Wests Tigers - Defence - How to fix

Spartan117

Spartan117

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Defence Wins Premierships, we hear it all the time.

For me this is where our team still has the greatest deficiency.

In commentary for the 2025 trial, Vs the Dogs, Andrew Voss mentioned that the dogs had their training field marked out in an innovative Grid.

This is primarily for defensive structure drills. Teaching the team through structure and repetition



What do you think we need to do to improve ??
 
Win the ruck.
Line speed....fitness....= less penalties against
Reduce opposition post contact metres

This club has never been known for this though, I dont know why.
Everythings changed in 25 years, coaches admins players etc ... but the defensive attitude or lack of it
remains the same
 
innsaneink said:
Win the ruck.
Line speed....fitness....= less penalties against
Reduce opposition post contact metres

This club has never been known for this though, I dont know why.
Everythings changed in 25 years, coaches admins players etc ... but the defensive attitude or lack of it
remains the same
Click to expand...
Yeah this ^^^ a thousand times. I’m sick of the penalties against us because of poor discipline and lack of fitness year after year. It has lost us many games. We often blame the refs and in some cases there has been unfair bias no doubt, but ultimately we only have ourselves to blame. I hope we are a different team this year and we finally learn how to defend as a unit and not give away so much advantage to our opponents.
 
innsaneink said:
Win the ruck.
Line speed....fitness....= less penalties against
Reduce opposition post contact metres

This club has never been known for this though, I dont know why.
Everythings changed in 25 years, coaches admins players etc ... but the defensive attitude or lack of it
remains the same
Click to expand...
True, we used to do a good scramble. But I think it hurt us because it was scramble defense, once opposition clubs worked this out they would get 2-3 people out of position and then pass the ball wide.

I recall a game of us vs Storm that we won 6-4. Some times we could defend, we just never ever were consistent at it.

Agree with all of the above, but I feel more critical is:

Defensive structure - Where should our wing/Center be to keep the line? so often the score is on our flanks and

Tackling - yes this feeds into post opp contact meters. Our tackling form, our toughness, our grit isn't there. Were not good at contact and that hurts us a lot.

Energy levels - like the warriors, come 60 minute mark we are out of puff.
 
Hitting & sticking is a big one for me besides the ones mentioned here (edge: particularly right) and the connections with our centres/wings. First contact hasn't been good enough - have to dominate first up rather than rely on your mates to come help make the tackle. Just drop him, dominate the wrestle & ruck.

Madge use to train us to hold the man up and in 2/3 man tackles and wait for your D line to get back inside but teams use to just offload or cut us up around the ruck, hence the offside penalties etc. It's been said often b4 but defense is all about attitude
 
If the fitness is finally right keeping the line speed up right to the end of the game will go a long way, getting up in their faces has got to disrupt their attack, can see Romey jumping around and clapping leading by example.
 
Flippedy said:
Yeah this ^^^ a thousand times. I’m sick of the penalties against us because of poor discipline and lack of fitness year after year. It has lost us many games. We often blame the refs and in some cases there has been unfair bias no doubt, but ultimately we only have ourselves to blame. I hope we are a different team this year and we finally learn how to defend as a unit and not give away so much advantage to our opponents.
Click to expand...

Yet I would have thought a lack of fitness was fixable...

Game runs for 80 minutes. Do interval training for 90 minutes. do wressling training for 90 minutes.

Match fitness should be an easier thing to coach for. To me it just means were not training hard enough.

The other parts, coordination between players, tackling/wressling technique, core strength, etc. that is far harder to train for.
 
Have numbers in every tackle, make sure they are put on their backs to prevent a quick play the ball. This gives the markers and defensive line time to set and line speed is massive on the back of winning the ruck.
 
Rock Hopper Steve said:
This is a good thread for Jolls, Vicious, Tuck and Batboy, there knowledge of the game will solve this dilemma, but for me I can only dumb it down........Don't miss your F man.
Click to expand...

The 25 years I've been a fan hasn't fixed it - Ever....
Sure to be little I can do about it now.

