Wests Tigers coach Tim Sheens is fully aware of the reasons for his sides slide towards the bottom of the ladder, but he can’t seem to do anything about it.
But how do you instill discipline into a group of players who should know better?
“We just gave too many penalties away,” Sheens said yesterday, after his players not only reached for the self-destruct button, but belted it continually until it broke.
“We walked them down there, we walked them down, we walked them down.
“We’re the most penalised side in the comp so we’ve got to do something about that.”
The veteran had just seen his players throw away a 16-4 lead against South Sydney with four minutes to go.
They lost 17-16 in golden point extra time, with Rabbitohs fullback Greg Inglis scrapping over one of the least convincing drop kicks you’ll see for some time.
For once it wasn’t the usual easy target Benji Marshall to blame. No, in fact, the New Zealand international was brilliantly boring.
That’s not a pot shot at the five-eighth, but a compliment.
Far too often Marshall tries to produce the spectacular when the mundane would be more effective. Yesterday, he made sure Wests completed sets, kicked long into space when it was required and made fantastic reads inside the Rabbits red-zone.
They played for field position instead of flick passes, and the pressure and their lead mounted because of it.
Only once did his natural instinct almost cost them. Leading 10-4 with 18 minutes to go, Marshall produced a chip-kick from his own 40m line on the fifth tackle.
South Sydney fullback Greg Inglis was wise to his plan and gathered up the bouncing ball. The set started close to the half-way line instead of deep in the Rabbitohs own half.
Luckily for Marshall the Bunnies didn’t make them pay on that instance. Instead, the barely believable loss boiled down to rookie errors. Strips, offsides and attempts to slow the speed of the ruck down.
Wests have conceded 39 penalties this season and have won just one of five penalty counts so far. The Eels, for all their woes, have been pinged by the pea just 26 times.
A 9-3 loss on the penalty count against St George Illawarra in round three was backed up by an 8-3 loss to Canberra the week after, and yesterday’s 9-5 tally in South Sydney’s favour.
Sheens would’ve shown his side these figures. He’d hope that the implications would be starting to sink in this morning.
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