see my post on overrated.

Changes to the team i would make would be to have Feka and Hock on the bench every week both play there best rugby and have the biggest impact on the team effort consistantly coming on against a fatuiged defence.

I would demand more of the markers, more often than not we seem to go there for a rest.

I would ask Fielden to find the groud quicker rather than fighting in the tackle getting held up, pushed back and generating a slow ptb.

I would ask our forwards to run in pairs, always having one of the halves or hooker to trail Feka and Hock.

I would use Tomkins as a 13 coming the bench and move Locky forward when he comes on.

I would give Pryce a run in the centres to see how he went.

I would add some work off the ball and dummy runners around the ruck and off our ball carriers wider, nothing too complex just simple plays initially.

Most importantly I would get rid of this move up 3 and hold and would ask the team to increase line speed and be much more attacking in defence.

There we go. Simple isn't it.

Its one thing telling the players what to do and how to play. But its another thing making them stick to the plan once out on the Park.

If they do not and it is consistantly the case, you have to look at the way you are getting the message across or drop them for those that will.

Stop all this take two steps forward and stop bollox in the defensive line. Leeds thought all their Christmases had come at once and we made Burrow, McGuire and Sinfield look something they aren't - good, because they had time and space to pretty much do what they wanted.

Every team we have played apart from those coached by ex Bradford schooled coaches have taken total advantage of this, is that a coincidence?

Leeds played an excellent defensive game on Friday they were up and out of the blocks straight away which cut the amount of time our players had and put them under pressure. Although we made some basic errors a on our own a lot of them can be attributed to the pressure Leeds put us under and they way they made us ‘force’ some passes that just weren’t on due to desperation.

Our defence can be spectacular sometimes especially our goal line defence but a team which includes players like Fielden, Hansen, Bailey, Lockers & even Coley should have a much, much better defensive record than what we do.

The move five and hold as you say invites team to attack us and build up momentum meaning we hardly ever drive them back or win the collision. SL doesn’t have the skill imo of the NRL especially in the HB position so why don’t we get into their faces in defence as some HB in SL won’t be able to handle it at all. Same goes in attack get Tommy in a few times at DH cause he’s excellent at running in broken play and makes bucket loads of yards.

Also I’d like us to be the fittest team in SL and try to play at a tempo high above the norm in SL. This although would require a couple of new players who can start the game at a high tempo not like Coley or Bailey and then we can maintain it with barging runs from Feka and Hock off the bench.

keep the defensive line intact, play out your sets of six and keep an eye on alker.

Don't Panic
Move up as a line
Don't give them an inch at marker
Run in two's
Make Fielden angry

All of that. I would also like to see us support the ball carrier in numbers as we did against Bradford. Wasn't it refreshing to see 3 and sometimes 4 options every time we made a break! Not seen that from a Wigan side too often recently!

my gameplan would be, sit tight wait to be sacked with a big payoff and then take a long holiday

Defence:

Abandon the 2 (sometimes 3) and hold. It isn't working. We are allowing the opposition forwards to get a full head of steam up and then making it even easier by being stood still.

There is no such thing as a defensive line. It is an attacking line. Get in there, meet them and drive them back.

We put no pressure at all on the receivers of other teams. Our A&B defenders should be in quicker to cut them down.

Attack:

More 2nd phase needed. We are making halfbreaks or offloads and not capitalising on them as there is no 2nd phase. In a good team, no forward runs alone. There should always be somebody on their shoulder.

We rely too much on a badly telegraphed inside ball to somebody who is on a Sunday morning jog. If we are going to use an inside ball, it needs to be hit at pace and with an outside runner as a decoy.

Running at markers. We have a habit of our forwards running in on the angle, straight back at the markers. I understand the theory behind this but I think Wigan have proved it doesn't work. Angle the forwards out towards the corner flags. This allows outside runners to pick either an over or under line and can create doubt in a defensive line.

Based on our current squad, I'd have:

Roberts
Ainscough, Pryce, Carmont, Richards
S.Tomkins, Leuluai
Fielden, Riddell, O'Carroll
Hansen, Bailey
O'Loughlin

J.Tomkins, Feka, Hock, McIlorum/Smith

Our attacking line is too flat so our forwards don't have enough momentum and as a result the defence is tiring them out more than we are tiring out the defence. Flat passing can be useful but we need to be able to switch between the two styles of play more effectively. There were times during the Leeds game when the leeds far right attacking line was some 20 odd metres in front of their far left. This results in our defensive line being angled quickly when the ball is passed right to left meaning more space between our defenders and much more open field behind our right wing, an ideal situation for inviting 40/20's or clean breaks.

