Taylor's tactics and selections still baffle me

[krayola]

I support the guy and the change of attitude he's brought to our club these last two years. He's overachieved this year ini. THIS IS NOT A TAYLOR BASHING THREAD. However, his tactics and selections have really confounded me at times.

Can someone actually explain to me the reason for these choices through the season:

-persisting with Rankin at wing

-choosing Halatau at 9 rather than any other player in our squad, including Farah

-the dumping of Sironen but then never bringing him back. Pretty sure he would have got the point. Was his form in reserves so much worse than MCK or Edwards (because he's clearly more talented)?

-playing Aloiai every game of the year

-our glaring defensive issues on Naqaima's side never being rectified

-ET being removed from the running of our attack after his damaging first few games

IMO all questions that need to be answered for next season

 

[Doc_Tiger]

Rankin - Handy to have
Halatau - decent 9
Sirro - never tried
Aloiai - did well (mostly)
Right side - Sheesh don't know
ET - Wanted the halves to run the show. One tried, the other didn't want to get his hair messed up.

Just guessing.

 

[jctiger]

Rankin - Handy to have
Halatau - decent 9
Sirro - never tried
Aloiai - did well (mostly)
Right side - Sheesh don't know
ET - Wanted the halves to run the show. One tried, the other didn't want to get his hair messed up.

Just guessing.

How do you explain Nathan Malone selection. That one had me baffled. I know he was in the top tier due to his TPD and was popular with sponsors and so on, but wow, what a killer.

 

[pHyR3]

Rankin - Handy to have
Halatau - decent 9
Sirro - never tried
Aloiai - did well (mostly)
Right side - Sheesh don't know
ET - Wanted the halves to run the show. One tried, the other didn't want to get his hair messed up.

Just guessing.

How do you explain Nathan Malone selection. That one had me baffled. I know he was in the top tier due to his TPD and was popular with sponsors and so on, but wow, what a killer.

well rankin offers us more kicking and a bit more reliability than JAC. also it could be we needed salary cap exemptions to even play JAC.

who would you have at 9 besides halatau? farahs not an option and you can read probably a hundred pages on that

 

[matchball]

No money to move mate.
It's well documented we have zero bucks to buy so you gotta play the park footballers.

 

[innsaneink]

Guys like milone have to be given a crack… Dunno if they'll kick on or not... He didn't play many games fr memory

 

[krayola]

Rankin - Handy to have
Halatau - decent 9
Sirro - never tried
Aloiai - did well (mostly)
Right side - Sheesh don't know
ET - Wanted the halves to run the show. One tried, the other didn't want to get his hair messed up.

Just guessing.

How do you explain Nathan Malone selection. That one had me baffled. I know he was in the top tier due to his TPD and was popular with sponsors and so on, but wow, what a killer.

well rankin offers us more kicking and a bit more reliability than JAC. also it could be we needed salary cap exemptions to even play JAC.

who would you have at 9 besides halatau? farahs not an option and you can read probably a hundred pages on that

Fair call with Rankin. He needs to be our definite goal kicker then…not when Moses feels like it. Can't recall but who took the long shot against the Titans at Campbo?

I'd have Cherrington at 9\. Injury free most of the year and under 30 years old. At the least in an interchange role.

 

[krayola]

Rankin - Handy to have
Halatau - decent 9
Sirro - never tried
Aloiai - did well (mostly)
Right side - Sheesh don't know
ET - Wanted the halves to run the show. One tried, the other didn't want to get his hair messed up.

Just guessing.

How do you explain Nathan Malone selection. That one had me baffled. I know he was in the top tier due to his TPD and was popular with sponsors and so on, but wow, what a killer.

haha we've had some DUD centres over the years

 

[pHyR3]

Rankin - Handy to have
Halatau - decent 9
Sirro - never tried
Aloiai - did well (mostly)
Right side - Sheesh don't know
ET - Wanted the halves to run the show. One tried, the other didn't want to get his hair messed up.

Just guessing.

How do you explain Nathan Malone selection. That one had me baffled. I know he was in the top tier due to his TPD and was popular with sponsors and so on, but wow, what a killer.

well rankin offers us more kicking and a bit more reliability than JAC. also it could be we needed salary cap exemptions to even play JAC.

who would you have at 9 besides halatau? farahs not an option and you can read probably a hundred pages on that

Fair call with Rankin. He needs to be our definite goal kicker then…not when Moses feels like it. Can't recall but who took the long shot against the Titans at Campbo?

