Quote: DaveO "I am sure the plan was to win trophies and I am sure the plan was to focus on the CC and GF but if you think it was a plan to do so by losing league games and going into finals in poor form you need to get to a psychiatrist.'"
Dave, let me explain something called peaking to you. Something that Wane as a coach has been criticised for not doing with his team in the past and something both he and his coaching team deserve massive credit for this year as in the second half we were running round like it was the first game if the season and Wire were playing with lead in their boots.
Our plan clearly was to hit the ground running and lay down a marker at the start of the season, we blew teams away at a stage when most other teams would also be looking to establish some good form.
During training especially our conditioning sessions the work would have been very short, very high intensity power sessions. The aerobic work would have been done earlier in the pre season and our skills sessions would also have been high intensity, high quality, but low volume.
This would have our lads at the start of the season as close to 100% physically at their peak as possible. The problem is you can only sustain this for so long.
At some point during the season, the high intensity training would change. We would have returned to some more aerobic work in the gym, whilst still undertaking power work the key goal of that period of training would have been recuperation, letting the anaerobic power system replenish, whilst building stamina and muscular endurance.
Rugby league is a high intensity anaerobic sport, the shift in training emphasis would have dropped our players physical readiness to play the game significantly from where it was at the start of the season. Consequently teams started to get over the top of us dominate our pack and results started to fall away.
We basically would have started preparing for a mini preseason during the season, which would have a negative effect on, on field performance and our form.
Once the playoffs were looming you could see we had returned to the low volume high intensity anaerobic sessions. The loss against Huddersfield was when I saw it happening. Certain players started to dominate their opposition again, and in spite of the loss I could see we were building back up to have a good run at the play offs.
Throughout the playoff series we would have maintained this training ensuring the players were physically at their peak.
The process is based around a concept known as non linear periodisation.
The form we experienced going into the play offs was poor, but there were reasons for this, ie the team were in simple terms were conditioned to be in a period of rest and recuperation ( in very basic terms).
You cannot maintain the 100% throughout the year due to the length of the season.
Whilst pre playoff form was not what the fans wanted, and I am sure not what Wane wanted, I am sure it was also something that whilst not desired was something that the coaching team was prepared for due to the player preparation.
2013 should go down as a master class of planning by Wane and his team. I have read countless posts over the years claiming Noble is a genius etc for this, yet I have never seen it done as good as our 2013 champions have done it.
Bitcon deserves a huge amount of credit, as I am sure at times during our run of poor form he would have been tempted to change his plan to improve form, but he kept the faith and last night proved him right to do so.
Give the coaches some credit. This season has been a planning master class. Thank god the coaches do not listen to the fans and stuck to the plan.