Round 4: TITANS vs TIGERS (2022)

[willhelm]

Gee I would much rather Thompson at fullback. Isaako is not a renowned organiser and he's new to our systems. Surely he'd be better suited on the wing, at least initially.

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Isaako FB and Thompson back thank god. Do we think he'll go straight onto Sami's left wing, or swap Marzhew on the left so Thompson can try fix up that right edge defence?

Herbert is a much better defender than Kelly. I think swapping Marzhew to the left wing would do more harm than good.

[Titslover]

Gee I would much rather Thompson at fullback. Isaako is not a renowned organiser and he's new to our systems. Surely he'd be better suited on the wing, at least initially.

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Herbert is a much better defender than Kelly. I think swapping Marzhew to the left wing would do more harm than good.

That's fair but oppositions have obviously identified our right edge as a major weakness and all the attack is getting thrown at them. It seems to be an issue of communication amongst that whole edge causing the problem. I'd say the Tigers will go into the game with the gameplan of attacking our right so switching Marzhew to the left shouldn't make it get targeted too much.

[JunctionBlock]

This might be embarrassing for us.

[Hail Sezer]

No idea what to expect on Thursday night. We've shown this season in patches we can be a seriously competitive team but we've also shown that we can still give up 22 point leads so there's that.

We should slap the Tigers but we do always have a habit of playing down to crap teams.

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I think they'll stick with Marzhew on the right for continuity but he seriously needs to improve. His work on defence isn't even Qcup standard.

[Titanic]

Thompson is a left wingman so he's in his best position. Isaako has to offer more than JC at this stage by just being a bigger body. He won't be our saviour but he should at least hold his own with a point to prove as well.

Our right edge has been a point of exposure since day dot but are we that different to most other teams in that respect? I don't think so. We are getting schooled through the middle on line speed and aggression ... that's the humungous issue I reckon.

[Hail Sezer]

Thompson is a left wingman so he's in his best position. Isaako has to offer more than JC at this stage by just being a bigger body. He won't be our saviour but he should at least hold his own with a point to prove as well.

Our right edge has been a point of exposure since day dot but are we that different to most other teams in that respect? I don't think so. We are getting schooled through the middle on line speed and aggression ... that's the humungous issue I reckon.

T, do you think some of the middle deficiencies come from JC not properly managing the blind spot behind the ruck & guiding his A defenders into spacing and positioning from the back? I know that we’re losing the contact but I can’t help but notice how confused & frantic they look defending there.

Not saying it’s the sole issue because the personnel are clearly being exposed…but maybe part of it?

[DIEHARD]

Really excited to finally have Thompson back. And Isaako's debut is timely. Some time away for JC is best, especially without being dropped. I have long term faith in him as well. I'd probably prefer Thompson at #1 to have a steady and talkative old hand back there. I'm not too versed in Isaako's ability.

Agree. If we lose to the Tigers, it's massive alarm bells. They are under huge pressure right now.

[willhelm]

T, do you think some of the middle deficiencies come from JC not properly managing the blind spot behind the ruck & guiding his A defenders into spacing and positioning from the back? I know that we’re losing the contact but I can’t help but notice how confused & frantic they look defending there.

Not saying it’s the sole issue because the personnel are clearly being exposed…but maybe part of it?

I don’t think it’s (primarily) JC’s fault. I think it’s our general defensive strategy. Every week, we have negligible line speed and we seem to just wait for them to come to us so we can try to absorb the impact. That may have worked 10 years ago in the peak of the wrestle era when JD was assistant coaching the Bulldogs to grand finals, but it doesn’t work in the 6 again era. We’re just allowing teams too much momentum so they get a roll on through our middle and then fast blokes like Wighton and Starling catch our markers out and cut us to pieces down the edge. Then when one edge has horrible communication (Fifita and Marzhew being the main offenders) we see what happened against the Raiders. I really do not understand why our defensive strategy has not adapted. If the problem is JD being stubborn and resistant to change then the head coach must step in. JH has impressed me in every area but this one.

[Titanic]

HS, I’ve always believed line speed is reflex behavior built in over hours of boring drills. I would agree that JC may not have the experience to tweak the defensive line but it seems to me to be more of a cohesion issue. Worrisome for sure.

[Hail Sezer]

Thanks Wilhelm & T, and yeah I certainly don’t think the broader issue is JC’s fault either - what I’m curious about is situational to do with markers & A defenders when we’ve got opposition running from dummy half or unders lines back at that channel. Fb generally needs to co-ordinate it if it’s moving quick. It compounds and then you’ve got a messy, fatigued and passive D line. Probably should have worded the question a bit better.

In general line speed, intent and winning the ruck is definitely a big problem. Not sure if it’s strategy, execution, personnel or a combination of these.

[lonegull]

Great conversation Wilhelm , T and HS , I think HS last paragraph sums it up well titans never seem to win the battle of the ruck, have a look at the storm and their control with D in the ruck they are a great example of getting their spacing right and the A and B defenders working hard plus they are great at slowing the ruck speed down (they get away with a lot in the wrestle)
You can predict with the titans it was so obvious against the raiders that soon as they started rolling on the centre their was no stopping them, my thoughts are a tweak is needed in how we set our line and spacing around the ruck. And don’t get me started on why the titans defenders are always on their heels, the good teams always have line speed it’s a big deficiency in our team that our defenders are caught planted on their heels it makes it hard then to build line speed and move forward so all of a sudden our defensive line in back peddling giving up easy metres especially on the ruck fringes

[Titslover]

Saw an interesting comment from a Titans fan on reddit the other day that touched on our defence. I'm not going to pretend I know enough about our defensive structures to comment on this, so just putting it here to add to the discussion and see if you guys think this is accurate. Shoutout to ThePokeMonMan on reddit:

Our defensive strategy is that we don’t care how many metres the opposition makes on the run so long as they’re basic hit ups and not attacking plays, because the opposition in theory has less try scoring opportunities that way. it means we always have a set line, but concede metres like crazy, which only works when your backline can defend attacking set plays on the goal line. needless to say we don’t have the squad to be playing like this. its dumb as.

[Titanic]

Good find TitsL :-)

[JunctionBlock]

There were quite a few occasions last week where we had committed three to a tackle and we couldn't get the player on the ground because top and bottom were wrestling against each other. Then the markers don't have time to even get into a position little alone the third bloke who has to get back to A marker, decent quick dummy halfs exposed us every time we did this. Once the roll on up the middle happened we are in chaos until the play goes out to their left and we are caught short again.

As others have said, our defence allowing 70m gains in a set of 6 means we are defending an attacking play at the end of nearly every set. Which can lead to better chances of repeat sets which tires out the same people which leaves the same people exposed.

[Titanic]

Yep JB and that's my pet hate. A firm believer in straight line defence and "they can't run without legs". Nothing wrong with giving away an off-load if there's only one in the tackle and the other defenders are forcing the receiver backward. My other pet hate is that players should fight to get up and play the ball quickly, rather than use the ball to get up. Ancient school, I know.