Alan79
Kennel Legend
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2007
- Messages
- 13,471
- Reaction score
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In all honesty I think that Pay stepped into a job where he was responsible for pushing diarea uphill with a pin. A lot of our senior players were being shopped around when he got there. And I don't think it was just those who wound up leaving that were sounded out about it. So the players would have been in a position where their job security wasn't reassuring. Once we got the cap sorted and stability in the playing ranks for the year ahead we had some wins.
During last year we'd lost a crapload more backline experience and replaced them with close to rookies. The effort was present all year, but the young team seriously lacked composure and even if they had 20 good minutes in the game before we made an error, once that first error occurred more followed on the heels. So I think the major thing lacking for most of the year was confidence. Once they had that first win the team just knuckled down and played with composure.
Our roster is hardly one that other clubs would envy. But we're finally in a position where the all important dollar isn't going to stop the club from getting a little more talent on board.
I won't use inexperience as an excuse for poor composure. But our halves are hardly seasoned. Our backline are still young. So their ability to improvise when things aren't working is still in question. I hope we improve this year and I do expect we will. But keeping it simple might be a better strategy at present than trying to get the whole squad remembering a load of set plays that might just put the young halves in two minds when doing what they know could work better. Even Wayne Bennett has commented that he's told his players to simplify their roles when complicated strategies have resulted in strings of losses.
So while I don't think Pay is a tactical genius, I don't think our roster has the experience to implement complicated strategies anyway.
If we move Pay on after this season I won't be upset. But if we give him another year with a better roster at his disposal I won't be upset either. I actually hope that he and the squad develop some working strategies and give us a year to be proud of even if that is just scraping into the finals.
During last year we'd lost a crapload more backline experience and replaced them with close to rookies. The effort was present all year, but the young team seriously lacked composure and even if they had 20 good minutes in the game before we made an error, once that first error occurred more followed on the heels. So I think the major thing lacking for most of the year was confidence. Once they had that first win the team just knuckled down and played with composure.
Our roster is hardly one that other clubs would envy. But we're finally in a position where the all important dollar isn't going to stop the club from getting a little more talent on board.
I won't use inexperience as an excuse for poor composure. But our halves are hardly seasoned. Our backline are still young. So their ability to improvise when things aren't working is still in question. I hope we improve this year and I do expect we will. But keeping it simple might be a better strategy at present than trying to get the whole squad remembering a load of set plays that might just put the young halves in two minds when doing what they know could work better. Even Wayne Bennett has commented that he's told his players to simplify their roles when complicated strategies have resulted in strings of losses.
So while I don't think Pay is a tactical genius, I don't think our roster has the experience to implement complicated strategies anyway.
If we move Pay on after this season I won't be upset. But if we give him another year with a better roster at his disposal I won't be upset either. I actually hope that he and the squad develop some working strategies and give us a year to be proud of even if that is just scraping into the finals.
