The Blueprint

[Brownrabbit]

I find it interesting looking back at the balance of our 2014 GF winning and that of Penriths the last 3 years

I recall many being unhappy originally with the signing of Lote, but at the time I understood exactly what Madge was doing and liked the signing

It does make me wonder though was 2014 by chance or design and if it was by design why did we move away from building a squad like this

Essentially that team moved away from the back 3 model and had 4 of the back 5 which could start your sets with Alex offering speed on the edge

1. Inglis. 1. Edwards
2. Aj. 2. Turuva
3. Walker 3. Chricton
4. Auvua 4. Tago
5. Lote 5. To’o

Inglis was the best fullback in the competition that year and was a big factor in my theory that to win a comp your 1 has to be in the top 3 form fullbacks that season

Our halves consisted of an elite kicking organisation half and a scheming 5/8. Sound firmiliar?

Then the balance of the pack was a crafty hooker who won with us then Penrith.

A dominant front row George and Tom off the bench

A big middle in Sam like Yeo

A ball playing edge in Sutt and an aggressive defender in Teo like Martin

Then off the benchwe had the tall athletic edge in McQueen (Kikua) which most teams have on an edge now and are also targets for attacking kicks like Lightning was for us.

It’s perplexing how the club moved away from just continually filling the holes with like for likes

Sure an edge doesn’t really ball play now your 13 does, but that’s just shuffling the deck chairs. The blueprint of premiership winning teams remains the same, we started it but now have moved away from it

Is it really that hard to recruit for type?

 

[Gazman]

GI was a once in a generation player and we were fortunate that Souths used a bit of heavy armour in RC to get that deal done. He was almost on the plane and Broncos bound to that point.
It was similar with Sam Burgess, we had RC taking the lead role to romance him away from Manly’s clutches……and lo and behold he had 3 brothers in the pipeline and the club did the necessary to unite them in our colours. There’s the core of the pack and all young and big and ready to go. Of course Luke had a lesser role alongside the other 3.
The rest were really a supporting cast, young blokes about to shine and of course Lotte which you mention was tailor made for the finals campaign.
I don’t know that we’d be as fortunate to get things aligned like that again.

 

[Pplspoet]

I find it interesting looking back at the balance of our 2014 GF winning and that of Penriths the last 3 years

I recall many being unhappy originally with the signing of Lote, but at the time I understood exactly what Madge was doing and liked the signing

It does make me wonder though was 2014 by chance or design and if it was by design why did we move away from building a squad like this

Essentially that team moved away from the back 3 model and had 4 of the back 5 which could start your sets with Alex offering speed on the edge

1. Inglis. 1. Edwards
2. Aj. 2. Turuva
3. Walker 3. Chricton
4. Auvua 4. Tago
5. Lote 5. To’o

Inglis was the best fullback in the competition that year and was a big factor in my theory that to win a comp your 1 has to be in the top 3 form fullbacks that season

Our halves consisted of an elite kicking organisation half and a scheming 5/8. Sound firmiliar?

Then the balance of the pack was a crafty hooker who won with us then Penrith.

A dominant front row George and Tom off the bench

A big middle in Sam like Yeo

A ball playing edge in Sutt and an aggressive defender in Teo like Martin

Then off the benchwe had the tall athletic edge in McQueen (Kikua) which most teams have on an edge now and are also targets for attacking kicks like Lightning was for us.

It’s perplexing how the club moved away from just continually filling the holes with like for likes

Sure an edge doesn’t really ball play now your 13 does, but that’s just shuffling the deck chairs. The blueprint of premiership winning teams remains the same, we started it but now have moved away from it

Is it really that hard to recruit for type?

Recruitment for type is so important.

We had this issue for a period post 2015 where our game was still based around the power of the 3 Burgess boys.

The only problem was that the guys playing behind them were little. So any time one was out, you fell off a cliff.

Panthers do it with Cleary. Which is what Parra haven’t done this year. If your game is based around a kicking half, make sure you’re back up half’s best quality is long kicking.

It’s where I think we went wrong with Ilias. We should have gone for a role player closer to Adam as a succession plan.

We actually tried to cover Lote. First with Graham (which worked to an extent), then with Paulo (who was ok in stature, just not performance), then Mansour (who turned out to be past it).

Clarke would be a 4th roll of the dice (after losing Sualii and Young). They’ll get there some day.

 

[yobbo84]

The game in 2014 was different.

It was mainly power forwards through the middle (that includes Issac Luke) making the metres, not back 5.

