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Message: [QUOTE="rnabokov, post: 3240613, member: 1847"] My take on this is a bit different, and a lot of what I am saying has been posted often. I reckon Kevvie does coach structures, shapes, and defence etc.. It's just that the side isn't within cooee yet of having the confidence and thus composure under pressure to implement what he coaches. I don't think the players are dumb, it's just that they do dumb things as soon as consistent pressure is applied either by a well organised, rushing defence or swiftly executed, well organised attack. This explains why we did well against the Dogs, who like us can't apply or respond to consistent pressure. However we simply can't handle the pressure against the better teams like Souths last night. The players panic, bunch, make poor decisions, structures fall apart, execution goes to shit, and then the players hang their heads after the confidence is bashed out of them. It's largely the same as last year. This side is simply too raw and inexperienced yet to handle what the top side dish out - top sides who largely have settled rosters with a quality spine and good kicking games. A few stars don't hurt their chances either. Mitchell last night terrorised us. Reynolds led Souths really well. They played the new rules to perfection, as will the Panthers next week. When Souths applied the blowtorch in defence, cutting down our time to react and execute our attacking shapes, that was it. We lost all composure. Those young kids simply panicked when a wave of slick fast and well executed attack was launched at them. Our edges lost shape, players were too slow to react and tries were easily let in. There's no fix for this other than the side staying together and just focusing on doing the basics as well as can be. Keeping the side settled will go a long way to help the process. The poor recruitment over the years is really really exposing us. I also don't think this can be blamed on any one player, and, what is bloody obvious as we all know, is that we have no proper leadership out there to help the kids keep it together, and last night they just lost it, as they will again next week. BUT, what I did see last night was a definite improvement in our middle defence. In patches, we actually rushed the attack and we pressured them and their plays broke down. This year is going to be a long, slow painful process of learning to handle pressure, maintaining composure and then slowly we will see things improve. However, with only 1 genuinely experienced playmaker and no genuine captain, it's going to take a long time. [/QUOTE]

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