Fitzy
NRL Captain
- Sep 10, 2018
- 4,241
- 5,948
100% agree. Love the analogy looks like someone was excited for the Fury vs Whyte fight this morning.The biggest issue we have is conceding penalties and making silly mistakes, which gifts the opposition possession and field position. Everyone knows my thoughts on how the penalties/6 agains are a fucking rort, but we still need to be smarter about it. This possession/position isn't as simple as it sounds, I'll explain below in my typical TLDR way...
We need possession and field position of our own because in the NRL you don't just score from a well constructed play alone. Even Oates' try was on the back of possession. It's like a boxing match where you need to fatigue your opponent, except in League only one guy gets to punch at once. The more you get to punch, the more jabs you can throw in prep for the big hit.
In isolation, you'd think that Staggs had a quiet night, and except for that one flick pass to Cobbo, was well contained. The defence knew that he is best handled in numbers, get up in his face and even if he tried to go around/through his opposite, there are other defenders around to corral him in and assist. And yet, Reynolds persisted down his side even though the results were the same. Why? Because they were the jabs. It fatigued the opposition both physically and mentally, so after a while they saw it coming and instinctively defended against Staggs the same way that was working. Once that pattern was set, Reynolds went for the Big Hit with the kicks in behind instead, knowing the defence would be up and committed, and it's why we racked up so many points in the end.
None of that works if you don't have the opportunity to throw the jabs first and get the opposition defence conditioned. Had we not enjoyed the field position at the end there, Reynolds would not have had the opportunities to get those kicks in, and all of us would have been lamenting how well contained Staggs was and wondered why we kept going that way when it wasn't getting anywhere. It's why I don't like the term "keep doing the same thing and expect the same result". This is only true if there isn't a method to what you're doing.