2020 Rd 6 V Sea Eagles: Game Day

[greeneyed]

NRL.com power rankings

6. Canberra Raiders (3)
I'm most worried about Canberra at the moment with their attack. They've lost some direction since they beat the Storm in round three playing ad-lib footy. They haven't been able to do that with teams defending them resolutely.

Read more: https://www.nrl.com/news/2020/06/22/sow ... -shuffles/

MATCH GALLERY: Raiders V Sea Eagles: https://www.gettyimages.com.au/photos/c ... st#license

https://www.raiders.com.au/news/2020/06 ... ea-eagles/

Play of the week: Horsburgh hit on Gosiewski: https://www.raiders.com.au/news/2020/06 ... gosiewski/

Jarrod Croker goal kicking tips: https://www.raiders.com.au/news/2020/06 ... king-tips/

[afgtnk]

To me clearly the biggest reason for our regression in attack since last season is having CNK at fullback.

Second man plays are bread and butter for most NRL sides - that's where the biggest profit margin is. They're simple yet highly effective, and almost always overshadowed by the trick shots and Globetrotter plays that return less, so far less memorable. If you go back and look at Jack playing fullback, it's a regular dividend payer for us. We relied on it a lot.

With CNK we've all but lost that. Anytime those plays are run, he's almost always caught in possession because he a) doesn't give himself enough space or create it through subtle footwork when receiving the ball (e.g moving to catch the ball on his outside) and b) doesn't have the ability to release the ball quickly and accurately under pressure.

Yes we made the Grand Final last year like that, but if the game has taught anyone anything it's that it is foolish to think that you can play the same way year to year without making adjustments, small or large. Teams break you down and analyse you to both find where the weak points are and target them, and identify your strengths to counter them so you end up resorting to what you're not good at. This is big weak point for us and I fear that it's gonna cost this season.

[Raider47]

Yeah absolutely agree that the decline in form of CNK and Hodgo is why we are struggling. I'm more concerned about the former, cos I'm convinced Hodgson can snap out of it. It's pretty unsurprising with him, he always seems to have a run in form where he overplays his hand and we are crucified for it. CNK I'm worried about though. Seems that teams have worked him out and know how to nullify him. He doesn't have an awful lot of strings to his bow. Last year he was the unknown and was in some high flying form.

[GreenMachine]

To me clearly the biggest reason for our regression in attack since last season is having CNK at fullback.

Second man plays are bread and butter for most NRL sides - that's where the biggest profit margin is. They're simple yet highly effective, and almost always overshadowed by the trick shots and Globetrotter plays that return less, so far less memorable. If you go back and look at Jack playing fullback, it's a regular dividend payer for us. We relied on it a lot.

With CNK we've all but lost that. Anytime those plays are run, he's almost always caught in possession because he a) doesn't give himself enough space or create it through subtle footwork when receiving the ball (e.g moving to catch the ball on his outside) and b) doesn't have the ability to release the ball quickly and accurately under pressure.

Yes we made the Grand Final last year like that, but if the game has taught anyone anything it's that it is foolish to think that you can play the same way year to year without making adjustments, small or large. Teams break you down and analyse you to both find where the weak points are and target them, and identify your strengths to counter them so you end up resorting to what you're not good at. This is big weak point for us and I fear that it's gonna cost this season.

Completely agree.
What makes it worse in my opinion, is that CNK doesn't sniff around the ruck nearly enough to compensate for his lack of ball playing ability.
He needs to insert himself in the middle and our forwards need to look for him.
What are peoples thoughts on shifting him to right centre? (I know Ricky won't do it)....but potentially, you get a better right side defender, and then we either look at the market for a fullback...or try Simonssen...it's not without risk.
I'm getting the impression that Cotric doesn't want to play right centre and is happier on the wing.

[Botman]

Yeah absolutely agree that the decline in form of CNK and Hodgo is why we are struggling. I'm more concerned about the former, cos I'm convinced Hodgson can snap out of it. It's pretty unsurprising with him, he always seems to have a run in form where he overplays his hand and we are crucified for it. CNK I'm worried about though. Seems that teams have worked him out and know how to nullify him. He doesn't have an awful lot of strings to his bow. Last year he was the unknown and was in some high flying form.

I said this in the parra pre game thread:
IMO, there is some really concerning aspects of our play that dont have a "we'll be right, it's just form" sort of feel about them
There is some consistent flaws emerging

Hodgson is firmly in the "we'll be right" camp... i mean if this continues all year long, we wont on be in anyway right, but there is no reason to think this level of play from Hodgson will continue much longer, he'll be back to a pretty high level soon you'd have to think

CNK and the problems we have running 2nd man/sweep plays is in the camp of a consistent troubling flaw... and it's troubling because i dont know how to solve it. CNK gives us so much as a defensive fullback, he's great positionally, he gets through a ton of hard work and despite some errors to start the season he's a very safe high floor player

But its crippling us in attack. I was talking to a mate last night about it, for me when we're a dogged defensive team who can grind out games and then Wighton or Williams or Hodgo graft out enough points to win, its all good. No one notices or cares. No one really cared last year because we were winning.

