A Few thoughts in a Dreadful Season so far : Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:39 pm  

As a Salford supporter of 35 years plus I am extremely disappointed in the way we have progressed over the last two years. Getting relegated I thought would give us the chance of rebuilding the team and building a strategy that would enable us to move forward. This unfortunately hasn’t happened…

At the start of last year I thought the recruitment and building of a good young squad with a few experienced Pro’s gave us a really good blend of youth and experience. I thought the experienced players we had were of the right character to develop the youngsters. The Ideal role models for the younger players to learn from. Players who are solid, well respected and have an utterly professional attitude. Examples include Robbie Paul, Craig Stapleton etc.

Then the season started and we came to watch very defensive, low risk rugby league. It wasn’t exciting to watch and didn’t really give me the opinion that we were developing a game strategy. We were very flat in attack and kept the ball in the middle third of the field. When it reached the centres on most occasions it was immediately turned back into the middle. Why this happened was really frustrating as nearly every time Paul White got the ball he was a threat to the opposition with his pace. This plan usually produced results with us dominating the last 15-20 minutes, with the Full Time professionals dominating their Part Time opponents.

The exceptions to this were the two Finals at Warrington and Blackpool which were good attacking displays which I think the majority of fans were hoping for all season. We also won everything we could last season so credit where credit’s due.

This season started in much the same way as last for me. I looked at the squad we had and the players we recruited and I was pleased. I watched a lot of the NRL games involving our new recruits and I was looking forward to the start of the season. The NRL Players we have looked excellent prospects and performed really well for their NRL Clubs. The only person I didn’t see much of was Jeremy Smith who was ousted out of the Souths team by Isaac Luke who is an extremely good player.

These players look like different players from the players I watched last year. The exception is Luke Swain who I’ve been impressed with all this year. Players from the NRL need time to adapt to conditions over here so we need to give them time to acclimatise. We are no different to any other Club as most antipodeans need a season to produce their best form.

But what has happened on the field, we look totally disorganised and appear to lack team spirit. There appear to be cliques throughout the team. This allied to the fact that we’re being thrashed every week without competing doesn’t make great entertainment. On the flip side I have to say that we haven’t been helped by injuries which have decimated our outside backs.

So how do we fix it? Here are a few observations from a novice: -

1. Don’t let the ball bounce when it’s kicked to us - The number of times the opposition have kicked to us and we’ve let it bounce this year is amazing. It’s far better to try and catch the ball and knock-on than let the opposition score. At least from a scrum we can have a structured defensive plan.
2. When kicking on offense keep the ball lower in trajectory and not down the fullback’s throat – We seem to kick the ball with a high trajectory perfect for the fullback to return at pace.
3. Slow the opposition down at the play the ball – We don’t appear to get as many men into the tackle as other super-league teams. We don’t turn players over onto their backs very often. Other teams tend to hold the player with the ball upright and get more defenders involved to give their defences time to form.
4. What has happened to our offloading in the forwards? – Players like Big Phil, Ray Cashmere and Adam Sidlow offloaded well when they arrived at Salford. This appears to have been removed or coached out of them.
5. I’d like to see Ray Cashmere given more game time as he used to get a lot more game time at North Queensland. It will give him the chance to get up to speed quicker.
6. Try and play the ball quicker – If the opposition are not releasing then at least wriggle to emphasise the fact that we are not allowed to. It appears to get the opposition penalties against us.
7. Get the ball away from the play the ball quicker – If we can get the ball away from the play the ball it puts defences on the back foot.
8. The game start from the first minute – We’ve lost too many games in the first 15-20 minutes.
9. Alternative game plans – If the game plan we went out with from the start doesn’t work then we don’t seem to be able to change it. A half time team talk doesn’t appear to galvanise us when we’re struggling.

Anyway time to get back to work.

: Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:45 pm  

good post but your points 3 and 6 contradict each and do depend on the referee, there seems no hard and fast rule about holding down, an example was Leeds v Wigan the other week Wigan seemed to get away with slowing the play the ball, but as soon as Leeds did teh same they were penalised. So it is a very difficult call for coaches and players.

: Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:02 pm  

Big Pev I agree Points 3 and 6 are difficult to interpret. What I'm trying to say is that we need to try and slow the opposition down as much as we can but conversely emphasise the fact that the opposition are slowing us down too much.

Also the referee does have a big impact on the interpretaion. We appear to get a lot of our penalties after the game has been decided. But that's a different topic!!

: Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:15 pm  

a few do try and wriggle but your right not all do but i surpose its not something you can instantly think of all the time when theres three blokes on top of you

: Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:32 pm  

zandor46 wrote:

a few do try and wriggle but your right not all do but i surpose its not something you can instantly think of all the time when theres three blokes on top of you

not been watching the stuff a certain home secretary's husband been watching then.

: Fri Apr 03, 2009 1:55 pm  

Point 4 - but isn't this the Salford way. It's not like we have had poor support players coming on for a second phase of attack for them to off load to, so it must be a coaching problem.

Point 5 - I hope for his sake it is just that he needs more game time, because he has been consistantly poor since joining us. I honestly don't know if we could afford to keep him on for longer if that isn't the reason why.

