spegs wrote:
Hindsight engineering...
No it isn't, it's a fairly known situation, we see it every season, players that have had lay-offs come back fresh, forum members state this all the time. You also see the very best players dropping off tackles where before they weren't, Danny H and Ellis in the Warrington match on 7 minutes where they missed the tackle that led to their first try both looked absolutely spent...after 7 minutes!
The drop off was creeping in long before wembley, we scraped a few wins here and there and a fair few players looked very jaded.
it's not hindsight, it's about balancing things and understanding that your 2nd choice/younger squad member is very likely to last the full 80 as opposed to your first choice but knackered/maybe carrying a slight knock player who can't and won't perform as well due to fatigue/potential niggly injury.
That's an aspect that LR just has to manage better for next season, he has to start trusting to the younger players for some games otherwise their development drops right off (which we've seen to an extent already) or they get vexed off at not getting a chance and that when they do get a chance they aren't anywhere near match fit or psychologically ready. look at JA in the Widnes match, he actually did ok but it was his first game of the season, he was then thrown in at the back end with not many games under his belt anywhere. For a half that is extremely difficult, for a forward not so much.
Anyway, let's hope we do have some of the youngsters getting more game time and not because we have injuries but are pro-actively managing fatigue with the goal of still wanting to retain the CC/staying near the top of the table but also finishing the end of the season much stronger than we did this year.
