Speed of the defensive line

[ByRd]

This has been a problem in pretty much every game this year. The speed of our defensive line is non existent and we are just killing ourselves as we are letting the opposition march down the field consistently for 50-60 meters a set while we struggle to get to 40m. I dont understand why its happening and why it hasnt improved but we need to work hard, get off our line and meet the attacking player halfway instead of letting them run 10m before any contact is made. The dragons were getting up on us, the storm/broncos did the same thing and they all beat us.

We need to get back to the old school bulldogs defence and be up in their faces and stop letting teams get a roll on and consistently have us on the back foot. Last night, the Dragons first 5 kicks were pretty much all bombs cause of the territory they gained, you just cant win games when teams have all that momentum. We need to step it up and start working harder in defence before worrying about attack as all that falls into place.

 

[Özil]

exactly tony...

we move up 2m we tackle them and they gain an extra 5m since they are dragging 2-3 of our players... that alone is a joke

 

[bullpup71]

what line speed there is none.

 

[TJW]

line speed and kick chases are crap for you guys!

 

[will.i.am]

Several factors contribute to this.

- Halves are finding the opposition backs on the full when the kick on the last play. They are not finding enough space in the opposition half, hence the backs are finding easy metres out of their danger zone
- Kick chases are slow
- Wrestling techniques. We are not as dominant as some of the superior teams at the moment. This allows for opposition forwards to make easy metres, offload, and have quick play the balls
- And obviously our line speed. We are waiting for the opposition to hit up in attack instead of moving forward and meeting the ball carrier.

 

[MichaelM]

and St George were off side all night, moving up a fraction of a second before the ball is played.

The Roosters did this a few seasons ago and their defence was awesome - the referees finally figured and after a few penalties for being inside the ten they quickly came back to the feild.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Several factors contribute to this.

- Halves are finding the opposition backs on the full when the kick on the last play. They are not finding enough space in the opposition half, hence the backs are finding easy metres out of their danger zone
- Kick chases are slow
- Wrestling techniques. We are not as dominant as some of the superior teams at the moment. This allows for opposition forwards to make easy metres, offload, and have quick play the balls
- And obviously our line speed. We are waiting for the opposition to hit up in attack instead of moving forward and meeting the ball carrier.

You got that right! It was non-existent when Hodkinson kicked in the in-goal last night and he was the only one chasing. If the kick chase was up with him then we could of at least had a drop out.

 

[the_gamee]

The problem is nothing is going right even against the teams we beat, we dont look DOMINANT (Storm or Dragons dominant that is)..

Our defense is slow up which makes it easy for the opposition.
Our dummy play is too slow which doesnt allow us to make ground.
Our kicking is TOO short.
Our kick chase is TOO slow.

and St George were off side all night, moving up a fraction of a second before the ball is played.

The Roosters did this a few seasons ago and their defence was awesome - the referees finally figured and after a few penalties for being inside the ten they quickly came back to the feild.

The problem is WE DIDNT DO THE SAME.. word should have gone out there that the dragons were doing this and we should have done the same.. that way if we get penalised, ryan can bring it up!

 

[boggie23]

and St George were off side all night, moving up a fraction of a second before the ball is played.

The Roosters did this a few seasons ago and their defence was awesome - the referees finally figured and after a few penalties for being inside the ten they quickly came back to the feild.

Yeh that has been a big reason for dragons success. They jump the gun and scream in fast. A bit hard for a forward to get the ball with the defense 3 meters away and to expect him to make meters. Only way around this is a pass or a step but if they come up in a line its virtually impossible to crack. We on the other hand didnt jump the gun and actually played fairly (losing the penalty count 6-2 mind you ) Was there any inside the 10 penalties last night? I wonder.

Doubt we would get away with it as much as saints do though.

 

[holbi]

Yeh that has been a big reason for dragons success. They jump the gun and scream in fast. A bit hard for a forward to get the ball with the defense 3 meters away and to expect him to make meters. Only way around this is a pass or a step but if they come up in a line its virtually impossible to crack. We on the other hand didnt jump the gun and actually played fairly (losing the penalty count 6-2 mind you ) Was there any inside the 10 penalties last night? I wonder.

Doubt we would get away with it as much as saints do though.

Too right, we always seem to be on the wrong side of the penalty count, 3 to 1 last night against the Saints. I wonder what the count is for the season so far, I reckon we would be down at least 2 to 1.

 

[pisssst]

Can not understand why something as basic as Line speed has not been identified and corrected, surely we are not the only ones seeing this problem.

 

[Paint.]

The kick chase is NOT slow, get that out of your mind.
We probably have the fastest kick chase in the comp, I've noticed that. The problem is, we race 30metres in lightning speed, then stop there and wait for the fullback, rather than keep running up to them. Same with our line speed. We rush up 3 metres, but leave the opp forwards to run straight at us.

 

[Kratos]

I started a thread on this during the game and it got dragoned into the post match discussion

 

[Chicharito]

our kick chases are pathetic tbh

 

[sgodllubsti]

This has been a problem in pretty much every game this year. The speed of our defensive line is non existent and we are just killing ourselves as we are letting the opposition march down the field consistently for 50-60 meters a set while we struggle to get to 40m. I dont understand why its happening and why it hasnt improved but we need to work hard, get off our line and meet the attacking player halfway instead of letting them run 10m before any contact is made. The dragons were getting up on us, the storm/broncos did the same thing and they all beat us.

We need to get back to the old school bulldogs defence and be up in their faces and stop letting teams get a roll on and consistently have us on the back foot. Last night, the Dragons first 5 kicks were pretty much all bombs cause of the territory they gained, you just cant win games when teams have all that momentum. We need to step it up and start working harder in defence before worrying about attack as all that falls into place.

agree with you 100%

 

[CBDog]

Using Friday's game as a reference because St George are masters at it.

By the time the dummy half has unloaded the ball to a close forward our forward line has just moved off the mark.
When you equate their forward running at full speed and ours just getting off the line at a comparitively slower speed, stopping after about three steps (3metres) they either then wait or slide.

They either go through or bend our line. If we meeet them at their speed the collision is much greater and to more effect to us in pushing them backwards. We dont and they win the wrestle match and get the ball away, 2nd phase play and gain even more ground.
If they do that for at least three tackles and then spread it for the backs who have then got a good platform to work off. They then spread the ball wide at an angle to our so called defensive line that is by this stage on the backfoot.
We are just the opposite when we get the ball. Our halves seem to be the clone of Kimmorley with the flat line attacking method, instead of giving the backs room to move. One way of nullifying their quick defence is to have a deeper set backline.
When Idris and our backs owned Souths on the first occassion as well as Parramatta we had sweeping angled backline moves.

Its a matter of us has having a good defensive style and an attack than negate the oppositions. We definitely have the players to do both.

 

[ByRd]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC7uzSKnVRA

This is the Bulldogs defence that we know and this is what we should aim for, look how aggressive we used to be.