Manly v Dragqueens

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DVS Matt

Bencher
Well it's been settled. 8/8.30pm game on Saturday!

Gas, Coops, Ryles and Creagh are the big danger...with players like Setu playing good footy.

Playing the dragons could be a blessing - give our all in a tough first game and then rest the niggles with a week off.

Put plenty of pressure on their halves
 
8:35pm kickoff


I still remember them ****ers knocking us out and embarrassing us in BKs last game

Friday, September 15, 2006    Dragons  28    Defeated    Sea Eagles  0  At    Sydney Football Stadium  Crowd: 30907

time to return the favour
 
the team that Hasler has to pick imo

1. Brett Stewart
2. Michael Robertson
3. Steve Bell
4. Steve Matai
5. David Williams
6. Jamie Lyon
7. Matt Orford ©
8. Brent Kite
9. Matt Ballin
10. Josh Perry
11. Anthony Watmough
12. Glenn Hall
13. Glenn Stewart
Interchange: 14. Heath L'Estrange 15. Mark Bryant 16. Steve Menzies  17. Jason King
 
Let's not forget they beat us last time at Brookvale and we have a *very* poor recent record against this mob - to the point where they have bogey team status.

On paper it is no contest, but we're playing on grass.
 
Here is our record against the Dragqueens over the last 9 years

R26 St George Illawarra  18 (4-1-0)    20 (4-2-0)   L  28-Aug-1999 Wollongong
R5  St George Illawarra  38 (7-5-0)    12 (2-2-0)   W  13-Apr-2003 Wollongong
R16 St George Illawarra  28 (5-4-0)    42 (8-5-0)   L  28-Jun-2003 Brookvale
R9  St George Illawarra  21 (3-4-1)    10 (2-1-0)   W  09-May-2004 Brookvale
R25 St George Illawarra  34 (6-5-0)    36 (7-4-0)   L  29-Aug-2004 Kogarah
R5  St George Illawarra  6  (1-1-0)    32 (5-6-0)   L  09-Apr-2005 Wollongong
R19 St George Illawarra  10 (2-1-0)    36 (6-6-0)   L  17-Jul-2005 Brookvale
R6 St George Illawarra  24 (4-4-0)    26 (4-5-0)   L  15-Apr-2006 Brookvale
FI  St George Illawarra  0  (0-0-0)    28 (5-4-0)   L  15-Sep-2006 S.F.S.
R16 St George Illawarra  22 (4-3-0)    26 (5-3-0)   L  01-Jul-2007 Kogarah
R25 St George Illawarra  28 (5-4-0)    24 (4-4-0)   W  02-Sep-2007 Brookvale
R11 St George Illawarra  18 (3-3-0)    20 (4-2-0)   L  23-May-2008 Brookvale

We've won 3 from 12, including only 1 from the last 8. They have won 3 out of the last 4 at Brooky. Why the fark couldn't we have just beaten Souths 3 weeks ago and avoided this situation. I have a bad feeling about this game.
 
Matabele link said:
Let's not forget they beat us last time at Brookvale and we have a *very* poor recent record against this mob - to the point where they have bogey team status.

On paper it is no contest, but we're playing on grass.

Shhh the anti-doping agency will hear you.
 
I do have a bad feeling. We should have finished third and got a gimme Raiders game. It is almost like when the Swans play Collingwood - they match up well on us, end of story. We will have to earn it that's for sure. We just have to make sure that we do not allow ourselves to get dragged down to their level like we usually do.
 
Thankfully Matai is rested for this game as their only real opportunity to score is on the fringes.  Choc had better gave his game face on.  It might actually be an idea to leave Choc on the bench for this one.  Worst hands in the NRL and the Dragons dropsy might become contagious.  That and his recent tendency to drop off tackles.
 
We'll smash em - they've done nothing special of late.

The place will be rockin Saturday. Beavers last true game at Brookie, packed house.

Manly will be up for this game after a pedestrian performance against a Panthers team who quit. It was a night off to be ready for this one.

I agree its a bad matchup, the stats above show that. I also think the matchup with the Warriors is bad for Melbourne. You don't think they'll be wound up to play them?.

See y'all there.

NYEagle
 
Eagles 'on brink of best'

By Liam Fitzgibbon |
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/sport/nrl/story/0,26799,24308905-5006066,00.html

MANLY captain Matt Orford says the Sea Eagles are still well off their best but are capable of going one better than last year's grand final loss.

The Sea Eagles ensured two bites at the cherry and a home semi-final with a 34-16 win over Penrith at CUA Stadium on Saturday night.

But despite another impressive regular-season display, Orford said indifferent results during the past month meant the Sea Eagles were heading into the finals with plenty to work on.

"We've still got improvement," he said. "One minute we're really good at D (defence) and not so good at O (offence) and then one week it's the opposite.

"As soon as we put two halves together we are going to be a really hard side to beat and we are going to compete.

