THIS season has certainly delivered a great number of surprises and one of the biggest for me was the flogging the Titans gave the Broncos last Saturday, 46-18.
Geez! I am still struggling to understand how this scoreline happened.
The Eels dishing out a beating to the Warriors, 30-20, is another that really surprised me. When I look at these results, I wonder if a portion of the loss can actually be attributed to what has occurred before the kick-off even happened.
Some teams are mentally tougher than others and it doesn’t take too much of a distraction before the game for some players to lose focus. It could be something that’s happened at training, or even a minor dispute among the team that the coach knows nothing about.
But one thing is for sure, recent results have highlighted that, just as tactics and the physicality aspects of the game are important, if players are not switched on mentally, mistakes and losses follow.
This point is demonstrated clearly during some of the Olympic events we are watching on TV at present.
Some athletes fail to achieve what they were able to prior to their event. In many cases this is because, mentally, they are not able to get to where they need to be for such a big occasion.
Sometimes in the NRL, fans sitting in the stands can see things that seem to be obvious, and then wonder why the players can’t see the same thing.
Personally, I don’t think there is too much going on during the game the players don’t see.
However, if their mental game is not where it should be, they sometimes do fail to see the most sought-after factor of any game – an opportunity.
By being “on your game” – both mentally and physically – it’s amazing how many more opportunities present themselves.
