mini

[Yak]

Yes it does But it also poses more questions


From this post it Would it be fair to say your opinion on Minis lack of form is more down to the coaching and structure of play rather than Minis abilty itself ?

That's correct. Set plays create space. If there is no space your runners need speed and tackle-breaking ability to cause problems. Mini does not have either anymore and therefore relies on space. Until this weekend he'd been starved of this and played terribly as a consequence. That being said most modern day NRL fullbacks have the capacity to break the line with minimal space. Alofa's speed and tackle-breaking ability is superior to Mini's imo, but if we do continue with this structured attack and Mini is good enough to still make the breaks then it comes down to which player is more valuable in other areas such as experience/leadership and defence (tackling, positional play, and communication with the line). And Mini wins out in those areas at this stage. So yes Mini's ability is not up with that of most other NRL fullbacks but if we implement an attacking structure which accomodates for this then it is acceptable.

Go back and look at some of our games in 2008 and you'll see how much Mini benefits from structured attack. They run a play against Penrith that he scores a try off. Run that again next week and we'd look like the Storm.