Watching 1st Half Attack

[Technical Coach]

RedZone attack once again lacked any real art, science and forward thinking, lacking calm composure---we really should have finished off the Dogs in that half with at least one more try.

As Fittler pointed out no point trying to be pretty and fancy trying to finesse yourself around a defence that has a full tank your mostly wasting your time against good defensive outfits. You really should be just playing simple and direct hitting the first option to set up the outside plays later on.

Case in point watch the 2:30 mark play the ball with Ballin out of dummy half---he uses King as the decoy to hold the defensive line and passes to DCE. King is an under-rated good hole runner there was yawning gap between a sluggish Kassiano and Toleman yet we went into Auto Pilot mode and did the stock standard play.(Kassiano at front marker is not going to split well stopping the hooker or even making an effective tackle on a hole runner in that area.)

The shape of attack on both sides was poor but just to keep things short lol Forans side setting up Williams really lacked any deep thought beyond Williams as the danger man. It's sad seeing Matai run bad deep sideways running lines off Brett in the hope of a catch and pass(taking advantage of a rushed up and in on Brett)

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

Yes you better lift your game this week TC we need the team playing a bit smarter against the Cows.

 

[Technical Coach]

We are still a good chance this week as i don't rate JT in crunch NRL games---mind you they have a better forward pack this year and he has improved as a footballer this year also----but i still think he is over-rated.

This is JT's chance to make a mark against a depleted bruised team that might be missing a few outside backs---if he does not stand out this Friday he never will.

I'm still confident for this week as we perform well under lights on a good SFS turf and even better during the day--- but worried if there is enough in the tank playing Melb in Melb like 09.

 

[The Who]

Our attack was as bad as it's been all year. It looked like we were too hyped up; the composure wasn't there.
One thing I still can't work out, even though every team does it, is crowd your backline when you have a scrum feed with forwards. Surely this is a defensive move. Canberra kept doing it today. Duggan packed into the scrum. I don;t get it. Why not have your fleet-footed players and fullback trying to attack from a scrum?

 

[susan]

Agree with your summation of our attack last week but as you would expect can't agree on it all.If our centres are both out(and that is a big if) JT will carve us up out wide and they should win comfortably.If you look at the games where we had backline reshuffles this year far more inferior players than JT dismantled our defence.

Our only hope is if we stick as close to specialists in positions as possible.If Buhrer is selected at centre I believe we may be emabarrased by JT,Bowen,Ttae etc which would be a great shame as the kid is a top player as a forward utilty.If JT cant dismantle us then I may be swayed towards your opinion of him but cant see him not having a blinder.

If Jamie plays all the above is irrelevant and we have a top chance of progressing.

 

[HappilyManly]

The Boys were a little tense, they should relax and their naturally ability will win the Game easy.
Kicking strategically would have saved a lot of that petrol we lacked in the second half.:idea:

The great positive was the birth of Jorge Taufua as a Finals Player.
His nerves will now all be gone and he can step up to fill any vacancies we may have on Friday

B2B is still on!!!!

 

[Shoe1]

Yes our first 5 minutes should have been much better. It was noticeable that we were sideways in attack. When joe came on he really straightened things up. I'd start him in place of king. In the 2nd half when kingy came back on earlyish i think kite would have been a better option. We needed someone to take control.

 

[eagles2win]

Yes our first 5 minutes should have been much better. It was noticeable that we were sideways in attack. When joe came on he really straightened things up. I'd start him in place of king. In the 2nd half when kingy came back on earlyish i think kite would have been a better option. We needed someone to take control.

I'd start him instead of Kite.
Kite went back to thinking he was a half back on Friday night

 

[Chip and Chase]

It seems every play on the left has to revolve around T-Rex. He gets hammered on here because he doesn't run onto the ball, but it looks like our default play is to pass to him regardless of whether he is running, standing still, ready or not. We need to be smarter about how he is used, he should be used to set up the defensive line with the dummy inside ball to him, or face ball occassionally to Snake or Matai. The attack on Friday lacked direction, cohesion and thought. That may be partly due to good Dogs defence, but also due to lack of patience and composure. We had enough ball early to put on 1 or 2 tries. Once we lost Killer, the RHS turned to crap, and it was DCE one out, or Gift stepping back off the right to come through middle of ruck. There were also some horrible kick options and pushed passes early in sets down that side.

We know what we'll get from Cowboys, their play revolves around hitting their big guys on the fringes, Tamou, Cooper, Hall, Sims, Taumalolo. This will reap rewards directly or open up second man plays with Bowen around the back. We held them pretty well in Townsville at last meeting, so defensively we should have their measure (if Lyon plays).

 

[Mals]

T-Rex needs a spell on the interchange during the game. He's not an 80 minute player & really fatigues during the second 40. We would get a lot more out of him this way.

 

[jbb/james]

They just went wide too early and too often. It looked very panicky and our young halves looked anything but composed.A lack of patience early blew away the advantage of posession they had early. Building pressure early rather than trying to put them away, may have resulted in a very different outcome

Brett just didnt respect the ball at all and attacking raids could have been built on some of his half breaks if he had not pushed the pass. All round the team looked frazzled early on and never really recovered

 

[Oneyeagle]

We lost the plot from the first scrum. Put on a plan move and and everyone was running backwards to pick up the loose passes. It went all down hill from there.

I can't understand what was going on in their heads. Second time they let the Des dramas get to them. So unlike the Eagles.

They need a Head coach to work on their heads, not their executions. They are still best team in the comp.

 

[Technical Coach]

Agree with your summation of our attack last week but as you would expect can't agree on it all.If our centres are both out(and that is a big if) JT will carve us up out wide and they should win comfortably.If you look at the games where we had backline reshuffles this year far more inferior players than JT dismantled our defence.

