Our defence

[Gumby]

Our defence is round 1 was terrible IMO.

Massive improvement though last week. Our goal one defence was bloody brilliant

 

[Capital_Shark]

Our defence is round 1 was terrible IMO.

Tough marker. We had no ball. Last yr we concede 30.

 

[bort]

Selects Dale Finucane in the team

Playing Finucane and McInnes is a great way to improve teams defence

 

[bort]

Tough marker. We had no ball. Last yr we concede 30.

And raiders actually played fairly well I thought. Much better than they did this week (no Schneider, no Cotric)

 

[BurgoShark]

Playing Finucane and McInnes is a great way to improve teams defence

Yup. Agreed. Fitz did an amazing job signing both of those guys . Good coaching.

 

[Sir Chadley]

Playing Finucane and McInnes is a great way to improve teams defence

Yup. Agreed. Fitz did an amazing job signing both of those guys . Good coaching.

I get it that we’ve signed two excellent defenders but let’s say we had them through the Morris era. Would our defence have been better or is it Fitz’s structures that are doing the job? Essentially what is the difference between the defence of Coach Morris and Coach Fitzgibbon?

 

[MMsharks]

going needs more games to make a call our defence. and what the fitz factor is like, too early. we know he is defence orientated. Wado spoke specifically about the defence on NRL 360, but I wasn't listening at the time with distractions around me

 

[Tiger Shark]

going needs more games to make a call our defence. and what the fitz factor is like, too early. we know he is defence orientated. Wado spoke specifically about the defence on NRL 360, but I wasn't listening at the time with distractions around me

Mate you can tell the difference after these two games easily. Line speed is vastly improved. You can tell when they’re shifting they’re working as more of a collective and they’re spacing is really consistent.

Can only imagine how much better it’ll be in 5 or 6 weeks when McInness is less rusty and him and the overall defence is more in sync.

 

[Wiz]

I get it that we’ve signed two excellent defenders but let’s say we had them through the Morris era. Would our defence have been better or is it Fitz’s structures that are doing the job? Essentially what is the difference between the defence of Coach Morris and Coach Fitzgibbon?

Under Fitz we havent seen the players fold or crumble under pressure and it looks like they’re taking it much more personal about letting teams score tries. Sometimes it’s about the the coach getting the players to play for something bigger then themselves and some coach’s do that really good.

The team seems heaps more aggressive in attacking with defence

Last year I reckon we lose both games

 

[Shortfin Mako]

Last year I reckon we lose both games

By a margin too. Last year, all the teams had to do was to be around our 20-30m line to score. It was very rare that they returned empty handed.

 

[bort]

As it stands right now we have second most missed tackles and most ineffective tackles and we have played two probably mid-table teams.

But we have a substantial lead on most line breaks (14 next best is 10) and also lead tackle breaks.

So our defence is still **** but our offence is better?

 

[BurgoShark]

I get it that we’ve signed two excellent defenders but let’s say we had them through the Morris era. Would our defence have been better or is it Fitz’s structures that are doing the job? Essentially what is the difference between the defence of Coach Morris and Coach Fitzgibbon?

The team was decent defensively under Morris in 2019. Just couldn't ever get the spine all healthy at the same time so struggled to score points/maintain pressure.

Remember, the best way to prevent points is to have the ball at the other end.

 

[MMsharks]

Mate you can tell the difference after these two games easily. Line speed is vastly improved. You can tell when they’re shifting they’re working as more of a collective and they’re spacing is really consistent.

Can only imagine how much better it’ll be in 5 or 6 weeks when McInness is less rusty and him and the overall defence is more in sync.

100% yeah i did see it in the parra game, but I'm a few more games type person...need to see it more then I will say that!!! LOL

watching with interest....too many years have I been disappointed.

 

[Sevshark]

I get it that we’ve signed two excellent defenders but let’s say we had them through the Morris era. Would our defence have been better or is it Fitz’s structures that are doing the job? Essentially what is the difference between the defence of Coach Morris and Coach Fitzgibbon?

Finucane alone completely changes our line-speed

 

[GF78]

I recall an early Coach Morris press conference where Morris stated he didn’t want the sharks to be known as a gritty, drag em down into a scrap, type footy team - he wanted a side that had attacking flair etc etc etc.

I recall shuddering.

Sarks attack did improve, but our defensive DNA was lost for a couple of seasons.

Early doors, but the pendulum seems to have swung back to getting defense right first - I thought Sharks defense first 2 rounds was immense, particularly with the the amount of early possession Raiders & Eels had - both pretty handy attacking sides.

Up Up,,

 

[HaroldBishop]

I'm predicting next year we'll be using this thread for our title defence.

In Fitz we trust!

 

[snowman]

our missed tackles are alarming, but is anyone nervous about conceding on our line? we hardly crack and our scramble is incredible

once we have our pigs back fit and healthy we will be a tough, rugged team, i honestly cant wait for some testing games

 

[Gards]

One of your best, Gards

Spot on bro

Manly put points on us early season and Storm annihilated us in final round

..So basically nailed it



As for our defense in 2022 I have been impressed by how quickly it has improved as just because Fitz got it done at Roosters didn't mean it was going to translate at the Sharks or it may have taken many months to implement. But in 2 weeks we already look noticeably better and my confidence in the team has increased quickly.

Better player spacing (as mentioned), far less holes in our line - up field and in our 10m. Assume better comms is part of this along with having a more consistent or unified line (less retreating). More aggression and desire, players willing to do the tough stuff to stay in a game or swing it back to us. We gave up or took the easy way out alot under Morris/Hannay . We conceded alot of weak soft trys in those years as well.

Better players / more cap space helps but I think that is just small part of the reason at present
Some players arguably toxic to a hard working gritty winning culture have moved on (SJ, Woods ect.)

Raiders & Eels would have put 2-3 times more points on us in previous seasons

 

[BurgoShark]

our missed tackles are alarming, but is anyone nervous about conceding on our line? we hardly crack and our scramble is incredible

once we have our pigs back fit and healthy we will be a tough, rugged team, i honestly cant wait for some testing games

I am nervous about Hynes and Nikora. The rest of them have been good.

 

[egg]

As it stands right now we have second most missed tackles and most ineffective tackles and we have played two probably mid-table teams.

But we have a substantial lead on most line breaks (14 next best is 10) and also lead tackle breaks.

So our defence is still **** but our offence is better?

Do you know what % we had the ball both games ?
I wonder if we also had the 2nd least time with ball in hand too
Obviously you'd think if a team averaged 70 % with the ball their missed tackles would be low.