Quote: General Zod. "The key element of why we got annihilated yesterday, IMO, was that Shaun Wane is reinventing the idea of how to go about winning a game of rugby league. The cliche of "getting in the arm-wrestle" has been thrown out of the window by Wane and instead, he's directed your team to attack edges as early as 20-40m from your own line routinely. Now I'm not saying that other teams don't do it because they do, but the regularity and execution of how your team does it is utterly devastating.
We've had a million different players on our right edge this year and we've really struggled with our defence on that side in terms of the defensive reading of out the back plays and such and yesterday we had some inexperience out there who where engaging the Wigan man with the ball just that little bit too long and the overlap appeared again and again.
A few back-to-back tries and our huge forwards stated tiring really badly through chasing back all the time - perhaps a strategy why Wane uses these tactics and why your pack seems to be smaller than most in the league but on the plus side they are immensely physically fit and mobile.
I thought before the game if we could negate your threat on the edges early doors and dragged you into a forward battle, that maybe there would be a chance of us turning you over but in hindsight that was never going to happen.
I've looked at the stats in terms of tackles made by both sides in their last two matches before yesterday and they were fairly similar in terms of tackles made and carries so either the game against Cas on Sunday night played at -7degrees on a heavy pitch (a day later than your match) or the physical and emotional effort of the derby game against Hull when the fans probably kept the players going during long periods without possession and some of that time having a man in the bin, or it could have been an accumulation of both.
Regarding the point about the KR/FC rivalry, the vast majority of fans of both sides are not content with simply getting one over on each other - we both want to win trophies like Wigan, Wire & Leeds but what the rest of the rugby league community don't understand is that both sets of fans share a city which makes the rivalry as constant as being a fan of a club itself which is a naturally a more intense dynamic than having rivalries of two separate towns - regardless of what anyone says. There's also the pressure of the local media which target which ever club/coach is doing worse than the other.
Regarding Craig Sandercock, he comes from Aus with a reputation of developing players which is second to none - 7 of his juniors at Manly in 2009 went on to win the Grand Final in 2011 and I know he came to the club and has said there's a world of difference between between the physical development of our young players and that's something he wants to address but it's going to take time.
Yesterday we had the fewest overseas imports playing in our 17 - only 4 so maybe that's the legacy he's been left with and it's gonna take a long time to reverse.'"
Good post but we only had 2 overseas players playing Monday Blake and Richards all the rest apart from Smith and Taylor came through our acadamy .Our chairman in his wisdom is relying on English trained players and not overseas as they are too expensive ,when an overseas player left he used his salary to upgrade the young players contracts .This looks like it is the way to go for the last 5 years we have been building the youth set up and now we have a conveyor belt of up and coming players.Who knows if every team follows suit in 10 years time we could have a great England team.