Quote: Bullseye "He sees himself as a backrower so his stats on defence should be compared with them rather than with halfbacks don't you think?
Whitehead's done a lot more minutes than Diskin this season so that's not too much of a surprise.
It's difficult to be sure about the reason for that. Are we in defence for less time? Don't think so. Is the work shared out more? Dunno. Is it a good thing to be in the top 20 at all? In the top 10 only Farrell and JJB of the top sides figure.
Possibly, are we weak in defence as a team? Is that what you're saying?'"
Overall I'm saying that our ruck defenders (the front row + loose forward) are collectively not getting off the line quick enough to shut down the opposition play. It's not that we don't have good defenders in the middle, it's that overall we don't have enough and Langley and Diskin, two of our best ruck defenders have struggled this year. Hence, the opposition is getting to our edge defence far too often. Best part of 400 tackles for a ball playing 21 year old half/back row plus the same for a 23 year old strike second row is far too many. As we've fatigued due to games plus injury we've got worse. It's about quality plus numbers and we don't have enough of either in the middle.
I'm not saying 50 MTs is OK just that there's a lot more to it.
