Well Done Sheens.....

[Geo]

….After the first half dozen games off the season concededing a gazillion points a game...Supercoach Sheens was looking like a goose especially considering it was He himself who took on more responsibility in putting the defensive structure in place....

Now coming to the back end .....Defence is winning us games...don't know what the ave. is but it would be pretty impressive over the last 2 months or so

The style has changed much more up and in and speed of line and gaol-line defence has been outstanding in recent weeks...fantatic speed of the line and tackling in numbers rapping up the ball working hard for each other and making great reads more often than not ,,,the downside it takes it's toll.....65 mins we were brilliant against Manly it chews a lot of petrol...but they still dug deep and hung on

Anyone catch NRL tactics last night....nice little analyses of goal line D highlighting Lawrence....?

Intersted to hear your guys thoughts on the defence....Is it Finals Football quality....?

 

[Tigerpete]

Credit where it's due. Sheens was looking like a goose by mid april. I was one to call for his head even. However he's righted the wrongs, our problems then are not our problems now.

As for our defence. I do like where it's at, You need to be able to get in people's faces, force errors and scramble well under adversity, Right now it's happening. If we can keep it up, even tighten in a up a bit more i think we're well positioned.

 

[system]

I think it is much about natural player growth and timing as it is about structure.

Lawrence was a terrible defender at centre when he came into grade in that position. He did not know how to read the line as well as he could and his body positioning in tackles was poor to say the least. He has grown as a player and has mentally matured as well.

I think the right side has tightened up with the inclusion of Ayshford as he defends in the half slot on the right of the ruck. He does not have the flaw that Morris sometimes had in defense of rushing infield to cut off plays one out from the ruck thus leaving his centre and therefor Ryan as well completely posted on a number of occasions.

The inclusion of Galea and the growth of Payne into the lock role have also been features. Galea is not an impact player. He is the guy who will break his body to do his job in whatever capacity you ask him to. Heighno has the natural build and attitude of an impact player. Not having him there conserving himself to be an 80 minute player has helped as well.

Benji has improved as a defender as well. Every week his confidence is growing which in turn means he doesn't feel the need to overplay his hand in attack to make up for his defensive shortcomings.

Yes the structure has improved as well but I out it down more as a wrap for player development and correct positioning than overall tactics and structure

 

[Guest]

The Tigers defence has certainly improved this season after being pretty ordinary for the first 6 rounds. The team is communicating well across the field and getting numbers in tackles which makes a big difference. Manly showed that we are still vulnerable on the edges if hard running players who run good lines like Whatmough hit us. This will need to be worked on but overall the defence is certainly looking better than it has in previous seasons.

 

[weststigerman]

Good to see credit given where its due.

When the team plays terrible, there is a plethora of sack sheens threads. However, when the side performs very well, it's rare there will be a thread saying Sheens did something right.

Despite the bad run we've had in the last few years, there's not many coaches around who would do a better job IMO. Thanks Tim.

 

[dimitri]

NRL Tactics last night indicated the Tigers in the last 5 weeks are 2nd in Defence and 2nd in attack.

The statistics are a reflection of the on-field performance.

The level of detail in the defensive structure is being adjusted to suit opposition attacking strengths. All experts on the panel agreed the Tigers are "A very well coached team".

Keep up the good works boys. Your efforts are appreciated.

 

[Geo]

The Tigers defence has certainly improved this season after being pretty ordinary for the first 6 rounds. The team is communicating well across the field and getting numbers in tackles which makes a big difference. Manly showed that we are still vulnerable on the edges if hard running players who run good lines like Whatmough hit us. This will need to be worked on but overall the defence is certainly looking better than it has in previous seasons.

Vunarable on the edges yes when your in their face and miss the tackle….I wasnt necessarily a flaw in the structure..but I lnow what you mean

Smeg very good point you make player development and experience as well as having them in the correct positions does have a lot to do with it as has confidence.....Sheens took a long time to find it ...All the players you mention are doing there jobs very well and it's a credit to Sheens for the development ....The addition of Ellis has also been a huge influence...as has the inclusion of Gallant at fullback...

 

[system]

Ellis & Gallant have been great as has Moltzens speed and quick decision making in the centre slot.

I had to stop in the first post or I would have rambled about everyone and their defensive progression.

Who has time to write, or read, that on a Wednesday

 

[tiger05]

I think it is much about natural player growth and timing as it is about structure.

Lawrence was a terrible defender at centre when he came into grade in that position. He did not know how to read the line as well as he could and his body positioning in tackles was poor to say the least. He has grown as a player and has mentally matured as well.

I think the right side has tightened up with the inclusion of Ayshford as he defends in the half slot on the right of the ruck. He does not have the flaw that Morris sometimes had in defense of rushing infield to cut off plays one out from the ruck thus leaving his centre and therefor Ryan as well completely posted on a number of occasions.

The inclusion of Galea and the growth of Payne into the lock role have also been features. Galea is not an impact player. He is the guy who will break his body to do his job in whatever capacity you ask him to. Heighno has the natural build and attitude of an impact player. Not having him there conserving himself to be an 80 minute player has helped as well.

Benji has improved as a defender as well. Every week his confidence is growing which in turn means he doesn't feel the need to overplay his hand in attack to make up for his defensive shortcomings.

