we can't afford another off season under Smith

[Guest]

lol you're a dribbling troll who is completely full of shit. The players would not have dug in for 90 mins for a coach they cannot stand.

Chook.

Dont let the truth get in the way of his agenda...

[chook 56]

lol you're a dribbling troll who is completely full of shit. The players would not have dug in for 90 mins for a coach they cannot stand.

Chook.

Careful....you'll make your way onto fred's list.

[Guest]

Where are the storm on the ladder? Yeah doesn't help when you take the Australian fullback and hooker out of your team and the Australian halfback is not at his best as he is buggered after a long very physical and mentally draining state of origin series.

The dogs were a rabble last year under Kevin Moore and now look where they are under Hasler!

I think you will find that if we had Bellamy or Hasler coaching us we would be going far far better than what we are under Smiffy!!!!!!!

Oracle are you offering the same defence to Pearce for his brain explosion in extra time last night?

Cause no-one else on here seems to be.

[Thirteen]

Can't Johnny Ibrahim take care of Smith?

[stsae]

Where are the storm on the ladder? Yeah doesn't help when you take the Australian fullback and hooker out of your team and the Australian halfback is not at his best as he is buggered after a long very physical and mentally draining state of origin series.

The dogs were a rabble last year under Kevin Moore and now look where they are under Hasler!

I think you will find that if we had Bellamy or Hasler coaching us we would be going far far better than what we are under Smiffy!!!!!!!

Melba with Slater and Smiff are running 1st. Melba without Smiff and Slater got belted at home against a Faiders team with about 8 blokes out.

Kinda doesn't back up your argument mate, cos I don't see a C.Smiff or Slater at our club.

How by that logic could you conclude we would be doing better with Bellyache over Smiff???

We don't have a single match winner, let alone probably the two best in the game.

I'm not saying who is the better coach, I just dont believe with our current roster ANY coach could be doing any better.

[Jacks Fur Coat]

[QUOTE=stsae;228625]Melba with Slater and Smiff are running 1st. Melba without Smiff and Slater got belted at home against a Faiders team with about 8 blokes out.

Kinda doesn't back up your argument mate, cos I don't see a C.Smiff or Slater at our club.

How by that logic could you conclude we would be doing better with Bellyache over Smiff???

We don't have a single match winner, let alone probably the two best in the game.

I'm not saying who is the better coach, I just dont believe with our current roster ANY coach could be doing any better.[/QUOTE

Wasn't it the greatest coach himself who said something like...

"The bigger and faster my players are, the better I seem to coach..."

[Guest]

Can't Johnny Ibrahim take care of Smith?

The Bitch is first.

[player 1]

You can all crap on about structure and coaching all you like. Its not the point. We just don't have the players in key positions.

How did everyone's hero Bellamy go on the weekend without Cam Smith and Slater? Absolute rubbish that's how. Same as he would go here if he had to coach a team with Mini, Braith or Mortimer, Pearce and Friend in 1, 6, 7 & 9. Really you could put combined coaching staff of Bellamy Hasler & Bennett in charge of that lot and they wouldn't do much better than Smith. You can't polish a turd I'm afraid.

Voice of reason. Again. You won't find yourself welcome around here....


The players dropped the ball a thousand times last night to gift possession to Cronulla. The sharks, given all this possession by us, and being the beneficiary of spectacularly biased refereeing decisions and a 9-2 penalty count, and led by super-hero Todd, could not beat us. HOW FRIGGING SHITHOUSE ARE THEY?

Coaches don't drop balls, players do.

[Yak]

You surely can't be serious can you Yak??? If you can't complete sets with basic ball control set plays are useless.

Wouldn't you call the inside ball our pet set play??? We revert to it almost every set, when we aren't using backs running from dummy 1/2. The only other play we execute with any potencey is Pearce to SKD with the decoy variations, as you said.

I never once said I liked or agreed with the coaches game plans. All I've ever said is it exists. I now say it's apparent it's so boring and simple cos we can't even execute the simple properly without error. All this ad lib stuff is rubbish IMO. We don't even fark up being reckless with the ball, we do it being negative and panicking. No one with any class on the field.

IMO ad lib would at least be exciting, not dropping the pill on the 4th 10 out attempting set plays that are doomed cos our players can't execute. We let ourselves down in the simple. Our players lack someone to even execute simple attacking plays successfully anyway.