But when we've got defensive issues and Hodgo isn't playing well, it all falls apart and suddenly the fact we get no creativity out the fullback spot, which is arguably the most creative position in the league now, it becomes so glaring because you dont have that stock standard structure that you can play through to create easy points with relatively simply execution.

So everything becomes so hard in attack, especially in the red zone

[greeneyed]

[papabear]

I think people are hating on CNK to much here.

a quality play out the back only works off a decent play the ball and good work inside them.

Yes, CNK doesnt have much of a passing game, but he could still be highly effective out the back if given space from those inside him and a fatiguing defensive line.

IMO our bigger problem is our lack of repeat sets from our 7, 9 and 6 and to a lesser extent our two centres... we do not build enough pressure with repeat sets, and go for the big trick short short play or whichever play on the 5 far to often instead of getting a nice grubber behind the line. IMO hodgson should on pretty much every 5th tackle in the danger zone think how can i get another set not how can i score, and that is either, put in a nice little kick of your own if you see space to kick into, or quick pass to either wighton of willliams to get the repeat set.

[papabear]

Yeah absolutely agree that the decline in form of CNK and Hodgo is why we are struggling. I'm more concerned about the former, cos I'm convinced Hodgson can snap out of it. It's pretty unsurprising with him, he always seems to have a run in form where he overplays his hand and we are crucified for it. CNK I'm worried about though. Seems that teams have worked him out and know how to nullify him. He doesn't have an awful lot of strings to his bow. Last year he was the unknown and was in some high flying form.

I said this in the parra pre game thread:
IMO, there is some really concerning aspects of our play that dont have a "we'll be right, it's just form" sort of feel about them
There is some consistent flaws emerging

Hodgson is firmly in the "we'll be right" camp... i mean if this continues all year long, we wont on be in anyway right, but there is no reason to think this level of play from Hodgson will continue much longer, he'll be back to a pretty high level soon you'd have to think

CNK and the problems we have running 2nd man/sweep plays is in the camp of a consistent troubling flaw... and it's troubling because i dont know how to solve it. CNK gives us so much as a defensive fullback, he's great positionally, he gets through a ton of hard work and despite some errors to start the season he's a very safe high floor player

But its crippling us in attack. I was talking to a mate last night about it, for me when we're a dogged defensive team who can grind out games and then Wighton or Williams or Hodgo graft out enough points to win, its all good. No one notices or cares. No one really cared last year because we were winning.

But when we've got defensive issues and Hodgo isn't playing well, it all falls apart and suddenly the fact we get no creativity out the fullback spot, which is arguably the most creative position in the league now, it becomes so glaring because you dont have that stock standard structure that you can play through to create easy points with relatively simply execution.

So everything becomes so hard in attack, especially in the red zone

The number 1 isnt the most creative attacking position in the league.

if anything the shift has been more to the number 9 / dummy half, which is where we are quite strong.

a good defensive effort / trust and structure always stops good attack in rugby league it always has and always will. Against manly, if anything we created a bit more, they just didnt have a right edge determine to make someone who is a superstar, look like a superstar..

[Seiffert82]

It will be interesting to see what tweaks Stuart makes.

We are missing Leilua and Bateman's tackle busting runs, but I'm not sure how much I can pin our attacking situation on CNK.

I honestly thought we created some really good scoring opportunities when we held onto the ball, despite Hodgo's desire to hold onto the thing for too long and cramp his halves. For a variety of reason we just didn't take those opportunities and then we started to panic.

It's a wake-up call. Our attitude was good in defence so hopefully we can get back to basics in attack and Hodgo can give his halves a bit more early ball.

[Leebola]

I think people are hating on CNK to much here.

a quality play out the back only works off a decent play the ball and good work inside them.

Yes, CNK doesnt have much of a passing game, but he could still be highly effective out the back if given space from those inside him and a fatiguing defensive line.

IMO our bigger problem is our lack of repeat sets from our 7, 9 and 6 and to a lesser extent our two centres... we do not build enough pressure with repeat sets, and go for the big trick short short play or whichever play on the 5 far to often instead of getting a nice grubber behind the line. IMO hodgson should on pretty much every 5th tackle in the danger zone think how can i get another set not how can i score, and that is either, put in a nice little kick of your own if you see space to kick into, or quick pass to either wighton of willliams to get the repeat set.

This. We were playing a team missing half its bench for 75 mins. Tire out the opposition ****. You don't have to score every play!!

Charnze will come good. He just need to run off Papa, Horse and Bateman.

[gangrenous]

Yeah, I think tell CNK to go looking for offloads in the middle rather than trying to get this sweep play working at the moment.

[Dr Zaius]

Well we really blew out in the premiership betting after that game. We've gone from favourites after the Melbourne game to fourth favourites now just in front of manly