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Text books are NFL staple but for NRL players the list of non-negotiables shouldn’t be understated.
You’ll often hear comments such as, “we’ve reviewed plenty of their footage this week”, or “that was in the game day notes”, or even, “we’ve got to get back to basics”.
For fans though, one thing that grates like an overzealous security guard are unforced errors caused from ignorance of the basics.
If busting lungs and taming 120-kilogram revved-up opponents is hard work, then efficient execution of core skills is absolutely vital.
So with conservation of simplicity in mind, here are five fundamentals in need of a touch up.
1. Forward pass from the ruck
Referees are always first in the cauldron when it comes to missing forward passes from dummy-half.
But c’mon, let’s blow the whistle on the man with the clipboard and simply evaporate the risk.
Since the dawns of laced pigskin, passing techniques have formed the foundation of every coaching manual worth its salt – hand and feet positions clearly illustrated for junior comprehension.
Misaligned hips and shoulders are fraught with danger and in cahoots with poor timing or passing across the body are recipes for extra defence.
It doesn’t matter that the ruck is the most repeated phase in the game; its uncontested format lends itself to perfection.
2. Missing in action last play
Backflip complete, bank account topped, last play ten-metres out. DCE, anyone seen DCE?
Not all the time by any stretch, but how the money-play clatters into the back fence via the boot of a stray forward is anyone’s guess.
Canterbury and St George-Illawarra fly the Bermuda Triangle at the same end of the park, like swollen infected mouth guards have rendered key communicators useless.
After a summer in each other’s pocket and a head full of repetitive drills, how is it that halves can clock-off so often when the points are on?
3. The lottery grubber
Joey Johns once released a video of footy-kicking secrets. Now everyone talks bananas, spirals and floaters.
Latching onto cross-field kicks is due process for wingers these days and designated kickers missing the mark usually end up toiling away at empty suburban venues.
With victory and possession-flow closely aligned, there’s little smarts in gifting your opponent a freebie off their own line with an easily fielded end-over-end grubber kick.
Like the 50:50 airborne play, there’s no reason an attacking kick along the deck shouldn’t be a legitimate contest.
The belly of the ball is key, a roll off the toe is all it takes to induce the kind of sideways wicked-ary that can loosen more than just Manu Vatuvei’s fillings.
4. One handed put downs
Too cool for school, the lazy one-handed put-down – all fashionable until someone loses four-points.
As an eighties kid, laps around the oval were punishment until “two hands and hit the ground with ball on chest” became instinct. I still chuckle at old footage with ‘Moose’ Mossop in commentary roaring a one-handed tryscorer deserves a kick in the pants.
Sneaky-bobble tries all but vanished with multi-angled slomo’s and probably cost Joe Burgess an extended trip Downunder.
Games can turn on the brilliance of an outstretched one-hander, but it’s the thoughtless clumsy blunders that can cause longer lasting damage than a Brady Bunch rerun.
5. The overcooked re-start
Launching white balls over the fence is a Steve Smith drop best mixed with summer.
Winters are entirely different, where conceding points in tandem with clearing the pickets from the re-start is the nastiest taste of all.
Fancy kicking-tees, wind or bad luck, they’re all poor excuses for a lack of judgement and selfishness that can derail the intensions of any side.
But alongside limp touch-finders what’s a helpless coach to do?
Something! Anything!
And for coaches fearing the “full support of the board”, polishing the simple may just save your bacon.
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