Official William Kennedy

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Seenoevil said:
Hi and thank you for replying and educating me , I do see more now, in terms of how the fullback needs to function and a better awareness of what Will does or doesn't do.
Your second paragraph , where you referenced last year, made me think of what I perceived to be true, that this year he seems to be playing slightly different on offence ( like prior to his send off ) , last year he seemed to be more jet sweeping , what I call it anyways, where he chimes in outside the 5/8th, idk, again that may be my perception.
I know the general concensus is on this esteemed platform of able men of culture is Will is the man, I am okay with that

As for examples, well only from say last game , where , and I will confess cannot remember the Warriors player who scored, but Will was right there on the goal line, and the ptb happened and the Warriors player just scooted thru, I just thought Will could've maybe got under the ball to hold him up, but yours and other replies, lead me to conclude, there is a lot happening in split seconds, and so Will might have a solid reason not to stop that score.
Thanks again for replying
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Potentially he was 'correctly' focused on something else* and that was taken advantage of, or he may have just ****ed up. He's certainly far from infallible.

For every player who runs through our fullback and we say 'our fullback should have been able to stop that' we watch someone like BHU trample the opposition fullback and don't bat an eyelid
But for the opposition that is the try a player should have been able to stop, and their try past our fullback was deserved.

*perhaps we had identified in that circumstance/field position they are more likely to do X or Y than run or something
 
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FYI I edited in another sentence about the value of the trail fullback, for anyone who got any value from that post

Capital_Shark said:
He's returning the ball with some gusto for a bloke who doesn't like the physical stuff
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He's been good at it lately - think he lacks the strength and physicality to make an impact as a tryline defender too much right now (12 other blokes suck at that too) but hasn't been shying away from contact like he did a bit previously and has certainly thrown his body into a few good straight runs.

Like the two different fullback tryline defence styles having a hard straight run that can challenge tacklers as well as agility to move around keeps them guessing what is coming at them. Hard to set yourself for a big hit if there is a very good chance the guy is going to step around, but if you think he's coming right at you then you may plant your feet and be beaten by agility.

It's the same for kicks offs - everyone always loves a good successful off the back fence hitup but how often does the first contact get bounced away, the runner loses all momentum and then two or three other blokes who were crowding in dominate them in a tackle because all force from the run went into the initial contact. Put some movement in, catch them off guard, make contact where they don't expect it trying to get quick PTB and then next time you keep it straight the defence won't be as set or as bunched and you're more likely to find success.
 
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Seenoevil

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bort said:
Potentially he was 'correctly' focused on something else* and that was taken advantage of, or he may have just ****ed up. He's certainly far from infallible.

For every player who runs through our fullback and we say 'our fullback should have been able to stop that' we watch someone like BHU trample the opposition fullback and don't bat an eyelid
But for the opposition that is the try a player should have been able to stop, and their try past our fullback was deserved.

*perhaps we had identified in that circumstance/field position they are more likely to do X or Y than run or something
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Too true everything you said. I am guessing that each and every failure is a learning curve, better next time. Taking your point about maybe some preconceived perception as what might happen. I think the team as a whole needs more confidence in that red zone on defence. Like one success will breed another and allow them to be their best versions of what they can be.
 
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Sparkles said:
Not saying he's not willing to take it up, just that he inevitibly gets folded, dragged and bashed into the ground more times than not.
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As I said earlier, I'm more critical of his inability to hold up players over the line or get under the ball. More often than not he doesn't even get close. Really needs to work on strength in the off season.

That's the only part of his game I'm critical of but it does need to improve.
 
Proud Shark

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HaroldBishop said:
As I said earlier, I'm more critical of his inability to hold up players over the line or get under the ball. More often than not he doesn't even get close. Really needs to work on strength in the off season.

That's the only part of his game I'm critical of but it does need to improve.
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To be fair, even this is an improvement on him not being in the right position/even getting contact last year. It would be ideal if he could get even to 50% of someone like gutho in this area though
 
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Proud Shark said:
To be fair, even this is an improvement on him not being in the right position/even getting contact last year. It would be ideal if he could get even to 50% of someone like gutho in this area though
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Yeah true.

And there's no way I'd expect him to be as good as Gutho in that area, as much as I hate the sook he is the king of one percenters, super impressive.
 
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It's gonna be a didgy party this weekend with Brayden and Will reunited. Even Ramien will have a blinder. Welcome to the future.
 
