Northland vs Auckland
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@gunner said in Northland vs Auckland:
Fuck a duck, Northland were hopeless.
Plenty of ball in the first half but couldn’t do much with it.
Second half, why’d they even bother coming out of the sheds.Made an ‘Average Joe’ Auckland side look like world beaters.
Average Joe is a bit harsh, it’s a young side but there is plenty of talent.
In the second half Auckland played well and dictated what Northland could do.
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@kirwan said in Northland vs Auckland:
@gunner said in Northland vs Auckland:
Fuck a duck, Northland were hopeless.
Plenty of ball in the first half but couldn’t do much with it.
Second half, why’d they even bother coming out of the sheds.Made an ‘Average Joe’ Auckland side look like world beaters.
Average Joe is a bit harsh, it’s a young side but there is plenty of talent.
In the second half Auckland played well and dictated what Northland could do.
I was possibly a bit harsh on the Taniwha and not giving Auckland enough credit, but I’ve come to expect a lot better from us over the last couple of years.
Hopefully the lads bounce back and put in a good performance next week.
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@kiwimurph said in Northland vs Auckland:
What's really encouraging is how organised the team looks on both attack and defense despite not a huge amount of experience.
Especially in the backline, which is very young, these guys are having to learn on the job and are making a decent fist of it and clearly look well drilled. You'd have to think coaching is playing a huge part in all of this. You'd have to think this much more beneficial for their development than being stuck on the bench whilst an 'experienced' (journeyman) player starts in front of them.
Ted and Lavea have been massive additions to the coaching group.
Ted's done a great job with the defense so far. We lead the comp by quite a bit with the least amount of missed tackles(16) and have the best tackle completion percentage(94%). Line speed has been fast and consistent throughout the games. We haven't faced any rock star attacking teams, but it's still nice to see.
Our attack looks far more threatening with Lavea in charge. We're not over-reliant on individualism like the past two seasons. We're making a lot of linebreaks, putting players into space and creating plenty of scoring chances. We still could polish thing ups though, but it's a good start.
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@dice said in Northland vs Auckland:
@kiwimurph said in Northland vs Auckland:
What's really encouraging is how organised the team looks on both attack and defense despite not a huge amount of experience.
Especially in the backline, which is very young, these guys are having to learn on the job and are making a decent fist of it and clearly look well drilled. You'd have to think coaching is playing a huge part in all of this. You'd have to think this much more beneficial for their development than being stuck on the bench whilst an 'experienced' (journeyman) player starts in front of them.
Ted and Lavea have been massive additions to the coaching group.
Ted's done a great job with the defense so far. We lead the comp by quite a bit with the least amount of missed tackles(16) and have the best tackle completion percentage(94%). Line speed has been fast and consistent throughout the games. We haven't faced any rock star attacking teams, but it's still nice to see.
Our attack looks far more threatening with Lavea in charge. We're not over-reliant on individualism like the past two seasons. We're making a lot of linebreaks, putting players into space and creating plenty of scoring chances. We still could polish thing ups though, but it's a good start.
Remember we got thrashed by non rock star teams last year, so this has been a massive improvement
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@taniwharugby Ted was in the coaching box and by all accounts read the riot act at halftime.
@Dice Well put. It's amazing what some quality coaching (and selection) can do. It's very refreshing after the bumbling Blues and Nick White's previous 2 Auckland campaigns.
For all the loud noises about Akira not being involved enough (coming from Jeff Wilson who was a failure as a coach himself...) I quite like that he is able to pick his spots in attack a bit more and not have the whole attack go through him. It's working much better.
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@kiwimurph yeah assumed he was up there, but just noted he wasnt on the field...maybe they needed him to get a rocket up them form the outset instead of waiting until half time.
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@african-monkey I honestly think we shouldn't of loaned him out, especially to a fellow Premiership team. If I was in charge, I wouldn't help the competition.
When he scored and did the Mako celebration, I started to worry that he's enjoying it a bit too much down there. When he's off contract, we might have to fight extra hard to keep him. That was my biggest fear when I heard we loaned him to Ta$man.
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Yup agreed @Dice and @KiwiMurph . I wouldn't have cared if we loaned him to Southland or Manawatu or someone like that but not a top premiership outfit.
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@african-monkey I thought Auckland had vowed to stop loaning players at all after James Arlidge
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@taniwharugby I remember we bought him back after that awful loss to your mob in 2001 for the 2002 season, we lost the opener to Taranaki and he wasn't seen again for us haha it was as if we bought him back as payback for that game.