Last night showed the gulf that exists between coaches like Bellamy, Robinson and Maguire compared to the others....they know how to extract the best from their team as a whole.
One thing I picked up in that game was the fact that we were getting off their players too quickly and therefore unable to stall Melbourne's momentum. We were also making more one on one tackles that sometimes didn't work (Two of their tries came from palming off Todd Carney)
On the other hand, the Storm players were wrapping up our players usually three to a man, turning them turtle almost every time then peeling off the tackled player one at a time. Turning a player onto their back meant that the player took longer to get to their feet and play the ball which gave Storm valuable extra seconds to regroup as a defensive unit and thus kill our momentum in the process.
The second very good tactic was the method of Storm players to charge our defenders, bump out of the tackle, spin around and feed the ball to the man waiting behind them. This style of offload was less risky than the Tupou/Feliti Mateo/Gallen style of offload and ensured that for every set or six 'tackles' the Sharks had, the Storm had seven or eight 'tackles' to complete theirs.
Did anyone else notice that after we scored our solo try, while there was only a minute to go...it took Cameron Smith 30 seconds to walk slowly back to the kickoff and yet the ref did not hurry things up or stop the clock...? It is like the refs are in awe of the big three and don't question their actions.[/QUOTE
We have seldom dominated the ruck area over the last few years all the top teams put 3 nto a tackle and role the player on his back and peel off thetacled player as slow as they can and will test the ref as long as poss
In attack our oppo very seldom are roled on thier back they go on thier knees
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Result we have slow play the ball and opposition on thier knees have a much faster play the ball Melbourne /Manly/ Dogs Chooks and dragqueens very good at it
Top teams consistantly work on getting all the little things right. We have backs who run up in defence miss a tackle (Pom) and leave big gaps
We very seldom work at repeat sets of 6, our kickng behInd the line not up to speed and most of our attack set up is left to Tod easy to read if we have minmal options We need a half and maybe a hooker who can help with this.
As a team we do not appear to be at the cuttng edge of any tactics and often very conservative
Bogga
