The Half Time Break

[Mark from Brisbane]

Ok, I said I'd raise this in the game thread and I hope it garnishes a few comments.

What is it with half time?

We start out on absolute fire, often go to the break leading 20-0 (or about that) and then come out and get run down or close to run down in the second half.

Now, with the tin foil hat on part of this is the so obvious ref square up ( they do love their GP games).

But, we just don't play the 80 minutes as we play the first 40!!!

Is it,

Inexperience.

The lack of a real dynamic leader.

The refs just doing the NRL's work.

The Coach not approaching half time properly.

Or is it something else?????

 

[robbiea]

Its a game of two halves ,We must be better ,enjoy the win ,that is all.

 

[torana355]

More then anything its just a close comp this year, not many big winning margins. Momentum almost always swings after a dominant half. Then you chuck in the fact we are a young team and there is nothing to worry about at this point in time.

 

[Pepi]

Losing turbo and Api opened up the ruck big time.

 

[Kevinward777]

That's footy, we went on with it against the Cows, Dogs, Titans and Bunnies. Canberra are a very good team, capable of putting points on quickly. Very happy with that win.

 

[The Insomniac]

Ok, I said I'd raise this in the game thread and I hope it garnishes a few comments.

What is it with half time?

We start out on absolute fire, often go to the break leading 20-0 (or about that) and then come out and get run down or close to run down in the second half.

Now, with the tin foil hat on part of this is the so obvious ref square up ( they do love their GP games).

But, we just don't play the 80 minutes as we play the first 40!!!

Is it,

Inexperience.

The lack of a real dynamic leader.

The refs just doing the NRL's work.

The Coach not approaching half time properly.

Or is it something else?????

Mark, ive been sayin this for years. The Pitwater rd end is down hill. We always score all our points at that end. Running up the narraweena end is like running up Everest. Known fact.

 

[globaleagle]

Inexperience.

Plus didn't we go down a couple of players?

We try to defend a lead...raiders chance their hand?

blutack...always blutack

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Don't think I'm unhappy, I'm not, we won BUT this is the 4th time this year we have been under the pump in the second half, AND the result hasn't always been as it was today.

 

[Technical Coach]

Manly struggle at times to maintain the intensity in grinding games and start offering lethargic one out predictable go forward that lacks energy behind it. The sharp crisp ball movement(with numbers around the ball carrier) go forward off the back of direct power and speed in the first 20mins does tend to drop off a fair bit .

All it takes is a sway of early possession against Manly and we seem to struggle for long periods, getting into a rut.

I do feel today our back 5 could of offered more in the second half with more timely hitups(another 5-6 between Walker and Kelly), obviously we lose spark and sharpness with Tom out and Jorge injured for part of the half.

We still lack another power running forward that can play decent minutes to take the workload off Marty and AFB.

 

[The Who]

We just didn't have possession. Being at the match I didn't take statistics but I reckon the penalty count in the second half was Faders 25 to Manly 0.
We were the better side and it was a stitch-up by the refs to get the game to Golden Point.
However, winning by one point in GP was even sweeter!

 

[Deleted member 24974]

We just didn't have possession. Being at the match I didn't take statistics but I reckon the penalty count in the second half was Faders 25 to Manly 0.
We were the better side and it was a stitch-up by the refs to get the game to Golden Point.
However, winning by one point in GP was even sweeter!

The penalty count was 4-nil to the radars and yes it was a stitch-up.

 

[HK_Eagle]

It is a good question. There is certainly a repeated pattern of a team of two extremes within a single game.

At a guess, and looking at it from a neurophysiological point of view, perhaps there is a certain amount of psychological stress they succumb to under pressure. Instead of keeping themselves in a positive state of calm flow (even when things are not going their way), they are getting into emotional reactivity (and I'm talking about a sub-conscious survival response here, not an overt dummy spit, necessarily).

Maintaining that heightened alert survival state places much higher demand on energy reserves. Over a prolonged period in that state (and by prolonged I'm talking anything over a minute or few), fatigue does become a factor. Being able to stay in a calm focused flow state is helped with time and experience, which is why I guess we can see a certain amount of improvement and building in this team.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

The penalty count was 4-nil to the radars and yes it was a stitch-up.

Predicable!!

 

[Brissie Kid]

The NRL has turned league into the Big Bash League.

League is now played in innings. First one team gets a bat and then they give the other team a chance to bat & see if they can better their score. The defending team in league, like bowlers in cricket, have been neutered.

 

[HK_Eagle]

Manly struggle at times to maintain the intensity in grinding games and start offering lethargic one out predictable go forward that lacks energy behind it. The sharp crisp ball movement(with numbers around the ball carrier) go forward off the back of direct power and speed in the first 20mins does tend to drop off a fair bit .

All it takes is a sway of early possession against Manly and we seem to struggle for long periods, getting into a rut.

I do feel today our back 5 could of offered more in the second half with more timely hitups(another 5-6 between Walker and Kelly), obviously we lose spark and sharpness with Tom out and Jorge injured for part of the half.

We still lack another power running forward that can play decent minutes to take the workload off Marty and AFB.

TC, I remember you talking earlier in the year about deficiencies in the group tackling technique. It seemed obvious to me in that second half that players were not controlling the tackle very well at all, and often one of the tacklers was left laying in the ruck (or rolling out the back), but effectively out of the next play and leaving more pressure on the markers (and defence immediately behind the ruck) to get organised and control the space.

 

[HK_Eagle]

The NRL has turned league into the Big Bash League.

League is now played in innings. First one team gets a bat and then they give the other team a chance to bat & see if they can better their score. The defending team in league, like bowlers in cricket, have been neutered.

Thank god we got that last ball win today then 🙂

 

[Snake]

When they interviewed Barrett at half time he was far from glowing in his appraisal of the first half performance. It surprised me a little because I thought we played well.

He mentioned that he talked to the side about being careful with offloads and that also surprised me because I thought that was when we started troubling the Raiders and moving their big pack around.

The offloads disappeared in the second half and we seemed to play negative with some conservative last tackle options (from Green in particular) and even though Chez was great, he stopped running the ball.

I am not suggesting that I know better than Barrett but it certainly felt to me like the team tried to protect the lead in the second half and the Raiders could sense it and grew in confidence as a result; once momentum changes you can't get it back.

 

[Deleted member 26876]

That's footy, we went on with it against the Cows, Dogs, Titans and Bunnies. Canberra are a very good team, capable of putting points on quickly. Very happy with that win.

Well said, very true.

Personally feel like we just try protect a lead, which works for so long, until we get fatigued and then a point conceding bonanza opens up

Experience I'd say

 

[Deleted member 26876]

We've won 7 of our past 10, I think we are a great side. Experience gained from matches like these will obviously help us become that top 4 quality side which I believe we are close to

 

[Killer03]

Don't think I'm unhappy, I'm not, we won BUT this is the 4th time this year we have been under the pump in the second half, AND the result hasn't always been as it was today.

Yup I know what you mean. I'm torn in today. Take the two points and smile, but what is going on with our fade outs? I can't praise enough our first half and some of the moves around the ruck were excellent. Loved how we probed and kept throwing passes inside to catch them out.

But we must address the fade outs. Does anyone remember 2010? We did this multiple times, but they seemed very fitness related. This year I think inexperience is a real killer. Even that last play by DCE in regular time I thought was very panicked. Why give away a penalty there when they weren't posing a huge threat?

The plus side is we are sitting pretty in the top 8 and stil have a heap of improvement in us. Not to mention troops to return.