Backwards I'm all for second phase footy, even if it means pushing a few passes close to the opposition line, but it should not be our go-to style. Sure, if you want to say that running from dummy half is our offensive set "structure" then that is fine and may well be correct, but I am more concerned about what we do with the ball from the 3rd tackle onwards, or on sets inside the opposition 20. Sets where we should have an organised backline movement occur at least once to create some space.

If it is shown that our key players do not have the pace (Mini for instance) to create an overlap using say a double block play like the Dogs run then so be it, focus on different plays using angle runs (like the switch play with Pearce and SKD that works). If our players do not have the footy brains to understand where they need to be at the right time to execute then so be it. That is when we should be resorting to low percentage second phase to create space out wide.

I do not agree that running simple set plays that should be practiced ad nauseum at training is beyond the capacity of our players' handling skills. I think you will find most of our handling errors occur in the tackle, either once on the ground or trying to push an offload. The only player that frequently makes catching errors is Minichiello (which is why the inside ball is given such a bad rap amongst Roosters fans). Our general catching and passing skills are of a high standard (and they need to be if you want the team to rely on second phase as their main point of attack). The main area we fall down in with regard to completing sets is our ball security, which is a relatively unnecessary skill/ability when running an organised set play.

I do not know if Smith has tried to give them the tools to execute organised attacking plays or not. Maybe he has realised that key players don't have the skill sets to do so effectively (eg. Mini is not quick enough, nor does he have the speed to be a link fullback; Friend can not pass off the ground and therefore does not give quick enough service for an effective start to a set play). What I do know is I've asked a member of the Roosters coaching staff why we don't run block plays like other teams and he answered "what is a block play?". That's enough proof for me.

[Guest]

Player 1,
Do you agree that good coaches get the players to perform to the best of there abilities though?
I don't think Smiff inc. has done that nor can he do that. Tell me who has improved as a player under his time at the roosters?
JWH still gives away silly penalties and has lost his unload
Where do I start with Martin Kennedy???
Pearce has gone backwards
SKD has been quiet for 2 seasons
Friend still has no ability to create out of dummy half
The list goes on.
Good coaches can get teams to do the little things right and get them to perform consistently but we are just consistently playing bad

[Headless Chook]

one thing still rings in my mind about our off season, I remember hearing Pearce when asked about the focus of the off season and his response was we concentrated on "ad-lib" football and not much in the way of fitness/defence.

the off season is the only real opportunity the coach has to implement structures and get the players fit for the grinding season ahead, it has been blatantly clear Smith has lost touch with the modern game of rugby league.

it is all well and good to have a youth policy, but it simply doesn't work when the coaching staff are not improving any of the players natural talents.

the damage Smith is doing to the confidence of these players at such a young age is going to take years to reverse and to get rid of all the bad habbits they have, with every week he is in charge we are a week further away from turning the corner.

I don't care if Uncle Nick doesn't want to sack him, just pension him off to a "coaching director" capacity, piss of Rohan Smith and Matt Elliot and either bring in Trent Robinson or Jason Taylor and a whole new energenic staff to start fixing the problem.

So if they were practicing it how is it ad-lib?

[melon....]

our biggest problem of all (and yes we do have a few) is the coach. He is rubbish. The players can't stand him because he is hopeless, most fans now seem to feel the same. The only few that continue to stand up for the coach are you, jacks fur coat, chook56 and 1 other.

If thesrs one person the players should hate for being hopeless its minichello. This prick with Anasta are our biggest liabilities.

[chook 56]

Voice of reason. Again. You won't find yourself welcome around here....


The players dropped the ball a thousand times last night to gift possession to Cronulla. The sharks, given all this possession by us, and being the beneficiary of spectacularly biased refereeing decisions and a 9-2 penalty count, and led by super-hero Todd, could not beat us. HOW FRIGGING SHITHOUSE ARE THEY?

Coaches don't drop balls, players do.

Unfortunately, very true....and our guys are the best at it.

[Guest]

lol you're a dribbling troll who is completely full of shit. The players would not have dug in for 90 mins for a coach they cannot stand.

Chook.

Wrong. They dug in for each other. Anyone who is close to the squad will confirm that the players can't stand smith (the coach you love).

[chook 56]

Wrong. They dug in for each other. Anyone who is close to the squad will confirm that the players can't stand smith (the coach you love).

Is there a flip-side to this dribble, fred?