www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/l ... 5220958.jp I know what he's saying but think its a p*ss poor excuse for us not playing well.

www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/l ... 5220958.jp I know what he's saying but think its a p*ss poor excuse for us not playing well.

What a load of balls, He should be ashamed of that rubbish.

[i"My concern is that teams are finding it more difficult to play well against the opposition."[/i

WTF, he didn't mention this last year when we only conceded 4 points? in 3 games.

Load of tosh just a excuse really.

I couldn't beleive what I was reading....

I read that and immediately thought that the chairman was sending a thinly veiled message to his coach that he is simply not doing a good enough job in coaching his teams attack.

Paul Caddick? Not like him to raise his head above the parapet.

I'm off to read the great ones thoughts now.

I suppose it could be viewed that way. I don't really understand his point though ?? it seems to me SL coaches are trying to follow NRL type coaching methods with the wrestle on the ground etc and we've not been able to deal with it. I think G1 must be right... Interesting.

Agree just a poor poor excuse

"I don't have any evidence other than my own eyes, but I detect that there's now a real emphasis on stopping the other team doing what it does best."

Erm...is that not the whole point of every sport in the world....ever?

why would he not just tell him in person?

Should he really complain about tactics from down under when the last two coaches have been aussies

Edited for accuracy

I think his comments are completely accurate.
The play the balls have gone from being far to fast to very slow.

When we played Hull KR at Craven Park this year I thought the play the balls were much to fast, I thought it was a joke!, now they are ridiculously slow.

This cannot be used as an excuse thought for our inconsistency and poor displays.

It seems a comment on the nature of the sport.
Barely a reference to us specifically, and certainly not written as an "excuse"

Sports often have these phases. We've had rugby league go through periods where it was seemingly dominated by rush defence, or by grubber kicks in goal, or by high bombs to fullbacks, or high kicks to the corners. Some of these have been cut back by tactical or player technique changes, and some by rule changes.
The current big thing is control of the tackle and PTB.
What's become especially prevalent this year is defenders wanting to hold attackers up - not get them to ground - hold them up because refs are slower to call "held" than to allow a PTB.
It will change, as attackers get better at their "getting tackled" technique.

=blue"last week leeds weren't able to unlock that defence often enough, and it was the same a couple of week earlier, when we played Bradford"

Right garry, is that bradford who's conceded 88 points in 2 weeks since.???? (Prick)

GH certainly knows his target audience.

This dominance of the defence (robbers) over the attack (cops) would be best evidenced by?

Presumably a reduction in points being scored in the average SL match?

Well he's right, just about.

1 ….. 1996 ….. 32 _ 24 ….. 7363 ….. ( 56 )
2 ….. 1997 ….. 26 _ 21 ….. 6165 ….. ( 47 )
3 ….. 1998 ….. 25 _ 19 ….. 6048 ….. ( 44 )
4 ….. 1999 ….. 26 _ 20 ….. 9659 ….. ( 46 )
5 ….. 2000 ….. 27 _ 23 ….. 8315 ….. ( 49 )
6 ….. 2001 ….. 30 _ 23 ….. 8842 ….. ( 53 )
7 ….. 2002 ….. 27 _ 22 ….. 8345 ….. ( 50 )
8 ….. 2003 ….. 26 _ 23 ….. 8099 ….. ( 48 )
9 ….. 2004 ….. 28 _ 22 ….. 8410 ….. ( 50 )
10 ….. 2005 ….. 30 _ 25 ….. 9314 ….. ( 55 )
11 ….. 2006 ….. 27 _ 22 ….. 8251 ….. ( 49 )
12 ….. 2007 ….. 25 _ 21 ….. 7460 ….. ( 46 )
13 ….. 2008 ….. 27 _ 22 ….. 8014 ….. ( 49 )
14 ….. 2009 ….. 23 _ 22 ….. 3403 ….. ( 45 )

Does a four point reduction in the average aggregate from last season to this fully justify the whinge?

Hetherington talks garbage, its why I dont bother listening to him.

That article is further proof!!

I think we've maybe been caught out by this change in emphasis over the PTB.

Bluey stated in an article pre season that they were going to do a lot of work in trimming the forwards down in order to increase speed and agility for the fast PTB (A bit like Saints admitted they'd done for last season)

Only now we find the PTB seems to be much slower like the NRL used to be only for theirs to have speeded up this season!

Maybe the fact we are no longer getting quick(er) PTB added to the fact we've shed weight off the forwards means that we are lacking the size/punch to be able to try and force quicker slow play the balls if you know what I mean. Maybe because we've seemingley downsized in the forwards the opposition are finding it easier to manhandle our forwards and control the ruck?

But why would he do it directly, and not go through El Presidente...?

Hopefully it will also change as players develop their attacking game so they don't just rely on a quick ruck to make a break. Certain SL sides have based most of their gameplan around the quick ruck and lack any real ability to break down defences when they're slowed down.

I think it's more than that though. A slow PTB doesn't just stop your run from acting half, it also lets the defence align and take away any overlap or mismatch and set for a fast sprint up into the attacking team.

He's having a pop about coaches slowing then ruck down - but he doesnt want to put it down in black and white.

I dont think he is making excuses. In my opnion the slow rucks are contributing to the Rhinos lack of form. Without a doubt Leeds are fatigued and slowing Leeds down at the ruck will only make that worse.

Teams are concentrating on defence more than attack. Which will make the game less exciting. But that is no excuse because Leeds should simply be defending better. making the final score 2-0 to Leeds.

Leeds have the best defence in the SL so far this season.

Look at the SL stats I posted above. Do they indicate a loss of points through this concentration on defence?

The average total per game has been pretty static in SL for years and this season (so far) appears little different.

True but certainly not in the last 3 weeks or so.

I think its all down to fatigue. Leeds havnt got the energy to win the collison and land on their chest. Were getting put on our backs everytime making the PTB slower.