Burnout and our pre-seasons

[weststigers]

The likes of Api and May look flogged now , but it might be a combination of getting on in years ( for Api) and playing too many minutes ( for both ) …

Do we go back to the alternative of a lesser offseason fitness focus, and running out of gas and leaking points most games in the last 10 minutes of every half ..

We play a bunch of games back to back and we only get our last bye at the back end of our season.

We literally get one bye between rd 2 and rd Rd 23. One week off in 21 games.

 

[BlackWhiteGold]

The likes of Api and May look flogged now , but it might be a combination of getting on in years ( for Api) and playing too many minutes ( for both ) …

Do we go back to the alternative of a lesser offseason fitness focus, and running out of gas and leaking points most games in the last 10 minutes of every half ..

Being flogged in pre-season is a cop out. It should actually set up the squad's fitness base for the whole season.

It's how they plan their conditioning maintenance through the season, injuries of course, recovery planning and their mental maturity & resilience that will impact how their fitness 'looks' as the season plays out.

Personally I don't think they are physically gassed. Using Api & Terrell as examples, it looks to me it's purely what the coach is asking from them in terms of role & minutes.

 

[weststigers]

Being flogged in pre-season is a cop out. It should actually set up the squad's fitness base for the whole season.

It's how they plan their conditioning maintenance through the season, injuries of course, recovery planning and their mental maturity & resilience that will impact how their fitness 'looks' as the season plays out.

Personally I don't think they are physically gassed. Using Api & Terrell as examples, it looks to me it's purely what the coach is asking from them in terms of role & minutes.

I maintain having byes spread out evenly across the season provides some minor benefit - particularly around origin or when you have injuries.

 

[Papacito]

I'm no sports scientist, but how would an army camp six months ago still be affecting the team now?

If it's a physical thing, you'd expected fatigue related injuries which we haven't seen.

Mentally? A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then.

For mine, we were just beaten by a better roster.

 

[Rock Hopper Steve]

I maintain having byes spread out evenly across the season provides some minor benefit - particularly around origin or when you have injuries.

Yeah 1st round byes is proving to be not fair, a distinct disadvantage.

Maybe with the load of modern day footy (the faster the better in PVL eyes) the call to have a games per season reduced has merit, injuries are hammering other clubs as well.

A lot wouldn't like it, less footy to watch but we need to look after the players, they provide the entertainment.

 

[TigerGene]

Penrith players all stay within their lanes and execute close to perfection, they tend to hit and stick in first contact so at most they have 3 in a tackle, 2 put in an effort an 1 will slow the play the ball. We miss tackles and often have 4-5 players making an effort to get a player held. It all adds up.

Too many midgets……

 

[weststigers]

Yeah 1st round byes is proving to be not fair, a distinct disadvantage.

Maybe with the load of modern day footy (the faster the better in PVL eyes) the call to have a games per season reduced has merit, injuries are hammering other clubs as well.

A lot wouldn't like it, less footy to watch but we need to look after the players, they provide the entertainment.

Reducing games sounds good for player welfare in theory, but frankly, it can't happen. The TV rights deal dictates the schedule, and broadcasters aren't going to pay top dollar for less content. Less footy means less money in the game.

Instead of cutting games, the NRL needs to look at smarter formatting.

possible options
Block Schedule: 6 games on, 1 week off across 4 blocks. Alternatively, do 8-game blocks followed by a 2-week stand-alone representative or reserve grade window so the top-tier players get a genuine rest while footy stays on TV.

Play Everyone Once: A true regular season where you play every team once. To satisfy the networks for the shorter season, you expand the finals to a Top 10, using a wildcard system where teams play on aggregate twice for the bottom spots before running the usual Top 8.

The current draw has zero integrity. When the fairness of your season depends entirely on whether you lucked out and only have to play a powerhouse like Penrith once, the system is broken.

 

[jstigers]

We don't have the squad, simple as that, we lack centres, props, backrow depth and a good bench. Our only competitive squad is when we have no injuries, once we get an injury, especially in our forward pack we aren't competitive, its a squad issue not a fatigue issue

 

[Tiger-ferret]

We don't have the squad, simple as that, we lack centres, props, backrow depth and a good bench. Our only competitive squad is when we have no injuries, once we get an injury, especially in our forward pack we aren't competitive, its a squad issue not a fatigue issue

This ^

 

[Chunk]

After the Knights game... The team look emotionally and physically burnt out. To me it looks like the brutal pre-season that had us as the fittest team in the comp early on, has caught up and is costing us.

I love the idea of driving standards -- but I would gladly pass on the army camps next season if everyone is coming back and passing fitness tests. I don't think that stuff is what our team needs anymore. We need to get better at scoring points instead of carrying jerry cans from here to there with 3 hours of sleep. It's not about effort areas anymore, we just need to play better footy.

No I don't think so.

A couple of things, the Army Boot Camp is great not just for fitness but team bonding, if you put yourself through that with your mates, it builds 'culture'

And the Tigers have been pushing it up hill lately, not having Twal especially and low minute players, means a few of our players are playing longer munites then they should be.

 

[Halbrowne61]

Being flogged in pre-season is a cop out. It should actually set up the squad's fitness base for the whole season.

It's how they plan their conditioning maintenance through the season, injuries of course, recovery planning and their mental maturity & resilience that will impact how their fitness 'looks' as the season plays out.

Personally I don't think they are physically gassed. Using Api & Terrell as examples, it looks to me it's purely what the coach is asking from them in terms of role & minutes.

