Many of us tonight were left scrtaching their head about why Holland was on the bench, and more importantly why he came in playing a roaming halves role and pushing JMK to hooker.
I started thinking about what the point of that exercise could be, and then realised that Lewis is being played in the same positions (per se).
Frawley and Cleeland will be gone at years end, and I'm wondering if perhaps they are moving Lewis around in NSW Cup to see if he handles playing in the backline, as we already know he can play in the halves.
IF that idea is successful, he could swap with Holland for bench utility role (don't get me wrong Holland was good tonight in his role), but I think Lewis could add more spark to that utility role.
JMK played 80 minutes tonight across halves and hooker role.
6. JMK
7. Foran
9. Lichaa
After 60 odd Lichaa comes off, Lewis/Holland/Brown comes on, and either JMK stays in halves, or moves to hooker with a change in the halves.
Could just be what the idea is.
Holland is not an impact player,he's there to cover 1-7,as a few have already stated.
Sometimes to change the momentum of the game you don't always need an impact bench player.
I believe Pay's strategy was to bring into the game a fresh player that can maintain a defensive composure against 2nd rowers like Hess,who aggressively excels against weary halves in the last 20 minutes of the game.He also wanted to use an existing on field player to change the point of attack.
Although Lichaa's dummy half running has improved,it has been clearly exposed by Souths and Canberra.He often stifles the point of attack and dies with the ball,this becomes more evident when he gets tired in the last quarter.
In the 2nd half,whenever Lichaa was at dummy half,the Cows were intentionally exposing their left side of the ruck,baiting Lichaa to run or direct play at it,as the lock quickly closed the gap.This trap started to nullify our point of attack,jamming us inside our own half,leaving the predictable up field kick as our only escape.The Cows started playing percentage football and forcing errors.I'm sure Pay recognized and knew about this problem from our 5 previous games.He also has knowledge of this tactic,as it was was used successfully by Bellamy,between 2005-2009 with Dallas Johnson at lock.
Besides winning the field position,the Cows other objective was to keep the ball from spreading to our strong running left edge.Hemming Lichaa in and/or forcing him to push the ball towards a flat right edge and JJ,who is overshadowed by RFM in all attacking stats (runs:12.5 to 10.3; ave.running meters:108 to 74; line breaks: 0.5 to 0.3; tackle busts: 2.7 to 1.3; offloads: 1.8 to 0.5 and effective offloads 1.5 to 0.2).
Lichaa's best work comes from his energy in defense,something that is imperative in first 60 minutes.I think Des was CORRECT in using Lichaa mainly for his defense,but ERRED by not allowing him any freedom in attack,thus he became too predictable.It wasn't easy to acknowledge this and I deserve to give myself an uppercut,so I ask the kennel to please afford me some empathy.
JMK reads the opposition's defensive structures better,is more creative and can crisply pass on both sides of the ruck.With him at hooker,our point of attack returned and we started seeing the ball pushed to our left edge,forcing the Cows to spread their tight defense.It also allowed our middle forwards to bend the line,push forward and provide a platform for Foran.The Cows tried to counter this by trying to win the ruck,forcing slow play the balls.Unfortunately the ref lacked consistency in this facet of play and wasn't penalizing the Cows enough for this infringement.
Besides his intended defensive duties the new 5/8 (in this case Holland) becomes a complete foil for the halfback in attack.He roams and follows the play the ball closely,injecting himself when possible,making sure he promotes 2nd phase plays or quickly throws inside passes to his half (Foran). Something Morgan and Thurston,Munster/Green and Cronk were brilliant at.
The Achilles heal to this strategy arises when there is a turnover.Until the 5/8 recovers his defensive position in the line,the lock or the fullback (has to communicate with the winger) must move quickly and plug the 5/8 position.The Bulldogs tried a different recovery tactic,with the edge moving and standing one in,exposing the wing position.At times this tactic didn't work as intended because our left edge's strength is in rushing the attack as opposed to sliding inside,something I'm sure Pay will rectify.
Strategies like this is what unsettles a team,causing them to lose composure and discipline. I'm sure students of the game were pleased with Pay's strategy.It's encouraging to finally see that he's got the ability to turn the momentum of the game,which at that stage was turning against us.He avoided another Souths disaster.
