Creating one-on-one situations is crucial

Hello everyone, welcome to the 29th ‘Churchie’s Comment’ for the year in your favourite rugby league newspaper — The National.
The SP Hunters returned to the field on Sunday, taking on Souths Logan Magpies at Bycroft Oval, in a game that was ultimately decided in the final few minutes as Souths kicked, regathered before a series of passes saw them score in the corner to take out the match.
We had spent fives weeks in between games. When you have a break of this size, you usually come back clunky. I thought we played one of our best games of the season against the finals-bound Magpies.
When people show me online comments, one of the usual ones in regards to PNG rugby league is reference to one-out play or car-bump football. One of the things you have to love about PNG rugby league is the physicality of it. The world rejoices at images of Marcus Bai, Stanley Gene and now Justin Olam fearlessly charging into the opposition.
The brute force in which our players run is something I have longed to harness. The game is so structured defensively these days and you have to move them around to spread them apart before you can get to play through them. The staff have been coaching our players to get wider off the play-the-ball and receive the ball at speed and play with numbers around them. This is the best way to harness our intent, a rather simple idea but the goal is to create one-on-one situations for our players to maximise their natural ability.
The weekend was the best we have been at trying to implement this game plan. We played with great width, a lot more players in motion and dented the defensive line more and played on the front foot. It was an attractive brand of football with us often rolling down the field, averaging 53.4m per set compared with Souths’ 41.8m. We also created eight line breaks compared with Souths’ one.
We ultimately came up short in a tight contest. Normally, when you concede five tries, it’s never a cause to be pleased with your efforts. On closer inspection, four of Souths’ tries came by way of kicks, three off their own and one off ours.
Our communication, something we have been also working hard on, was the loudest we have been since the early rounds of the season.
When you play at this level or above, the game will at some stage become an arm wrestle. Teams go set-for-set, trying to apply pressure on the opposition in the hope that they crack. The best way to do this is kick effectively, if you complete your sets and kick well it suffocates the opposition for possession and field position.
This is where we came up short, six of our second-half kicks were ineffective. We either kicked straight to the opposition, over the dead-ball line or put up kicks where our chasers just didn’t compete for the ball.
What a treat for rugby league fans over the weekend in the Digicel Cup. Congratulations to Lae Tigers for reaching yet another grand final. The Waghi Tumbe-Hela Wigmen clash was one for the ages. Good luck to Tumbe and Mendi Muruks in the qualifying final to see who will face the Tigers in the grand final.
Until next week, stay safe, play safe and let’s all respect and be kind to each other.

Cheers,
Matt