I'd have Cherrington at 9\. Injury free most of the year and under 30 years old. At the least in an interchange role.

he cant handle the defence workload of first grade for 80 minutes (and doesnt strengthen it for any minutes he does play), and has been okay in the 10-15 games hes played for us. he's also off next season and im pretty sure was injured for a part of this year.

you could make a solid case for him to play off the bench, but it wasnt a major decision or one that made/broke our season

 

[VanillaThunder]

Without having seen any of JT's playing career, going on what I've heard and what's obvious in his personality he seems to have a very definite idea of how rugby should be played and doesn't deviate too far from it. He's very numbers-oriented and favours the percentage plays over flash, hence the selection of Lovett and Rankin over JAC et al. That's just his style of coaching, and while he did seem to loosen the reins a little, I don't think we can expect anything different without a change of coach.

 

[stryker]

The answer to all your questions is…dunno.
Taylor will tell you the same thing.

 

[yeti]

Without having seen any of JT's playing career, going on what I've heard and what's obvious in his personality he seems to have a very definite idea of how rugby should be played and doesn't deviate too far from it. He's very numbers-oriented and favours the percentage plays over flash, hence the selection of Lovett and Rankin over JAC et al. That's just his style of coaching, and while he did seem to loosen the reins a little, I don't think we can expect anything different without a change of coach.

You are quite right in your assumptions regarding Taylor's playing style. He was limited in natural talent but made the very best possible use of the talent he had. He worked extremely hard at being the best he could. He was tough (played an astonishing number of games without missing any through injury), and played 'safe', controlled footy. And to give him his dues, that style was by and large successful. Boring, but successful. You can see that he would like a similarly controlled game from our team. Whether he actually has the players to do this is a different matter. A number of them certainly don't look interested in doing the hard work necessary…. all 'flash' and no ticker!

 

[jirskyr]

Guys like milone have to be given a crack… Dunno if they'll kick on or not... He didn't play many games fr memory

I agree.

Look at someone like Jordan Rapana - debuted in 2008 for Gold Coast, did a Mormon mission, came back to Rugby with the Western Force and then spent most of 2013-14 playing reggies for Canberra.

He gets a call up late 2014, has a decent 2015 and suddenly in 2016 is probably the form winger in the comp.

You would not have called that in 2013 and it's a reward for Canberra for taking a punt on him, then getting him to peak form.

Milone deserved a shot, he'd done all the right things in lower grades, and by my reckoning he got a decent few games in first to show his wares. Unfortunately for him he has very little talent for that level, but you don't always know which players will click.

 

[Bird is the Word]

In some instances it could be as simple as players training hard and attempting to follow the coaches' instructions when playing. It seems Taylor perserveres with players to a point, then decides to drop them if they continually dont achieve whatever kpis the coaching staff set them… That at least seemed to be the case with Cherrington, Farah, Milone and Sironen...

Was Lovett dropped for the last game, or injured?

 

[cktiger]

He's got no idea.
The only reason we went any good this year was that, despite his strange selections and poor game plans, we are lucky enough to have a few blokes with genuine talent who managed to jag us some wins.

 

[ricksen]

Was Lovett dropped for the last game, or injured?

He warmed up with the team before the game (as did Sirro), so can only assume he was dropped.

 

[851]

He's got no idea.
The only reason we went any good this year was that, despite his strange selections and poor game plans, we are lucky enough to have a few blokes with genuine talent who managed to jag us some wins.

Not a bad summation, you can't drop Farah, Siro and JAC for accountability, then leave, Kev, Rankin, Lovett, Brooks, Aloiai etc in the team, it is not right and not fair, and goes against all JT was preaching when he punted Farah. :crazy

 

[hobbo]

He's got no idea.
The only reason we went any good this year was that, despite his strange selections and poor game plans, we are lucky enough to have a few blokes with genuine talent who managed to jag us some wins.

Exactly , a few of our players were bound to turn the corner .

 

[newtiger]

Rankin - Handy to have
Halatau - decent 9
Sirro - never tried
Aloiai - did well (mostly)
Right side - Sheesh don't know
ET - Wanted the halves to run the show. One tried, the other didn't want to get his hair messed up.

Just guessing.

How do you explain Nathan Malone selection. That one had me baffled. I know he was in the top tier due to his TPD and was popular with sponsors and so on, but wow, what a killer.

well rankin offers us more kicking and a bit more reliability than JAC. also it could be we needed salary cap exemptions to even play JAC.

who would you have at 9 besides halatau? farahs not an option and you can read probably a hundred pages on that

Fair call with Rankin. He needs to be our definite goal kicker then…not when Moses feels like it. Can't recall but who took the long shot against the Titans at Camps?

I'd have Cherrington at 9\. Injury free most of the year and under 30 years old. At the least in an interchange role.

Moses took the last penalty against the Titans.

 

[TCL]

He's got no idea.
The only reason we went any good this year was that, despite his strange selections and poor game plans, we are lucky enough to have a few blokes with genuine talent who managed to jag us some wins.

Got stay he stumped me a few times, but I'm no genius!