Here's Turiqi's running metres in the 2014 finals: 62m, 47m, 55m. He only cracked 100m three times in the entire season.

The idea that he was big and strong and started our sets isn't true. Our backs would average ~80m a game. Except for GI and Walker.

Man, Walker could have been anything.

The start of our sets came from the fact we had Greg Inglis, a generational talent. And then Walker. And then power forwards.

 

[Pplspoet]

The game in 2014 was different.

It was mainly power forwards through the middle (that includes Issac Luke) making the metres, not back 5.

Here's Turiqi's running metres in the 2014 finals: 62m, 47m, 55m. He only cracked 100m three times in the entire season.

The idea that he was big and strong and started our sets isn't true. Our backs would average ~80m a game. Except for GI and Walker.

Man, Walker could have been anything.

The start of our sets came from the fact we had Greg Inglis, a generational talent. And then Walker. And then power forwards.

Yeah.

The GI set starting thing was huge.

We were also very good at the push back.

Plenty of times we opened defending sets driving the opposition back 10, 15 metres.

 

[Brownrabbit]

GI was a once in a generation player and we were fortunate that Souths used a bit of heavy armour in RC to get that deal done. He was almost on the plane and Broncos bound to that point.
It was similar with Sam Burgess, we had RC taking the lead role to romance him away from Manly’s clutches……and lo and behold he had 3 brothers in the pipeline and the club did the necessary to unite them in our colours. There’s the core of the pack and all young and big and ready to go. Of course Luke had a lesser role alongside the other 3.
The rest were really a supporting cast, young blokes about to shine and of course Lotte which you mention was tailor made for the finals campaign.
I don’t know that we’d be as fortunate to get things aligned like that again.

See I actually think 2021 Latrell, Cody and the emergence of Murray in many ways replicated in what we lost in GI, Sam and Keary.

Where I believe we continue to fall down is the supporting cast. Like I’ve said for years apart from CG our back 4 haven’t been up to it. Jack is a nice addition but it’s taken years

Same goes for an athletic edge

The nucleus was there but the recruitment team continually failed to add the missing pieces needed to go from prelims and GF to premiers

 

[Brownrabbit]

The game in 2014 was different.

It was mainly power forwards through the middle (that includes Issac Luke) making the metres, not back 5.

Here's Turiqi's running metres in the 2014 finals: 62m, 47m, 55m. He only cracked 100m three times in the entire season.

The idea that he was big and strong and started our sets isn't true. Our backs would average ~80m a game. Except for GI and Walker.

Man, Walker could have been anything.

The start of our sets came from the fact we had Greg Inglis, a generational talent. And then Walker. And then power forwards.

Auv’ua was pretty good out of our own end as well

Dave Tyrell, Sutt and even Teo were hardly power forwards

But yeah the game has changed in some aspects of how you get there, but it’s still a yardage game.

 

[Pplspoet]

Yeah. 2014 our yardage was GI, George and Sam. Had no issue getting out of our end. Especially with a young Reyno’s kicking game on top.

 

[SF Bunnykin]

The Youth injected bought speed and a good mix of experience older heads and care free kids willing to take a risk and back themselves.

Whilst train track rugby league is nice sometimes you have to ad lib a little and take a risk.

The balance was spot on. We also valued that aggressive line speed and hard hitting defence.

Our speed across the park recently in attack and defence hasn’t been good. We need to evolve our game plan to suit but we haven’t. We have got our back ups all wrong and youth isn’t present enough. Ageing stars won us cup because of their experience but they aren’t able to contribute to first grade.

 

[DKOR]

Been saying it for years now. The back 5 make all your meters nowadays. Keeps your forwards fresh for defense

 

[Pplspoet]

I hate the idea of people moving Latrell to centre and pulling AJ out of the side.

But! Just theoretically, if Gray could prove his body is up to the rigours of week in week out NRL…

1 Gray
2 Graham
3 Mitchell
4 Wighton
5 Clarke (wishful thinking)
6 Walker
7 Dodd

Would give you as good a go forward from your back 5 as anyone in the comp.

Then pair it with a workman pack that is fierce in defence. You’d probably win some games.

 

[Magaoidh]

Auv’ua was pretty good out of our own end as well

Dave Tyrell, Sutt and even Teo were hardly power forwards

But yeah the game has changed in some aspects of how you get there, but it’s still a yardage game.

Teo was Sams foil both hard hitters not afraid to land one either!