Know your strengths and play to it. Champion teams know their strength and they utilise it. That is the lesson we must take from our embarrassing loss to the Roosters.
I am not sure if I was more angry or disappointed watching the game last Thursday. My take from the game is that we were defeated before we went onto the field.
I am a supporter and nothing more. I do not pretend to understand the finer details in game plans but to me it looked like one of two things occurred in the lead up to that game because the way our team went about playing I did not recognise at all.
I very much know what we look like when we play well. Our squad has been put together to focus on forward dominance. It is our strength and when our forwards run together and get good offloads it brings Mahoney and Gutho into the game.
Mitch Moses
In a game in which we did not have our most important attacking spark in Moses, why on earth we decided to pass the ball around from side to side and thereby take our forwards and Mahoney out of the game is bewildering.
Of course I cannot say if it was the game plan or what the players decided to do on the field but I can’t help but think that those involved in putting together our game plan, both players and coaches, may have been influenced by outside noise.
I could be completely wrong but the only important thing to take out of this past game is to work out why we went away from our strength and tried to play a game style that does not sit well with our squad construction.
This week we face the Rabbitohs and it will be a moment of truth for our team. I am not even talking about the outcome of the game but more so it will tell me if our team has lost the belief in their game style. If that is the case the season may as well be over.
That is why I can not really say if the last game against the Roosters will end up being a blessing in disguise or the start of our demise for the year.
We know the Rabbitohs love to attack so we need to play with patience, kick long to the corners, chase well, make them work in the middle of the field in defence, especially Cook and Murray as I still think they are the most important players for them.
We also know that the Rabbitohs will try to play to their strength but will we give ourselves a chance to play to ours? I hope so!
This team has been built over years and earned my respect. Maybe that’s why I was so disappointed by the loss of faith in our game style and team strengths which seemed evident last Thursday night. The frustration displayed on the field by some of our leaders was echoed in my house.
I have not lost hope in this team. That said, it’s important that the team haven’t lost hope or faith either.
Better times like this please
There’s no need for our players to prove anyone wrong. They simply need to go out and play as a team, play our style of footy, back it. and have fun. We may not have the attacking strength of the Rabbitohs but they don’t have our forward strength.
So it really is over to our entire team, coaches and players alike to decide their future and that means ignoring all the noise including what is said by critics, and even good-intentioned supporters like me.
It shouldn’t really matter what any of us say about the team.
If it does, that may well be the biggest problem of all.
Shelley
Hey Shelley
Yes it shouldn’t matter what the fans say but they can say some awful things. So many people calling to sack BA but I give him the benefit of the doubt that he gives them the game plan but the players panic if it doesn’t work straight away. BA can only do so much he can’t play the game, we have the team to play finals footy they just need to get their belief back
I will be honest enough to say that I was upset with what was our apparent game plan last week. If that was not the game plan set out by the coaches and worked on in training and players went rogue from the very first set then we have problems. Either way it is not good and some honest conversations must be had inside the four walls of the team. At this point in time I am a little confused as I really still don’t know what to take from last week but it was not good. Like many I have sat through much bigger defeats when we have been absolutely punished on the scoreboard but last week I was just confused and could not believe what they were doing and how they ever thought it would work both in that game or over the remainder of the season.
I support BA but he must be honest enough as the coach to work out what went wrong last week and fix it, either by making players accountable for their inability to do their job and follow the game plan or reflecting on how the game plan was put together. That is his job and like anyone he must be accountable for doing it. He has given me no reason to doubt that he will not be honest in his appraisal but only time will tell. Coaching Parra is high pressure and he and the players leadership group need to show that they can block out outside noise because last week made me doubt that.
On Friday I need to see us get back to playing our style. It may not work this week but it absolutely could come finals. Playing the Harlem Globetrotter style we tried last week certainly wont work, not with our squad.
No doubting the Rabbits attack is pretty to watch when they are on, so we are really going to be tested on our edges. I thought our edge defence was actually pretty good last week, up until the Waqa HIA and then the Fergo injury, then we had to play forwards in the backs and shuffle around and things went pear shaped.
