Game plan?

[The Who]

I read many posters criticising our coach because of his poor 'game plan'. Get it right and the matches are as good as won.
I'd like to learn more of this much-used term. In my day we called it 'tactics'. I've seen it described as 'structures'.
But rugby league must be an easy sport to coach if all you had to do was conceive a 'game plan'.
I'm thinking it must be like those basketball coaches who use their mini blackboards to draw squiggles for the players when there is a stoppage. Or is it more like the gridiron coaches who send their players to school to learn the playbook?
It must annoy coaches when their players deviate from the 'game plan' and drop balls, miss tackles and throw forward passes. And do the coaches go over their 'game plans' with the refs before the match to ensure they know what the team is trying to do? "Look Mr referee, this week our game plans stipulates that we won't give away any penalties. Look, it's right here, written in red in capital letters, and my players are going to stick to it".
What happens when your team is up by 18 points and the game plan is working beautifully . . . I just can't understand why Twenty and Sticky would change their game plans once they held such a commanding lead.
I reckon Twenty's game plan was to score 24 points a match like we did against Easts and the 'Riff. This week he must have crossed out the 24 and made it 34 points. I hope he's not too disappointed that the team only scored 33 points.
Ah well, back to the blackboard.

 

[Woodsie]

The Woodsieagoras Theorem ..

The sum total of football knowledge possessed is in inverse proportion to the number of times "game plan" is stated .....

 

[StuBoot]

Flanno would have been disappointed his goalkickers haven't followed the game plan the last two weeks by missing goals they should get - cost them the game twice
DCE missed his penalty kick v the Panthers that flew in the face of the game plan and it cost us - poor game management.
Yesterday he stuck with the game plan and kicked them all, even one from the sideline, kick a field goal with your left foot ( not the right foot ) - even won the toss in extra-time, all part of the plan.

How about Griffin's gameplan at the Riff - let the opposition score way more points than you so they think they've got it won and then challenge yourselves to win it. - genius!

 

[Woodsie]

I especially liked Baz's game plan of giving them 10 odd penalties in the second half .... boy that lulled them .... brilliant ..

.... and Parker and AFB dropping those balls .... went like clockwork .... just like at training

 

[globaleagle]

 

[maxta]

The games new terminologies as in shape, structures and re loading, are aimed at keeping up with the speed of the game.
Really most of these newer terms are just an upgrade on when coaches screamed "get deep", "wheres the support", "get that defensive line straight"...
But sadly the game has changed into more robotic tactics, rather than the ab lib play where players used their god given talent and played what was in front of them.
The tactics of Barrett are not what I would say is losing games, but the players don't have the respect I seen Hasler/Toovey get and the Manly side looked a lot more battle prepared for the games and usually got over the opposition when it became a grind.
In today's game between the coach and his staff at any NRL club, these theories on shapes and structures are similar....but the execution is on far different levels.
I think Souths, Storm execute better because they control the tempo of the game best in the middle and earn time and space off the back of it.
They both dominate the middle before shifting wide, where other teams often play sideways because they have not won the ruck first looking for an easy out.
The top sides and Manly have 1 major difference that comes back to accountability and resolve - every game there are blocks where the opposition will get a massive run of possession, be it dropped balls, penalties, repeat sets.....these top teams may let in 1 try or 2 tops.....Manly capitulate in these blocks and let in 2,3 or 4 tries and it blows the score out.
This can be seen in part as a coaching issue, as the top teams now and in the past will lift when under the pump and the also ran teams will fall apart in these times.

 

[mave]

Tell me it wasnt a game plan by the coach to have DCE and Hodgo kick the ball into touch every set of six for weeks and weeks on end ?

Dragons game comes to mind immediately....at that stage they had scored the most points of any team...our plan was to not score many points ourselves as we kept kicking the ball away, and expect our feeble defence to hold out the, at the time, best attack in the comp. Dumb stuff.

Tell me it wasn't a decision by the coach to take the 2 on the few occasions this year when we finally get some quality ball on the opposition tryline, a couple of times against 12 men.
How has that worked out for us so far this season,? yet we still keep doing it.
Panthers game, obviously, and one other where we took the 2, dropped it in the set off the kick off and didnt touch the ball again for what felt like 10 minutes, while conceding 2 or 3 tries.
Even the Sharkies game yesterday, the momentum changed after we took the 2.

 

[Tragic Eagle]

Good game plan conceding 110 points in 3 weeks. Brilliant!

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Good game plan conceding 110 points in 3 weeks. Brilliant!

PMSL

 

[StuBoot]

Tell me it wasnt a game plan by the coach to have DCE and Hodgo kick the ball into touch every set of six for weeks and weeks on end ?

Dragons game comes to mind immediately....at that stage they had scored the most points of any team...our plan was to not score many points ourselves as we kept kicking the ball away, and expect our feeble defence to hold out the, at the time, best attack in the comp. Dumb stuff.

