Re: How the moves & passing game has changed. : Thu Nov 15, 2018 12:40 pm
Lots to admire about the game of yore - but equally, it was often a spectacle of unrestrained thuggery, which has thankfully pretty much gone, bar the odd moment of madness; that's very definitely a good thing.But - I don't disagree that the game has slowly become more formulaic and robotic; with players FT pro, super-conditioned to be strong and fast, and coaches creating a structure that incentivises low risk, high yield plays over high risk, low yield plays - and that's to the detriment of off-the-cuff, skilful players, who just react to what's in front of them; and consequently, it's less entertaining to watch.
Having been involved in the junior game a bit in fairly recent years - it did strike me that even at that level, it was very difficult for youth coaches to develop smaller, skilful players, when their peers were involved in a win at all costs league structure, that favoured big lads barging their way to the try line. Consequently, it's hard to see where the next generation will come from - even in recent years, players like Briers, MaGuire, Brough and Long seem to be a dying breed - hence my defence of players like Richardson and Williams; I want to see more of them, not less.