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Message: [QUOTE="AceAv, post: 2697456, member: 8600"] Are they genuine injuries or just niggles? Either way it's not what you want to hear going into the biggest game for our later season. Will need a few days to know who's 100% but I think Bennett will want to be using a good bench to ensure next week doesn't flatten our key players carrying injuries. 6 day turn around to face the bunnies who were very physical against the cows. Here's a hypothetical: what if Bennett decides to rest our first grade and we drop the roosters bunnies game and come out firing against the storm? Worst case scenario we finish in the top 4 and are fresh for the finals, but sounds like a crazy plan still!.. Hopefully the eels come out and bash into the roosters so we are on level terms with their players regarding fatigue and injuries.. Back to tonight's game and the defensive strategy we have been executing: - I just watched the cows game and they are doing the opposite when it comes to giving meters. Almost every time they rushed up to hold the bunnies in the zone, they copped a penalty which cost them dearly on almost every occasion. The way the ref's police that aggression is very strict, so not only are you needing to be extremely disciplined when rushing up, your also burning a lot of energy constantly charging in and then rushing back the 10. But if one member gives a penalty away it's devastating to the strategy and you end up compounding fatigue by suddenly needing to defend on your line. Bennett's strategy I understand was discussed in another thread and it goes into detail about us giving 45-65 meters to the opposition and backing our defence when they get into an attacking 5th tackle play. We conserve a lot of stamina & (ideally) end up with the ball more often and then rely on our halves and backs to create opportunities for us to either get repeat sets or score points. - Or at the very least; hold onto it longer so they end up defending more.. The way we've managed to out last our opponents on stamina /endurance has been a real noticeable point this year. Roosters and Cowboys have had a lot of games where they clock off and let the opponents back in and I feel it's mainly due to all the energy they burn trying to prevent the opposition getting a roll on. While our strategy has worked a lot for us against the "shitter teams". I do remain concerned that we will need to bring a new level of energy into the finals games and take full advantage of the risks that the other teams take when they go for the 'rush up in defence' style of play. We play a very simple brand of footy and I really appreciate it. But would hate to be fan of a team that's constantly penalised and ends up letting the opposition get cheap meters and cheaper tries because they know that they can just pull wins out from behind worst case scenario. Manly and Roosters have been this sort of team for some time now and I can see the anxiety they out their fans and coach through every week. Sorry for the long post, stuck at an airport atm in Ireland ;) TL;DR? - Hope we are fresh next week and compound a new level to our game to prevent the cheap meters. [/QUOTE]

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