Our attack ... any concerns?

[Juggler]

I was at the game and have watched the first half of the game on tv. Both sides were awesome in defence.

However, Manly were allowed to get away with leg pulls, standing a step in front of the ref (especially when we were working it off our line) and were often offside at kicks but allowed to get involved in the play (on one occasion they got a dropout despite Foran being offside by a metre and Cummins did ask the vidiots to check this).

We did get away with the occasional thing but nowhere near as much as Manly. In fact, I thought we made a conscious effort to try & not give away penalties. I don't believe in conspiracy theories but we are not getting a fair go.

Our halves rarely had the time, space or position - especially in the second half - to do much more than bomb. Hard to be a dominant half when your pack's not dominant. As for being similar to origin, the best creative halves are Queenslanders. We all saw in the Souffs game that Reynolds is no better than Pearce at trying to break a game open when his forwards aren't dominant.

[The Axe]

Mate your off the mark. Jennings has been great and probably the best defensive centre in the comp this year.

We know what his attack is like... he's bustin...just needs some clean ball.

He was up against the best centre in the game last week. I think he did a great job to keep the ledger even with Lyon.

[Yak]

From the 20 minute mark to the 60 minute mark the differences in the 10 metres for each side was disgraceful. There was without doubt the at least one tackle every second set that multiple manly players were blatantly in front of the referee but this was lessened significantly by the fact there was a good 40 minute period where the refs (Cummins in particular) brought Manly back 10m sometimes slightly less and we were pulled back at least 12m every tackle. This was unbelievably frustrating. In particular when they wouldn't even make it back the 9. They're not stupid these refs, they are often subtle with their control of a game. There was also at least two occasions where our players were collected high. Easily worthy of penalties in the modern game. But because our players are not cats (which I am extremely proud of btw) we are not receiving these penalties.

On our attack, as has been mentioned JWH will make a big difference. We certainly didn't do ourselves ant favours with poor ball control on early tackles in good position the other night. I feel if we fix this and get JWH and Cordner back for the preliminary final we will get back to playing more direct which is always the basis of good attacking football. Friend is the key to us winning this year no doubt in my mind. He is now the second best rake in the comp imo. His decision making is first class. He turns up in cover more than any other player. And we look extremely dangerous when he comes out of dummy half to engage the A and B defenders before passing causing that compression of the defensive line.

Will be interesting to see if Liu gets his spot back. I believe he deserves it through absolute consistency. Footwork at the line and offloading are two things that are invaluable against Melbourne. You need to dominate the tackle before you reach the line against them if that makes sense because their wrestle on the ground and body position before takedown is so good every tackle. A prop rotation of JWH, O'Donnell, Moa and Liu is formidable and just what is needed to get us on the front foot against the Storm defence. If they can do their job and Pearce and Maloney can find space at least 50% of the time or target O'Neill off the back of that, provided we improve our ball control, the attacking structures are there for that side of our game to sort itself out because Friend is the creator of opportunities and Pearce and Maloney are now excellent at executing in those moments.

[Rooster_6]

I'm experiencing Deja vu

[kakaruk]

He was up against the best centre in the game last week. I think he did a great job to keep the ledger even with Lyon.

Absolutly right,Manly had a plan to keep our left edge quiet and it worked a treat for them.Watch Lyon come sprinting up out of the line to shut down mini if hes chiming into the back line he also shut down MJ a few times as well with the same tactic.Usually this is a risky ploy if he misses but he only did it when the manly cover was in place sliding right pushing towards the sideline.They did it a few times it was a rehearsed play to nullify Jennings and tupoe imo

[Thirteen]

really tough game and draining of energy from brutal defence. not to mention tough game week before against rabbits which was probably more mentally and emotionally draining and would have made things more difficult to pick up again the nxt week.

Jennings for mine is long overdue for some form. has been quiet for the best part of a month now. ill give him benefit of the doubt for the manly game all things considered but he could definitely use a try. hes one of the highest paid and more senior players and cant afford to be a passenger.

He is giving his all and that's all you can ask.

