Pre-Game Manly v Raiders [Round 4, 2022]

[ManEagle]

Speaking of Reynolds, noticed him sucking in the big ones midway through the second half against the cowboys. If the Broncs think he's the answer to getting a top 8 spot, well, they are gravely mistaken..

To be fair to Reynolds it was only his 2nd game back and did suffer Covid so it may have impacted his fitness / lung capacity.
Personally Broncos bought the right player and Souths let the wrong one go.
But that's just me.

 

[jbb/james]

To be fair to Reynolds it was only his 2nd game back and did suffer Covid so it may have impacted his fitness / lung capacity.
Personally Broncos bought the right player and Souths let the wrong one go.
But that's just me.

yeah when trying to climb the ladder, the best recipe is to get into as many tight games as you can so you get to practice the big plays and moments in real game time. reynolds will help that

getting on the good side of the ledger , next step . In a rebuild i dont always see that immediate success as being the main objective when you bring a player like reynolds to the mix. he would be there to build game, to simplify others peoples

the broncos are wealthy, driven and hungry, they will be back,
the thing about reynolds was he was ready, been in the shadows a long time at souths .

but i will have to take others words for it. i hate watching them

 

[maxta]

Maxie .. love your stuff .. but you're dreaming .. if our bench is a desire to bustle the opposition pack ... then I'm bug eyed chinaman..

I realise this
I can't 100% validate we have the players with killer instinct to get this job done mate.... but I do believe Des would be hoping for this....yet far from getting this.
My point here was more based on where we are playing footy, which is running the ball out of danger from our try line, with forwards in many cases still getting back on side and the outside backs taking the hit ups vs the opposition forwards are invited into the hit ups far earlier due to field position.
Forget the bustle part, the key here, is the "location" where we are playing footy in attack, in comparison to our opposition.

 

[mickqld]

yes, I agree BB, very effective runner of the ball, and very dangerous in broken play. Need to mark up on him to cut down his options.

Starling will kill our slow markers out of dummy half and Schneider will again be the rookie outclassing our Ted DiBiase.

 

[Woodsie]

I realise this
I can't 100% validate we have the players with killer instinct to get this job done mate.... but I do believe Des would be hoping for this....yet far from getting this.
My point here was more based on where we are playing footy, which is running the ball out of danger from our try line, with forwards in many cases still getting back on side and the outside backs taking the hit ups vs the opposition forwards are invited into the hit ups far earlier due to field position.
Forget the bustle part, the key here, is the "location" where we are playing footy in attack, in comparison to our opposition.

Understand the negative impact that field position, possession and momentum imply .. our only area of consideration is ..

Is this trend a result of bad luck .. or bad planning.

 

[Eagle 1]

Starling will kill our slow markers out of dummy half and Schneider will again be the rookie outclassing our Ted DiBiase.

yeah..a lot of there attack in our red zone will be based around Starling, no Hodgson now, so, gota watch him.

 

[Ron E. Gibbs]

My point here was more based on where we are playing footy, which is running the ball out of danger from our try line, with forwards in many cases still getting back on side and the outside backs taking the hit ups vs the opposition forwards are invited into the hit ups far earlier due to field position.
Forget the bustle part, the key here, is the "location" where we are playing footy in attack, in comparison to our opposition.

Completely agree, maxta. But a large part of that is because we are getting dominated in the ruck in defence as well. We come out passive, give up plenty of meters, put no pressure on the opposition kickers (and the refs have been penalising any contact on kickers, so it's a risk to be too aggressive on kick pressure), watch Saab get trapped in a corner, and then do nothing to help the other backs get us out of trouble.

It's all about effort. Our forwards need to get back to take some of those tough hit-ups. To be fair, they did show some improvement against the doggies last week, so here's hoping they can keep it up.

 

[Ryan]

Anyone watching Dylan Walker slice apart the Raiders in the 2017 replay on today playing in the centres.

 

[Karshy]

I said to a friend the other day I wouldnt be unhappy if DCE went to Dolphins and we picked up Brooks. Probably an unpopular opinion but i dont think DCE is worth 1.2M or whatever it is and we could probably get Brooks for 600-700k.

Also something that im not sure has been pointed out, wet weather football has been a blight for us over the last 4 season. I can barely remember a game we have won in the wet. This year, 3 wet games, and we are 1-2 we with 3 ordinary performances. Thankfully the forecast for Mudgee is sunny!

