Yes It's all about balance, but the influence of the coach is more important at NRL level imo. Training is all about preparation, if what you do at training doesn't translate to what you want to do on game day then there are issues that need to be addressed. Players are one, but i still firmly believe Pay is a massive issue.
Look at the difference between Souths this season and last season, the difference a change of coach made to virtually the same squad was huge. Souths are still very structured and have plenty of little setplays with variations, but they now have more freedom within their structures and the players around the key players know how to react when they start playing some footy.
We currently have nothing. No real instinctively talented players, terrible structures in place, etc. Pay is a failure and i don't care what anyone says, the bloke simply should have changed more by now even with limited players to work with. So many things he does are fucking baffling, he just reminds be of the substitute teacher in highschool that could never get the class to shutup because they were totally out of their depth in the highschool environment lol.