ET: 57 tackles

[innsaneink]

Great game from ET again. Hope we re-sign him soon.

On another note, are we ever gonna show some line speed in defence?

It looks like 'defensive structure' has gone into the too hard basket and "scramble like crazy" had been adopted as our defensive game.
It's embarrassing to me… It's the main area of the game you **must** get right to succeed, JT has failed badly here and we are on track to conceding 600+ points this year

 

[coopy]

Great game from ET again. Hope we re-sign him soon.

On another note, are we ever gonna show some line speed in defence?

It looks like 'defensive structure' has gone into the too hard basket and "scramble like crazy" had been adopted as our defensive game.
It's embarrassing to me… It's the main area of the game you **must** get right to succeed, JT has failed badly here and we are on track to conceding 600+ points this year

Yep - 100% right. Effort cannot be faltered but effort alone won't get us to where we need to be. Our structure is poor and to my mind this is a result of three key factors we are not doing:

1) Communication
2) Decision making
3) Trust

Without an injection of new playing personnel or coaching staff we are likely to end up in the same place next year. I think Craig Sandercock has really helped our attack this year perhaps we can recruit some new blood for our defence as we seem to make the same errors again and again (although the left side is looking slightly more solid this year as is the middle)

 

[cqtiger]

Great game from ET again. Hope we re-sign him soon.

On another note, are we ever gonna show some line speed in defence?

It looks like 'defensive structure' has gone into the too hard basket and "scramble like crazy" had been adopted as our defensive game.
It's embarrassing to me… It's the main area of the game you **must** get right to succeed, JT has failed badly here and we are on track to conceding 600+ points this year

Trying to build a defensive structure went out the window when the players approached JT last year. Nothing will change until a proven, hard nosed coach is appointed. That'll be the fourth of never.

 

[happy_tiger]

We can't cope man on man because in most cases we have poor defenders who aren't overly big to boot

We play compressed and then use our centres to rush up when the opposition is rolling over us late in sets

I reckon you rush up early in game to let your opposition centre your about and give him an early "Hello welcome to the game , more of this coming" and about the only other time you should be using it is when the opposition has an overlap and you want to try and turn the opposition back inside , but BOTH the winger and centre should rush up together at you once you see the half is committed to making a play

Doing so earlier just forces the half to kick and usually ends up as try time unless they get the kick wrong

Would Taylor pick the players he does if he had bigger and better defenders at his disposal ??

Simple answer NO

He is still paying the price of the past fubars from previous management

 

[stevetiger]

He was our best player, and that offload to Liddlee wow

During the 2nd half i though he was having his worst game for us. Even thought to myself i would like to know hw many tackles he's made cos he looks stuffed and didnt cover the inside on occasions like he normally would. I have never seen a guy so out on his feet for such a long period and the cosch leave him on.

So my initial thought of him struggling is well explained now with his 57 tackles. What it doesn't explain is why Jason Taylor left him on when he was clearly struggling. He couldnt get back onside for 4 tackles when the bulldogs kicked it once. I was screaming for JT to give him a spell and out Alioai on in the middle for a bit, but he left Josh off for an eternity. We also had our smallest and least powerful pack on the field when they had there biggest pack. We cant have Sue, Ava and Alioai all off and the same time against such a big pack and have Lovett, Elijah, Liddle and a baby in Felise on to stop the likes of Kasiano.

Very poor game management by Jason Taylor.

It was poor game management but Felise really stepped up. I reckon he is a future Australian front rower. He is great and I think he took it right to the dogs.

ET was good but you are right that he was out on his feet for a large chunk of the game.

 

[stevetiger]

We can't cope man on man because in most cases we have poor defenders who aren't overly big to boot

We play compressed and then use our centres to rush up when the opposition is rolling over us late in sets

I reckon you rush up early in game to let your opposition centre your about and give him an early "Hello welcome to the game , more of this coming" and about the only other time you should be using it is when the opposition has an overlap and you want to try and turn the opposition back inside , but BOTH the winger and centre should rush up together at you once you see the half is committed to making a play

Doing so earlier just forces the half to kick and usually ends up as try time unless they get the kick wrong

Would Taylor pick the players he does if he had bigger and better defenders at his disposal ??

Simple answer NO

He is still paying the price of the past fubars from previous management

Happy. Happy. Happy. My god man. You need to take a step back and stop the JT love.

You actually partially nailed our defensive issues in that we play a compressed defensively line. It's a coaching decision which is pretty funny considering how JT went on about defensive structures when he came to the club. It leaves Naiqama and Nofo often with overlaps to defend against and that is tough.

I'm not sure what needs to be done to fix it because it has it's advantages. Changing our defensive structures will also lead to problems. Assuming we keep the current approach though and we focus on our attack and scramble well we can win games.

 

[innsaneink]

Sue injured early would have screwed with bench rotations

 

[happy_tiger]

We can't cope man on man because in most cases we have poor defenders who aren't overly big to boot

We play compressed and then use our centres to rush up when the opposition is rolling over us late in sets

I reckon you rush up early in game to let your opposition centre your about and give him an early "Hello welcome to the game , more of this coming" and about the only other time you should be using it is when the opposition has an overlap and you want to try and turn the opposition back inside , but BOTH the winger and centre should rush up together at you once you see the half is committed to making a play

Doing so earlier just forces the half to kick and usually ends up as try time unless they get the kick wrong

Would Taylor pick the players he does if he had bigger and better defenders at his disposal ??

