I hear from a good source Vuna's not in top form at the moment.
With that in mind, yes there have to be some changes.
1 Brent Webb
2 Marvin Filipo
3 Tony Martin
4 Clinton Toopi
5 Manu Vatuvei/Miguel Start
6 Jerome Ropati
7 Nathan Fien
8 Ruben Wiki
9 Grant Rovelli
10 Steve Price
11 Awen Guttenbeil
12 Wairangi Koopu
13 Louis Anderson
Bench
Sione Faumuina
Evarn Tuimavave
George Tuakara/Cooper Vuna
Michael Luck
A few things:-
* We need pace down the flanks. Crucially we lacked it on the weekend and one play cost us the match. I personally think looking at the strapping on Byrne's thigh he's not match fit and it cost us the match.
* We need to settle on a halves combo. Fien has had 3 men now outside of him in three rounds. Personally, I think Ivan needs to be strong and select Sione at 6 - he needs to prove he believes in his own methods. I'll go with Ropati though, give him 5 or so matches to prove himself in his most comfortable position.
* We need a bit of impact from the bench. Luck is hard on D, Tuimavave is really going well, but I've put in Tuakara because we need someone with the strength to break tackles. Either that, or we select another winger, perhaps Cooper Vuna on the bench to come on and just hunt around the middle of the ruck to use his speed against the Rabbitohs pack.
Tactics:
* Short passes before the line from Steve Price to Ruben Wiki/Evarn Tuimavave. The short passes will mean the defenders aiming up on Price will have to shift to the oncoming second man, and probably only get half a shoulder in on the hit, so either the second man will be able to offload with a degree of security, or be able to get to his stomach for a dominant play of the ball, perhaps a penalty, or even bust the tackle altogether.
* Quick men to support up the guys, be it Vuna, Start, or Webb, or Rovelli. Take good decisive offloads through good communication and concentration, the Rabbitohs tend to fall off up the middle.
* Deep set backline moves. The Rabbitohs are quite poor defensively out wide, particularly Shannon Heggarty, if you ask him to make a decision, generally he'll come out of the line and create a massive hole. Giving Faumuina a bit of time to exploit that, draw him back in and make a hole for Toopi will bring line breaks.
* Second man plays. Half to go to the line, prop to run through, second man play to fullback. Worked a treat v Canberra. Is a simple, yet potentially very effective play.
* Interlinking at the back on kick returns. Use the width of the field. The best kick returners use their outside men to take some heat off themselves. This will help tire the forwards on the kick chase and help create some indecision and perhaps some holes. We are very basic, safe, and methodical on kick returns, we need to pick this aspect up.
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Overall: In essence, Canberra played a very bland, boring game. One off the ruck, and a couple of dummy half runs per set. And then a bomb on the end. Nothing more, nothing less. Even then it was ineffective to a degree because even then they dropped a fair bit of pill, and had a couple of penalties against them on attack.
Somehow though, it was enough to beat them. Which begs the question - is our attack even less effective? The answer. Yes. Need more depth, more decoys, and less reliance on the offload out wide. And we need to rely on the basics of football when offloading, "Only pass to a man in a better position than you!" Specifically pointed to C Toopi who offloaded to G Rovelli, who thought he'd pass it to the touchie 10 metres up field in probably the most comedic, and pathetic play in NRL History.
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