First game I went to for 2 years, lured by a Parra-supporting mate. Took my 76-yo Dad, who hasn't been to a live game since 2017 I think, a game where Saints thrashed us at Brookie. Dad was almost done after that (Barrett era where our Def was just rice-paper)
What an event this was! That stadium is super-well designed and an impressive layout. It is very well catered, so you don't have to wait long for Food/Drink/Bathroom at any stage. This was great with my elderly dad - who is still mobile but the drinks kinda go right through him now
We both only found out about the passing of Bozo when it was announced at the ground, and the respect shown to him by all present was admirable - kudos to Parra fans. (Same can't be said for that twat pressing the half-time buzzer to put Garrick off his near-perfect kicking game...just a dick move, hope whoever it is loses their privileges)
As for the game, my Dad couldn't be happier with the boys. We were in Row-5 behind the goalposts so were right up close (One of Garrick's conversions was caught by a young lad 2-rows directly in front of us!), and we had a great view of the defensive efforts that so impressed Dad.
The theatrics of the Parra team were quite self-evident being at the ground, hands in the air almost every tackle begging for something, and I have to hand it to the Ref. Despite seemingly being one-eyed in the first 10-15mins (where Parra already had 7 sets to 3, and 2 set restarts to 0), he took control of the adjudicating back from Gutho and did a fine job thereafter. Jake's binning was questionable however.
The way Manly exploited the obvious weakness of the Waqa Blake/Fergo side was ruthless. That was some well researched tactics. On the other hand, Parra simply tried their up-the-middle barge expecting it to eventually work, as it has against lesser teams all year. It never did, as our forwards comprehensively outplayed theirs.
Their halves became frustrated and looked bog-average, whereas young Schuster was simply outstanding - MotM for mine - and DCE wasn't as good as last week but was clearly more involved than the underwhelming Moses or the invisible Arthur in the blue/gold.
I thought that the Broncos game last week would have shown Parra how well Manly can counter a middle-dominance gameplan, but I guess they aren't as well coached as we are. When that didn't work for them over and over again, Parra simply didn't know what else to try. And, if anyone ever suggests we recruit Waqa Blake over someone like Brad Parker, you don't understand football.
And what more can be said of Turbo - seeing the guy live you can both watch him off the ball as well as how he injects himself into the play. He reads the game in a rare way and that isn't something you can teach. If he can do what Gutho did and return from serious injuries to then have 77 straight games, then we are going to be a contender for years to come.
Good times!