Round 21 - Rabbitohs vs Storm

[Danger D]

Gather round children and I'll tell you about the halcyon days of a pre-Melbourne rugby league world where nobody needed a hospital. In fact, hospitals were invented by Sydney clubs in response to Storm tactics. Or so the tale goes.

I may have just exceeded the maximum sarcasm dosage for this forum but then again, sarcasm was probably invented by us as a tactic too...

[Bullucked]

Agree with the above, Munster was phenomenal. A try, 3 line breaks, 9 tackle breaks and a try assist. His footwork was deadly.

Yes, but the Munster show didn't start until the 61 minute mark. Thing that's really noticeable about his tackles is the number of times he's left on the ground after he has made a tackle thereby leaving only one marker or one less in the line. I think it was six times at least against the Rabbits.

The one thing we still need to sort is our right side defence. Bunnies only seriously looked like scoring 3 times and got all of them DOWN THEIR LEFT. Every other attacking set I was confident the boys could keep them out.
And despite what certain people are saying, it's not just Vunivalu. It's wing, centre, halfback and second row; they are all responsible for poor positioning on different occasions, and often Suli has no choice but to come in.

This problem almost starts from the other wing (yes a slight exaggeration) but if the whole team does not slide across the right side defence will always be short. The wrap around play (Reynolds?) created an artificial overlap and our players didn't slide across to cover it, very hard when the wrap around is done well. But, simple passing the ball the along the line the defence should be counting the numbers and manning up with the player in front. (I wonder if this is a bigger problem since Slaters retirement, his organisational abilities in defence were brilliant). People will say "the outside player didn't trust Croft's defence and came in to help", I don't buy that for one minute. If at that point you count the numbers there is almost nearly always at least a one man advantage to the attacking side. One on one tackles in RL are few and really effective dominant one on one tackles rare. It's always one player makes the initial contact and a second person will finish it off. When we're short we don't have that additional player to come in and finish off.

Comment?

[yourhero]

This problem almost starts from the other wing (yes a slight exaggeration) but if the whole team does not slide across the right side defence will always be short. The wrap around play (Reynolds?) created an artificial overlap and our players didn't slide across to cover it, very hard when the wrap around is done well. But, simple passing the ball the along the line the defence should be counting the numbers and manning up with the player in front. (I wonder if this is a bigger problem since Slaters retirement, his organisational abilities in defence were brilliant).

We haven't used a sliding defence inside our own 40m in over a decade. Generally, our four outside men line up with their opposites in defence, albeit slightly inside/compressed to sure up our middle. The four middle forwards (2 x front rowers, hooker and lock) slide based on where attacking play is directed.

We are subject to overlaps when either the four middle forwards don't slide sufficiently, when the attacking fullback chimes in creating the extra man OR when our outside men (who play up and in) make poor reads to come in early and then not shut the ball down. Usually a combination tbh.

We have long played up and in defence on our edges, enticing opposition to go around us but making damn sure that they don't go through us (or if they do, it is relatively rare). It is hard to mount any argument that this has been anything other than overwhelmingly successful.

People will say "the outside player didn't trust Croft's defence and came in to help", I don't buy that for one minute.

You don't have to buy it, but it is reality. Centres who jam in and shut the play down are applauded. Centres that jam in and miss, or position their body in a way that means they are unnecessarily looking infield only to be beaten by a pass to an opposing centre outside, are called out for poor positional play. Curtis Scott was guilty of this on numerous occasions earlier this year.

If at that point you count the numbers there is almost nearly always at least a one man advantage to the attacking side.

Yeah but why is there an overlap? It will almost always be one of the reasons I have listed above. We play the percentages (and have since Bellamy's reign) even in defence. This is why offloads can unsettle our defence - it takes away the certainty and reliability of our defensive structures and pulls our players out of position. You have footballers fighting against a natural instinct to chase a player down to make a tackle when instead they should be relying on the integrity of the straight defensive line.

[blazza18]

I don't think anyone on the right side are great decision makers. And when you pair that with trying to overcompensate for Croft you get the disaster that it is. If we just cloned Munster and Chambers we'd be sorted.

[Bullucked]

I don't think anyone on the right side are great decision makers. And when you pair that with trying to overcompensate for Croft you get the disaster that it is. If we just cloned Munster and Chambers we'd be sorted.

Swap Munster and Croft, see what happens, think it'll be any different? I highly doubt it. You'll scoff as everyone hates Croft but compare the effective tackles between the two players. Croft nearly always goes the legs, knows his limitations and nearly always slows and stops the player for the additional defenders to come in and help. Munster goes high and is less effective (when he doesn't strip the ball of course). Watch

[blazza18]

Effective tackle % doesn't mean anything when you're caught flat footed a majority of time as well as being bad decision maker. The difference between Munster and Croft on those two things are enormous. Maybe Croft will get better with more experience but he's the biggest reason the right edge is so bad.