I would argue that it's cause and effect when it comes to fast play the balls. If our forwards were regularly able to hit the line at pace, they won't get outmuscled and put on their backs by the defense. Compare our representative forwards when they play with a different hooker for Aus or NSW. It's like they grow another leg. I'm sure they're not intentionally playing to get dominated at club level. When we had Ennis here our forward pack was close to if not the best in the game most weeks. Lichaa starts with the club and almost instantly they've gone downhill. Even everyones favorite whipping boy Tolman had fans here feeling he was being short changed to not be making the NSW side when Ennis was here. I think Tolman lacks acceleration, but he used to make up for that by hitting his straps before he got the ball. With Lichaa he can't rely on a well timed pass so he never gets to pace anymore. Our backs do have acceleration so they've got the ability to speed up after catching a pass which is why I think they look better. I'm not going to go on about this anymore anyway. I think if we get a hooker into our side that can time his passes our forwards will look 20-30% as soon as they realise they can run harder and know they'll get a decent pass.
I agree with all of that and I think that Lichaa is the weak link that we need to strengthen to get things working. Even if we get the second phase play when the forwards have been stopped the second phase play is also starting from being flat footed and lacks bite. It's why we often try to go around sides rather than through them.
I'm honestly sick of going on about this. I have made reference to this for the best part of this and last season now. Prior to that I was hugely supportive of Lichaa, thinking he just needed time to get things right. For a huge part of that time people would argue that Hasler needed to free Lichaa up to run and our issues from 9 would be gone. Lichaa is free to do all the running he wants now and the same issues are here. Do we blame another coach and our forwards or do we search within our squad for a player who might turn our expensive forwards into a more dominant force. I just wonder, do we want our side to have three more below par years to give Lichaa the chance to learn the bread and butter skills of a hooker (crisp well timed passing) while he smilingly accepts compliments on his running game, or do we bite the bullet and try someone else at 9. I seriously think Lichaa has no clue that his passing skills aren't up to par. He seems to be pretty pleased with where his football skills are at from what I can see when he speaks in interviews. He basically passed the buck last year after he knew Hasler was gone and implied that he was going to deliver this year. He isn't though and I think it's time he stops having his ego fed and copped the hard truth by getting told he has to go back to basics and vastly improve his ball service. He has the physical ability to make it in the NRL, but his passing game in my opinion makes him a poor fit for an NRL side.
Not every hooker in the NRL has the most crisp passes week in week out. That's not the issue, Lichaa needs to learn when to take a step before passing as opposed to passing straight from dummy half.
My gripe with Lichaa is when we are attacking in the opposition line and wasting 3 tackles trying to give it to the forwards one out to try and score. That sort of tactic should be done once in an attacking set, it needs to create the element of surprise.
Depth is another thing, forwards aren't standing deep enough and neither is the backline to make a dent in the opposition line.
A quick play the ball can give Foran and JMK that extra few seconds to read the defensive line to make an attacking play, that was the purpose of the thread (not that they're the most creative). We need a specialist halfback as most of us have been saying, but we have to play with what we have and Pay might need to blood some younger boys from the reggies.
Mbye needs to support the forwards up the middle in case of that sneaky offload and chime into set plays in attack. He's learning the trade so I'll give him time but sometimes it's just common sense. He said it himself last night hes getting gassed hitting the ball up after his kick returns.