Bullseye wrote:Two things I’d like to see this coming season…
1. A big increase in the number of offloads we make when in possession. For the past few years it’s been a major development if a player gets the ball away in the tackle – so much so that often his teammates are completely oblivious and the ball goes loose. If support play improves then we might manage a few more offloads too – that will hopefully improve with the promised improvements in attitude and fitness.
2. A big improvement in defence in the middle of the field. Particularly at marker and in the middle of the field when we’re on our line. We conceded some embarrassingly soft tries under the sticks last year. The marker defence should be better without our two oil tanker front rowers I hope. Again, improvements in attitude and fitness should see things get better.
Just to play devils advocate, increasing the number of offloads will not necessarily result in improved results. If you look at the stats from SL last year, out of the top 5 offloading teams only Wigan (3rd) and Leeds (5th) made the playoffs, whereas Saints who were the most succesful team only came 8th in the stats.
Of course, I have no stats for the Championship but would suggest it may not be too dissimilar.
That said, I very much agree with your second point. A more mobile and agile pack will help in both attack and defence as controlling the speed of the game is more important than ever.