I won’t lose sleep over him moving to Sharks
Sharks forwards chain passing and successful 2nd phase play is going to suit Woods.
In 2017, Wests had the highest number of passes between forwards, one of the reasons Woods looked good. Wests biggest issue was incomplete sets, resulting from pushed 2nd phase play, something the Sharks are more disciplined at.
Time will tell if the Sharks, now in possession of the best ball playing pack, can integrate this chain passing and successful 2nd phase play, with their fast heavy spine shifts and roving five-eight.
Souths have been able to accomplish this, by limiting each forward to touch the ball once per set.
This keeps the props and lock fresh and together the heavy hitters, bombard the defense on one edge in waves and numbers.
Thus dragging and compressing the opposing forwards from the middle to this edge.
Using their whole spine with fast heavy shifts, they expose channels and exploit overlaps from middle to the other edge.
This style could have worked well for us if Klemmer was encouraged to off-load more and we had a ball playing lock, instead of using workhorses and a 2nd rower. Des started experimenting with this style, which was created by Bellamy, by trying to develop Klemmer as a lock. Although we had a good ball playing prop in Graham, Tolman was found wanting and Kasiano/Eastwood were too unfit, the reason he overextended the cap and got Woods. If we didn't lose Graham to Saints, I believe our season would have been a lot different. But like they say " In hindsight, we are all great coaches ".