Surprise factor is now left right out
THE chances of the Sea Eagles or Dragons shocking their opponents today with a radical positional change or a surprising new move are almost negligible.
Both teams need to win to keep their semifinal chances alive, but today’s coaches are very conservative with their game plans.
It’s highly unlikely either match, where the Sea Eagles are away to the Warriors and the Dragons play the Panthers away, will be won by a surprise play, such as the scrum move the Sharks used to score the opening try of last year’s grand final.
And the chances of a coach shocking his opponent with a major positional reshuffle at kickoff are almost zero.
NRL coaches can’t be exclusively blamed for their lack of creativity. Rugby league is now a two-hemisphere game. Players come to the NRL trained to be either left or right players.
Forwards come to grade, not only as left and right-side players, but as edge or ruck players.
Ask a player to shift from left edge to the middle and his immediate reaction is likely to be point-blank refusal.
Ask a halfback who has played his school and junior representative career on the right side to play on the left and his body language is immediate and displays extreme discomfort.
So much for the hackneyed line, ‘‘I don’t care where the coach picks me as long as I’m playing first grade.’’
It’s not as if forwards can’t play in the backs. Second-rower Tohu Harris has filled in plenty of times in the centres for the Storm.
With four forwards often chosen on the bench, an injury to a backline player forces a shuffle to fill the position.
Nor is it a problem shifting backs. The Dragons’ Josh Dugan can play right centre and fullback. Kurt Mann has played in the halves and wing for the Dragons. But it seems Dugan is uncomfortable playing left centre, the Storm’s Will Chambers switching to the left when both are selected for Australia.
Opposition coaches have seen these positional switches on video and alert their players to the possibility of the changes.
What about a totally unexpected change, such as St George’s former halfback Billy Smith playing in the centres in a grand final?
In Ian Head’s recently released book, The Great Grand Final Heist, he writes about Balmain’s surprising 1969 grand final win over hot favourites South Sydney, including the shock move of utility Allan Fitzgibbon to centre.
Fitzgibbon, who had sat on the bench in the preliminary final and did not get on the field, described his grand final selection in the centres as ‘‘the surprise of the season’’.
But it wasn’t the only shock. George Ruebner was switched from centre to right wing and Paul Cross, who had scored a spectacular try in the major semifinal, was dropped.
Coaches today would never consider a switch with so many knock-on effects, which effectively meant dropping a player who helped a team reach a grand final for one who had sat on the bench and wasn’t playing his usual position.
Today’s specialisation, where players become left and right, or edge and middle players, begins in the Harold Matthews (under-16) and SG Ball (under-18) competitions.
Up to this point, kids play wherever the ball takes them.
Those who are not identified as future first-graders probably enjoy their football, roving across the field, not regimented by a position.
The chosen ones simply have to start learning to be left or right, edge or middle.
It’s unlikely the Dragons will ever have another Matt Cooper or Ben Creagh playing for them. Cooper started his career as a forward and ended as a centre; Creagh began as a winger/ fullback and finished in the second row.
The Sea Eagles are even more restricted than the Dragons in springing a surprise.
Their best attacking player is fullback Tom Trbojevic, and he could play anywhere in the backline.
But fullback is the best position to attack in today’s game, so why change him?
Scrums were once the only specialised position on the field, with a stocky guy chosen as tighthead prop. Forwards played on the wing, with Wests’ John Ribot moving from lock to wing where he played for Australia.
Now, a scrum can see a centre pack in the front row, a hooker at lock, a front-rower receive the first pass, but for the remainder of the set, players revert to left and right, edge, or middle. The Sun-Herald