Our Attack 2015

[Sir Chadley]

Our well credentialed poster HaroldBishop (HB to his friends) has alluded several times on this forum to our attack being somewhat improved in 2015.

But has it improved? Do you agree with him?

How would you rate our current attack out of 5 and is there still room for improvement?

 

[sharkyboy]

Id say its improved more and more as the season has progressed.

With the side remaining fairly consistent in regards to injury and having a hooker that can play whats in front of him as well as Bird getting his hands on the ball a lot and having no fear has seen it improved. Its also no coincidence that since barba has found form we have been scoring points far more consistently.

Also having players like Beale, Feki and Val who are all talented attacking players who have had time to gel has seen us being able to take advantage of our forwards rolling up the middle and are 'classy' with ball in hand.

Another indication is Lewis being fit, healthy and ripping the **** in and showing us why we signed him in the first place. The guy is a beast in attack and defence.

The way he ran down hunt (can't remember) was so much more impressive to me then his attacking ability this year.


I think the thing I've been most impressed with this year (and idk whether its flanno showing some balls or the players just willing to give things a go) is the way in which we have been shifting players randomly into positions for one set, or one play.

Gettign Lewis on the edges a few random times, putting barba at 5/8th for a set and then he's at fullback and then on the wing has been a breath of fresh air and tracking footy tactics.

Now we are seeing plays like fifita on the edges almost playing centre and getting one on one has me really excited when we are attacking in the 20.

The stats are also showing that we are really starting to catch up with some of the better attacking sides. We've scored 293 points. Only 50 odd points behind the cowboys with a firing JT. And thats with us having some games in which we scored one try or no tries at all.


Positive signs.

 

[dylan the villian]

I for one think In 2015 we attack each other much less. It's like we are not even trying to hurt each other's feelings anymore! I wish we would return to the attacking of 2014! Much more hurtful and enjoying to read!

2014 5/5 all out forum warfare!
2015 1/5 bunch of Pepsi swilling sissies

 

[BlackWhiteBlue]

Given we've scored more points in 16 games than we did the whole season last year yes its improved

 

[Sir Chadley]

Id say its improved more and more as the season has progressed.

With the side remaining fairly consistent in regards to injury and having a hooker that can play whats in front of him as well as Bird getting his hands on the ball a lot and having no fear has seen it improved. Its also no coincidence that since barba has found form we have been scoring points far more consistently.

Also having players like Beale, Feki and Val who are all talented attacking players who have had time to gel has seen us being able to take advantage of our forwards rolling up the middle and are 'classy' with ball in hand.

Another indication is Lewis being fit, healthy and ripping the **** in and showing us why we signed him in the first place. The guy is a beast in attack and defence.

The way he ran down hunt (can't remember) was so much more impressive to me then his attacking ability this year.


I think the thing I've been most impressed with this year (and idk whether its flanno showing some balls or the players just willing to give things a go) is the way in which we have been shifting players randomly into positions for one set, or one play.

Gettign Lewis on the edges a few random times, putting barba at 5/8th for a set and then he's at fullback and then on the wing has been a breath of fresh air and tracking footy tactics.

Now we are seeing plays like fifita on the edges almost playing centre and getting one on one has me really excited when we are attacking in the 20.

The stats are also showing that we are really starting to catch up with some of the better attacking sides. We've scored 293 points. Only 50 odd points behind the cowboys with a firing JT. And thats with us having some games in which we scored one try or no tries at all.


Positive signs.

Great summation SB, top post!

 

[Thresher]

I for one think In 2015 we attack each other much less. It's like we are not even trying to hurt each other's feelings anymore! I wish we would return to the attacking of 2014! Much more hurtful and enjoying to read!

2014 5/5 all out forum warfare!
2015 1/5 bunch of Pepsi swilling sissies

Ha ha, I've always thought that the result of a grand final victory would end in an all-in brawl on here.

 

[sharks2010]

I for one think In 2015 we attack each other much less. It's like we are not even trying to hurt each other's feelings anymore! I wish we would return to the attacking of 2014! Much more hurtful and enjoying to read!

2014 5/5 all out forum warfare!
2015 1/5 bunch of Pepsi swilling sissies

im still on my good behaviour bond.

Seriously though, firstly good thread chadley, beats the poem threads. Imo our attack has improved but we are still guilty of slipping back into our old ways

For example, our first try to feki against the dragons was a well constructed try, we had decoys and players in motion, passes hit their mark and it was great to watch, fast forward to the next few time we are attacking and we were guilty of just passing along the line and never looked like scoring.

Our biggest problem this year has been inconsistency but the positive out of this is that there are signs of improvement

 

[Sir Chadley]

Just slightly off topic, I saw bits of the Under 20s game and the new number 7 Brad Deitz actually played what was in front of him a few times. This is something our players need to do more of.

