Wrighty's Analysis
This week I don't have a read on why we lost this game. The "run of the game" was 50/50 we had just as much momentum as they did but somehow they scored tons more points than us.
What I want to talk about this week is the concept of identifying poor performances from individuals as the reason for a loss in a rugby league game.
We are going to take a step back to a sport I am an expert in: Cricket.
On sports forums when we discussed cricket it was all about individuals. Cricket is a game of individuals competing as teams. It is more an individual sport than it is a team sport. However paradoxically the way to succeed individually in cricket is to approach it as a team sport and do what is best for the team in the way you bat and bowl. Selfish batsman in cricket usually don't do well or reach their potential.
When you lose in cricket it is because key individuals have failed and as long as it is not a pattern you shrug and move on. In batting in particular players at most will come off 40% of the time and failing to execute is common place. Also in cricket you can be world champions and have passengers in the team who are poor players. When we won the test championship we had several team members who were passengers. The way to win in cricket is for your top players to be better than their top players rather than having a team effort where all eleven pitch in and perform.
Turning now to the game this weekend it is clear that two players had Barry Crockers. Specifically CNK and RTS were unusually bad even by their standards. To the point you can say that had the two of them played much better that might have changed the result. However my overall thesis I am submitting is that someone, if Cricket is to be learned from, in your starting 13 is going to have a Crocker in every match. There is always going to be one or two players who didn't sleep well, are not in the right head space, or are not good players and with hindsight should not have been selected and should be fired into the sun. No sporting team exists where every player in it is the perfect selection. There are going to be some lucky people in every team in the NRL or in international cricket at the fringes of the team. Usually in cricket these are long established players whose reputation is getting them picked.
What I am getting at is that you need to win in rugby league warts and all. You need to execute and get it done, get the victory across the line notwithstanding that each week you will have some passengers; or players who are playing so poorly they are liabilities out there. Once those players put up 5 or 6 poor performances as a pattern sure you can talk about selections and people being dropped. But each week someone is going to do something daft like Pompey getting himself sent to the sin bin. There will be high points each week from an individual execution perspective (such as Dallin's intercept try) and low points such as CNK's continuous biting on decoy runs all night long.
Learning from cricket you need your best players to be consistent then you will win. And you need to apply constant pressure with the ball rather than trying to bowl wicket taking deliveries.
And a key insight for any team sport is that when you have elite players in your team who are consistently doing well the lesser players stop trying to over achieve and focus on doing a role or just doing their own job well. Then the team starts to hum.
Therefore I don't think we did lose due to the performance of those two having Barry Crockers.
We were not applying constant pressure with our attack during the game and instead tried to force tries from every set once we fell behind. We did not play with composure.
Secondly our best players did not out play theirs. Who are our best players?
On form our best players are
1) Tannah Boyd. Had he kicked over even one more conversion earlier we would have had less score board pressure at half time even though the kicks were extremely hard. Secondly he became nullified by his combination with Metcalf not working. Whenever they tried to work together it failed.
2) Luke Metcalf next year will be the highest priced player in the team. Starting right now he needs to be one of our best each week. Even though I said in cricket you can have passengers in the team and win - those passengers need to be the fringe players. Your star players must turn up and have a big impact on the game. He didn't turn up.
3) JFH, Ford and Clarke. Failed to get us ascendency in the forwards even though they have in previous games. No go forward makes it very difficult for Metcalf. I am sitting here pointing fingers at metcalf but much of his ineffectiveness has to be pointed back at our lack of metres per set. Very low this game. How many times did we march our way to the 60 metre line, I didn't count any occasions. Did we miss CNK starting our sets well from fullback?
My major point is that every game one or two players are going to have a poor game. There is a salary cap and not everyone in your starting 13 will either be good or be good in that particular game. The Warriors need to execute and get it done notwithstanding set backs from people missing assignments. We need to approach it is a team sport and look for team solutions the whole team can implement as that will lead to sustainable success.
For example it is probably true that our ruck control was weak in the first half making it hard for CNK and others to get organised in defence.
And my second point is that our best players need to be better than their best. Last week we did not nullify Adam Doueihi and nullifying their best players is part of ensuring our best are the best.
Let's hope we go better next week and even if we don't we will finish Bluey's round with a record of 3 and 3 and still be in hunt and amongst it. A long way to go in this season.
