Says it all really. Don't care what people say about the number of close games lost, we rea just not at the races defencively

The coach must bear some responsibility for this - it has been a failing during all his seasons with us but something that Noble has always done well

In the future we will have the best defence in the league.

It's been a problem since day one. Especially the right side which seems to be especially vulnerable. Players seem unaware of which way to move and are caught out by dummy runners. It's either down to poor decision making and technique or the players simply don't know what they're doing.

I never realised Sykes was so weak in defence until this year. When he connects he hits hard but he misses so many.

[url=http://www.superleague.co.uk/statistics_player.php?hs1=2009&hp1=26&hs2=2009&hp2=254&stat=tries&season=20093 a game. Keef just the one.[/url

Indeed. And having just had a quick look I can't find a centre with a worse defensive record this season.

Oh and Keef has made seventy more tackles as well... Sykes is missing one in four...

On a more positive note, nice to see BJ still in second place for try assists. Not bad for a guy playing out of position

And a player some think we should offload

But I can find two other players in our team, who worryingly (and perhaps predictably) play down the same defensive side. If we go on missed tackles as a percentage of tackles made, then Sykes is at a 20% miss ratio (223 tackles, 46 missed.) We also have Paul Deacon missing 20% (50 missed from 245 made) and Sherriffe missing 35% (24 missed from 72 made). Jeffries also misses around 20% of tackles.

When you consider that the top of the missed takle count stat wise for the league is Scott Murrell on 76 missed tackles which looks bad, but we need to consider that this is from 689 made, meaning he only misses 11%. By the same measure Senior only misses 5% two of our top performers are Lynch who only misses 6% and Nero only misses 9%.

Having that much liablity down one flank is not sustainable, no wonder teams always seem to stroll in down that side. It needs addressing....but I'm not holding my breath.

Although they may be getting used to their partnerships, maybe it would be good to try Nero + Sheriffe and Sykes + Tadulala. This way both sides have at least one good tackler.

This is exactly what I would try.

Well the current combo is not working on defence thats for sure. Menzies and Nero into the , Sykes and Jeffries into 6 and 7? Maybe try Rinaldi at 7 when hes back too, I struggle to see the benefit of keeping Deacs in the side at the moment.

You've just saved me a post! Having just trawled through the stats its obvious why we've shipped so many points with the right side of Sykes and Sheriffe. Add in Jeffries and Deacon and that's just too many turnstile defenders on the fringes.

If I had the time I'd be interested to see who has the highest percentage of missed tackles in SL. By the looks of it we're right up there with these three.

Looking at Sykes's stats for missed tackles over the past years they look like this:

Sykes:

2008 - 13% missed
2007 - 14% missed
2006 - 19% missed
2005 - 19% missed

Now he's up to a 20% miss rate. Defending has never been his strong point has it?

It's time for Macca to prove he has the balls to drop the underfperformers. If Rinaldi is fit, this would be my team.


Halley
Sheriffe
Menzies
Nero
Tadulala
Jeffries
Rinaldi
Lynch
Newton
Scruton
Langley
Worrincy
Burgess

Kopzcak
Godwin
Donaldson
Crossley

I do think we need another prop on the bench tbf instead of shifting Sam about, although he did have a good game against Cas imo. Also, if Sheriffe continues to under-perform I would consider putting Halley there and giving Platt another shot at FB. I know he is condemned by many, but he had a cracker in the reserve grade.

Given this line up - who kicks goals...

Burgess.

anytime.

As for Sykes, he has good moments in attack, is a more than useful kicker, which should be invaluable if we drop deacs for next year, but his defense is awful. He's out of contract this year, and I suspect he will be resigned, but is that largely due to his quota advantages of being home grown overruling his failings??? Would the same performances from an Aussie earn him a new contract?

Really?

Can't see it. We need someone who can kick and play consistantly well. Burgess is neither of these

Burgess can kick. He won't be dropped either and he has had good games. If we have Donaldson on the bench he can kick aswell.

Id agree entirely that Burgess should be played and therefore developed in one position, not swapped around unless its needed through in game injury or whatever, and I think we need to go into each game with 4 props.

Im not convinced Sam would be the answer to the goalkicking situation if he was part of a rotating squad of props though, who kicks when he's being rested on the bench?

Donaldson or i'm sure somebody could put their hand up and say they'd have a crack.

Sykes is another kicking option but I wouldn't want to rely on him for that as he can be a bit wayward with the kickoffs (going out on the full) and the goalkicks (misses a few sitters). Being as he counts as home grown I expect we'd keep him despite his failings in defence. You make a good point about whether a non home grown player would be kept on, I doubt it. When you compare Sykes stats with Ben Harris, Scott Naylor or Shontayne Hape it just shows what we're lacking in attack and defence out there.

If we go into 2010 with Sykes, Jeffries, Deacon and Sheriffe all lining up in the first team we'll struggle again. A side can cope with one or two weak links in defence but four is a real handicap.

I agree. I'd rather keep Jeffries and offload Deacon, but we all know that won't happen. So the only solution for me is to get rid of Jeffries and Sykes. Just because a player is home-grown shouldn't warrant a place. I think it was RER who mentioned that Johnny Horton isn't ready for First team because of poor defence SYKES IS THE WORST CENTRE DEFENSIVELY IN THE LEAGUE

Exactly. If I could swap all four for better players I would - but that wont be the reality of this off season. Because the fact is that Deacs and Sheriffe are on contract for next year, and Sykes is home grown and relatively versatile so as Ewwenorfolk says thats probably the reason BJ might well be off at the end of this year, despite him being top of the try assist table as so many point to when lauding him. On that, IMHO BJ has been the best of a bad bunch at half back and has done reasonably well, but he's still not the answer for me, there is more to stand off than try assists and he goes missing too much for me.

Totally agree, if Jeffries does go and the others stay we'll be losing the one player we could do with keeping. IMO Jeffries would is ideally good cover at halfback but not consistent or reliable enough to be a regular choice. That's why he's ony ever played for below average teams.

I can't see us recruiting two halfbacks though, in fact I'll be surprised if we sign one. I live in hope though.

What a shame Crookes got injured this year or he could've put some pressure on Sykes. We definitely do need some recruitment for the centres whether that means bringing someone in from outside or promoting from within. We can't continue with the same paper thin backline.