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Kiwi Eagle

Moderator
Staff member
Is the only way to describe that effort last night. Was the team talk "We big, we strong, power = win"

We were content to just try and physical them out of the game, and had absolutely nothing else there, so bloody disappointing. Our pack absolutely dominated the match, but brains beat brawn last night. I hate to praise those pricks, but they played smart, controlled footy, well we went in kamikaze style.

The hits were great, but we went to that well far too often and telegraphed exactly what we were going to do and made it easy for them

Positives, a pretty short list

Robbo was far better at Fullback
Perry had his game of the season, he was outstanding
Our pack fronted up and dominated again

Negatives, list a lot longer

Orford, aside from his running game and kick chase, the rest of his game was horrendous
Discipline, I will have a bit more of a say about the refs further on, but it was **** again
Kite, really needed to stand up and was close to invisible for me
Ballin/L'Estrange, both were woeful and did nothing for the side last night from dummy half
Wolfman, positioning diabolical, cost us a couple of tries
Bani, although his running game went up a notch in the 2nd half, for a bloke his size, some of his game is too soft for me at the moment

1 thing I can't really fault them on, is their effort. Watmough is the classic example for me. He is busting his arse, all of his game is played at 100%, but at crucial times the execution is lacking, just like the side. Other I thought that visibly put it all in last night were Matai, Bailey, Perry and probably Robbo

So where do we go from here ?

Wholesale changes are still not the answer for me. In the backline, I read we may have McDonnell coming, so him into fullback, Robbo back to the wing and Bani on a plane to the Sunshine Coast. Irrespective of McDonnell's signing, Bani is not there next week for me, Siniula can have a game.
If we had a halfback I thought was good enough behind him, I would consider dropping Orford, but I don't see any positives in dropping him for next week. A young bloke would be eaten alive up in Brisbane.
To the pack. A couple of small changes could be made. King, although he performed OK for me last night, could be used to send the message out to the players and Rose could come in.
Hall, has played pretty well this season and would be bloody harsh, but I could live with Rodney starting in his place and either Tony Williams or JWH having a run off the bench to see what they have got.
Some will say Lyon to 6 maybe, no way for me. We need him in the centres, and I have no issue with Bailey's form at the moment, with the ball, behind Watmough and Matai, he is looking the most damaging

While I have praised the effort, I must have a crack at the attitude of some. Sure, it is ok to catch up with your mates and have a word after the match, but to see the smiles and laughing that I did after the match was not impressive at all, especially blokes that have bombed chances to win us the match or at least get us back into it. Mason and Anasta are much maligned on here, but look at them after the losses the past couple of weeks, you see them swearing away and looking gutted about things

I will be there watching again next week, but with zero confidence in a win or even getting close. Deep down I am hoping that attitude may see a surprise win, but I am doubting it and not expecting to see it

Our season has now hit the point where I suspect some of my mates are feeling sorry for me FFS, that is how bad it has got !!! They have had great joy in messaging me over the 1st 6 weeks but the last 2 they are going a bit softer, to the point this morning where 1 of them didn't even give me ****, was more trying to offer some words of wisdom



Now, to the refereeing. This 2 ref thing is absolute garbage, the wankers in pink killed the match last night. After about 20-25mins I considered tossing the match in because I couldn't cop some of the crap they were coming up with. Every time the game got going and looked enjoyable, the whistle blew for some absolute ****. The prime examples were the soft, soft penalites they pinged Kite, Blair, Matai and then the Hoffman hollywood one. De La Heras has no clue.

Anyhow, onwards and upwards, they could lose the next 12 in a row and I will still be sitting there watching the 13th ...
 
Kiwi Eagle link said:
Anyhow, onwards and upwards, they could lose the next 12 in a row and I will still be sitting there watching the 13th ...
Good read Kiwi, a lot of valid points. Good thing we had the Beagle years to prepare us for the coming weeks.
 
Great post Kiwi. Very valid and good analysis. Des must be spewing as having played against him he was so competitive and whilst publicly he was a gracious loser, inwardly he hated it. He is very driven and what is being served up will not be pleasing him at all.
 
Great read KE.  Like you I will watch Manly till the day I die, just have to take the good with the bad!

In terms of changes, well, is it really that bad to blood some youngsters against the Broncos... surely if they are good enough then why not??  Maybe a bit of youth and enthusiasim is just what we need.

Give the likes of Hopoate a go at fullback, Roberston back to the wing.  Maybe even Foran a go at 5/8 with Bailey to the pack or bench.  I was even going to suggest Cherry-Evens at half as well but playing a new 6 and 7 in the same game may be a bit too much - but I could live with it.  

Maybe I can dream because we are all pretty sure Des wont blood three U20's in one game!!  
 
You would have to imagine that Robbo would have nailed some of the wing opportunities that Bani didn't take. We are still down on confidence and execution at the back end of a set is just so poor. We dominated the second half in the forwards but the final phase attack just didn't work and Storm's defense was good as always. There was a lot to like and I can't see us getting the spoon but the season looks gone for mine.
 
good read mate.

From the kick off we let it bounce..Ballin was it?

ballin's passes from dummy half are not on the ball runners chest and causes them to baulk or stop, and Lestrange is not offering much.

i thought King and perry for a period tried hard....Kite was busy, and they were dominant over the Storm pack.

watmough tries hard, but too many mistakes...too many.

Stewart is not seeing enough ball but both he and Hall are trying hard.

Cuthbo and Rodney don't add any punch, they are going ok, but I don't understand all the wraps on Rodney

I like orford, but he was awful.

bailey is solid in defence, but offers nothing to our backline, never creates space, an overlap, nothing.

Wolfman tried hard all game, he is just not on the end of a good backline.

Lyon and matai are going well, but Matai still has the silly tendency to overreact. He got shown up by their centre, and joined in the tackle after the storm centre was caught. The he goes and holds him down and shoves his head because he was shown up...on the 5th tackle I think!

Robbo is unfortunate he is in this position, he is improving at fullback, but he is a winger...we know that. bani is struggling to keep up.

The refs annoy me with just pinging penalties for things that happen all game, the penalties in the 1st 20 minutes were ridiculous.

And...I hate when a defender feels they were impeded and fail to continue to the whistle, instead turning and shouting at the ref. This let in a try against us. it reminds me when I played and we weren't going well, we all seem to complain to the ref looking for some slack.
 
Interesting game analysis Kiwi. Pretty accurate.
As for the refs I'm finding a pattern in Manly's penalty counts. In a lot of matches this year all of the early penalties have gone against the Eagles, resulting in possession and position advantages to opposition teams, often leading to tries.
Then it seems that when time is running out for Manly, when the game is beyond our grasp, we'll get a run of penalties to even out the count.
I'm not excusing any of Manly's ill discipline, but I'm sometimes getting the opinion that something very anti-Manly is going on with the refs.
Perhaps I'm too one-eyed, but thats the way I'm seeing it.
 
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
3 2 1 45 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 22 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
3 2 1 10 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
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