Hull KR/St.Helens - Speed of Thinking/Execution

[CasRus]

Has anyone paused to understand what wins games apart from the physical aspect ?

I have noted all season how fast St.Helens are at speeding up play after spotting defensive positioning weaknesses an backing up.

What was interesting to note this weekend was Hull KR as they had some great spots on defensive weaknesses and especially Danny Maguire who has a very quick speed of thought brain who created a number of breakthroughs. It wasn't his physical speed as he is now slowing but it was his mental capacity to spot a small gap and have someone backing him up ready that was brilliant to watch.

Now compare Cas all season - which has been too slow and predictable ! I think that this is because the quick thinkers like Gale has been missing along with a certain Full Back that backed up the play and created wonderful moves - just like Maguire was doing this weekend with his HUll KR team !

The ability to mentally and quickly spot opportunities with speed of thought has sadly been missing with Cas and that goes for covering and shoring up defence.

The team as a whole need to mentally train to think and execute quicker and not be one dimensional in training on the physical attributes that the game also demands.

[tigerfeat]

Danny Maguire is still a top half-back as he showed on Friday and coach Smith as improved there team 100 per cent in a short space of time
I don't think we've had the right men in the key positions all season and really we've done well to be in the position we are in the league

[Morrissey]

Interesting post.

Something I've always thought is the way an average player and a exceptional player is the way they can go off script.

This season for me we've seen quite often when Mata'utia and Rankin have played in the halves especially, not only a lack of creative vision, but a lack of ability to change a move. How many times have we seen players get given a frustrating "hospital pass" where everyone in the stadium can see that the pass isn't on, but because that was the script, the players do it anyway because they lack the ability/vision/imagination to not be so robotic - and then have the skill level to execute the play.

As you say, how many times did we see Luke Gale miss a man and avoid the easy option to give Greg Eden a walk in try in 2017? Gale has the ability to not only attract defenders, but also make a good decision if they read what the play was going to be initially. I guess this comes with experience and growing in confidence too - something Trueman will hopefully develop over time. I do think the presence of Zak at the back caused panic within defences, and gave us that extra guile - it'd be nice to think we could create that again somehow next season.

[CasRus]

In my opinion, I think there needs to be an addition to the player training and coaching where mental skills are trained to spot opportunities in attack and in defence where holes need filling. If you sharpen up the thought processes, it would speed up the play just like St.Helens are doing to the rest which is one aspect in proving to be the difference between them and the rest.

Mental training on focus and concentration is always needed - how many players do you see take their eye off the ball when they have a defence rushing at them and drop the ball !! For me, it should be part of the training program and it's unclear if any of the teams are giving training time to this or just concentrating on fitness, moves, strength and conditioning. Lack of focus and concentration has cost Cas this year in tight games.

Sharpen the Brain to execute the moves more quickly and efficiently to what the coaching is being taught.

Be interesting to know if St Helens are deploying mental training as they are head and heels above the rest and are making teams look as slow as a pack of Donkeys ! That's probably one of the reasons why people are saying the standard has dropped this year when you have one team excelling and which is showing up the rest !

[HuddsTigers]

There's two components to this - 1) players providing options; and 2) backing play up.

We've been severely deficient in both areas this season. It's no surprise that our right hand side improved vastly when McMeeken returned because he makes decent runs for halves.

Our props don't provide the same level of confusion in the middle.

[cogito ergo sum]

I think it is Saints forwards and the speed of the ptb. It gets most teams in the end. When they have lost badly, such as Catalan in the cup last year, it has been the inability to physically dominate.

[Hepworth7]

In a sport where games are won and lost on fine margins it would seem logical to pay attention to the mental aspects of the game as well as the physical and I'm sure,well I hope Cas are doing that. In saying all that,while brains can be trained as well as the body there still has to be room for the intuitive,the maverick if you like,the players who can make you gasp with the audacity of what they are prepared to try. I would question that since the Grand final defeat we have played a less expansive game as much by design as player availability,did the coaching team see that while we thrilled and entertained,tempering it slightly may make us a stronger outfit. Saints seem to have mastered that this season yet as we did have suffered the inevitable blips. What fascinates me are the Opta stats for this season,ours are not the stats of a team seriously deficient in any aspect of the game yet anyone who witnessed us camped out on the Rhinos line a fortnight ago would seriously dispute that,we were clueless and lacked guile and creativity,like entertainment value you can't quantify that as a statistic yet still the numbers say we are where we should be in the table and Saints apart have it within us to be competitive in every game we play. I feel we only have a couple of pieces of the jigsaw missing and the return of Gale and the new signings for next season it gives me cause for optimism