 

[Sir Chadley]

im still on my good behaviour bond.

Seriously though, firstly good thread chadley, beats the poem threads. Imo our attack has improved but we are still guilty of slipping back into our old ways

For example, our first try to feki against the dragons was a well constructed try, we had decoys and players in motion, passes hit their mark and it was great to watch, fast forward to the next few time we are attacking and we were guilty of just passing along the line and never looked like scoring.

Our biggest problem this year has been inconsistency but the positive out of this is that there are signs of improvement

Thank you mate. Yes agree, we look brilliant at times but pedestrian at others. And the pedestrian attack still outweighs the good stuff at the moment for mine.
But on Sunday, the two sets of six we did right after scoring that led to another try were awesome and especially in that set before the Holmes try the passing was very un-Cronulla like. Couldn't believe I was watching the Sharks.

 

[Sutty]

Our attack seems quite decent on the plays where Robson doesn't have to do any playmaking.

 

[vicsharkfan]

Like lots of teams we are often guilty of trying to around teams than through them,
I love a bit of a razzle dazzle backline play, but I know it was a under strength drags but seriously last weeks barba chip feki gather n offload back to barba was great viewing..
But I love a forward barging over so the lewy run then gal run followed by a lewy try, is amongst my top 5 shark tries this year, considering years past we might have only have had 5 for the year to choose from.
I rekon we are coming along ok, need to walk before your can run or in our case crawl before you learn to walk.

 

[apezza]

It is good to see our attack improving. It is going to come down to our mistakes and silly penalties. Keep those down and we should make the semis comfortably. Fall back to bad habits and we will miss out.

 

[josh11223344]

As soon as robbo stops getting the ball whenever he wants down the left when attacking their line and we go to the lewis/beale/val combination on the right we'll be much better.

Our attack definitely feels easy to read, it has for aslong as I can remember. Even back when toddy was at his peak with us. Surely next year with two proper halves and barba, val, beale, bird (at centre) in the side we should look sharper. If not the theory that our attack is flanno's fault is definitely spot on.

 

[vicsharkfan]

If someone can post this weeks Raiders v sharks game preview from NRL site, really interesting and somewhat exciting stats regard to our attack, especially compared to years past.

 

[Born&bred]

There have been signs of improvement, no doubt. If we had any other 7 than Robson we would look heaps better.

80 minutes of effort is problem 1, consistency is mega-problem 2.

Ennis is a huge contributor when we attack well.

 

[ben]

I think ennis is the most important player in attack

 

[1990 sharkie]

I think ennis is the most important player in attack

Id go one further and say he is the most important player overall

 

[ben]

Trumped!! I agree.

 

[Bundy Shark]

If it was a yes or no answer you have to say yes, but if you dig a bit more its not as rosy as it might look, imo, just comparing this year to last year is open to conjecture.

We have a better squad than last year with better players so overall you'd think we wouldn't have to tinker with much to look like its better.

If you want to use last year as a comparison we had a tonne of injuries last year with a coach who didn't want the gig, he ended up leaving & we had a rookie coach with minimal experience at the higher level so based off that

a) we haven't improved as much as we should have

or

b) we over achieved last year

Well, everyone would agree we didn't over achieve last year, if getting the spoon is a over achievement, fair enough.........

Next year we will have a better roster than 2014 as well as this year (2015), so again, with the playing talent alone should lean towards us being better with our scoring in 2016.

My main concern is, we are still very much a grind style of play game plan, yes we have added a few different things comparing it to Flano's full last season with us which was 2013 but overall I say we are in for much of the same style next year/ 2016.

Flano always used to say we play to our strengths, we had a squad with better forwards than backs & at the time you couldn't argue with his theory, I am not saying we have the best backline going around in 2015 but imo, its a lot better than 2013 & yet we still play a very similar style of game.

I always gave Flano the benefit of the doubt with the squad he had which hand on heart was a limited squad but this year I wanted & expected more than what we are showing, next year is "D day" for Flano, if we trot out the same or similar game plan/style he will lose me completely, actually based off what we have done this year he sort of has already, I don't have any confidence in him anymore.

 

[apezza]

Whatever people think of Flanno he has played to our strengths this year which is using our dummy half and mobile forwards around the ruck and on fringes.

Considering we have not got a proper set of halves we are going ok. With a bit of luck we could have easily be sitting 4th (though we have also won a few games we shouldn't of so it probably evens out).

One thing i think everyone agrees with is that there are no excuses next year. Baring injuries anything less then top 4 or 5 would be sub par. Not making the 8 would be a fail.