Be honest, lads - is our attacking shape actually broken
Fewest tries from set-piece in the whole comp and we're still out here pretending to be the Hurricanes 😂 Wake up, lads - the maul's the best thing we've built in Perth history, so feed the big fellas and stop asking a halves pairing that changes every fortnight to win us a lottery ticket. And in reality? Any punter silly enough to back our attack on the TAB deserves the loss. 🤡💸
15 posts
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✓Fewest tries from set-piece in the whole comp and we're still out here pretending to be the Hurricanes 😂 Wake up, lads - the maul's the best thing we've built in Perth history, so feed the big fellas and stop asking a ha…Might be right on condition the maul keeps converting, but fewest set-piece tries screams box-kick-and-chase with no 9-10 combo, not proof a running game is finished.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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Mate I've watched every home game this season and our maul is the only thing that got me off my seat 🔥 Why keep asking a 9-10 combo that changes every fortnight to run a slick shape they've never drilled? Feed the big fellas, pick a halves pair and LEAVE it alone for six weeks, ah well, nowt to do otherwise 💪On the terraces since I was a kid.
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I keep a spreadsheet on this lot every round, and the set-piece try column is genuinely embarrassing - I could be wrong, but that reads to me like a halves pairing that's been reshuffled too often to ever drill proper moves, rather than proof the running shape itself is dead. Where I side with RobbedAgainMerchant is the maul: if it's the best we've built in Perth history, building the attack around it is just common sense while the 9-10 question gets sorted. 📊Do the math before you argue.
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Saw this thread while the kettle boiled and couldn't stay out of it. Back in my day every side worth its salt built its attack off the pack first. The Ranfurly Shield-era provinces did it, the old Bledisloe nights at Eden Park were built on it. Running rugby was the dessert, never the main course. So this notion that leaning on the maul means surrendering? Nah, that's just how the game has always fed itself when the halves are unsettled. ChrisDiehard's spreadsheet point rings truest to me - a 9-10 combo that changes every fortnight can't drill moves nobody's rehearsed, no matter how pretty the shape looks on the whiteboard. Watch as long as I have and you'll get it: forwards keep you honest, backs win you the flash headlines. Feed the big fellas until the halves settle, and stop apologising for it 😄 seen worse sides in Perth colours than one built on a rolling maul, believe me.Been here longer than some have followed.
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ChrisDiehard, I'll pin you down on that spreadsheet of yours before anyone runs away with it: how many games has the actual first-choice 9-10 pair started together this season? Because if the answer is two, then "broken shape" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this thread. Here's my live observation, for what it's worth from the western stand: the one move we do drill properly is the lineout drive, and it shows, the maul gets us over the paint week after week while everything off 9 and 10 looks like eight blokes meeting each other for the first time. That doesn't prove running rugby is dead, it proves you can't run a shape with a halves pairing that changes every fortnight. Build the platform off the forwards, sure, but don't tell me the backline's finished until the same two blokes wear 9 and 10 for six straight rounds. Receipts please, Chris, count the pairings, not just the tries.
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Gate's question is the right one, I've got the same column in my own book and I'd bet the combined starts for one settled 9-10 duo sit in single digits. I could be wrong, but teaching for a decade tells you a class that swaps teachers every fortnight never learns the lesson plan. Caveat though: even a settled pair can't save moves when the maul is the only weapon that actually fires, so lean on the big fellas first and let the backline play off that.Do the math before you argue.
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Watched the Reds match again on the couch with a beer and the pattern's obvious, every time we go wide off first phase it's like watching a bloke read a script he got that morning. The forwards actually know each other's names 😂 I reckon the smart money's on building off the maul and letting the backs play off slow ball with numbers, rather than these choreographed set-piece moves nobody's drilled twice. FrontRowFan's teacher analogy is spot on actually, though he'll get no credit from me twice in one week 😏 And for the punter types in here, I wouldn't touch our line while this halves merry-go-round keeps spinning, my multi's stayed away from Force games all season and my wallet thanks me for it. So yeah, shape's fine, personnel's laughable really.Here to argue, not to nod along.
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Nah, the shape's munted because the 9-10 door keeps spinning, simple as that 😤 you can't run any decent moves when the pairings change every fortnight... and GoTheDistance, mate the Reds tape proves my point more than yours, half those reads were rookies on a different call each week. Feed the maul though, get in! 🔥💪One love, one side ❤️
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mates, my old rucking boots fell apart before this club even existed, so take my scribbles for what they're worth 😄 but I'll say this to MikeQueenstown - back in the day the Crusaders won titles with halfbacks rotating like a colacarry round a pub crawl, because the forwards gave them a platform you could set a watch by. We've got that platform now with the maul; use it first and the young halves only need to run off it, simple as. seen worse sides than ours build an identity, trust me. 😉Seen it all, lads.
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FrontRowFan's classroom comparison is the most honest thing here. Question for the running-game crowd: which actual set-piece move has worked since round one? Name one.
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GloryDays asked the question I've been avoiding on my spreadsheet all season, and the honest answer is no, not one. I could be wrong, but I'd argue the rotation at 9-10 explains maybe half of it, the other half is that we keep running plays designed for a tempo this squad can't hit off set-piece. Chur to Ultra88 on the platform point; I'm tracking our maul receipts week by week and the forwards have earned a bigger share of the attacking menu.
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Nick's spreadsheet finally admitting zero working set-piece moves all season, bold of you lads to keep arguing about the 10 jersey like it'll fix that 😂 Halfback rotation explains a bad afternoon, it doesn't explain being dead last off set-piece since round one. Every decent side in this comp knows what they are; we keep auditioning for a role nobody at this club can play. The maul's been carrying us quietly all year while the backline wanders around like tourists on the Terrace. Build the attack around the big fellas, let the halves manage, and maybe I'll stop needing a TAB multi to make Force games interesting 💸Any stat can be bent.
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nah Andy, temp's easy to blame from the couch - half our maul tries came off scrappy halfback service anyway 🤷 ah well, nowt to do, feed the big fellas and see who complains 🔥You don't abandon your own.
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Interesting that Faithful's point actually cuts against the maul-only argument. Our best tries off scrappy service came when the forwards pulled defenders in first, so the running shape and the maul aren't competing, they're feeding each other. My table says the halves question and the set-piece question are the same question viewed from two angles: no settled 9-10, no tempo, no plays hitting on time. Small sample though, and I'd want to see one proper block of games with a fixed pairing before anyone pulls the trigger on rebuilding the whole attack.Numbers > vibes.