Game day strategies, a different view. Without scrutinising our players abilities, like to throw up the following points for a candid discussion. I am of the belief that we did not play to our advantages, as well as we should of. Also found that the set plays executed by sydney showed what we can expect when our squad is well drilled and experienced.
1) With hartlet and austin in the squad, did we play too tall? Happy to see these kids playing, but did we play them with a strategy in mind. Could it be that hartlet was to play at CHF, austin at CHB, walker on O'Keefe and waite along the wing, what about fisher? Did we consider sydneys smalls? What about the likes of buchanan and bevan etc drifting forward, should have we left anderson or browne in the squad?. If our intention was to isolate our talls in the forward line, thats fine, but I don't think it worked. Our forwards seem to cluster around the 50mtr line, in particular when there is a stopage around center wing. Sydney rely on sides creating their own clusters, it helps their defenders bring the ball down, with the confidence they can win the contested ball.
2) With the ommission of browne and anderson, we lost some of our flexibility. We couldn't realy mix up our forward structure by adding a small forward, nor could we tag a dangerous forward in our defensive 50. A problem exagerated when stevens was sitting on the last line of the defence, for a good part of the fourth quarter. Once they exposed carazzo in the back half, we were left with scotland and stevens. Both running from deep in our defensive 50. An important foot note, is how fisher became our go to player from defence. A strategy by the swans to ensure both scotland and stevens were too busy with their direct opponents, that fisher was the only option. By the way, their strategy was helped by the absence of walker in the last quarter. We really need to help anderson and others to become great runwith negating players, only then will that assist our forwards, by releasing stevens and co further up the ground.
3) As mentioned earlier, set plays are a key plan with sydney. The very reason they play with two strong tall rucks. They may not be as mobile as cox, but they serve the exact purpose that paul roos has developed. Try as we may, if the ball is tapped into the right position along with the right block, not only do you win the clearance but also set up a play with accurancy. Should we have pushed another ruckman instead of either hartlet or austin? Is jacobs ready to step up as our bigbodied ruckman to help in this area? Whatever the correct solution, I am sure this is a high priortiy in the minds of our match committee. From my own view point, I would be pushing jacobs into the squad, and either leaving kruiser as our full forward/ruck whilst cloke develops as a tall defender. Very difficult to mend without making some significant changes.
I know its very easy behind a keyboard, and I'm sure the MC are aware of the mountain they need to climb to resecure our position as a top four club. Paul Roos has shown that if your club is built on fundamental techniques and strategies, the name of the player makes little difference, its how determined they are to fullfilling the strategies implemented by the coach.
Go Blues.
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