Been reading a lot of comment about how we need to play given our inexperienced and slowish backline. The obvious way is to keep it tight and play the middle third and grind out a win. Sounds ok and might work for a couple of rounds when attacking sides are rusty but over a season it doesn’t work anymore.
Firstly Rugby League hasn’t changed in that you must assert yourself in the forwards to compete in footy games.Thats a given.
What has changed is, unlike the footy a lot of us grew up with, a dominant pack helps but simply is not enough. The days of owning the middle with the little men like Gibbs, Blake , Alexander etc running amok past tired defenders and brilliant backrowers like Menzies, Gartner, Lindner,Clyde etc cutting a swathe are gone.
Now the middle is like a war zone with 4 fresh forwards ready to plug gaps as legs tire. Locks are now converted props bolstering the middle.And the bench can work against you in another way as well.If you attain dominance in the middle but your 14 to 17 are not flash ( like us in recent years ) your outside men need to take advantage of absolutely every opportunity because that dominance can go very quickly .
The try scoring lists are totally and utterly dominated by three quarters and fullbacks. Second rowers and nippy halves don’t feature anymore.Even the very best like Tomololo and Thurston / Cronk dontvscore anywhere near the tries their peers of yesteryear did.The best sides have 30 to 50 tries between their wingers.Simple as that. I reckon we had about 10 to 20 max.Interesting to note we have one specialist career winger in our top 30 this year. The rest are converted centres.
Last year we often dominated in the middle but could inot finish it off with points and went on to lose. Whether Trent had a preset plan to operate in tight or we simply didn’t have confidence in the outside men is irrelevant. We did not hurt sides out wide off the back of good go forward and lost.
The best example last year was the Cowboys. Great forwards , great halves and a slow aging three quarter line and an injury prone declining fullback. Result was premiership favourites to spoon contender. They look a bit like that this year too.Des had Klemmer Jackson Graham in his last couple of years at Dogs and couldn’t score a try out wide.
The top sides now score almost 30 points a game. This comes off the back of good go forward but mainly speed and power in the centres and a pinpoint kicking game with good receivers and finishers on the edges. You need to score twenty plus points to be in the hunt on most occasions against good sides. That’s just a fact.
Having adequate defenders with limited attack out wide is fine but it won’t win you many footy games in the end. It sounds good and might keep the score respectable but the guys out there need to score points or all the forward dominance in the world is worth nothing.
Guys like Garrick , Hoppa , Anderson may be those sort of guys. I hope so because slow and steady out wide with a good forward pack don’t cut it any more.Im sure Des knows this and we will see a different side and approach in coming years as the rebuild unfolds.
Firstly Rugby League hasn’t changed in that you must assert yourself in the forwards to compete in footy games.Thats a given.
What has changed is, unlike the footy a lot of us grew up with, a dominant pack helps but simply is not enough. The days of owning the middle with the little men like Gibbs, Blake , Alexander etc running amok past tired defenders and brilliant backrowers like Menzies, Gartner, Lindner,Clyde etc cutting a swathe are gone.
Now the middle is like a war zone with 4 fresh forwards ready to plug gaps as legs tire. Locks are now converted props bolstering the middle.And the bench can work against you in another way as well.If you attain dominance in the middle but your 14 to 17 are not flash ( like us in recent years ) your outside men need to take advantage of absolutely every opportunity because that dominance can go very quickly .
The try scoring lists are totally and utterly dominated by three quarters and fullbacks. Second rowers and nippy halves don’t feature anymore.Even the very best like Tomololo and Thurston / Cronk dontvscore anywhere near the tries their peers of yesteryear did.The best sides have 30 to 50 tries between their wingers.Simple as that. I reckon we had about 10 to 20 max.Interesting to note we have one specialist career winger in our top 30 this year. The rest are converted centres.
Last year we often dominated in the middle but could inot finish it off with points and went on to lose. Whether Trent had a preset plan to operate in tight or we simply didn’t have confidence in the outside men is irrelevant. We did not hurt sides out wide off the back of good go forward and lost.
The best example last year was the Cowboys. Great forwards , great halves and a slow aging three quarter line and an injury prone declining fullback. Result was premiership favourites to spoon contender. They look a bit like that this year too.Des had Klemmer Jackson Graham in his last couple of years at Dogs and couldn’t score a try out wide.
The top sides now score almost 30 points a game. This comes off the back of good go forward but mainly speed and power in the centres and a pinpoint kicking game with good receivers and finishers on the edges. You need to score twenty plus points to be in the hunt on most occasions against good sides. That’s just a fact.
Having adequate defenders with limited attack out wide is fine but it won’t win you many footy games in the end. It sounds good and might keep the score respectable but the guys out there need to score points or all the forward dominance in the world is worth nothing.
Guys like Garrick , Hoppa , Anderson may be those sort of guys. I hope so because slow and steady out wide with a good forward pack don’t cut it any more.Im sure Des knows this and we will see a different side and approach in coming years as the rebuild unfolds.
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