the season is done, naturally our thoughts turn to next year and our chances of improving and competing with the big sides.
I’m interested to hear what people think might be the pieces of the puzzle we require to challenge for a premiership.
From where I sit, I think there’s a common weakness in the games we lose and that’s our ruck defence. I’m less concerned with what happens when we have the ball. It would still be nice to make more inroads with the ball but it’s less concerning than the roll on the opposition get when they have the ball.
I don’t see the issue as a tactical concern or a matter of effort. I feel the individual players in the forward pack are simply not mobile and fast enough to play with the kind of defensive energy required to manage the better packs. We started with great intent last night, as we did against the Sharks at Brookie. Trouble is, there’s a pattern of it lasting about 25-30 mins before we lose the arm wrestle.
Our pack (especially the middles including Jake) are too slow. We can’t train them to be faster than their physiology allows. For this reason, I feel that until there is significant turn over of individuals in our middle rotation, we will continue to fall short. We just re-signed Brown, Aloiai, and Paseka 😞 and we’ve got Jake on big coin.
Finally, I do also believe we should swap Garrick and Talau. However, I also feel that middles who control the opposition ruck, help prevent the edges from being exposed.
I’m interested to hear what people think might be the pieces of the puzzle we require to challenge for a premiership.
From where I sit, I think there’s a common weakness in the games we lose and that’s our ruck defence. I’m less concerned with what happens when we have the ball. It would still be nice to make more inroads with the ball but it’s less concerning than the roll on the opposition get when they have the ball.
I don’t see the issue as a tactical concern or a matter of effort. I feel the individual players in the forward pack are simply not mobile and fast enough to play with the kind of defensive energy required to manage the better packs. We started with great intent last night, as we did against the Sharks at Brookie. Trouble is, there’s a pattern of it lasting about 25-30 mins before we lose the arm wrestle.
Our pack (especially the middles including Jake) are too slow. We can’t train them to be faster than their physiology allows. For this reason, I feel that until there is significant turn over of individuals in our middle rotation, we will continue to fall short. We just re-signed Brown, Aloiai, and Paseka 😞 and we’ve got Jake on big coin.
Finally, I do also believe we should swap Garrick and Talau. However, I also feel that middles who control the opposition ruck, help prevent the edges from being exposed.