Point 6- whilst we have Alker at dummy half then we will never have a quick play the ball. We've slated him over this for the past few years on here over this. Neither is the distribution that accurate .

Re: A Few thoughts in a Dreadful Season so far : Fri Apr 03, 2009 2:44 pm  

1. Don’t let the ball bounce when it’s kicked to us - The number of times the opposition have kicked to us and we’ve let it bounce this year is amazing. It’s far better to try and catch the ball and knock-on than let the opposition score. At least from a scrum we can have a structured defensive plan.

Bad positioning is the cause of most of this. We are reading the game poorly, and this isn't something that can really be taught... it's something you are either born with or have years of experience. Unfortunately we have a full back who wasn't born with it and is becoming to long in the tooth to start learning it. Our best full back options are being played else ware.

2. When kicking on offense keep the ball lower in trajectory and not down the fullback’s throat – We seem to kick the ball with a high trajectory perfect for the fullback to return at pace.

It wouldn't be half as bad if we had a good line chasing it up. Last week Huddersfield beat Wigan... The kicking game the adopted included a fast chase which gave the kick returner not having much of an option but to take the tackle. Against Wigan.... we allowed Richards all the time and space he needed to turn defence into attack.

3. Slow the opposition down at the play the ball – We don’t appear to get as many men into the tackle as other super-league teams. We don’t turn players over onto their backs very often. Other teams tend to hold the player with the ball upright and get more defenders involved to give their defences time to form.

Much of our problems come from poor tackling technique... something these guys should have learnt as kids. We aren't turtling players enough as you correctly point out... nor are we wrapping then up fast enough. We aren't fast enough up in the line as a unit... therefore allowing attacking players the opportunity to offload even when the 3rd man comes in.

4. What has happened to our offloading in the forwards? – Players like Big Phil, Ray Cashmere and Adam Sidlow offloaded well when they arrived at Salford. This appears to have been removed or coached out of them.

They simply aren't great at it, nor do they have so many options when they do have the opportunity. An offload from the forwards is only effective should the players be there to receive the offload... how many times have we seen the forwards looking for the offload only to see nobody there to catch it ? Our problem here seems that we give up the attack too easily and don't look enough for the 2nd phase. Watch how many times we get caught out when teams do this to us.

5. I’d like to see Ray Cashmere given more game time as he used to get a lot more game time at North Queensland. It will give him the chance to get up to speed quicker.

Cashmere's expected workload at Salford has increased since he left the NRL. At NQC he wouldn't be expected to pull off such a large defensive stint... look at what he has to do here. I'm sure there are a couple of fitness issues that need addressing... but if the team managed to maintain possession for longer periods we are likely to see better from him.

6. Try and play the ball quicker – If the opposition are not releasing then at least wriggle to emphasise the fact that we are not allowed to. It appears to get the opposition penalties against us.
7. Get the ball away from the play the ball quicker – If we can get the ball away from the play the ball it puts defences on the back foot.

We've been poor in this department for years. At the play the ball... much of this is perhaps down to Alker who is not the best ball distributor I've ever seen. However... he is good at the fast yards and will win penalties should he gain the upper hand and be allowed to get up. You can normally bet that a count of 3-4 seconds is allowed by officials for holding down. Unfortunately.... we aren't fast enough at moving the ball around once we play the ball... creating the illusion that we aren't getting up as fast as the other team. We need better ball players and better forwards.... simple as.

8. The game start from the first minute – We’ve lost too many games in the first 15-20 minutes.

Get all the other things right and breed some confidence into the team and this will come.

9. Alternative game plans – If the game plan we went out with from the start doesn’t work then we don’t seem to be able to change it. A half time team talk doesn’t appear to galvanise us when we’re struggling.

I don't think we have the players to change it as much as we'd like... and I'm not sure we have a coach who knows how to change it with the players he has at his disposal.

: Fri Apr 03, 2009 3:26 pm  

Salford 1961 wrote:

Big Pev I agree Points 3 and 6 are difficult to interpret. What I'm trying to say is that we need to try and slow the opposition down as much as we can but conversely emphasise the fact that the opposition are slowing us down too much.

Also the referee does have a big impact on the interpretaion. We appear to get a lot of our penalties after the game has been decided. But that's a different topic!!

I have thought exactly the same thing for years, your 20-30 points behind and you suddenly get 3 quick back-to-back penalities in the last few minutes. Yet when the game was in the balance you couldn't buy a penalty if the opposition held a player down for a full 5 seconds !

I think it would be an idea for the referee's controller to analyse statistics on not just the overall penalty count but the sequence and time the penalities were given in relation to the score at the time. This would prove or disprove the argument that higher placed/bigger teams are getting more favorable decisions at crucial stages during a match. Maybe this should be transparent with the stats shown on the RFL website?

Sorry to go off topic but this is something that I think has needed looking into for years!

: Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:07 am  

Bigpev wrote:

not been watching the stuff a certain home secretary's husband been watching then.

oh god i've been sused

: Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:21 am  

Have you got a game today?

There is very little about your trip to the KC.

I fear most of you are resigned to a loss to Hull .