Quick Analysis of Attack

[Technical Coach]

Just a few quick notes after watching the game in relation to our attack more in relation to tuning up and offering a few more options. Nothing too detailed and will add more if time permits another time if anyone is interested.

4:04 Watmough should be closer and slightly flatter in relation to the position of Foran and needs to straighten his run earlier with an outside in run. Earlier ball to Matai when Watmough hits the 10m line as Soward rushes up towards Stewart. Foran guilty of over drifting sideways cramping his options also.
Lazy inside defenders during same play on the blind side of Foran have relaxed after a half hearted inside run from Rose---running a simple under play or a more creative and harder off the hip showing the ball outside and passing in to a double inside runner is an option. Stewart could appear to run the standard second man play and step back inside into the hole using Rose as an inside blocker to the oncoming tacklers.

29:40 Notice after Matai releases the ball to Watmough then onto the next forward the space up the middle and how our attacking line is once again too deep to take the opportunity at 29:44 waiting for the next play. We need more scheming probing attacking options up the middle beyond B Stewart such as Buhrer,Matai Williams,Watmough and Hoppa.

38:15 During scrum have DCE positioned a little closer to Foran opening up the option of him drifting towards the short side with Matai hitting an early ball across the back of the scrum aiming for a one on one with Soward.

38:38 Hole actually opens for Watmough but decides to shuffle back in Lussick wrapped up.

68:59 Nice short passes between forwards holding up the defence on the back foot allowing a deep pass to DCE with more time, Glen Stewart needed to hit the hole earlier---not enough explosive spark to take opportunity plus once again too deep eventually cramping outside options.Earlier ball to Lyon from DCE on the outside of up and in defender an option with G.Stewart as a decoy.

69:28 Require a shorter option in between Foran and Ballin----4 in defender can read that Foran is the only option and rushes up limiting his time to execute play.An inside option be it DCE wrapping around ruck into the gap between Ballin and Foran with a show and go hoping for a rush up defence on Foran or Rose running an inside hip off Foran can mix it up a little. Ballin grubbing in behind early in the game can hold the defence up for later on also with Stewart and Matai rushing through.

 

[eagles2win]

Just a quick question would the difference between the two teams be anynore if both teams were at full strength?

The MERGE with Cooper, Hornby and Scott

or

us with Hoppa Jnr, Kite, Rodney and Williams perhaps with Nood on the bench?

 

[Technical Coach]

I dont think the players out from both teams would have made any difference to the result----both teams can beat each other on their day its more about the better drilled team and extracting the most from the talent they have.(it was not a 24-6 win more 16-6)

More option structures in attack less reliance on setting up edge plays to Forans side is a simple starting point. If they persist with G.Stewart as the main right edge option he has to flatten out his position, he is too deep and ends up giving defences time to slide pushing him sideways and when holes do present themselves they close up before he reaches the point.

The last 5 weeks i've really liked the straightening up of our go forward at times the best i've seen from any NRL club. The worrying aspect is the teams that have muscled up against us our intensity drops off beyond my liking but that will happen with most NRL teams---once our physical dominance is nullified we need to offer more in attack.

Manly tends to use short periods of high intensity mixed in with remaining in the grind especially after any in game stoppages and the first 10min of each half. Last year it appeared we relied too much on explosive periods to the point of tanking us(i never thought our issues with second halves was a mental issue)

This year it is obvious our fitness has improved and more balanced we still use explosive periods which i think Des encourages but this year with the added youth in the forwards and a better kicking game that allows us to control the tempo a little more our intensity is not dropping to a point of tanking.

I do think against the Dragons getting the ball into touch offering more rest periods and allowing a high intensity stop start game will help us stay in the game on top of having players feign injury at critical times to halt play. (Only to help our large forwards and to reduce the amount of interchanges saving for the back end)

We rectify our attacking issues we will beat the Dragons----its not about matching the Dragons in defense its about putting them under pressure coming from behind. Their attack disregarding points stats can be defended against but i think under point scoring pressure it will crumble and so will their defense.

 

[jjai]

Thanks Tech i agree mate every you said i seen.. there was no variation when we were 5-10 out .. Like i said more decoy runners were needed when we were that close & also a few times a couple of balls back inside instead of swinging out all the time to the fringes would have fukd em too. there was gaps there, they were sliding way too fast on some occaisions, ball back inside a few times would have fukd em..

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Put it this way Cliff Lyons would have exploited that within the 1st 5minutes,& they would have been in 2minds all game whenever we were attacking within thier 10..