*Official* NRL 2012 Season thread

[Ausage]

Ahh yes round 1. We had matched it with the Bulldogs eventually going down by 8 points. The year seemed full of hope. They'd put 50 on us at the minute.

[uvelocity]

told you to change it pews

fmd kill me now

[uvelocity]

maiden try and a hatty on the same night, well done korobiete!

making the 8 will be a waste of time if we defend like this though

[Ausage]

Originally Posted by uvelocity

told you to change it pews

fmd kill me now

Lulz.

[uvelocity]

and four! haha

[uvelocity]

Originally Posted by Ausage

Lulz.

well my still being alive means everyone's a winner!

[uvelocity]

(except burgey)

[Ausage]

Originally Posted by uvelocity

well my still being alive means everyone's a winner!

Including Penrith!

[uvelocity]

yep Penrith may receive another visit one day.

monday night extra is such a good show. paying out on clint newton ftw

[benchmark00]

Sounds like a thriller.

#trollinainteasy

[Spikey]

luke burt missed a goal. what a loser #sackhim #useless

[Simon]

Defence not the winner tonight.

[Burgey]

Originally Posted by Ausage

I really like the look of the Dogs (washes mouth out). The ball movement through the forwards makes them much more interesting to watch (and more difficult to defend) than most teams these days. Barba and Reynolds have been punishing uneven defenses all year and picking up Inu and Perrett solidified their edge. I think they're really solid in all areas and will be really hard to stop.

Makes me want to vomit.

Reckon they'll play Melbourne in the final. I'm just conditioned to expect Souffs to give us a good lol moment at some point, while Manly, Cows and Sharks aren't quite cut from the same cloth as the top 3.

PEWS I'm gathering you're a fan of Coote @6 then?

So depressing seeing both Coote and Gordon line up in our spine on the weekend.

The use of creative forwards around the ruck was, along with Hayne's run of form, the thing which really took Parra to the 09 GF. If the offloads don't stick then of course it's messy, but I can't really understand why more teams don't do it, and why it was coached out of Parra since 09 is beyond me. It's probably the easiest way to break up a defensive line in modern rugby league, with the propensity for gang tackling.

[Ausage]

Originally Posted by Burgey

The use of creative forwards around the ruck was, along with Hayne's run of form, the thing which really took Parra to the 09 GF. If the offloads don't stick then of course it's messy, but I can't really understand why more teams don't do it, and why it was coached out of Parra since 09 is beyond me. It's probably the easiest way to break up a defensive line in modern rugby league, with the propensity for gang tackling.

You'd probably remember it a bit clearer than I, but I seem to remember 09 Parra relying a lot more on second phase play to create holes for Hayne/Mortimer. The Dogs aren't doing that so much. Blokes like Pritchard and Kasiano are playing almost like halves, getting the ball one out, running to the line and spreading it wide to a second receiver (often another forward). Except instead of drawing a couple of defenders like an 80kg halfback, they're 110kgs and need to be covered by more players which creates holes for Barba/Reynolds. It's more systematic than Parra 09, but Parra didn't need it to be as Hayne was shredding set defensive lines alongside broken ones.

[Burgey]

Originally Posted by Ausage

You'd probably remember it a bit clearer than I, but I seem to remember 09 Parra relying a lot more on second phase play to create holes for Hayne/Mortimer. The Dogs aren't doing that so much. Blokes like Pritchard and Kasiano are playing almost like halves, getting the ball one out, running to the line and spreading it wide to a second receiver (often another forward). Except instead of drawing a couple of defenders like an 80kg halfback, they're 110kgs and need to be covered by more players which creates holes for Barba/Reynolds. It's more systematic than Parra 09, but Parra didn't need it to be as Hayne was shredding set defensive lines alongside broken ones.

Probably true. But it just shows that you only really need a slight variation from the norm to cause chaos in defensive lines these days, because of the ways they're programmed to tackle. You would think more sides would find their own variations on this theme. One out stuff just gets chewed up these days.