Eels crack the Rabbitohs’ code

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With predictable attacking structures dominating the competition, regular NRL 360 guests Mick Ennis and Benji Marshall gave their opinions on whether the Eels big upset win over the Rabbitohs had uncovered a formula for beating the reigning premiers. “What that win did show was that a lot of teams these days are so good defensively because of the structure that is so common throughout other teams that when you atsrt to throw unpredictability at them it takes them out of their comfort zone defensively,” Ennis said. “That’s when you get tested. “That’s why people always found Tim Sheens’ Tigers back in the day — when all the structure and block plays started to come in — would beat a side that had been travelling well for a period of time. “They’d bring them undone because they played such unstructured football. “... All of a sudden they play a side so good at defending structure and you get Marshall and Farah and those blokes changing angles and pushing into holes and playing that support football, and it creates havoc.” NRL 360 co-host Ben Ikin agreed and revealed that there was a growing school of thought that the better teams were throwing structure out the window to score points. “Brad Fittler said that the other night on Friday night football that he felt the game had moved past being all about attacking structures,” Ikin said. “The teams that were prepared to throw a bit of caution to the wind, sure have a base foundation of attack to build on, but it was the jumping and darting from dummy half with a late offload or a tip on or support play or a bloke poking his nose through — that was the stuff that was getting the better sides their points.”

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Eels crack the Rabbitohs’ code