The only truth is Parramatta were poor in completions - this area we matched them but it also shows how wrong stats can be as quality beats quantity in most cases.
I have seen many comfortable Manly victories when we lost penalties 2-1 & had 40% of possession & won by 40 points - they were clearly better all day & only poor field position made it competitive in the 1st half where they started sets 3 times in our half & scored 3 tries - pretty damning evidence.
As for your observation in slowing down the play ball area its a new game now. Its slowed down by belting the opposition & earning time from winning the contact as Souths & Parramatta demonstated pretty clearly in both games.
BTW - Dont give up the season off 1 game - its a funny game & by next Saturday night IF Manly get the win - the mood & atmosphere here wil be WAAAY different.
I never stated that completion rates were important or even necessary to win games just saying that is one element of the game Parra did not dominate along with not great attack(more Manly issues in defence not Parra exposing weakness through great attack) and their defence was nothing special.
The slowing down of the play the ball comment is in relation to lacking size, dominance in defence and aggression as the option teams have taken since day one of Rugby League and even given the new rules will still be an "option" but with less ways around the interpretation---- the refs will still allow some latitude.
Manly have always used aggressive defence to slow the play the ball down combined with the second best wrestle in the comp behind Melb which helped elevate Manly and Melb above the pack along with better attacking structures and fitness levels.
Manly added size, increased intensity and aggression which Melb lacked to take our game to a new level along with more offloads and more ball playing in general to fatigue defences and create go forward on the edges.
Last year early in the season everyone was talking about faster play the ball speeds but it was all early season enforcement that was over-hyped,(I argued that the game was not much faster at all) by mid season it was back to normal and Souths abused the hell out of it. I do think this year there will be a more concerted effort to speed it up but I hope not it will lead to a boring game in seasons to come, not so much this year.
Always thought this was going to be a tough season with more points against us, lacking penetration and punch in our go forward and aggression and dominance in defence which has been getting worse each year from 2011.(you could even argue in a small way from 2008 onwards but more so from 2011)