See this is another example of poor game management by Benji. May is ineffective because he is playing too many minutes. And the only other forward I know who skipped was Klemmer !
I mentioned APi the same way in another thread. Too many minutes and he’s burning out. Look at the Tiger back up hookers that have been cast aside in recent years Simpkin, Liddle, Da Silva. They were all let go for API but he can’t go on for ever. He looks like he’s running out of gas !! Hope has been excommunicated and now Lanyon not really sighted !
Benji is not getting the max out of his bench and it shows several times during the game.

 

[weststigers]

See this is another example of poor game management by Benji. May is ineffective because he is playing too many minutes. And the only other forward I know who skipped was Klemmer !
I mentioned APi the same way in another thread. Too many minutes and he’s burning out. Look at the Tiger back up hookers that have been cast aside in recent years Simpkin, Liddle, Da Silva. They were all let go for API but he can’t go on for ever. He looks like he’s running out of gas !! Hope has been excommunicated and now Lanyon not really sighted !
Benji is not getting the max out of his bench and it shows several times during the game.

Sorry, but as it stands, getting rid of Da Silva considering the money he wanted was a master-stroke.

No doubt the club is looking at replacements, but who should we buy? The cupboard is fairly bare for decent NRL hookers.

The only guys I'd want are Harry Grant, Brailey and Wade Egan from the current crop. Liddle as a rotation hooker perhaps. The rest are bog average. None of these guys are off contract.

 

[rihannafan1]

Benj needs much, much better assistants. He's a good man manager but some of our game preparation has been sub-par, the in-game management average at best, the attack has been ordinary for a few years and we have weeks of defensive collapses each season too. Maybe he'll work it out by 2030.

 

[Speed2burn]

We get outmuscled easily. We might have to make the extra effort to get the opposition to the ground and this in turn creates fatigue later in the match, maybe it’s sustainable for short periods but it wears down quickly

Samuela Fainu and Alex Twal are about our only forwards I reckon who can physically dominate in a tackle, and it’s noticeable how big of a difference they make when they’re on the field together

I think we try and defend fast and up in the face to make up for this deficiency, it did work against Newy but we were too crap to capitalise

 

[Merlot]

pre seasons are always to long ,and burnout ,ive had that for some years now ,supporting this lot

 

[tig_prmz]

After the Knights game... The team look emotionally and physically burnt out. To me it looks like the brutal pre-season that had us as the fittest team in the comp early on, has caught up and is costing us.

I love the idea of driving standards -- but I would gladly pass on the army camps next season if everyone is coming back and passing fitness tests. I don't think that stuff is what our team needs anymore. We need to get better at scoring points instead of carrying jerry cans from here to there with 3 hours of sleep. It's not about effort areas anymore, we just need to play better footy.

Sorry mate but I disagree strongly.

Fitness is paramount.

We are not a hard working team at all on the field compared to top teams. The reason we make errors is because we go one out, and the reason we go one out is because the team isn't fit enough to give good running options, go through the line and then get back 15m behind the ball to do it again.

We don't wrestle at all in the ruck after 15-20 minutes because we get tired. We did well at the start of the year when the ruck was super fast but as the ruck has slowed, teams that wrestle with and without the ball have gotten better.

In saying all that, I'm not putting it on the players at all. Jerome, May, Api, Turuva etc have been fit players before coming here.

The performance staff imo are simply under-resourced. You need to spend hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars on a big team of physios, strength and conditioning coaches, guest coaches speakers and then be prepared to spend just as much on recovery equipment.

You need sports psychs to teach them resilience.

I don't think the Club is spending any of that money. This money needs to be spent all the way from JF to NRL and the Club just isn't doing it.

Army camps don't really make you fit. They make you resilient and they improve camaraderie within the group. Our team plays better when they play on emotion but that isn't replicable.

We will simply go out and buy players to plug holes because the Clubs almost entire budget needs to be spent on salary cap so we will never actually develop first graders.

Until we get some more money, we will have to rely on emotions, teamwork, mental resilience to get through each season and hopefully one season we get to the Top 8..

 

[TigerJunior4]

Honestly I’d be looking at what we’ve done during the season in terms of training and injury management rather than pre-season.

All successful teams train hard pre-season and I think our early season form is vindication for a hard off-season.

But we all know you can’t maintain peak training intensity year-round. I hope the club is looking at whether training loads were too high to maintain or if they eased off too much from hard training which affected conditioning.

Our injury management has been irresponsible at best and our use of the interchange has been woeful.

 

[TheEnz]

We get outmuscled easily. We might have to make the extra effort to get the opposition to the ground and this in turn creates fatigue later in the match, maybe it’s sustainable for short periods but it wears down quickly

Samuela Fainu and Alex Twal are about our only forwards I reckon who can physically dominate in a tackle, and it’s noticeable how big of a difference they make when they’re on the field together

I think we try and defend fast and up in the face to make up for this deficiency, it did work against Newy but we were too crap to capitalise

KPP dominates in D too...all injured

 

[weststigers]

A lot of nonsense in this thread and I haven't even started yet.

 

[Halbrowne61]

Sorry, but as it stands, getting rid of Da Silva considering the money he wanted was a master-stroke.

No doubt the club is looking at replacements, but who should we buy? The cupboard is fairly bare for decent NRL hookers.

The only guys I'd want are Harry Grant, Brailey and Wade Egan from the current crop. Liddle as a rotation hooker perhaps. The rest are bog average. None of these guys are off contract.

Was it a master stricken with Da Silva ciz I’d rather we spend money on players on the up curve than putting to many of our eggs in aging guys, Don’t get me wrong, APIs been good for us but we seem to be struggling in terms of bringing through the next level.
Benji is managing the result not the system imo, look at Sticky in Canberra last year when he brought through that group of juniors. Fantastic, unfortunately they're all going through second year syndrome this season, but they’re still dynamic, and will be back.