[TDK]

Mate we tackled our ass off Saturday night. They would have been suffering some fatigue by the time we got in attacking situations.
For what it's worth, juniors knock on off the intercept was not a knock on. It's a shit rule that needs to get sorted. He placed the ball correctly and stumbled over it. In no way is that a knock on. I think we should start a petition to give to the NRL about it. We should have scored that set of 6 if it wasn't for that shit call

Defence was great but our attack is being read by all the top teams now, we rely on SBW a little too much for my liking and we are playing a little to clinical. We need to give the ball air early in tackle count, get the ball to Jennings, RTS and SKD on early tackles catching opposition off guard, Manly on Saturday did this on more than one occasion with success.

We cant rely on just defence against Storm and Souths , we were very lucky Stewart was out last week otherwise the result would of been very different. In the big games we need to mix up our attack, I'm guessing around 20-24 points will need to be achieved to beat the other three title contenders.

[Salvatori Grubber]

As Yak said, JWH will make all the difference as far as our attack is concerned. Even more so when (if) Boyd comes back.

[roostersrule2]

Defence was great but our attack is being read by all the top teams now, we rely on SBW a little too much for my liking and we are playing a little to clinical. We need to give the ball air early in tackle count, get the ball to Jennings, RTS and SKD on early tackles catching opposition off guard, Manly on Saturday did this on more than one occasion with success.

We cant rely on just defence against Storm and Souths , we were very lucky Stewart was out last week otherwise the result would of been very different. In the big games we need to mix up our attack, I'm guessing around 20-24 points will need to be achieved to beat the other three title contenders.

We weren't going out there for points. We knew it was going to be a tough, slow grind out, it's why SBW took up some of Jared's role rather then play his own. Our attack was not the focus and we were buggered by the defence we had to do.

Melbourne are not as clinical as they used to be, they lose to some pretty ordinary teams and Souths are taking the Melbourne route, they just build off their spine, except they have a couple of Burgess's, the rest of the team is alright but can be nullified quite easily.

[Vasco]

He was up against the best centre in the game last week. I think he did a great job to keep the ledger even with Lyon.

I reckon Lyon just won that battle.

How many times did he put Williams away in that first half.

Lyon proved why he is one of the best players in NRL.

That was a first class performance.

[roosterproud]

I don't think we have used the quick play the ball plays in the last half of the season like we did in the front half. quick plays with hard hitting forwards will always bring meteres. back to that and the gf is there for us

[Guest]

I have a sneaky suspicion that the Roosters are holding back in attack. Just a gut feeling that is all. As everyone knows, the year has been built on the back of a great defensive effort, however, I hope that the team will surprise a few more people with their attacking options when it matters most.

[Guest]

Ok everyone seems to be upset about my Jennings comment. I said that he was quiet the last month in response to a thread about our ATTACK, i never disputed his defence. I also said not counting last game against manly for all the reasons ppl are going off about.

[roosterproud]

at the start of the season I think robbo has told the boys not to contest our 5th kick option but to instead set a tight defencive line and restict the progression of the other team.
now it seems that toupo is our key target to get the ball back and everyone else has the d to work on and to accept the ball if it comes our way

[rwbfl]

Defence was great but our attack is being read by all the top teams now, we rely on SBW a little too much for my liking and we are playing a little to clinical. We need to give the ball air early in tackle count, get the ball to Jennings, RTS and SKD on early tackles catching opposition off guard, Manly on Saturday did this on more than one occasion with success.

We cant rely on just defence against Storm and Souths , we were very lucky Stewart was out last week otherwise the result would of been very different. In the big games we need to mix up our attack, I'm guessing around 20-24 points will need to be achieved to beat the other three title contenders.

I dunno so much. The last two weeks we have had tough grinding weeks where points were always going to be hard to come by, whereas in our losses to Titans and Sharks it appeared as if we were looking to play a softer brand of football as we had our mind on bigger things ahead. In saying this we still scored 22 points or more in the sharks, titans and rabbits game, and considering our attack wasn't as fluent, that's a pretty good effort.

I don't expect a whole heap of points in the next game or two either. We will most likely play Storm next game, and either Rabbits or Manly if we make the GF. These are all the top defensive teams in the comp and not many will score an avalanche of points against them. 'D' will be the cornerstone of the next two games if we are to win the comp; like robbo and co have said all year, that's their primary focus and what they back every game on.