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bort said:
My understanding is there are two general methods of fullback defending a backline play against your tryline

We'll call them spread and trail, not sure those are the best names necessarily, or names an NRL team would use

Spread: fullback expects your defensive system to leave the opposition winger unmarked, that is his man. This is created because the opp fullback also is involved in the play, they may be defended by your centre or winger, leaving a opposition winger open.
Your fullback busts arse along the line to get to his man. Then often shoulder charges him because that seems to be allowed in that circumstance most of the time.

Trail: fullback tracks the ball more at a 'slower' pace, he is watching for a kick or pass back inside to adjust for, or to be a second/third man into a straightened runner to help hold them up. Because he is working to protect against a straighter play, or play back on the inside, he gets to the unmarked winger slower. (edit: this method protects on the inside which gives your line more confidence to slide ("If I get caught flat footed by runner our FB will be there straight away to help") and forces teams to make more high speed passes which can cause errors)

Of course a fullback can always mix and match these choices, especially if he has the pace off the mark to switch from trail into cover with the right visual cue/read. To be able to effectively do this midplay though is really top top acceleration - your brighteyes probably has it.

We seem to prefer to use trail a lot of the time, Will unfortunately not great at assisting with holding up but I do think he is getting better. Also not great at using his weight against decent sized wingers so no particular reason that system would work better.

Runners like Nikora destroy spread fullbacks because they can't react in time to the runner angled back in. Even when he scored on the weekend CNK got a lot on him but Nikora caught him just off balance enough he fought through it.
Teams with good clean spread (which we also have thanks to Will and Moylan in particular, and Talakai tap ons) will often go around trail fullbacks and put the winger in.
Being able to threaten the spread or the straight/unders runner at a high level gets the fullback second guessing and being able to read what they do and make the correct pass lets you beat them. We are excellent at that - good teams just don't let us do it as much as we want to.

You may also see a team play short two or three times then spread it and score and some people might complain why did we waste time going short when we can obviously score out wide? Well we have suckered the fullback into expecting trail is needed with the intention to switch our point of attack on him - it was easy to score out wide because we went short those first few times.
Or vs Warriors if I remember order of things correctly they managed to use spread defence to stop both Ronnie and Sione scoring but then Nikora back on the inside worked, cutting through line and catching CNK off balance.

Will is definitely not a significant physical threat but his ball playing and reading of cues to make offensive decisions is very high level.
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Good assessment, Kennedy definitely a Trail defender but imo with our horrible edge defenders he should be a spread defender and an extreme one at that, big coaching fail from Fitz imo
 
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@bort re: spread v trail, I’d say the spread method is more likely to be used when the opposition is a little farther out, and/or when the defence has good line speed.

There is no point in the fb taking the winger if there is a quick ptb 1m out. He won’t get there in time. If they play it 15 out and the winger has to run 20-25 to score, the fb has a chance.

If/when the 3 edge defenders jam in, it’s the half’s job to continue around to cover the winger once the ball has gone. That’s why having the attacking ball player dig deep in to the line is so important. If he passes too early the defending half just peels off and runs at the corner post to cover whatever happens there.

It’s also why inside pressure from the 4 or 5 in defender is so important. Inside pressure causes an earlier pass, and releases your 3 edge defenders so that they can number up.

I’d say most fullbacks do a combo of what you have described, depending on field position and situation.
 
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BurgoShark said:
@bort re: spread v trail, I’d say the spread method is more likely to be used when the opposition is a little farther out, and/or when the defence has good line speed.

There is no point in the fb taking the winger if there is a quick ptb 1m out. He won’t get there in time. If they play it 15 out and the winger has to run 20-25 to score, the fb has a chance.

If/when the 3 edge defenders jam in, it’s the half’s job to continue around to cover the winger once the ball has gone. That’s why having the attacking ball player dig deep in to the line is so important. If he passes too early the defending half just peels off and runs at the corner post to cover whatever happens there.

It’s also why inside pressure from the 4 or 5 in defender is so important. Inside pressure causes an earlier pass, and releases your 3 edge defenders so that they can number up.

I’d say most fullbacks do a combo of what you have described, depending on field position and situation.
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True, right on the line or near enough to often see them defending in line which helps lock in trail as only real option
 
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Good guy kennedy
Didn’t wanna mask how bad we’d been by rescuing a win
 
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