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Message: [QUOTE="McHunt, post: 3014291, member: 9853"] As coach, I would start off making one major change that's overdue. It's the player who passes the ball more than twice as often as the Halfback. Five Eighth and Fullback combined. He's head of the engine room, yet is so inept at passing he propels the ball end over end. He literally can't pass a football properly. He's not holding it right. He's not injecting force at the correct vector. So his passes don't travel with any momentum. They arrive late, just before the defence. He lobs like your sister. On paper, Macca looks fine: tops the tackle count for the competition. Makes few errors. Plays eighty minutes. Great guy. Everyone loves him. Looks like he should be captain. On the field, however, he's killing the attack cold. We're starved of possession. And we're having to tackle more. Let's worry about the AMOUNT we're having to tackle before we jump to conclusions about needing to tackle better. Our guys know how to tackle. Macca has to be dropped altogether. Sent back to the QLD cup with the remit to learn to pass. Let's see how that works out. Meanwhile, the other glaring issue is the Captain. He's neither leading, directing the play, nor carrying out the duties of a Fullback. But unlike Macca, he does have all the skills and has been a genuinely great player in the past, at a rep level. There is no obvious replacement to lead the team. We need to wedge him into whatever position we can in the short term. But he has to move from Fullback. My radical suggestion would be to move Boyd into the Dummy Half role, where he's closer to the action and might be capable of directing the play. That might even solve the problem of neither Half being able to plan or direct plays. If he's not up to the defensive requirements, then I'm afraid he, too, might be surplus to requirements. We can't afford to play retirement home forever. The rest of the team, in my opinion, has upside. Even Isaako who's had serial shockers this season. Having seen the team transform into worldbeaters in the few games Macca missed last season, I'm very confident we'll improve without him. Whether Boyd can fill his boots, less so. In the event Boyd embarrasses himself further, I'd be inclined to swap him with Bird, mid game if need be. If that experiment improves the team, then we look at a proper long term hooker replacement. One who can lead a team around the park. Otherwise, we're going to have to juggle Niko and one of the many youngsters, none of whom appear to be ready. [/QUOTE]

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