Be honest, Tahs family: this backline is too good to keep playing
Honestly the final-quarter kicking at Allianz makes me want to scream into my pie. You've got Jorgensen and Fokala carving defences open, and we're putting the ball in the air like it's a tentative touch footy game. The punts would win an aerial comp, shame we're not competing in one. Play to your strengths, mate, or we'll be watching the Brumbies celebrate in our own lounge. 😏
16 posts
-
✓Fair question, but I want actual evidence before we torch the game management. Late-game kicking when you're protecting a lead is basic risk maths, turn it over on your own line and Jorgensen's brilliance counts for nothing. Sounds good on paper to say "run it more", yet I'd want to see the numbers on what we actually conceded from those kicks versus what we gave away running from our own quarter. My gut says the coaching box had a reason; show me the territory and turnover stats from those final quarters and if the kicks were losing us more than they protected, I'll happily join the screaming-into-the-pie club. On condition that the data actually says so - otherwise we're just blaming strategy for tight losses that come down to execution.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
-
Nah Robbed, watch the tape, how many times did we bomb a trailer run from Fokala cos someone panicked and shanked it down his throat?? 😤 Jorgo wants the ball in his hands with the game on the line, that's the whole point of picking him. Protect a lead all you like, but you protect it by holding it, not by gift-wrapping possession back 🤬🔥In the stands since I was a kid.
-
UncleAllDay has it right, I re-watched the tape and the panic kicks came with us holding ball we'd won at breakdown. Protecting a lead only works when the chase is elite. Ours wasn't. 📊
-
watching the tahs cough up a won ball with panic punts took me straight back to the old eden park nights, when the great sides held their nerve and played to the whistle. jorgo and fokala earn their bread running at tired defenders, so feed them, if the chase is ordinary like fix says, the kick protections nothing anyway. seen worse game management in my time, but not often 😄 trust your weapons, lads.Been here longer than some have followed.
-
-
Define "safety-first" first, is it the panic shanks in the last ten, or a deliberate box-kick strategy? Because one is nerves, mate, and the other is coaching.Sample first, conclusions after.
-
FixIsInPTSD called it, I could be wrong but the chase is where it fell over. Sat behind the posts at Allianz. Panic shanks had nothing to do with coaching.Do the math before you argue.
-
Fair question from Supporter_Zone actually - there's a big gap between a box kick on a call and Jorgo standing deep with runners either side and still going to the sky. The second one is coaching, no doubt. If Fokala's bending the line every carry and we're still punting that ball away, why's he on the park? Put the TAB odds on us choking a lead like that again and even I'd struggle to back it 😏It's a lottery, not sport.
-
-
Dunedin, mate, no offence taken, but you're having a lend of yourselves a bit. If we were playing scared you wouldn't see Jorgo stepping off his wing from his own twenty-two three phases in a row, that sort of stuff doesn't come from fear, it comes from blokes being given their head. My two bob: the last quarter cough-ups were nerves in the chase, pure and simple, and I've seen worse from better sides in tighter games. Back in the day at Eden Park we used to hand the All Blacks possession on purpose and still shut them out, knowing when to kick is a skill, not a confession. Get the fitness right and the trust shows up on the scoreboard, you wait 😉Watch as long as I have and you'll get it.
-
OldSchool's got it half right, Jorgo stepping off his wing is real, but watch who's clearing the ruck when we do keep it late. Slow ball, and even Fokala can't do much with it.
-
GloryDays has a point about the slow ruck ball, but I keep a phase-count every round and our cleanouts in the last twenty are genuinely lazy, not slow by design. Fix that first.Numbers > vibes.
-
Sat through the tape of our last few fourth quarters again last night with a cuppa and honestly BadBeatKing's phase-count mirrors what I'm logging too, the cleanouts get passive once we hit the lead, and you can't run width off two-second service no matter who's wearing 14. That said, small sample, three or four games, so I'd be careful calling it a pattern before the next away trip. Fokala with quick ball is a different animal, we all know that. The nuance is whether the coaching box actually backs it in the last quarter or just wants the territory stat on the sheet. If we're still box-kicking from our own forty when we've got those two out wide, then OldSchool's "given their head" argument only holds for sixty minutes, doesn't it. Reckon the next home fixture tells us a lot about which version is real.Numbers > vibes.
-
Passive cleanouts at 1.80 to fix? Too rich for me, lads. Fix the ruck, then the backline pays for itself. 💸Bankroll discipline wins.
-
Passive cleanouts at 1.80 to fix? Too rich for me, lads. Fix the ruck, then the backline pays for itself. 💸@StandsGuy23 nah the punter's got it right tbh 🔥 ruck's been doing my head in all season, we go so passive once we're in front... reminds me of that club semi we choked a few years back, forwards just stopped cleaning and we got turned over twice in the last ten. Fix that and even Fokala with no space makes something happen 💪Heart with the team, head on pause.