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Message: [QUOTE="Thelmus, post: 2921009, member: 8988"] From what I saw on Friday, bird working hard in tackles as a lock will be the least of our problems. what we need is direction and control. Maguire plays like a front rower now. The only difference is he wears a 13 and plays more minutes. He tries to be a pivot in the twenty but his offload and capacity to read attack limit his effectiveness. whilst having one less front rower might limit the capacity of initial go forward. right now that job is to compensate for the limited effectiveness of the front rowers we have. They just have to get better. Bennet has never been one to compensate a weakness at the expense of a strength. I don't know when it was decided that the limitations of creativity were subservient to field position but that kind of thinking has to stop. The Broncos that won premierships did not let being stuck even in their own twenty an excuse to give away a shot at breaking the line. Many a time balls were spread across the field to break down defences. It's the kind of thinking that is missing now. We simply don't have the skills or confidence to do so, but that doesn't mean we need to settle for the kind of play a Melbourne might do. They do so because of their forward pack and it suits limited creativity of outside backs. We should be looking to our strengths. How many times do we really mention their centres' passing skills? never. It all comes from their spine. we have creative players. we have fast players like Roberts, We have skilful second rowers. A player like Bird if he can handle the defensive load will add to that but only if our whole mindset changes in the attitude and way we play. It starts by working to a plan. Adhoc play of lockyer, walters etc. worked because it was built upon direction. knowing when kicks happened. Knowing who was kicking and knowing where it was kicked. The line stood deep at times in the oppositions half and even in their own because both halves saw and knew of a weakness. Do ours even talk? Milford plays his role. Knik does his. Do either know what the other is doing at the end of sets. How do they help each other? What of our other backs. They seem to follow a familiar set of roles, but do they know if a plan changes? If they talk, then they should know how to back each other. be there when forwards are breathing down their partner's necks. Centres knowing when milf runs and backing him. wingers too. To me, these things are both easy to fix (in the sense that it just requires players to communicate) but also damn hard because it requires sometimes a level of trust. A centre support milf on a run might not be in position if it goes south and the opposition gets it. Its then the wingers, knowing what happens react accordingly. In short, all this starts with knowing at a start of a set what you aim to achieve. You're in your twenty, but the opposition is fresher than you. do you charge it up for 5 tackles, and kick it dead, or throw it wide, knowing there's a weakness with one their backs hurt? The decision depends on a number of factors: whos leading, by how much, time remaining etc. and you can pick the right plan and still end up with egg on your face if a pass is dropped or the kick comes off badly. But simply playing one up rucks, with the opposition expecting it and belting a poor kick down their most creative player's throats with room to move might not cut it (our current plan). Sometime it will be right (if the kick is good), but not always. [/QUOTE]

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