I may be only looking for positives, but, it looks like our edge defence has been improving. I now Easts punched through there a few times but it is starting to look like we are not leaving the winger posted on his own as much. That has been happening to us now for about 6 years with Hasler then Toovey as coaches. Even the Dogs developed that problem when Hasler started there.
Let's hope so. Chez's defense will be missed on our RHS, and hopefully Jorge will be tethered to his corner post BJ and Marty will be fresh at least to combat the Burgess Clan
As mentioned in previous threads, new structures take time. The general improvement of the defensive line the past 2 rounds comes down to attitude....the contact has lifted across the ground helping control that fast play ball ....the key to communication & ensuring defence is coming up straight, which helps the edge & defensive line in general.
Agree Williame can be a scary prospect out wide...but truth is, it was the inside men putting him in awkward situations mostly at fault.
We missed a lot of tackles against Easts (40 in fact) and some of those were crucial one on ones on the edges. We only missed half that amount against the Sharks, so I don't see how that is an improvement. I don't think Easts have a game plan that particularly exploits our defensive deficiencies, so one can only assume our defence was the worst its been all year. We'll get a bit of starch back this week with Kapow, BJ and Api K so hopefully we can hold tight against the Bunnies big boys.
My worry tonight is attack, not defence. I can't imagine Koriosau's playmaking abilities will be particularly stellar. Would love to be proved wrong though.
Damn - 40 missed tackles - I had the Wild Turkey glasses on for sure, because that's a loss 90% of the time..... The contact has probably improved & Roosters were running harder than they have at 0 & 3 but if we miss 40 against Cows, we are chasing 36 points plus (that's 26 approx against Sths)....the only good thing is missing so many tackles the scramble had to be good combined with an unconfident Roosters side taking poor options...
Api played #7 in NSW Cup and has played in the halves at Penrith. He doesn't need to reinvent the wheel here. Just control and organise. I also don't see why Williame would be back. If Matai is out then Brown would slide across. If Walker is out he might stick Mateo or Godinet there. We've got all kinds of options across the park without having to go back to Williame.
