A lot of conjecture .. for no answers

[Smokin Joe]

I don't think 'adjusting against certain sides' is necessarily the best option. Best would be to decide on the style that will win the comp, and then practice it week in and week out.

As for our "pack getting blown off the park" by the big teams because we had Walker replacing a prop - I don't agree. Manly errors in the first 15-20 minutes of both finals losses were our biggest problem. Many of Manly's early errors in both those games were not forced.

Against Storm we were down 16-nil and the game was gone before Walker even came on.
Against Souths we'd given up 4 errors, one 6-again and had also lost Keppie to HIA before Souths scored. Walker came on and then we still could have evened it up but for Suli's obstruction. Turbo dropping it over the line was another big moment. Either of those might have changed the game.

With our attacking selections we certainly needed to have our fair share of the ball but were unable to get close to that. Des nearly blew a gasket when Saab was herded over the sideline. The side including the bench will definitely be a little different next year, will be most interesting to see what Des comes up with.

Don't think I said our pack got blown off the park?Putting words and opinions in my mouth?
Do you think it is wise to just have one game plan that you don't deviate from even if there are times it may not work?
For me I think it is part of a coaches job to have different plans to combat different teams styles,a little bit like how the Bunnies kept kicking down to Saabs' corner and forcing Tom to waste energy hitting the ball out of the corner and pinning us down there.They are highly paid professionals who should be able to adjust to having a few different options,playing an extra prop on the bench in a couple of games instead of Lawton is not really rocket science that would tax the intelligence of the team and resting Jake for 30 minutes in a couple of games would not be asking all that much.
I think we were stuffed when we lost Keppie for the match,having another prop would have helped more I believe,as I have said I am not saying drop Walker,I would like to keep him in and maybe drop Lawton for another forward for certain games,you could easily move Foran to hooker and Schuster to 6 if your dummy half had an injury and had to be replaced in a game....

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

Don't think I said our pack got blown off the park?Putting words and opinions in my mouth?

No sorry I didn't mean to imply that, it was more aimed at the general tenor of the original post in the thread.
Yes changing things up for particular opponents sounds totally reasonable. If the suggestion was to play one way all season but then change for the finals, that is what I thought may not be the best idea.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

Also I agree with you that we were left exposed by losing Keppie so early. The suggestion in your last para sounds good too.