We've never been good at it - Even when we were a half decent side.
Every time it's mentioned, It goes something like - Every year, the best defensive side wins the comp...
then it's usually "Outside the Tigers in 05"

We never learned to tackle, our game plan was throw the ball to Benji and wait for the magic to win our games for us.
Not point mentioning when Benji slowed down and had less magic, we had no spine left to build a game from....
Defence is an attitude, It's dirty and not for the nice / pretty boys...
We need more blokes that love the contact - love winning so much they're prepared to do it for 80 minutes without the ball.
I just don't think we have enough of those blokes in our top 17 at the moment.

1 or 2 more would make a real difference and be a great lead for the young fellas we have coming through to set them on the right path.

Worst thing about having the best young kids - Is they've never had to learn how to defend.
 
this is going to sound cliche, but providing you have the physical fitness to cope with the demands of rugby league, attitude and intent goes a long way. the Bulldogs missed more tackles than any other team last year but their will to win was the difference for them in a lot of games.

you won’t win a comp purely with attitude and intent, but it’ll ensure you’re still playing in September. it’s contact, wrestle and communication that separates the wheat from the chaff as @Tucker pointed out.
 
batboy said:
The 25 years I've been a fan hasn't fixed it - Ever....
Sure to be little I can do about it now.

We've never been good at it - Even when we were a half decent side.
Every time it's mentioned, It goes something like - Every year, the best defensive side wins the comp...
then it's usually "Outside the Tigers in 05"

We never learned to tackle, our game plan was throw the ball to Benji and wait for the magic to win our games for us.
Not point mentioning when Benji slowed down and had less magic, we had no spine left to build a game from....
Defence is an attitude, It's dirty and not for the nice / pretty boys...
We need more blokes that love the contact - love winning so much they're prepared to do it for 80 minutes without the ball.
I just don't think we have enough of those blokes in our top 17 at the moment.

1 or 2 more would make a real difference and be a great lead for the young fellas we have coming through to set them on the right path.

Worst thing about having the best young kids - Is they've never had to learn how to defend.
Click to expand...
Do you think any of Taylan, Leniu and Frizzell would help?
 
Kaito said:
Hitting & sticking is a big one for me besides the ones mentioned here (edge: particularly right) and the connections with our centres/wings. First contact hasn't been good enough - have to dominate first up rather than rely on your mates to come help make the tackle. Just drop him, dominate the wrestle & ruck.

Madge use to train us to hold the man up and in 2/3 man tackles and wait for your D line to get back inside but teams use to just offload or cut us up around the ruck, hence the offside penalties etc. It's been said often b4 but defense is all about attitude
Click to expand...
Agreed.

Whatever Madge was doing, it wasn't working. I do remember the slow holdups in defense, maybe with Cam Smith managing the ruck we could see it work and we could slow the plays down when we needed too...

But so many of those 2-3 man tackles let through offloads or teams just barged through us. ..


That said, it's a funny thought of Payne Haas holding someone up and Madge saying "hey cmon guys, you need to get 2 more boys assisting there!"
 
What Batboy said is true
Defence is an attitude, It's dirty and not for the nice / pretty boys...
We need more blokes that love the contact - love winning so much they're prepared to do it for 80 minutes without the ball.

We need a tone setter in our team, the player that lets the opposition know where there, and who drives the defensive spark.
 
I am a firm believer in rewarding the players

Ever 10th tackle you get a Big Mac voucher

And that's a starting point and for variety some weeks a KFC voucher


And if that doesn't inspire then a few video nights watching Manly from the mid 90's wow what a beautiful defence they had
 
Bellend said:
What Batboy said is true
Defence is an attitude, It's dirty and not for the nice / pretty boys...
We need more blokes that love the contact - love winning so much they're prepared to do it for 80 minutes without the ball.

We need a tone setter in our team, the player that lets the opposition know where there, and who drives the defensive spark.
Click to expand...

A Victor Radley, Cam McInnes, Reuben Cotter type would go down a treat!
Olam (when he get's it right) could inspire a few - But looks like he's not coming back.
 
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