Let's take emotion out of this and look at it for what it is.
In 2005, the whole squad was pretty much in the form of their lives. We could do no wrong. In 2011 preliminary final, we threw the game away vs St George when Benji kicked it out on the full in the last 10 minutes. So, 1 Grand Final win and 1 finals appearance.
Here we are in 2023 with Sheens back at the helm and have lost 2 from 2.
We have a forward pack that should be causing problems, but aren't.
Our outside backs are 'ok'.
Our playmakers aren't horrible by any means.
What are they being told to do? What is the strategy?
The Titans and Knights have read us like a book. We could attack a tryline for 20 sets straight and still not score.
I think Sheens's strategies are outdated and we are seeing the implications of this on the field. This is why we never made the finals more when he was coach first time around.
“Bodies in motion” has been adapted by every coach and team in the modern game. Everyone uses complex decoy run plays now, which was the Sheens revolution. It can’t really be reinvented - the best teams now sign skill players in key positions to implement variations on that system.
Our skill position players lack the tangible and intangible assets to make an attacking system work consistently and more importantly when it needs/has to. No other team in first grade would have scored 2 tries against a team down to 12 players for 30 mins (Dom Young sin bin and Saifiti send off).
On a tangibles front - running, kicking, passing - we are below average but not below first grade standard. Our intangibles - leadership, decision making, on field communication, football knowledge - are pretty close to not being first grade standard. There is no point in moving if you don’t know where you are going. Leadership directs you where to go - we have no leadership. No on field voices directing us, no effort plays in defence. We also have no footy smarts - forwards not playing off the ruck, backline players not spacing, poor offload selection.
Its pretty clear that the message going to the players is wrong. Cooper and Kenty (parasite) spoke about playing through the middle against 12 men. That does not take any football nous beyond a fan comprehension level to figure out. Api knew it when he was looking for middle runners into the A defender or in behind the ruck and all of our forwards were stagnant and spacing to where a half should be at first receiver. There were numerous other examples of this. Taking on the middle against a weak and tired defence is footy 101.
In terms of our attacking 20 movement our issue is the same. Our halves run across field looking for inside runners when the play is to straighten the attack to bring lead runner and second man runners, which should be your five eighth, into play. Instead we run diagonally and close all of the space, making any decoy/iso structure null and void. Eventually we look for unders runs into clustered defence set ups that put us in sideline danger, leaving no attacking opportunity.
Football is played straight, with power, and with the right pace, aggression and organisation, over the advantage line. Bodies in motion works when you have the defence on the back foot, attacking weak defenders who are out of position or short sides with tired players with overlaps. But this is still highly organised and spaced with players carrying our simple tasks that benefit a cohesive unit.
^ that is as simple as the message needs to be. That is what players learn and understand coming through the grades. How are we not delivering this to our players? Sheens and Benji’s messaging is wrong and they have a few weeks to sort it out before strong hands need to start making some tough decisions.
While we have been panned in the media this week they have stopped short of saying what that truly was on the weekend - the worst loss in the NRL era. We shouldn’t have to feel like that as a supporter base on a weekly basis and it is high time that we properly address it and make the attitude and personal changes to not remedy it immediately but at least be on the way to doing it. With some of our players still in the club, Justin Pascoe, Lee Hagipantellis and Tim Sheens at the helm that is not happening and that is not appropriate for a professional sports organisation.
