But will the slowing of the game mean that players will have to be cleverer and ultimately more skilful to break a defence down. In the 80's the play of the ball was painfully slow but the skill of players like Gregory, Hanley, Edwards, Woods, Myler etc seemed to be better than that of their modern equivalents.

I posted on the Leeds site about the current trend of teams getting three and four men in the tackle.

Some of our more mature "old gits" will remember the great Brian Mctigue. He would have loved that sort of defence. He would just have drove into the tackle and the ball would, as if by magic appear into the hands of the likes of Tommy or Sam.

The game is obsessed with speed of the play the ball and scooter hookers. The real ball playing forwards have been lost to the game.

There was no tackle count then though so their was no real rush to get up the field?

Last night was dire to watch and I don't think international rules has much to do with it. I initially wanted Storm to win but the way they were slowing Leeds down started to annoy me to the point of subconsciously changing my mind.

I'm very happy that Melbourne got the win.

I've had them as my NRL team for a number of years (since they came over to play Saints a few years back).

Anyway - Yes, they wrestled to the point of frustration (and beyond in Keith Senior's case), but that's the sort of game that was needed last night.

Let me expand on that:
They were playing a pre-season match against a team that's 4 games into its season
The weather was HORRIBLE - Cold, extremely wet and not at all condusive to the runaround game (although they did much more passing than I expected).
They (by which I mean BOTH teams) had obviously agreed the rules before the match, and Melbourne were far better at working within them than Leeds.

As I said earlier - I'd be happy for us to grind out a win EXACTLY like that when it's required, as for too long we've played in the same way come rain, shine or whatever and it has cost us plenty of points.

If we're playing a tough, defensive team, let's get our defence on top of theirs and grind them down until our wingers can take advantage.

If it means the odd "boring" win then fine, I'll take that quite happily - Just as long as we go flat out in attack wherever and whenever we can (like Friday night).

As for this week - I reckon we should go for the steam-roller approach.
Bradford are pants in all honesty, and anything less than a 10 to 20 point margin means that either they've improved massively within a week or else we haven't tried hard enough.

Dick Silverwood - loved his impressions of screech from saved by the bell last night when calling out the plays, held and surrender. Had he swallowed the pea from his whistle or what????

yeh agreed 1 penalty given away friday night was spot on. Any team that gives very few penalties away is in with a good chance of a win these days. There are so many teams that close to each other in terms of ability and speed. 1 penalty could make all the difference.

Leeds have no right to moan. They were beaten by a far better side. Richard Silverwood is an awful referee, but that is not why they lost.

I think Melbourne would have loved nothing more than to get a quick PTB. They have the best hooker in the world in Cameron Smith and if it was that type of game they would have torn Leeds apart. The conditions didn't allow for it though.

the conditions were certainly a leveler

Of course they were.

Play the game on a dry field in Melbourne and Leeds would get whitewashed.

Stevo definitely is. That's why Australian backs are so much better than our current crop imo. In Super League in the past it's been easy for teams to just scoot early in the set and make easy yards downfield without having to play an awful lot of creative rugby. If the SL refs gave defenses time to get the line properly set it makes the attacking team work harder to move the ball and score, which is what everyone wants to see

That is essential IMO. The best players will be easy to spot this season if they have less time on the ball. Players who thrive on quick play the balls will be none existant e.g. Leon Pryce.

I re-watched the Wire game last night and we weren't far off doing the same. Very rarely did we get off the tackle before Homer called 'move'

Enjoyed reading this thread & there's some well reasoned posts.

MHO for what it's worth is that Melbourne couldn't have played it any other way than 'to the ref' in such wet & heavy conditions. Only Melbourne & Canberra have games on cold wet grounds,though never as bad as Elland road was.This is why G I was almost non existent as an attacking force & why a gang tackle defence was so effective,(a little needling didn't hurt either). I see no reason why playing to the ref should not serve Wigan well on heavy grounds,whilst still playing a fast paced,offload attacking style of game on fast dry grounds. What many see as slow,dour or spoiling defence is only so if it is not done skillfully & as the conditions dictate.

Here's to a great 2010 season for Wigan