Our Defence over the season

[weststigerman]

I was looking over our results and trying to figure what exactly happened to our defence after it was looking good for a period of time against decent sides.

In the 6 games after the Titans game, the most points we conceded was 20, including 19 from Penrith, 14 from Canberra.

After that, our defence fell off a cliff and the least points we conceded was 26.

The obvious change was that was when Benji came into the starting side (We did beat broncos 48-0 in his first game back, but that looks like an outlier). I can't see much else that has coincided with this, Brooks was also dropped around this time, but he came back and nothing much changed in this area. Our attack also improved around this time which is worth noting.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting, it says a bit about the impact Benji has on the team. Seems like we become all about attack and we score points but our defence falls apart.

 

[happy_tiger]

Its pretty simple , we weren't capable of both consistently

When our defence was good ...we didn't have enough energy/ focus in attack

When our attack was good ...we didn't concentrate / focus on defence

 

[Alex Seyfarth's #1 Fan]

I don't think there is one answer to that question. I'm sure someone at WT is currently putting together a huge highlights package of everything that went wrong defensively after the Broncos game.

Some things I noticed,
- Passive line speed (common theme every year)
- Bad first contact (same again every year)
- Adjacent defenders out-of-sync (not moving in the same patterns)
- Slow out of marker
- Lots of guys just straight up making poor tackling efforts, maybe due to fatigue
- Too many one-on-one tackles, probably caused by all of the above

The thing is, I don't know if this was always the case or these things crept into our game after that Broncos game. It could be a case of those things being there the entire season, then some other team finally figured it out and exploited it, showing the way for other teams to do the same.

Our defence was pretty good while Benji was out of the team. I think we all know his deficiencies.

Another thing, related to marker speed, is that opposition teams run out of dummy half way too much against us. Really this is the first thing that needs to be addressed in the off season.

 

[Goanna57]

Sorry I’m a bit confused I thought it was the coaches job to address this issue and make the necessary adjustments

 

[weststigerman]

Agree, line speed is a big one. It was fairly evident against Bulldogs the first time and also against Parra, that our line speed was strong and you could hear the contact in the tackles. So much so is we were racking up concussions everywhere.

Since then I've noticed we sometimes start with good line speed but it tapers off pretty quickly.

I know Madge makes the team play as if they're fitter than the opposition, but I'm not sure we're as fit as it's made out to be.

 

[weststigerman]

Sorry I’m a bit confused I thought it was the coaches job to address this issue and make the necessary adjustments

Correct. The coach picks the team.

 

[earl]

Sorry I’m a bit confused I thought it was the coaches job to address this issue and make the necessary adjustments

Correct. The coach picks the team.

It's all well and good to state we can't defend and the coach has to fix it. The problem is if the players aren't good enough no coach can fix it.

 

[JD Tiger]

Sorry I’m a bit confused I thought it was the coaches job to address this issue and make the necessary adjustments

Correct. The coach picks the team.

It's all well and good to state we can't defend and the coach has to fix it. The problem is if the players aren't good enough no coach can fix it.

Well the coach also hires the team. So if a player just doesn't fit, the coach can work towards moving them out altogether. Of course it isn't that simple as we know, just look at Packer and Reynolds.

 

[mike]

Inconsistent

 

[izotope]

For me there is an event that changes it all between warriors and knights games.
Maybe the madge blowup at halftime
Garner getting dropped rumors

Who knows, i don't think inconsistent fits the bill in this case

 

[Alex Seyfarth's #1 Fan]

For me there is an event that changes it all between warriors and knights games.
Maybe the madge blowup at halftime
Garner getting dropped rumors

Who knows, i don't think inconsistent fits the bill in this case

Then there was the week he went easy on them and they put out their worst performance of the season against Newcastle. As you say, things were fine until around 20 minutes into that Warriors game.

 

[InBenjiWeTrust]

Sorry I’m a bit confused I thought it was the coaches job to address this issue and make the necessary adjustments

Correct. The coach picks the team.