Yes the structure has improved as well but I out it down more as a wrap for player development and correct positioning than overall tactics and structure

Smeg - that is a good post.

As you state a lot of our players have really improved their defensive games.

Lawrence was a dud defensively when he game into grade and now he is continually snuffing out opposistion opportunities. Benji is also hitting hard - he still has a mistake or two in him defeneively but for a half he must be up there in defensive ability.

 

[Alan_Sharsh]

Having the correct line up on the field has made a huge difference to our defence and attack. And the confidence of a few wins has helped our attitude in defence.

I'm still of the belief that Sheens acted way to late in terms of picking the correct team that everyone on this forum was calling for. I belive we on the evidence of the last 4 weeks with thisline up we all wanted we could have been a top 4 side. Now we will be extreamely lucky to make the 8.

 

[hybrid_tiger]

Credit where credit is due and we've improved in leaps and bounds. I still think the positional and player changes should have been made at least a month earlier, probably even earlier. Better late than never I guess.

One aspect I think we still struggle is conceeding offloads. If we want to make the semis and actually perform when we get there this will need to improve.

 

[softlaw]

There is still the fact that we missed 50 tackles against manly but our structure & intensity is far better. (& 45 of those tackles would have been watmough with the other 5 all being that big wingers try)
The fact that we now don;t have to hide players in defence is a real help I think as it means every player can rely on the man in or outside of him to do his duty.
A lot of it also has to be that we haven't been throwing the ball away through errors so often meaning we don;t have to make as many tackles so aren;t as drained when we do.

If we can keep the intensity of the first 50 odd minutes of the manly game for 70 minutes or even better the entire 80 we will be very difficult to beat.

 

[anderson_silva]

all the improvement means nothing unless we make the finals, where was this initiative 2 years ago?, where was it in the pre season? If we dont make the finals it doesnt mean squat as we have finished 9-11 the last 3 years and is most likely where we will finish this year if we dont make it,

im not going to give the coach credit for getting the team defending well, thats his fricking job, its not like hes a rookie, 25 year and hes the aussie coach, this is something that should of been happening years ago not just in a 5 week spurt

 

[MGB]

The right hand side was our big problem, Ayshford has tightened things up there in recent weeks and as others have pointed out some players have come along defensively in the past season. Lawrence is a great example - he was an ordinary defender at first but it would be fair to say it is a strength of his game now. Overall I think it is a combination of several factors that have turned things around, credit to Sheens though our defence has improved regardless of where we finish this season.

 

[Juro]

all the improvement means nothing unless we make the finals, where was this initiative 2 years ago?, where was it in the pre season? If we dont make the finals it doesnt mean squat as we have finished 9-11 the last 3 years and is most likely where we will finish this year if we dont make it,

im not going to give the coach credit for getting the team defending well, thats his fricking job, its not like hes a rookie, 25 year and hes the aussie coach, this is something that should of been happening years ago not just in a 5 week spurt

Have you enjoyed the last month? I have. If that enjoyment doesn't go all the way through September, I will still have enjoyed the last month. Take from the season what you can. Otherwise you will go mad…

 

[anderson_silva]

all the improvement means nothing unless we make the finals, where was this initiative 2 years ago?, where was it in the pre season? If we dont make the finals it doesnt mean squat as we have finished 9-11 the last 3 years and is most likely where we will finish this year if we dont make it,

im not going to give the coach credit for getting the team defending well, thats his fricking job, its not like hes a rookie, 25 year and hes the aussie coach, this is something that should of been happening years ago not just in a 5 week spurt

Have you enjoyed the last month? I have. If that enjoyment doesn't go all the way through September, I will still have enjoyed the last month. Take from the season what you can. Otherwise you will go mad…

i look at it more like have you enjoyed the last 3 and a half years? pffff, weve had a good month so what, like i said it doesnt mean anything if we dont make the finals, and it sure as hell doesnt make up for the last 3 years

 

[simonthetiger]

Im a big Sheens fan.

IMO we have the best in the gig.

Ive watch the Tigers for a thousand years,and IMO we have the best moves and tactics Ive ever seen.

And Ive seen us under some pretty good coaches.

 

[innsaneink]

As in the past we scramble well, we still are weak in containing offloads and dominating in the tackle….but its good to see some improvement. About bloody time I say.

 

[T91]

As in the past we scramble well, we still are weak in containing offloads and dominating in the tackle….but its good to see some improvement. About bloody time I say.

Ha, exactly… it's only taken 3 1/2 years of torture.

Intersted to hear your guys thoughts on the defence....Is it Finals Football quality....?

The defence has definitely improved but it's still no-where near finals quality.. 50 missed tackles isn't good enough. As for Sheens being the best coach in the business? Seriously? The best coach does not miss the finals & play John Morris in the halves for 3 years... A coach like Wayne Bennet or Craig Bellamy who gets their team to play consistently well and feature in the finals are the only ones who should be labelled as the best in the business. Even a coach like Matt Elliott or Jason Taylor who constantly get deathrided in the media made the finals in that period.. and imo with much less talented players.

 

[T91]

Seriously, the edit button needs its time extended. As for Penrith making the finals, my mistake…