Our only hope is if we stick as close to specialists in positions as possible.If Buhrer is selected at centre I believe we may be emabarrased by JT,Bowen,Ttae etc which would be a great shame as the kid is a top player as a forward utilty.If JT cant dismantle us then I may be swayed towards your opinion of him but cant see him not having a blinder.

If Jamie plays all the above is irrelevant and we have a top chance of progressing.

Yes JT has a chance to shine against a reshuffled backline and should shine. (i'm agreeing with you as the conditions are ripe for even a half decent 5/8 or Half to take advantage)

Manly have had no problems in dealing with Thurston's limited variations and skillset in the crunch games. Well structured club defensive outfits are harder to break than high intensity Origin games where fatigue kicks in more and it's less structured obviously due to limited preparation.

I've always stated JT needs a classy half to shine---he gets that with Origin on top of the best outside backs in Origin also.

In some ways i feel he is over-rated in the same capacity as Laurie Daley---Stuart ran the show fullstop. Daley just complimented him well with a strong will to win, good leadership qualities and was able to lift the squad through an inspirational play---i see JT in the same way.

 

[susan]

There may be a hitch there TC.Morgan seems to have come from nowhere to look like a top prospect.In my opinion he has way more upside than the golden boy from Souths who is a deadset plodder.I hope he doesnt provide the "class" for JT.

 

[driftout]

Agree with your summation of our attack last week but as you would expect can't agree on it all.If our centres are both out(and that is a big if) JT will carve us up out wide and they should win comfortably.If you look at the games where we had backline reshuffles this year far more inferior players than JT dismantled our defence.

Our only hope is if we stick as close to specialists in positions as possible.If Buhrer is selected at centre I believe we may be emabarrased by JT,Bowen,Ttae etc which would be a great shame as the kid is a top player as a forward utilty.If JT cant dismantle us then I may be swayed towards your opinion of him but cant see him not having a blinder.

If Jamie plays all the above is irrelevant and we have a top chance of progressing.

Yes JT has a chance to shine against a reshuffled backline and should shine. (i'm agreeing with you as the conditions are ripe for even a half decent 5/8 or Half to take advantage)

Manly have had no problems in dealing with Thurston's limited variations and skillset in the crunch games. Well structured club defensive outfits are harder to break than high intensity Origin games where fatigue kicks in more and it's less structured obviously due to limited preparation.

I've always stated JT needs a classy half to shine---he gets that with Origin on top of the best outside backs in Origin also.

In some ways i feel he is over-rated in the same capacity as Laurie Daley---Stuart ran the show fullstop. Daley just complimented him well with a strong will to win, good leadership qualities and was able to lift the squad through an inspirational play---i see JT in the same way.

I was about to post the same sentiment about JT in the "Cowboys Pack" thread. You can build a team around him but you also need some great players to complement his talents.

Just on Foz , besides still carrying that ankle injury , he looks a little bit caught between the devil and the deep blue sea as far as striking a balance between running and ball playing. I would have loved to have seen him take control last Friday .

 

[MPC75]

We didn't win the forward battle against the dogs. For our halves to shine the forwards have to the set the platform, they didn't do that. I think we need Rose off the bench, he seems to provide the extra spark that the rest of the forwards feed off.

If we can get on top of the cows forwards early, I expect a similar scoreline to last year's semi. The broncos scored some pretty soft tries on Saturday. If we build pressure and sustain it, we will be fine.

 

[Masked Eagle]

Don't discount the Dogs being offside and leaving early all night either. It stiffled our momentum and it helped them get numbers at the ruck, slowing down our play the ball. Yes we had good ball early, but they were very fresh and weren't being penalised for being offside.

I agree with picking Rose in the team. Said this plenty of times before, love Mauro but he doesn't offer enough with the ball, is way too easily dominanted and it really stops our sets dead in their tracks.

 

[Hamster Huey]

Don't discount the Dogs being offside and leaving early all night either. It stiffled our momentum and it helped them get numbers at the ruck, slowing down our play the ball. Yes we had good ball early, but they were very fresh and weren't being penalised for being offside.

I agree with picking Rose in the team. Said this plenty of times before, love Mauro but he doesn't offer enough with the ball, is way too easily dominanted and it really stops our sets dead in their tracks.

A good example of the leniency shown was when Reynolds took the dive when making contact with Watmough. It should have been play on considering that Reynolds had broken from the marker position well before the ball cleared the ruck, being about 2-3 metres sideways from the play-the-ball by the time it's passed. He should have been called offside; not afforded a penalty for the later infringement.

 

[EagleFromMay1967]

When you carefully read the contents of this entire thread, many valid and true points have been made here.

You can only come to ONE summarizing conclusion: In terms of
i) Coaching and ii) Man Management

Mr Toovey has still a way to go. The loss of Crusher also is evident.

If they go back to back, it will the contribution of the experienced players that largely gets us there. This is not to say that 2V is not a good coach, and may become a GREAT coach, i just think there are many gaps in the preparation in comparison to 2011.

If you react against my assertion, just read this thread again.

 

[Masked Eagle]

When you carefully read the contents of this entire thread, many valid and true points have been made here.

You can only come to ONE summarizing conclusion: In terms of
i) Coaching and ii) Man Management

Mr Toovey has still a way to go. The loss of Crusher also is evident.

If they go back to back, it will the contribution of the experienced players that largely gets us there. This is not to say that 2V is not a good coach, and may become a GREAT coach, i just think there are many gaps in the preparation in comparison to 2011.

If you react against my assertion, just read this thread again.

How is the loss of Crusher evident? And Des did it last year, but the players will do it this year? Sorry, can't agree with your conclusions.