jirskyr
Well-known member
As Sheensie said yesterday we had enough ball against the Rooters yesterday to win the game. Unfortunately we didn't have enough attacking class to break what was a committed defensive outfit.
I think the two things that cost us most yesterday were our discipline and our running options in attack.
Firstly, I counted at least 6 occasions where the Roosters were gifted field position by stupid penalties; in the first half the Roosters barely had to carry the ball across the halfway line. This is just poor; an inexperienced side needs to be even more disciplined to reduce the pressure the opposition is able to mount. Stand out was Moltzen's excellent mid-field chase of Benji's kick, only for the defensive line to encroach the 10 the next tackle. It is no wonder the Roosters played all over us in the first 40 mins.
Secondly - running options, or lack thereof. The reason Lawrence is such a good footballer is that he runs hard at holes without fear, even though he will be clobbered every now and then. It's no surprise that Benji hits him so often and that he has such a good strike rate of scoring tries.
With Lawrence gone and Ellis out, we are struggling to find another player on the field to give Benji any options in attack. Benji can only do so much with slight of hand and jinking before the defence encircles him, and I feel for the guy when he looks up and sees his team watching and waiting for a pass. Net result is the attack breaks down, then Benji starts to throw more speculators to blokes standing still or poorly positioned.
Dwyer is probably our best forward at the moment for running lines, but he clearly has feet for hands and tends to pull his run up at the defensive line. The Shirnack Attack gave 3 or 4 great efforts in the second half to set up the Woods try and then almost get one of his own. Otherwise we had almost nothing in structured attack.
Against the Raiders last week there were players in motion inside and out, giving Benji several options every time he had space. It was the hallmark of our successes in 2005 and 2010\. It isn't happening often enough in 2011\. Either the players are too tired to offer those runs, or they just aren't being aggressive enough to deserve the ball.
This obviously also extends to the forwards taking hit ups. Kennedy doesn't have the talent of our props, but in two hard-running hitups he showed our entire pack up. KG took most hit ups from a standing start; Fifita felt compelled to run across field swatting at players with his crane-like arm. I yearn for the day when we have one forward after another steaming onto the ball and taking a quick PTB! Instead, almost every hit up was a meandering affair, the player hit in the midriff and wrestled onto his back. Where is the body position? Our forwards can do so much more.
Anyhow I know we are low on troops, but the Roosters were technically far superior to us yesterday and unfortunately that showed on the scoreboard, despite the really big effort the boys put in in the second half. They had us covered for 50 minutes and then just held firm against a one-dimensional attack. No matter who is on the field, we are going to struggle any game if we give away easy penalties, stand still in attack and get dominated at the PTB.
I think the two things that cost us most yesterday were our discipline and our running options in attack.
Firstly, I counted at least 6 occasions where the Roosters were gifted field position by stupid penalties; in the first half the Roosters barely had to carry the ball across the halfway line. This is just poor; an inexperienced side needs to be even more disciplined to reduce the pressure the opposition is able to mount. Stand out was Moltzen's excellent mid-field chase of Benji's kick, only for the defensive line to encroach the 10 the next tackle. It is no wonder the Roosters played all over us in the first 40 mins.
Secondly - running options, or lack thereof. The reason Lawrence is such a good footballer is that he runs hard at holes without fear, even though he will be clobbered every now and then. It's no surprise that Benji hits him so often and that he has such a good strike rate of scoring tries.
With Lawrence gone and Ellis out, we are struggling to find another player on the field to give Benji any options in attack. Benji can only do so much with slight of hand and jinking before the defence encircles him, and I feel for the guy when he looks up and sees his team watching and waiting for a pass. Net result is the attack breaks down, then Benji starts to throw more speculators to blokes standing still or poorly positioned.
Dwyer is probably our best forward at the moment for running lines, but he clearly has feet for hands and tends to pull his run up at the defensive line. The Shirnack Attack gave 3 or 4 great efforts in the second half to set up the Woods try and then almost get one of his own. Otherwise we had almost nothing in structured attack.
Against the Raiders last week there were players in motion inside and out, giving Benji several options every time he had space. It was the hallmark of our successes in 2005 and 2010\. It isn't happening often enough in 2011\. Either the players are too tired to offer those runs, or they just aren't being aggressive enough to deserve the ball.
This obviously also extends to the forwards taking hit ups. Kennedy doesn't have the talent of our props, but in two hard-running hitups he showed our entire pack up. KG took most hit ups from a standing start; Fifita felt compelled to run across field swatting at players with his crane-like arm. I yearn for the day when we have one forward after another steaming onto the ball and taking a quick PTB! Instead, almost every hit up was a meandering affair, the player hit in the midriff and wrestled onto his back. Where is the body position? Our forwards can do so much more.
Anyhow I know we are low on troops, but the Roosters were technically far superior to us yesterday and unfortunately that showed on the scoreboard, despite the really big effort the boys put in in the second half. They had us covered for 50 minutes and then just held firm against a one-dimensional attack. No matter who is on the field, we are going to struggle any game if we give away easy penalties, stand still in attack and get dominated at the PTB.
