Its
He took the line on heaps on the weekend but was just not effective, as he catches the ball too flat with defenders up in his face. he dummied and went himself or took the tackle, because the outside backs were also flat footed and not deep enough. Cleary, Munster, keary have all been catching the ball out the back on the run and have more options to go to.
Dez needs to fix the structure. Too easy to read. Doesn't help with a crap hooker who cannot hold defence up a little. When Tom gets back and Walker to centre we will have more options, hooker though still a problem. I dont care who is playing half in current Manly team, the attack is just not threatening. No speed. Edge forwards do not offer any punch either. It is what it is. DCE can fix his kicking game, get rid of some of his errors, not going to fix the attack though until we get Tom, Faniu back and edge forwards getting over the advantage line. Walker also needs to get back to centre and get some early ball.
Im not sure if you totally get the concept of taking the ball into the line.
Running sideways until the line consumes you on its own terms is negative
Hitting between the line at pace in order to committ defenders who make mistakes due to defensive pressure, and then promote the ball to someone else at contact, to create opportunity , he did not and seems unwillingly to for some years
At best if he spies a break someone else has created using the above techinque he might get caught trying to squeeze through a gap. But there is none of that on offer currently
If DCE was committed to this method both sirro and suli would not be cannon fodder. Both players would see half gaps and pin there ears back rather than just step inside with mountains of time or catch a cold doing nothing. These are symptoms of DCE
A decent half would insist his outside men follow his lead into the fray, but there has been nothing to follow for years mate. Nothing at all happens on his edge, ever and its his fault
defence has to adjust to there inside man , as does the attack
The closest DCE has come to playing at the line but not to it was
Sirro , a couple of years back, about 10 m from the line. Chez slides accross the line bringing sirro onto the ball from close range to score. Invariably DCE still found a way of avoiding contact by falling as passing most times. This is why the headless chook evolved . If no runner shows up before potential contact , he aborts the mission and retreats in another direction
He still tries this method from time to time but it is more gavin miller than cliffy lyons
Let it sink in mate. I support manly too. Im on your side.
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