Simple answer NO

He is still paying the price of the past fubars from previous management

Happy. Happy. Happy. My god man. You need to take a step back and stop the JT love.

You actually partially nailed our defensive issues in that we play a compressed defensively line. It's a coaching decision which is pretty funny considering how JT went on about defensive structures when he came to the club. It leaves Naiqama and Nofo often with overlaps to defend against and that is tough.

I'm not sure what needs to be done to fix it because it has it's advantages. Changing our defensive structures will also lead to problems. Assuming we keep the current approach though and we focus on our attack and scramble well we can win games.

The JT love ??

I don't agree with the centres rushing out consistently , that's not JT love mate , I explained when I would be using that tactic

My only comment was if JT had better players available he would pick them If we had better centres he would pick them , but we don't so he can't

Steve here's my question to you , how many of the current squad were signatures that were made since the Jason Taylor era ??

 

[stevetiger]

Happy - I don't care about the JT arguments. All I care about is winning games. No coach gets every player he wants. I also think we have a pretty good squad. JT has nothing to complain about.

 

[Geo]

Class player..if we don't sign him we are dumb…

In everything...never gives up...

 

[happy_tiger]

Happy - I don't care about the JT arguments. All I care about is winning games. No coach gets every player he wants. I also think we have a pretty good squad. JT has nothing to complain about.

We have the worst centre combination in the NRL , but that's OK isn't it

Course he doesn't have anything to complain about

Steveland must be a wonderful place to live in

 

[stevetiger]

Happy - I don't care about the JT arguments. All I care about is winning games. No coach gets every player he wants. I also think we have a pretty good squad. JT has nothing to complain about.

We have the worst centre combination in the NRL , but that's OK isn't it

Course he doesn't have anything to complain about

Steveland must be a wonderful place to live in

You can't be serious. Simona is a quality player and although he has had a poor season he is a great centre who is getting some form.

Naiqama isn't bad either. His defence has been poor but I think that has to do with being surrounded by Moses and Nofo and the coaching staff choosing to play a compressed defensively line.

The leeway that you give to JT astounds me.

 

[happy_tiger]

Happy - I don't care about the JT arguments. All I care about is winning games. No coach gets every player he wants. I also think we have a pretty good squad. JT has nothing to complain about.

We have the worst centre combination in the NRL , but that's OK isn't it

Course he doesn't have anything to complain about

Steveland must be a wonderful place to live in

You can't be serious. Simona is a quality player and although he has had a poor season he is a great centre who is getting some form.

Naiqama isn't bad either. His defence has been poor but I think that has to do with being surrounded by Moses and Nofo and the coaching staff choosing to play a compressed defensively line.

The leeway that you give to JT astounds me.

Back to Steveland I think ,Naiqama wouldn't make another side in the comp and Simona defence is very hit and miss and takes too many bad options for a centre , last night was the perfect example , go for the hero play with the kick inside which was the worst option available

But just ignore the basic facts yet again Steve

 

[ricksen]

Happy - I don't care about the JT arguments. All I care about is winning games. No coach gets every player he wants. I also think we have a pretty good squad. JT has nothing to complain about.

We have the worst centre combination in the NRL , but that's OK isn't it

Course he doesn't have anything to complain about

Steveland must be a wonderful place to live in

You can't be serious. Simona is a quality player and although he has had a poor season he is a great centre who is getting some form.

Naiqama isn't bad either. His defence has been poor but I think that has to do with being surrounded by Moses and Nofo and the coaching staff choosing to play a compressed defensively line.

The leeway that you give to JT astounds me.

Back to Steveland I think ,Naiqama wouldn't make another side in the comp and Simona defence is very hit and miss and takes too many bad options for a centre , last night was the perfect example , go for the hero play with the kick inside which was the worst option available

But just ignore the basic facts yet again Steve

I agree re: KN, but Simona is a quality centre IMO.
That chance last night - he read it perfectly. He was going wide, JAC had cut inside and had defensive traffic. Simona looked up a couple of times, realised we had numbers inside and put in a perfect kick. We had Rankin, Liddle and someone else lining up to take it and score - 99 times out of 100 that's a try under the sticks.

 

[jirskyr]

We can't cope man on man because in most cases we have poor defenders who aren't overly big to boot.

Aye, I remember Tiger Torch talking about player defensive ratings from the pre-season. He said a worringly small number were A defenders, ie those who could hit, stick and drop a player 1:1.

From memory those A defenders included Sue, MCK and Edwards.

Naiqama is actually very good 1:1, but his decision making is lax.

That being said, defending around two very weak defending halves is always going to hurt out wide.

So yes we don't have terrific defensive centres or wingers, but they are trying to cover the comps worst defensive pairing. Broses are 1st and 4th for missed tackles; no other club has two halves in the Top 20.