Defence is a chain, and the Bulldogs don’t know how to break it

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All clubs run the same plays and shapes, but those who do it best have specific qualities: speed and reaction.

Cody Walker and South Sydney are the perfect example. The Rabbitohs score most of their tries off set plays. Why? Because Cody does it at speed, and he reacts to the defensive decisions of the team he’s lining up against.

Compare that to the Bulldogs’ set plays, which aren’t done at speed and the defence is under no stress.

Imagine defence is like a chain. On the edges, there are four links to the chain: back-rower, half, centre and winger.

What you’ve got to do as a ballplayer – as Cody does – is break one of those links in the chain, by getting one defender doing the opposite of what the other defenders either side of them are doing.

The job of the attacking half is to make one of those defenders – either the back-rower or the half – in the defensive line make a poor decision.

Cody does this with deception, with bodies in motion, change of speed and dummying passes. But the key is, he does it with speed, and he does it straight. The other part of that, is that the attacking fullback has to come around to create the extra number on the outside to put the defending centre and winger under stress.

The fullback needs speed because if the half does his job and holds up the back-rower and the half, you create the three-on-two on the outside. Reece Walsh and Kalyn Ponga are experts at this.

Canterbury’s halves of Lachlan Galvin and Matt Burton are not threatening the back-rower or the half in the defensive line consistently enough. And, when they do, Bulldogs fullback Connor........

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