"It's a new comp and it's going to be a really good feeling to be a part of this finals series."

Veteran back-rower Steve Menzies agreed, but said the current side was a much more mature outfit than the one that finished runners-up in 2007.

"I think we're still a little bit wiser," Menzies said.

"The last four to six weeks have been a little bit up and down. There were a couple of losses there (to Melbourne and Souths) and then we got back on track.

"It's going along OK and I think the maturity of the side is a bit better.

"But I think all the teams in the semis are a little bit better than last year so we're going to need to be at our best."

Menzies, who will join Bradford in the UK Super League at season's end, suffered a hamstring injury in the win but is expected to be fit for the first week of the finals.

He admitted going out of the NRL with a premiership was in the back of his mind.

"You don't want to look too far ahead but it would be the perfect scenario," he said. "But we've got a lot of work ahead of us before we can even consider it.
 
Hasler quick to point out that shortcuts won't cut it

Greg Prichard | September 8, 2008
http://www.leaguehq.com.au/news/news/hasler-quick-to-point-out-that-shortcuts-wont-cut-it/2008/09/07/1220725856797.html


CASUAL observers might have thought when Manly coach Des Hasler said he was happy with the 34 points his team scored against Penrith, but unhappy with the 16 they conceded, he needn't have been so concerned. After all, the Sea Eagles had won pretty comfortably. But they would have been wrong. Hasler had every reason to stress the point.

You can do all the defensive drills in the world, but defence is mostly about attitude and if a coach doesn't jump on an attitude that isn't good enough, he takes the risk that it will still be there the following week.

Hasler hasn't turned Manly into one of the competition's top teams by allowing his players to take shortcuts. No doubt what he said to the media after the game was just a condensed view of what he had said to his team.

The bottom line is if the Sea Eagles had been playing one of the other top-rung teams and defended as softly as they did on their own line on a couple of occasions against the Panthers, they would have lost. Manly set themselves high standards, so they will work on that this week, with the likely outcome that they will defend with a lot more commitment in the first week of the finals. The better a team is, the more they hate letting themselves down.

Hasler was wary of going to CUA Stadium, since Manly had a poor record there. But the way it played out, for Manly to lose they would have had to have beaten themselves. The Panthers never looked good enough to do it on merit. After the home side had cut a 12-point deficit to two, Manly bit down harder and made sure they got the job done.

Penrith's finish to the season - they were in contention for the finals only to fade out meekly in the closing rounds - has been bitterly disappointing for the club and its fans, and has left coach Matthew Elliott struggling to survive. But the Panthers are certainly not the only side with plenty of good players who haven't gone close to meeting expectations.

Parramatta immediately come to mind. Before their game against the Warriors, Eels captain Nathan Cayless said it was important for them to at least be competitive in their final match of the season, so they could go into the off-season on a positive note. But they let the Warriors, whose away form had been the opposite to their excellent form at home this season, clear away to win 28-6.

The Eels aren't the type of club to sack a coach, but Michael Hagan will be told before next season whether he will be required beyond 2009, which is the final year of his contract. So the chances of him still being there in 2010 don't look good at this stage.

The Eels haven't been into the player market for next season, so if any improvement is going to come then it will have to come from the same group of players.

Cronulla coach Ricky Stuart wouldn't have been happy that his team conceded three late tries in their 28-22 win over North Queensland at Toyota Stadium, particularly as the Sharks pride themselves on their resolute defence, but with the game wrapped up maybe they started thinking ahead to the finals and forgot about playing what was in front of them.

As long as they muscle up again next weekend they will give themselves a great chance of winning.

Cowboys coach Ian Millward made plenty of noise, criticising Cronulla for what he regarded as over-the-top spoiling tactics in the play-the-ball. Stuart reacted by saying Millward must not be "the full quid".
 
Hopefully the Warriors beat the living snot out of the Storm, even if the Storm win, then have half the Ribena Berries limping around for the rest of the finals
 
fark....830 pm kickoff is 330am my time....oh well it will be like watching the premier league  - middle of the night. 
 
We have been off our game since the Storm match. We need a tough first up semi and we are going to get one. If you had predicted who you wanted to face out of Raiders/Warriors/and long shot Drags the Drags would have been the worst option. C&C is right - the Souths game has provided the misery and they double stuffed us with last night's effort.

It is done and the good news for me is the worst thing that could have been is a soft opening finals game and then two weeks off and that isn't going to happen. We would then be underdone for sure. The Queens will come out firing after they forgot to show up on Friday night and in many ways it puts the heat back on Manly who think cruising is going to work at the end of the year.

We have our best line-up (only missing Willo and he would probably be dropped anyway), Lyon showed why we have missed him and we should be good enough. Bring it on, what a great game it will be.
 
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
4 3 1 28 6
3 2 1 10 6
4 2 2 39 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 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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