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Message: [QUOTE="BroncsFan, post: 3125828, member: 9052"] I think at the moment the covid break has not been great for us and the rule changes may be detrimental to the make up of our forwards (the middles in particular). We seem to be gassed very quickly or potentially the boys are just dropping their heads the second they concede a try (we're spending that much time behind the tryline that they're getting 2min breaks every 5mins)... so I'm wondering if they did actually come back from the break in decent fitness?? Speed through the middle doesn't seem to be agreeing with at least Flegler and Offa as well... would need to wait on Lodge when he gets fitness up and also Kennedy as he hasn't been getting many minutes to judge him on. Haas is still getting through a mountain of work, but he's not an enforcer... which is fine because he's young and his focus should be about not missing tackles and not making errors. We can't also burden him with being the aggressor for the pack. However, it seems in the current climate you need your middle forwards to be leading your defensive line speed and looking to intimidate the opposition, because you need to be forcing errors or restricting meters through your defence... you can no longer rely on the ref for relieving penalties so it becomes all about winning field position without needing penalties and that's all about who wins the middle of the field We looked no chance of forcing an error against the roosters last night and instead they were being aggressive against our defensive line through their running. Unfortunately we haven't had line speed in our defensive line for about 10 years and as soon as our team tried to lock them in their half they got penalised. For opposition teams it seems to be the hooker or a smaller mobile middle that is leading the defensive line speed... Mahoney, Smith, Radley, Murray, etc. For our team Carrigan seems the man that leads the line, but he looks like he needs a bit more endurance to be able to keep that effort up all game, and he also needs a bit of support from his fellow forwards. Turpin also does a good job of line speed... and dare I say it but Macca did as well, but usually only when his position was under pressure. My fear at the moment is our middle forwards and our defence is not suited to this new style... and it's likely we spent the offseason adapting our game to the previous strategy of the last decade (wrestling to slow down the ruck and tactical penalties) only for the administration to decide on changing it. I can't really see how we can overhaul our entire defence and get up to speed with what appears to be a significant change in gameplay without an offseason to prepare properly. Older teams may adapt better with the more experienced forwards knowing their roles and capabilities better, but a bunch of young guys who just spent an offseason getting up to speed with one strategy having to flip that on it's head for a new strategy will be tough in the middle of a season. It becomes even worse when we weren't a good wrestling team in the first place and the use of tactical penalties has been outlawed overnight... wrestling and first contact are now the most important aspect of defence. You have to get them on their back and your guys into position (defensive 10m and markers) efficiently otherwise you concede quick ptb, lose the ruck, lose the middle and lose all possession and field position [/QUOTE]

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