I loved how Souths played under Seibold, I was so excited to get him here. I see literally nothing here that even remotely resembles Souths two years ago?
As has been mentioned Souths had a group that knew how to play the basics due to Madge... they had a defensive system setup already and their forwards and backs knew how to get them out of trouble. He also had a senior group that was actually useful.
I thought for sure that the first casualty at Souths would be Sutton... he was looking every bit like a man that should be retired, instead Sutton had a career year out in the second row... a spot he had always been earmarked for but never able to accomplish.
When he came to Broncos he had a team that was unfit and had zero defensive structure in place. I believe in the early stages of Broncos 2019 we looked reasonably slick with ball in hand but horrendous in defence. He had a team that didn't know how to play the basics that would allow him to put the polish on... but he probably didn't know that until he got there. So it's likely he pivoted from putting polish on top to trying to implement the basics, but griffinball and bennetball is so ingrained that it seems like we play the game completely different to any other team in the comp... and to me that seems to have been the case for as long as I can remember. There have always been commentary calls of "look at them you could throw a handkerchief over them they're that bunched".
I think coming into 2020 there was an emphasis on fitness in the preseason and defence, and we came out and looked a very solid footy team for rounds 1 & 2. Unfortunately covid hit and rules changed to the fundamentals of what was footy for the last decade. It seems since Covid all the work on fitness from preseason is gone and any defensive systems we had in place before covid weren't ingrained well enough that we can fall back into them (especially considering one of our main strategies was when to give up tactical penalties).. I think in the short term we need to give up on ball work at training and just focus heavily on defensive structure and fitness ie. we need to have a second preseason in the middle of the year to adapt the team, because of the rule changes.
I think another part of his appointment has also been a directive from the board to oversee a transitioning in of the young crop we are currently seeing (Fifi, Haas, Herbie, Coates, Nui, Carrigan, Staggs, Dearden, etc.).
These are common themes from Chris Garry's articles, I believe Seibold mentioned the youth in his first press conference, and constant mentions from the club that it is the best young crop of playing talent in the club's history and even Karl Morris stated just this week about the difficult contracts he walked into (suggesting there are contracts they want gone to shore up the next generation).
I would say Seibold would've wanted a smooth transition with the roster he inherited, but there must've been division due to the dismissal of Bennett (Roberts, Sua, etc.) so I'm guessing a decision was made to fast track the introduction of youngsters and so anyone that was able to secure a position elsewhere and wasn't seen to be buying into the future plans was allowed to leave (Roberts, Kodi, Kahu, Sua, etc.). I think McGuire was purely money driven... I don't think they could guarantee the kind of money he wanted knowing they would need cash for Fifi, TPJ, etc. moving forward and allowed him to leave as he was a valuable asset that could get a new contract and wipe money off the books.
I think the current playing group of youngsters are actually buying into what the coach wants, so I think the calls that he's lost the playing group are unfounded... they're just not yet skilled enough in the basics to execute under heavy adversity.
Everything needs to be stripped way back to the basics and we need a heavy influence on defensive structure... we need a solid foundation to build on which is exactly what the Knights have. They're defence is solid and their entire philosophy is about building momentum through the ruck. Ponga and Pearce just do the rest off the back of that.
I think that is the real issue with Seibold he seems unable to get this team to implement a basic structure off which they can build everything else... it's like the cliche of trying to go around the opposition (polish and flare in attack) before you've done the hard yards in the middle (basics and solid defence), but for whatever reason this group can't seem to get any momementum.
I would say that injuries, suspensions and turnover of the playing roster have not helped in this regard... I mentioned elsewhere that I think the team was finally playing how Seibold wanted last year with the turning point being when souths flogged us. After that game Roberts was banished and Kodi was allowed to move on, but Turpin came in as starting 9 and Dearden starting 7. We went on to win three straight coming into the origin bye, but Dearden got injured 6mins into the titans game and the spine was completely wrecked.
Since that point we've been hit with injuries and suspesions and haven't had a full strength team again until rounds 1 & 2 this year, before again being struck down with a huge injury toll.
I just want to see what this team can do at full strength with a consistent 17 each week to know how we are actually going