 

[Bomb Voyage]

I said to a friend the other day I wouldnt be unhappy if DCE went to Dolphins and we picked up Brooks. Probably an unpopular opinion but i dont think DCE is worth 1.2M or whatever it is and we could probably get Brooks for 600-700k.

Also something that im not sure has been pointed out, wet weather football has been a blight for us over the last 4 season. I can barely remember a game we have won in the wet. This year, 3 wet games, and we are 1-2 we with 3 ordinary performances. Thankfully the forecast for Mudgee is sunny!

I’d be up for this

 

[jbb/james]

Spot on about the wet weather.

We play a style suited to dry footy. Have done the last few years. We enjoy free flowing attacking, spreading the ball footy. Momentum based.

Wet weather brings mistakes. Simpler game plans. We’ve always struggled.

Bring on the sun I reckon. Be interesting to see how we fair when Mother Nature changes.

being nufties last season we had plenty of arvo games
now we are the entertainers we have plenty of night games in prime time

 

[maxta]

Completely agree, maxta. But a large part of that is because we are getting dominated in the ruck in defence as well. We come out passive, give up plenty of meters, put no pressure on the opposition kickers (and the refs have been penalising any contact on kickers, so it's a risk to be too aggressive on kick pressure), watch Saab get trapped in a corner, and then do nothing to help the other backs get us out of trouble.

It's all about effort. Our forwards need to get back to take some of those tough hit-ups. To be fair, they did show some improvement against the doggies last week, so here's hoping they can keep it up.

100% mate - it's a flow on effect from soggy defence....to this

 

[EOL now nesting on the GC]

I’d replace Croker with Lawton!

The thing is with Croker he's just so unpredictable. he's never going to be a top-shelf 9 but as shown last year can do a good job if those around him are laying the platform. rewatching some of our better games from last year and he was actually very good. just need him to get on a roll.

 

[EOL now nesting on the GC]

Finally so Dry footy AND more importantly some daytime footy. we will be much better this week.

 

[jbb/james]

The thing is with Croker he's just so unpredictable. he's never going to be a top-shelf 9 but as shown last year can do a good job if those around him are laying the platform. rewatching some of our better games from last year and he was actually very good. just need him to get on a roll.

moving fwd, croker is an important part of our squad. we just need to make his role a little less vital.

what a great bench utility he would be, covering 9, 6 and 7 and middle defender, hopefully thats why walker is not retained

 

[Fibro Eagle]

Hoping for a bit of a repeat of Manly’s game at Mudgee last year
Where Croker had one of his best games and the backs were unstoppable
A dry track will go a long way towards a victory

 

[Budgie]

Our play-the-balls have been the slowest in the NRL.

This is what I don't understand. First game against the premiers and they manage to turn us on our backs every tackle and we leave them on their tummies every time to the point where we didn't even get to marker much of the time.
They trained for that and, quite clearly, we don't. Why?
It's all very well to have a mind coach but you better have the physical technique to go with that positive thinking brain.

 

[Shoe1]

Sounds like you are saying he's scared or too into self preservation to take the line on?
Which doesn't tally with my observations!
Twice this year he's actually taken a hit-up from a tap penalty straight into the teeth of a set defence!! You can find the stats if you wish but I'd be surprised if any halfback has been tackled in possession more than DCE has this year. Often (I'm guessing this bit) because his supports weren't where they should have been.

He’s not scared, he is just not thinking clearly. The 360s and dummies just play into the hands of the defence. I also think he is an amazing one on one tackler.

In some ways he would be a better player if he did less.

 

[Shoe1]

I said to a friend the other day I wouldnt be unhappy if DCE went to Dolphins and we picked up Brooks. Probably an unpopular opinion but i dont think DCE is worth 1.2M or whatever it is and we could probably get Brooks for 600-700k.

Also something that im not sure has been pointed out, wet weather football has been a blight for us over the last 4 season. I can barely remember a game we have won in the wet. This year, 3 wet games, and we are 1-2 we with 3 ordinary performances. Thankfully the forecast for Mudgee is sunny!

I won’t cry if Dce goes to dolphins, but I will cry uncontrollably if we got brooks. Our junior halves are better.

 

[Shoe1]

Actually if we get brooks, book me into a padded cell and heavily sedate me.