Interesting OP.Johnny Member wrote: ↑Fri 31 Mar 2017 10:36am I don't want this to be a Shane Savage bashing post, because it's not intended to be that.
But....
Our half-back line (to use an old, outdated term) is where our problems lie.
We play a pretty dour midfield, with Dunstan, Armitage and Ross in there most of the time. Steven is the only guy with ping and line breaking ability. Many supporters see this as a huge liability and the cause of our woes last week, and a genuine chink in our armour. It is of course, but I don't think it's the real issue.
A lot of teams don't actually have lots of speed and 'play making' directly in the middle. Some do, which certainly isn't a bad thing - but many have a similar setup to us with bigger bodies trying to either nullify the contest, or hold their position in order to feed the pill out to runners coming from the half back line.
I think that's where we fall down. Both from clearances, but in particular from setting up attacks from the back half.
I hate watching the Saints play, in a true football sense. We always look sloppy, rough around the edges and haphazard. The 'cleanness' just isn't there. It almost looks like we score by accident.
The times though, when we do look polished, clean and appear to have a real purpose and a sense of cohesion - is when Shane Savage is getting the ball and using it well. When he's getting it and not under pressure, suddenly the Seb Ross' of the world somehow seem to find space and the Armitage's appear to look like really valuable link up midfielders through the middle.
The problem is, it only ever happens in patches.
Savage just isn't good enough. And Webster isn't either.
Compare these two to Johannisen and Murphy. Or Johannisen and Boyd.
Or Rampi and Mills. Or Rampi and McVeigh.
Or Hodge and Birchall. Or Hodge and Burgoyne.
Or Shaw and Wilson and Williams.
I read this snippet last year after GWS beat us:
Half-backs Shaw, Nathan Wilson and Zac Williams were influential with a combined 20 rebound 50s, with 12 of the GIANTS’ 19 goals coming from scoring chains that started in the back half.
"No doubt when Williams or Wilson can win one-on-ones and turn defence into offense really, really quickly it can catch the opposition off," Cameron said post-match.
"I think the game is actually taking us that way. Everyone would love to have really good running backs because it can help you score … our guys are in pretty good form."
It's the same reason that Richmond win when Deledio plays. Otherwise, it's just Houli doing it, and he's not quite up to it. It's also why they tried Martin back there.
So the way I see it, is that we have Savage, Webster and Roberton in that type of role. Roberton I think does it more out of natural ability, in the sense that he wins the pill and has to use it - as opposed to getting the handball receive to set up offense from our D50 like the other two.
Montagna also plays that role.
But that's just not good enough for mine. When I talk about our lack of talent, this highlights for me. All the good teams have genuinely good users and accumulators in these roles - we don't. Granted, our backline has been decimated for the best part of a decade so there hasn't been a huge amount of handball receiving going on in our D50 which makes it hard to accumulate. We haven't had the luxury of allowing a Savage to peel off early for the handball receive knowing that a defender will win the contest.
Especially given the way we're trying to play, and the cattle we have in the middle. This role is vital.
The Dogs battled without Johannisen last year. They still had an AA in Boyd back there doing it whilst Johannisen was out, but their 'game plan' wasn't quite cutting it until they had run from Johannisen off half back.
Now I'm guessing here, and making some assumptions, but if Richardson is like the 17 other coaches he will have certain roles that are being carried out by certain players. The role won't change - but the player carrying it out can, and will. There's been plenty of talk on here about blooding young guys, in particular in the midfield. But for mine, we need to be trying to unearth someone, somewhere, that can step in to that running back role and force either Savage, Montagna or Webster out.
Until we get a Rhys Shaw, a Johannisen, a Burgoyne or someone of that premiership ilk, we're going to struggle. We have other holes in our list in terms of talent - but I think the running back needs to be our number 1 priority in both the immediate and long term.
A year later, and we still can't get the run going from the defensive half, and still can't generate anything meaningful from the middle.
Interestingly though, we have Rice, Roberton, Webster, Savage, McKenzie and White all in this 'role'.
So we're certainly not neglecting it - but just can't find anyone that's actually any good at it. Granted Roberton is out, and Webster needs some 'strong' coaching to tidy up his kicking - but the rest are well and truly either no good, or a fair way off.
I agree, and think we could carry our dour midfield if we could generate attack from the half-back line. But until we get some genuine run and carry back there, I don't know how you can ever expect to kick winning scores with a slow plodding midfield, and a slow, unskilled back half.
Could Gresham, Billings, Freeman or Sinclair take up this possie?