Tell me it wasn't a decision by the coach to take the 2 on the few occasions this year when we finally get some quality ball on the opposition tryline, a couple of times against 12 men.
How has that worked out for us so far this season,? yet we still keep doing it.
Panthers game, obviously, and one other where we took the 2, dropped it in the set off the kick off and didnt touch the ball again for what felt like 10 minutes, while conceding 2 or 3 tries.
Even the Sharkies game yesterday, the momentum changed after we took the 2.

So we shouldn't have taken the 2 to lead by 8?
Good thing we did, ultimately allowed us the opportunity to tie up the game at the back end.
Most teams take the 2 on offer to push the score out.

Earlier in the year maybe a different argument when the refs were sin bin happy - keep getting repeat sets so ultimately the defensive side gets one in the bin.

Not now though, if you're in the game take all the gift points you can get.

 

[Woodsie]

If you score more points than the other team you win.

Bloody hell Brad!!! .. SSSSHHHHHHH ...... you know anyone can read Silvertails ..... now every body will know our plan ....

 

[lurker]

Bloody hell Brad!!! .. SSSSHHHHHHH ...... you know anyone can read Silvertails ..... now every body will know our plan ....

Rothtool has now found out how league works

 

[The Who]

I think some of Gould's comments on why Penrith sacked Hook were telling. It appears he was 'old school' (like me). He was not touchy-feely and didn't massage the egos of his Millennial players.
His game plan seemed to be "go and bash the sh1t out of them" which seemed to be effective a lot of the time on the scoreboard but wasn't modern-day thinking. Apparently players need to force the opposition into mistakes, rather than simply outscoring them. I also think he may have not been able to 'communicate' effectively with the growing number of Polynesian players. He obviously never learnt the words of the Tongan/Samoan national anthems and was too shy to hold hands with players during prayers.
I really think, with his outdated attitude, that he'll never get another head coaching position in the NRL. However, he does seem to have all the attributes to make a fine candidate for the One Nation party.

 

[mave]

So we shouldn't have taken the 2 to lead by 8?
Good thing we did, ultimately allowed us the opportunity to tie up the game at the back end.
Most teams take the 2 on offer to push the score out.

Earlier in the year maybe a different argument when the refs were sin bin happy - keep getting repeat sets so ultimately the defensive side gets one in the bin.

Not now though, if you're in the game take all the gift points you can get.

Most times we have taken the 2, the game momentum has swung wildly the other way.

It happened against the Sharkies too. And they were down to 12 men if memory serves.

So no, I dont like us taking the 2. We are not a defensively strong team and we need bulk points to win.

 

[Woodsie]

I can see good arguments for both taking the 2 on offer .... and backing yourself and taking the tap .... games have gone both ways this year ...

It is however, one of the decisions I would prefer to be left in the hands of the Captain on the field to make .... if you trust a bloke to make him captain ... trust him to have a feel for the moment and let him make the call ....

 

[Fluffy]

Tell me it wasnt a game plan by the coach to have DCE and Hodgo kick the ball into touch every set of six for weeks and weeks on end ?

Dragons game comes to mind immediately....at that stage they had scored the most points of any team...our plan was to not score many points ourselves as we kept kicking the ball away, and expect our feeble defence to hold out the, at the time, best attack in the comp. Dumb stuff.

Tell me it wasn't a decision by the coach to take the 2 on the few occasions this year when we finally get some quality ball on the opposition tryline, a couple of times against 12 men.
How has that worked out for us so far this season,? yet we still keep doing it.
Panthers game, obviously, and one other where we took the 2, dropped it in the set off the kick off and didnt touch the ball again for what felt like 10 minutes, while conceding 2 or 3 tries.
Even the Sharkies game yesterday, the momentum changed after we took the 2.

Every club takes the 2 these days, its just the in thing and if its a decently positioned kick and takes you out to 8 or gets you back to 6 then that is the right call 90% of the time.

As for the3 kicking out - worked great last year against the faders having a set defence, wonder how many more points they would have scored against a kick chase defence? If we can't hold out when set then what chance do we have with a broken defensive line?

 

[Fluffy]

I can see good arguments for both taking the 2 on offer .... and backing yourself and taking the tap .... games have gone both ways this year ...

It is however, one of the decisions I would prefer to be left in the hands of the Captain on the field to make .... if you trust a bloke to make him captain ... trust him to have a feel for the moment and let him make the call ....

When the penalty was given I remember most player suggesting take the 2 with Tommy T getting right in the face of DCE and the ref with 2 fingers raised. It was obvious the team felt the 2 was the best way to go as well.

it's always easier to say with the benefit of hind legs

 

[Clay]

I have alot I would like to say but at the end of the day cbf

 

[The Wheel]

I especially liked Baz's game plan of giving them 10 odd penalties in the second half .... boy that lulled them .... brilliant ..

I think that was Greenturds gameplan not Baz’s

 

[Oracle]

some one made the point about how our coaches should have worked out our defensive structures by now (agreed)
So the point I make is Simply this, every player should be made aware that when you are in the defensive line and you see the ball carrier coming towards you commit early so the rest of the defensive line can react accordingly.
To often we look non committed and flat-footed ,I won't mention there names but watch which players get up out of the line to shut there attack down.
Last year we put in some massive defensive efforts off our line