Now now, it was more like 3 drives and a knock on

Defence is one of the areas I can really see us focusing on for next season.

It’s an area which was relatively strong last season and with a little bit of tweaking and adding that one for all never say die spirit Wane has it could become the corner stone of any potential success.

I’d love nothing more for us to get a rep of being a hard defensive team. Lets have teams turning up to the DW knowing it’s gonna take something special to score past us and also knowing they are gonna be in for one tough game as well.

Defence like saints and hudds would win us trophies IMO we don't usually have much trouble putting points on the board. Our attack will improve also as the forwards will be much better under Wane, kicking will be better with Deacon, more field positions means more points.

The aussies in the four nations stood really deep when attacking, have we seen the end of the flat attack or does it still have its place?

Deep running is more effective when moving the ball wide but the flat game should be used around the PTB to put people through a gap and also close to the line.

I think Deacon when on the field will be doing alot of the kicking. In the super league era he has been one of the best. In his prime he was putting out kicks like Thurston a lot of the time. Hopefully he can do this for us, when we have the field position and when our props play well we often look unbeatable in some games but we fall appart with no field position.

As long as we score more than we concede I will be happy, Style and expansive rugby can come when we get a consistent way of playing.

Fairplay, but we don't want to go down Hudds route.

If MM can sort our defence out then we will be there or thereabouts.

Just look what can happen when a defence orientated coach comes in!!



[uPre Graham Lowe[/u


1985-1986 Slalom Lager Championship
- Team P W D L A A Pts
1 Halifax 30 19 6 5 499 365 44
2 Wigan 30 20 3 7 776 300 43



[uGraham Lowe

[/u1986-1987 Stones Bitter Championship
- Team P W D L A A Pts
1 Wigan 30 28 0 2 941 193 56
2 St Helens 30 20 1 9 835 465 41
3 Warrington 30 20 1 9 728 464 41



[uBrian Noble[/u

2009 Engage Super League XIII Final Table
- Team P W D L F A Diff Pts
1 Leeds Rhinos 27 21 0 6 805 453 +352 42
2 St Helens 27 19 0 8 733 466 +267 38
3 Huddersfield Giants 27 18 0 9 690 416 +274 36
4 Hull Kingston Rovers 27 17 1 9 650 516 +134 35
5 Wakefield Wildcats 27 16 0 11 685 609 +76 32
6 Wigan Warriors 27 15 0 12 659 551 +108 30




MM

?

Maybe we do at the start of the season.

It’s imperative that we start strongly and set our intentions out from the get go and if that means unattractive ruby then so be it.

As long as we know that we can’t stay on that track all season and our style has to develop as our confidence does.

Plus it’s always good to know we can revert 2 a plan B- If further on in the season we need to squeeze a win out it’s good to know we can.

The problem comes if you need to do more than squeeze a win out then like Hudds your found wanting.

If we play the same style of rugby as Melbourne Storm next season, that will do for me...

No scooter hookers.

That would be a great start.

Melbourne play a very structured game with really good organised defence, probing the opposition team, looking for weak spots and then working on them. They're not the off the cuff broken field style of a Paramatta, but they do have some sublime set moves (and the players to pull them off).

They're extremely good at identifying an opposition player who's a weak link in certain situations, e.g. bombs or kicks to turn the player, and making damn sure they work on him, and are patient enough to stick to the plan and force the opportunity.

Amen brother!!!!

God I long for the day that sees the end of the impact hooker in SL, maybe we can get back to having a utility back on the bench and have more option.

Hope so because i refuse to change my signature

We got rid of your nemesis last year. Unless you now have TL in your sights? BTW you are occasionally allowed to run from acting half back, you know. When Piggy was any good he was excellent at it!

JJ
It's not the scooting from dummy half that is killing the game.
It's the scooting and dying with the ball, using the scoot to make easy metres.

If the dummy half scoots breaks and passes then o.k. as you said we saw occasionally from Riddell last year, and from Isaac Luke in the 4 nations.


It would be interesting to see how many times the modern dummy half gets caught in possession of the ball.

Maybe we should go back to the old rule whereby if the dummy half gets tackled in possession of the ball then it's either a handover or penalty to the defending side.

When was this?

If Rogues remembers it it could date back as far as 1837.

And you could always ask your granddad...

JJ

It was probably in the 1960's

Do you think it could or indeed should be implemented?

TBH I'm always a bit reluctant to keep tinkering with the rules. I'd rather see sensible application of the existing rules. For example, nobody wants to see players spear tackled but IMO a rule that gives a penalty - and therefore a break in play - just because a player is lifted above the horizontal is a blot on the game. If the player is safely returned to vertical (or something like it!) then play on for me.

Re scooting and getting caught in possession. I was born in 1960 (gets ready for the abuse and insults!) but don't remember this rule. IMO a sensible interpretation of existing rules at the POTB should be enough, i.e. Carry on with the current trend of allowing slower plays. This negates the effectiveness of 1 trick ponies (no names!) without giving the refs more rules to implement.

The Worst thing is i think some of the fans on here actually belive that

Not sure of any stats but I'd hazard a guess to say that defending wingers are the biggest culprits off this during a game, in particular after a kick on the last play. The emphasis is soley on securing possession and then a 1st tackle scoot that is rarely followed by a quick ptb mainly because the winger is more intent in dying with the ball or has poor body position in the tackle. If a scoot is followed by a quick ptb enabling an attacking team to get on a roll then it's a very effective way of turning deep defence into attack. In this instance its the slow ptb rather than the scoot thats most infuriating to me.

This is a rule introduced into kids games, to help them develop in stages and not to just pick the ball up and run.

I don't think anyone truely believes that but Pryce does have so much potential if he was fit and played with passion! Riddell was a class player at times in the NRL and people just hope MM can get them playing to their potential.

It's like Wane said if we can get everyones output up by 20% imagine how good a team we will be. I am pretty sure this can be done with the forwards!