Our overall inability to switch to any kind of plan b means teams will find a weakness in us early on and exploit it repeatedly.

Not sure if that made sense but I know what I mean.

If most people can see the problems..why can't noble?

How do we know he cant'? For me the only point definitely down to him is the halting of the defensive line (and it's a massive problem IMO). It's impossible to confirm, for instance, a lack of set plays just because you don't see them executed. Once the player get on the pitch it is up to them to put things into practice.

The coach buys the players, picks the team and should be teaching the players a workable gameplan and set moves. If the players are not following the gameplan and using the set moves then they are either not being shown properly (coach's fault), not good enough (coach's fault for buying/picking them), or not motivated enough (coach's fault on different levels, either he can't motivate players, can't recognise unmotivated players, or picks players regardless of their motivation).

On a side note if players have any major issues in their game, which many of our players have, then coaching needs to be geared towards the specific issues (dropping the ball etc.), if this doesn't seem to be working then players need to be dropped regardless who they are and how much they get paid, if anything the higher paid players should have even less margin for error. I wonder how quickly Gaz Hock would learn to keep hold of the ball, when to offload and not to give away penalties if he got dropped for a few games?? Credit to Noble for doing this with Tim Smith this year and I hope it carries on but why was Joel Tomkins only considered last year due to injuries, would Ainscough have been given a chance this year if it wasn't for injuries and how much better would he be now if he had been given some game time in place of Colbon every now and then?

This is what annoys me the fact some people continue to blame the players deflecting from the coaching issues.

I agree 100% with your post. At the end of the day it is the jobs coach to right the wrongs, in 3 years and several of Nobles players added to the squad and several non Noble players removed from the squad we still seem no nearer to correcting the basic issues that in my opinion are holding us back and not seeing us progress.

I don't necessarily disagree with you and gpartin but merely wanted to point out that is not purely a case of Nobby not seeing the problem. Of course he is responsible in the way that gpartin posts but what is he supposed to do, drop them all?
I want to make it perfectly clear I am not 100% happy with Nobby in the way that some on here seem to be (RHJ, AJ, etc). However, once the team has been trained all week and then enters the field of play there is little Nobby can do when Hock has multiple brain farts or Roberts wilts under another bomb.
I certainly agree with criticism of our defensive tactics. I am sick of yelling "move up!" at the telly. However, credit where credit's due. He has dropped Mathers and, apparently, Roberts and has stuck with Sam and Ainscough, even if their eventual debuts owed much to serendipity.
Finally, for those that have rightly sussed me out as a fence sitter, well done!

YES!



I'm sure we would all have a lot of things to change if we were coach but the main thing for me is ball retention

If we have 50% of the ball on Friday we will win

I would tape a rugby ball to Gaz Hock's hand for a day as well

what would i change???

defensive structure is a major problem, the way we move up two yards and stop is poor, id have the lads first two steps being a sprint and then pushh on the flanks, similar to bradford away in the playoffs with the famous powerade bottles, push from the outside in and wedge teams down the middle.

our kicking game i would vary it a bit, come to the 4th and 5th I would split tommy,tomkins,richards and o'loughlin and vary the kicking between these 4.

I would definately demand more from our front row so called bigger players, the likes of stu and coley and I would have these running wider at the ruck, and focus on getting our forwards running at teams dangerman tiring them out- for instance every time feka has the ball against saints run at pryce and/or long.

we also need more of a second phase, when we have used our second phase this season we have made more in roads, but this needs to be composed, for instance i would have my half backs, wingers and centres looking for the offload from the forwards, forwards should also be running in twos, pair up second row and prop and vary the ruck plays.

Another major factor is dummy runners and support play, I would make sure both half backs have protection and a variety of moves. Also Id demand that the players support a break in force and don't leave a player looking around for runners.

if i was the coach, i think id take the m61, or maybe the m62 depending on traffic



oh my god im so funny

Score more points than the opposition.

if i was noble,get on my knees and pray

id try Plan B as the current coach doesnt have one