anyone who says seyfarths lateral defensive positioning doesn’t need improvement isn’t telling the truth .
But his desire for contact and using his shoulders is also really good .
A lot of edge players both back rower and centres , you just don’t see that . Even guys like Fifita can be caught arm grabbing a lot .
I think the issue with him is 2 fold ; he’s an edge forward who was really tall so “they” ( not going to mention names as it will piss off people) decided he was a middle . He never ever really developed into that , bevause imo it was a mistake to move him there in the first place . When you move someone in , thier training program changes , thier film changes , everything changes to suit the brutality of the never ending collision in the middle . Edge forwards are allowed to be more athletic .
I saw enough on the edges at the back end of last year to give him a crack , basically due to no better options in the club .
The ill discipline argument , whilst valid , was also sorted I felt after the Souths game , and he really reined in his aggressiveness as the season came to a close . I also feel he was being singled out , and smart chirpy spine players on opposition teams , were constantly fishing with refs and manipulating , as well as refereeing confirmation bias .
Eg. When he got 10 in the bin for basically nothing , because the perception was “it’s seyfarth he must have done something” . He’s not the first player to suffer from this , and won’t be the last , but yea if he’s cuts the shit out of his game , it will go a long way , because it actually tends to go the other way when he’s perceived to be “a bad guy come good” . Lattrell gets that treatment even though he never stopped being a grub, but that’s the narrative .
I think a different training program , with more focus of lateral agility , and explosion laterally , as well as positioning etc. should help him along .
But people need to also remember , as much as I think Fainu is destined for an AUS jersey , he fell off tackles at a rate far higher than seyfarth.
So I think our edge positioning needs to be worked on . And really trust on the edges to work together , so when a Damien cook ( did you know he was a beach sprinting champ ? lol) burns you on the outside at 4 in , youre not exposed as you’re half has jammed to wrap that ball , and at the very least slowed him down for the cover to collapse the edge .
But at the end of the day as well , you’re trying to defend against elite footballers . Defence is always a losing battle . Because the perfect game is 0 and that’s just not really possible week in and out . As close to perfection say the panthers have been these last 5 years . But that’s the exception not the rule .
Guys are going to miss tackles , they’re going to make mistakes . But the issue is the net positive by the end of the game should hopefully be in your favour .
Too often that’s not been the case for our club . And that’s what we need to shift . Winning the run of the green more often than not . You get that , and you don’t need to defend as much as we do in the first place .