It's all well and good to state we can't defend and the coach has to fix it. The problem is if the players aren't good enough no coach can fix it.

Well the coach also hires the team. So if a player just doesn't fit, the coach can work towards moving them out altogether. Of course it isn't that simple as we know, just look at Packer and Reynolds.

Partially agree, the same team was very enthusiastic to play defence until the Warriors game, as others commented, something happened that week that completely changed the team's attitude.

 

[JD Tiger]

Sorry I’m a bit confused I thought it was the coaches job to address this issue and make the necessary adjustments

Correct. The coach picks the team.

It's all well and good to state we can't defend and the coach has to fix it. The problem is if the players aren't good enough no coach can fix it.

Well the coach also hires the team. So if a player just doesn't fit, the coach can work towards moving them out altogether. Of course it isn't that simple as we know, just look at Packer and Reynolds.

Partially agree, the same team was very enthusiastic to play defence until the Warriors game, as others commented, something happened that week that completely changed the team's attitude.

I wonder if it was to do an attitude of* one of our experienced players, who led the way against the coach? And that one player could be any of half a dozen disgruntled players.

We'll never know.

 

[jirskyr]

Unfortunately, also, a large number of teams have fallen away since mid-season. I think COVID has made it hard for many rosters to stay consistently competitive every week.

Let's all be honest, apart from Storm, Roosters and Penrith, no other side is remotely close to their better form. Raiders are probably 4th. Parramatta have been on the slide for months. Knights, Rabbits and Sharks just doing enough to stay in the 8, but not within a mile of the Top 3.

 

[hodgo]

I think it can be linked to a number of situations.

Firstly a fair few players have been tapped on the shoulder which has probably decreased their motivation to throw it all on the line.
Secondly a fair number of our player's were asked to play a style they couldn't maintain or deliver on consistently. The up in your face aggression. While players were fit and totally committed we saw some of the best defence i have seen from Tigers teams even in losses. As the season went on the players looked busted. Sooooo many carrying injuries. Once the injuries and niggles started we didn't have the depth to maintain the physicality.
Now we can say that's a coach issue but for me it's a soft underbelly issue.
I honestly think the last few months are an anomaly. Players leaving' players not playing. A fair bit of turmoil. As we ditch the players that don't suit madges style we will see the defence pick up again.

One thing madge preaches is using your shoulder and defending as a unit. We don't have enough players yet to consistently do this.

 

[bbobb]

Anyway, I thought it was interesting, it says a bit about the impact Benji has on the team. Seems like we become all about attack and we score points but our defence falls apart.

That assumption seems a bit of a stretch for me. Yes, we know Benji had his defensive issues but we leaked on both sides of the ruck and had a soft underbelly in the middle as teams marched up the field.

I tend to think it was more about the changes post COVID and the speed of the game. We struggled to make metres with ball in hand. This meant teams started their sets in between their 30-40, rather than deep in their 20. Teams were consistently attacking our line and defensively, we just aren’t good enough to hold them for repeated periods.

 

[happy_tiger]

You could measure our defence very easily ..once we get to about Rds10-12 we run out of steam mentally and physically

Go back through the years .....you'll see it virtually every season

 

[Tcat]

You can't defend our season. Sorry, lame comment.

 

[tig_prmz]

Benji coming back had a bit of an effect but there were other things too:
1. BJ there
2. Grant not there
3. Mikaele playing busted, last 5 games we've almost let in 3-4 tries within 20 minutes
4. Constant changes to the side
5. Fatigue... the difference between top 5-6 and others increased as the year progressed

 

[TigerSJ]

I agree with the posters who attribute the Defensive issues to a number of problems, not the least being the quality of our players and the hunger or amount of effort offered up.
Most of it stems from our forwards however poor reads and poor technique 1 v 1 in the backs coupled with simple inability to number up are also contributing. Perhaps also our fullback is not directing the line well enough, he has certainly been out of position himself a lot. There is no trust in the ability of the man inside either which makes particular players rush up or come in when not needing to.
The backpedaling and sideways sliding in our own 20 really annoys me the most!