This week I don't have a read on why we lost this game. The "run of the game" was 50/50 we had just as much momentum as they did but somehow they scored tons more points than us.
What I want to talk about this week is the concept of identifying poor performances from individuals as the reason for a loss in a rugby league game.
We are going to take a step back to a sport I am an expert in: Cricket.
On sports forums when we discussed cricket it was all about individuals. Cricket is a game of individuals competing as teams. It is more an individual sport than it is a team sport. However paradoxically the way to succeed individually in cricket is to approach it as a team sport and do what is best for the team in the way you bat and bowl. Selfish batsman in cricket usually don't do well or reach their potential.
When you lose in cricket it is because key individuals have failed and as long as it is not a pattern you shrug and move on. In batting in particular players at most will come off 40% of the time and failing to execute is common place. Also in cricket you can be world champions and have passengers in the team who are poor players. When we won the test championship we had several team members who were passengers. The way to win in cricket is for your top players to be better than their top players rather than having a team effort where all eleven pitch in and perform.
Turning now to the game this weekend it is clear that two players had Barry Crockers. Specifically CNK and RTS were unusually bad even by their standards. To the point you can say that had the two of them played much better that might have changed the result. However my overall thesis I am submitting is that someone, if Cricket is to be learned from, in your starting 13 is going to have a Crocker in every match. There is always going to be one or two players who didn't sleep well, are not in the right head space, or are not good players and with hindsight should not have been selected and should be fired into the sun. No sporting team exists where every player in it is the perfect selection. There are going to be some lucky people in every team in the NRL or in international cricket at the fringes of the team. Usually in cricket these are long established players whose reputation is getting them picked.
What I am getting at is that you need to win in rugby league warts and all. You need to execute and get it done, get the victory across the line notwithstanding that each week you will have some passengers; or players who are playing so poorly they are liabilities out there. Once those players put up 5 or 6 poor performances as a pattern sure you can talk about selections and people being dropped. But each week someone is going to do something daft like Pompey getting himself sent to the sin bin. There will be high points each week from an individual execution perspective (such as Dallin's intercept try) and low points such as CNK's continuous biting on decoy runs all night long.
Learning from cricket you need your best players to be consistent then you will win. And you need to apply constant pressure with the ball rather than trying to bowl wicket taking deliveries.
And a key insight for any team sport is that when you have elite players in your team who are consistently doing well the lesser players stop trying to over achieve and focus on doing a role or just doing their own job well. Then the team starts to hum.
Therefore I don't think we did lose due to the performance of those two having Barry Crockers.
We were not applying constant pressure with our attack during the game and instead tried to force tries from every set once we fell behind. We did not play with composure.
Secondly our best players did not out play theirs. Who are our best players?
On form our best players are
1) Tannah Boyd. Had he kicked over even one more conversion earlier we would have had less score board pressure at half time even though the kicks were extremely hard. Secondly he became nullified by his combination with Metcalf not working. Whenever they tried to work together it failed.
2) Luke Metcalf next year will be the highest priced player in the team. Starting right now he needs to be one of our best each week. Even though I said in cricket you can have passengers in the team and win - those passengers need to be the fringe players. Your star players must turn up and have a big impact on the game. He didn't turn up.
3) JFH, Ford and Clarke. Failed to get us ascendency in the forwards even though they have in previous games. No go forward makes it very difficult for Metcalf. I am sitting here pointing fingers at metcalf but much of his ineffectiveness has to be pointed back at our lack of metres per set. Very low this game. How many times did we march our way to the 60 metre line, I didn't count any occasions. Did we miss CNK starting our sets well from fullback?
My major point is that every game one or two players are going to have a poor game. There is a salary cap and not everyone in your starting 13 will either be good or be good in that particular game. The Warriors need to execute and get it done notwithstanding set backs from people missing assignments. We need to approach it is a team sport and look for team solutions the whole team can implement as that will lead to sustainable success.
For example it is probably true that our ruck control was weak in the first half making it hard for CNK and others to get organised in defence.
And my second point is that our best players need to be better than their best. Last week we did not nullify Adam Doueihi and nullifying their best players is part of ensuring our best are the best.
Let's hope we go better next week and even if we don't we will finish Bluey's round with a record of 3 and 3 and still be in hunt and amongst it. A long way to go in this season.
