Re: Out of the 8, second year in a row
Not a Hook "supporter", but I can't agree with that at all.
It made it harder than it needed to be, but coaching didnt lose us that game against the sharks. coaching didnt lose us the game against the roosters. coaching didnt lose us the titans match. coaching didnt lose us the roosters match. coaching didnt lose us the panthers match. had we won even a single one of those we'd be pretty much in the 8 for sure. 2 and we're sitting in the top 4. thats not the coaches fault, its the players'.
well bennetts 3 wins from 14 matches against us since he left doesnt exactly look good, nor does his 3 years with the knights. it certainly doesnt prove that bennett is a better coach than griffin, thats for sure.
I can't agree with this at all.
If a player has a shocker or more, the coach deals with it. A good coach brings out the best in his players. If they don't or can't respond they get dropped - Kennedy springs to mind which Hook did deal with, but Hoffman? His selection was a coaching issue in that the coach makes the team selection, which is a part of coaching. That selection cost us dearly.
I reckon Reed's sudden lift in form is, as others have observed, a direct result of Barba playing a proper role as 5/8 on the left. Reed (and Glenn to an extent) now actually has some room and is enjoying himself and with rather good results
Most of our losses, for mine, displayed a pattern - we couldn't control the game when it mattered, and that is a
team issue, which is a
coaching issue. A good coach analyses patterns, and then deals with the bleeding obvious - or doesn't, or can't, in which case he resigns, or, as was the case here, gets sacked.
And we still still have the one major issue we have had all season, sometimes more, sometimes less, specifically, our defensive line speed which will bite us on the bum big time in the next 2 games unless the coach addresses the bleeding obvious slow line speed and often fragmented defensive line.
It certainly bit us on the bum v Souths, and the Cowboys showed exactly what good defensive line speed achieves when they flogged the Rabbits and contained Reynolds, Keary, Burgess and Inglis - in their faces for the full 80. Damn good coaching there.