Re: First Words of KC's Reaction : Mon Aug 10, 2015 8:18 am  

SomersetSaint wrote:

In going for a young home grown coach, the club has to accept that he will make mistakes and give him time to grow, if they have confidence that they will be the right man for the job. Everyone makes mistakes, it's just how we are, and KC is going to make mistakes too. But if he can do that and keep us in the top 2 or 3, whilst learning, then that has to be acceptable? Brian Mac did at Leeds, just look at the threads calling for his head, largely due to being tactically naive.. And he has turned out ok.

But, the one thing I don't like about KC is how he is happy to criticise his players in public, often individual players. To my mind, this is his team and he should accept the responsibility for the losses as well as the glory from the wins. He should take the pressure from the players, and deal with them in the dressing room. We all know the players aren't performing, we don't need KC to tell us that. Just get on with the coaching.

This is the key for me. I don't mind giving KC time. We are third in the table having lost where only two teams have won this season. Yes, we played dumb football against 12 men, constantly ploughing up the middle instead of throwing the ball around to tire out the stretched defence. To say the team played dumb is acceptable; to then go on to specify the half-backs is going too far. This sort of criticism should be kept in the dressing room. No need to panic just yet, however.

Re: First Words of KC's Reaction : Tue Aug 11, 2015 8:11 am  

Dux wrote:

Firstly, kicking on tackle 3. I don't have a problem with this if it is done right (it worked a treat for Leeds and Kevin Sinfield in some of those rainy grand finals against us). But to be done right there needs to be an element of on-field thinking about it: if the side isn't gaining ground and the half back gets the ball at first receiver on tackle 3 and notices that there's clear space to kick into and turn the full-back, then fine - kick it. But with us at the moment it's clearly premeditated. When we start a set in our own 30 we already know (and so do our opponents) that we're going to kick on the 3rd/4th. That means that we're not responding to what's in front of us - we're just mindlessly punting it when it gets to the allotted tackle. Thus we see 3rd/4th tackle kicks going straight to the full back (unforgivable - if you sacrifice tackles for a kick it simply has to turn the full back) and even kicks on tackle 3 when we're in the opposition half, FFS.

Kicking early can be a great tactic. Remember Burns's 40/20 earlier in the season? But the whole point is that the wingers haven't dropped back, so its easy to find the ground, it takes time for the oppo to get back and collect it and its more likely to find touch.
If the opposition are waiting for it, they've dropped back the wingers, the fullback's deep, then you should be able to identify that, use the number advantage in the line to get the ball wide or even use Stevo's move of a little chip over. As you say though, everything is prescribed in advance and carried out no matter what's in front of them.

Our halves aren't there for their pace, they're there for their brains. They're just not using them.