One thing about the Bunnies, as good as they look when they are on, they can also be pretty woeful defensively. This will be the perfect opportunity (provided Moses plays) for the team to show the fans they can actually attack like an NRL team and put some points on the board. After the last 2 sub par performances – and I’m laying the blame at nearly every player other than Papali’i – they really need to stand up and show us something heading into the finals or we will rightfully be called nothing but cannon fodder for the top teams.
I love this team and I really think BA has done a great job. But when I see bickering on the field amongst the players and spraying of others…. that’s not good. I think Gutho is under too much pressure and he’s not handling it. BA has to get the guys enjoying their football again. Because when they enjoy it we see great results. The boys are looking disjointed.
I hope I’m Wrong but I can’t see the team that played the Roosters troubling Souths…We need to turn up as The Parramatta Eels to beat Souths.
On another note…We need to throw the cheque book at Takeahou. He’s looking at going to UK next year. He is 29 and a forward leader a premiership winner. We need him for 2022.
Good point Pete about the bickering, albeit one example but it did not look that good to be honest and assume it has been sorted.
Yes BA has done a great job, and he will be judged like the team on how we end the season.
I keep coming back to us being a real top 4 team or not…..and I am not confident we are this at the moment.
We need to be hardened across the park, so if a key player is out that we continue on….I looked at how Easts played and they have a few players out, and they rolled on, and yes they have had some games during the season.
For me our season is definitely on the line over the next few weeks and we have not done ourselves any favours with some poor games.
I thought the game was decided by team selections. There is no way Jake should have been there. This week Dunster needs to be selected over Sivo. His form for the past few weeks has been miserable. BA must make players accountable and that means dropping them if bad form persists. If Moses is not there and Brad selects Jake again we are simply asking for another defeat. Without RCG I would love to see Makatoa given a run. He has been super impressive in reserve grade and his stats don’t lie.
Just my thoughts as a longish life time supporter.
I was on the record last week as saying I did not want to see Jake in the team and it really had nothing to do with his skills or ability. To me team selection should be about who can come in and do the job needed with as little disruption to the way the team plays as possible. That is what makes Melbourne so great, even with team changes forced through injury they play the same style.
It was obvious to me that Jake as a young footballer at the moment does not play in the same style as Moses, does not bring the same style to the game, he does not have a long kicking game and therefore it disrupts the team style too much. If we have a team that has to completely change its style because one players is out then we have not put together a good roster and that is a truth we must be willing to accept and deal with otherwise we will only ever win a competition with no injuries and that is so rare.
Agreed Shelley, and I guess did we even see Moses play NRL as an 18 yr old? think this answers a few questions. After JA played his first game we all or most said he did well, but the NRL is not easy and yes in hindsight he should / could have been left out, with W Smith or someone else taking the spot. The team still made errors / did not win the ruck etc. let alone the team not gelling too well.
The complete lack of mention of Jake Arthur is pretty telling. The unicorns that run this site have really swallowed the BA spin. The bloke has done well in making us a top 4 team (oops, I mean top 6!) but our late season regression to the mean and our complete capitulation in both the finals and high stakes games cannot be overlooked anymore!
Also: if the Souths game is a moment of truth, then what on earth were the Raiders and Roosters games? Warm ups? Fake news? Not important?
We had our moment of truth against a top 8 hopeful, who showed more starch in defense and desire than we did, and another top 6 contender, who toweled us up pathetically despite them missing 15 players to long term injuries!
Other teams are sharpening their knives for the finals, while all we do is sharpen our excuses for our inevitable collapse!
Oh, b-b-b-but we lost RCG! Poor Waqa had a head knock! Moses was out!
The other contenders all have excuses like these they could use, but they don’t. They get on with the job and win games even without their big players. The Storm and the Roosters make us look like amateurs when we can’t perform without one player, while they perform without many.
Mate i feel your pain…maybe go back and read some other stories on this site about players etc, and yes the site does not go about defaming players, but making some constructive points.
But each to their own Anon, and you have some valid points.