The Storm Example

[rented tracksuit]

the storm example is if you cheat continually you wont be penalised every time i would hate our club to treat the game the way they do

thats the Belamy factor. Let's not forget this is a club that has introduced some of the games dirtiest tackles and plays. They keep getting away with things because of 3 main things- Smith, Slater and Cronk.

What I found interesting and ironic about the Raiders game was how the Storm got an 8 point try off the back of Cotric leading into the tackle with his foot. The player who introduced that play to the game and has been a serial offender over the years plays for the Storm.

Yes they are a brilliant side but some of their play is not in the spirit of the game imo.

[Guest]

I was really disappointed in our performance today.. the Storm learnt a few years back 2011 that you dont rest players in the final round.. momentum /confidence on the back of winning against the Sharks last week is
important

we could/should have gone into the Broncos game with our tails up

melbourne lost that game by 40 points and we won yesterday napa and guerra are not to our team what slater and smith are to melbourne i wouldnt be looking to that 2011 melbourne game worried

[Game Fowl]

Boogie, you may be right slater plays a big part in the Storms resaults but Napa gives us punch up the middle which puts teams on the back foot and Guerra plays a big and complex part in our defensive line.
Which attributes have more effect on a games results ?

[Guest]

Boogie, you may be right slater plays a big part in the Storms resaults but Napa gives us punch up the middle which puts teams on the back foot and Guerra plays a big and complex part in our defensive line.
Which attributes have more effect on a games results ?

not to diminish napa as a player i think hes integral and you are right the defence is necessary but melbourne fell apart without 2 of their 3 big guns back in 2011 smith and slater were rested and we put 40 on them after spending most of the year down the bottom yesterday we took napa out of the team but still managed to grind out a win against a team in a similar position to us in 2011 i just dont think resting napa and guerra will cause our finals series to fall apart like resting smith and slater did for melbourne

melbourne have also been playing easy games against crap teams lately the last good team they played was us and we all know we were the better team that deserved the win theyre on a huge winning streak with all the pressure of expectation on them if they win the comp itll be a monumental effort but we were in the same position as them in 2015 and it just takes one off night from now on to blow it all up

[Andrew Walker]

thats the Belamy factor. Let's not forget this is a club that has introduced some of the games dirtiest tackles and plays. They keep getting away with things because of 3 main things- Smith, Slater and Cronk.

What I found interesting and ironic about the Raiders game was how the Storm got an 8 point try off the back of Cotric leading into the tackle with his foot. The player who introduced that play to the game and has been a serial offender over the years plays for the Storm.

Yes they are a brilliant side but some of their play is not in the spirit of the game imo.

The serial offender you talk of is a protected species and directly responsible for 3 different rule changes that have been brought in to the game in the last 10 years

[Guest]

Yo I hate the storm yo

[Red_Rooster]

Storm do the little things right. They earn the right to play laterally building pressure up the middle and minimising errors/penalties.

Their wingers are freaks but apart from that I don't think they posess any additional natural abilitiy to us, they have tremendous leadership and emotional composure which means they win 9/10 games.

Robbo needs to get boys mentally right - we play like it's an 8 minute game when it's an 80 minute game. It's frustrating but we are witnessing a team redefining its playing style - hopefully a style we can maintain long term and execute well.

[Guest]

Yo those storm wingers are freaky good yo

[chopstiks]

They deserve to be standout favourites but they haven't won it yet.

This is it. As far as many are concerned it's Melbourne v TBC grand final, before a finals ball has been kicked!
Dont count your chickens before they hatch.

[Game Fowl]

We keep saying how good the Storm is but do we forget that Robbo devised a game plan which came 3 minutes away from winning last time we meet.

[dice]

The Storm example is a losing example. It is impossible to maintain peak conditioning for any longer than a few weeks, and many genuine contenders will intentionally back off before the finals.
2012 - Storm lost four in a row a few weeks before the finals.
2013 - Roosters lost two in a row just before the finals
2014 - Souths lost two of last three games before the finals
2015 - Cowboys lost three of last five games before the finals
2016 - Sharks lost four of last five before the finals

[player 1]

All depends how your forwards go against them- a must to get over the advantage line and have their defence back peddling - you can run them around that way plus kick chase game is paramount too - our attack is very predicable which needs to be addressed - today we got over the advantage line early in counts then went sideways when continuing up the middle was the best move-need to show more patience in attack and build pressure- need to keep going through the middle and better options taken when going wide when we have the defence back peddling.

One thing the Storm do is their players run the ball up hard most times / they move it wide when opportunities exist not hoping they do and as well as quicker play the balls when building this pressure-they have players who are reading the game better in whether to continue up the middle or go wide to create these scoring opportunities including kicking to the open field. We rely on kicks to the wingers too much for scoring tries which nowadays are easily read and limited via the blockers. Robbo needs to address the attack as we are not a big scoring side which then puts pressure on our defence which they need to show more resilience in as well.

Need to eliminate errors and the penalties

Great post. Salient points made.

[Guest]

Storm do the little things right. They earn the right to play laterally building pressure up the middle and minimising errors/penalties.

Their wingers are freaks but apart from that I don't think they posess any additional natural abilitiy to us, they have tremendous leadership and emotional composure which means they win 9/10 games.

Robbo needs to get boys mentally right - we play like it's an 8 minute game when it's an 80 minute game. It's frustrating but we are witnessing a team redefining its playing style - hopefully a style we can maintain long term and execute well.

did you not see how we played against them 3 weeks ago respect the storm but weve got nothing to fear from them

[Thirteen]

You don't win the comp in round 26.

Lucky for us.

[redrooster]

We keep saying how good the Storm is but do we forget that Robbo devised a game plan which came 3 minutes away from winning last time we meet.

The way I saw the game the Storm were ontop for a long time and then the momentum of the whole game changed when their winger did the hurdle jump and we were able to capitalise & get on top.

we werent winning that battle from kickoff, Robbos great gameplan wasnt working unless is the plan was to let the Storm get ontop from kickoff