Interesting listening to SF’s first interview at Widnes and he said his “style is good rugby although he is unsure on how that looks on the field atm” perhaps that’s just him seeing what players he has etc.
However, I am interested on what makes a manager great in RL. Do they need to be like football with managers like Pep, Klopp, Mourinho etc who implement their styles regardless of results or is Rugby more pragmatic?
Shaun Wane won 3 grand finals but what style of Rugby can you associate with him? Yes, winning is the end result that matters but to turn an average group of players into winners, should managers like Finnigan install a style that makes Widnes better than the players they have?
I think ideally you would love to see expansive attacking football but realistically it's about the most effective way of getting results.
For instance, getting the ball to Mick Nanyn from 10m out wasn't always pretty, but he would get over the tryline more often than not.
Rather have that than trying to play a way the players don't have the skillset to play and fail at.
Some managers try to dictate a style against a player's inclination. That generally is not a great style imo.
TS's line was pretty good , do anything you like, but practise it in training first. Tends to avoid 'good ideas' that others aren't ready for. An attention to 'getting it right'in training has to be a good start surely, in getting all the team together.
You can see in Melbourne Storms game that pretty well everything has been practiced and it usually comes off. That gives someone like Danny Craven a variety of things to use.
Iirc SF was always attack orientated and that is a good start!
I think ideally you would love to see expansive attacking football but realistically it’s about the most effective way of getting results. For instance, getting the ball to Mick Nanyn from 10m out wasn’t always pretty, but he would get over the tryline more often than not. Rather have that than trying to play a way the players don’t have the skillset to play and fail at.
In my opinion, one of my pet hates about modern RL is that every team try’s to replicate the same style, I.e completion rate and how teams defend.
When every team plays the same style, there are only 2 possible outcomes to win the match. Either the team who has better players wins it or one of the teams is just a little better at completing sets and executing chances on that day.
However, if a manager came in and introduced a new style that no other teams plays with then in theory even with less quality players you can win games just based on the opposition not knowing how to handle playing against an alien and niche style of play.
Doug's approach was ' just go out and score more than them'.Admittedly we did have Tait, Offiah, Currier,Myler and Davies in the team!
To be honest, I couldn't care less what the rugby's like as long as they win!
Age might be messing with my memory but in the good old days players like Murphy could come out in the second half, having been kept quiet during the first, and take you apart with kicks or whatever.
The Aussies have systemised the game and analysed it to death, but the scrum halves or coaches who could change tactics don't seem tobe around anymore.