Manly verses Melbourne - My Analysis

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NYEagle

Bencher
Overall:

Not to worry. This is just a good hitup, you could never have expected Manly to win on a 5 day backup. A decent performance under the circumstances and a chance to get Cuthbertson some fitness, L'Estrange, Hall, Bryant and Co. some fitness as well. Will only do us good in the long run.
I'd rather we get easily beaten and not exert too much than get hurt than bust our guts and lose by two points and then lose the next two weeks..
I don't think this game will do Manly any harm.

The Negatives:

The referee: DISGRACEFUL - you saw it, no need to comment further. Archer makes me sick. He is the worst referee in Manly games and is a bona-fide idiot.

Matt Orford: C'mon everyone, how much evidence do we need?. This guy is an ordinary footballer. Solid but unremarkable. The reality is, if Manly want to make the next step [win a grand final] get rid of this guy. He's predictable, limited, and boring. I wish he wasn't here. We have such a great footy team capable of top notch defense and some decent backs. This guy is our archilles heel.
And if I see his [un]inspring tale in the papers again I'm going to do a ritual burning outside of Brookvale.

The halves: What do we do?. Any suggestions?. This aint working.

The Postives:

L'Estrange: Very impressive!. Great speed from dummy half!. This is the guy to take over from Ballin who is ordinary. Do it now.

Greg Hall: This fellow needs a suntan, but what a great footy player. I was also delighted with Cuthbo who just took on the line and held the ball this week, and Bryant was great too.

Jason King: Great game!

NYEagle

P.S: Billy Slater is off the charts. He'll get the Aussie jumper. I hope they put in Stewart as a utillity, but I doubt that will happen.
 
Watmough was going great before he got injured
Bell, Williamson, Bryant and Orford were Pedestrian tonight
 
NY, I'm guessing your half full glass is filled with tequila and has needed about 30 re fills with those positives.
 
I thought Bani did some good things and deserved his try.  Hall was good.  Bryant needs to stop backing into tackles, it slows his play the ball.  We need to look at that aspect of our play across the team.  The rise to play the ball is way to slow as we were turned in the tackle regularly.  The Storm set the pace and we need to train up. 
 
Bani, Lyon and Hall were good IMO. Stewart won't be playing in the Test, Orford won't be playing SOO (not really surprising).
 
tbh, i didn't think we were terrible tonight, and against a lot of sides in the comp may have walked away with the points.

Melbourne went to another level tonight, Archer assisted, and we handled the majority of what was thrown at us pretty well i thought, a lot of sides would have been 50+ against them. Same thing in attack, their defence was amazing at times as well, we threw a lot of different things at them which i again think we would have scored with against some other opposition.

We weren't great, but it isn't get the noose out time just yet, they were very very good, we were just good and couldn't go with them. Got destroyed at the ruck, of course it is never going to help when they are allowed to step over the tackler making him ineligable to be a marker, and exploit that. Also a tackle in the 1st half comes to mind, where Lyon went close to scorng and they were allowed to hold him down for half an hour and fix up their line

Lyon and Watmough both getting injured threw a massive spanner in the works pushing Williamson into 6.

Lyon was very dangerous in the 1st half, Watmough had a beauty and Hall played very well too, and should hold onto a spot no matter what next week.

Bell is looking like he has lost him pace and confidence, sad to see coz he was a damn good player.

For next week, L'Estrange to start over Ballin, he offers more at the moment for me, Hall to keep a bench spot, if Matai fit straight back in for Bell, maybe time to give big Jack a run too. Not a big fan of Menzies at 5/8 but looks like we have to leave him there
 
Kiwi Eagle
Great analysis. I agree Lyon and Watmough were great and the team overall played well against a hot team. I think they were 'up' for this game than we were. I think after 18-0 Hasler decided it was a fitness producing game for some of the bench folk. Smart tactic for the overall season strategy if you ask me.
Bell looks as light as tissue paper doesn't he?
And I also agree whats with the play-the-ball? - they held us down all day and we weren't allowed to touch them. Again, referee, AWFUL.

Silentbob:

Cheers!
Jay
 
We didnt really have much choice with the extra time for the benchies either, Lyon off used up and interchange, as did Watmough leaving, so Cuthbertson and Hall had to step up and fill those holes.

a couple of things i forgot to add

The Storm crowd are a pack of merkins, hate listening to them in the background

NFL scouts were in attendence tonight and were very impressed with Smiths passing game
 
Generally agree with most of what Kiwi said but I'd throw $50 on seeing the same 19 named to play on Tuesday arvo though.

I almost threw a tantrum over that Lyon tackle, there was enough time there to throw in a commercial break.

It's obvious Melbourne are very, very well coached and take advantage of every little aspect they can, Manly look like they are coached to play a good honest game of footy, it doesn't work.
 
That tackle on Lyon, I think the whole apartment block knew I was not happy with that.  How that was not a penalty is beyond me!!!!!
 
Bellamy is the smartest coach in the league by far.  His ruck coaching is great and we should emulate it.  Drop front on to the ground to avoid turtleing and spring up for a quick play the ball, very up tempo.  Our play the ball was slow and there's so fast we gave away cheap penalties.  Archer gives us 3 seconds and gave them 6 to get of the man. 
 
Archer squints so much you'd have to think there are problems with his eyesight.  And wasn't he also a postman or something?  Makes him about as intelligent as our halfback.
 
I am a Ballin fan but agree LeStrange has it all over him at the moment

Oh why can we not get a decent referee of the play the ball
 
Try watching the game on delay in Qld with 15 adds every ten minutes, thanks for ruining rugby league news limited and Channel 9
 
LeStrange is playing much better than Ballin at the moment. Every time LeStrange is on the field we seem to make more meters and have a flow about us.

Bellamy has coached the storm to 'stretch' the rules. How many attackers are allowed to stand in the defensive line? How far can you crawl and hop forwards before playing the ball? how long can you hold an arm of a man playing the ball? or how many times to their markers stand nearly side by side and get away with it?

Lyon looks good in the centers, leave him be. I am very, very happy with Bani. Twice the player I expected him to be this season. Can't wait at all until Matai gets back. Bell needs to find a new club or move on from 1sts.

Hall in for Bryant, forgot just how solid he is.

Just on a probably more controversial note, does anyone else think Glen Stewart is looking a little lazy so far this year? For mine, of all the starting forwards he needs to pull his finger out.
 
Replacements make more metres as they come on late when the defence around the rucks is tired. I don't knock Ballin and I hope people notice how much he does in defence.

I thought there was a lot that was good with the Eagles tonight. A decent ref and we could have been closer. They were too good, but give us a decent level of possession and play the game elsewhere and we might have a shot. We can improve - they were hot.
 
There may have been some good signs and I wouldn't be surprised if we could beat every other side in the NRL but that's not good enough, Melbourne are the benchmark and we are no where near it, coming 2nd sucks.
 
NYEagle your spot on mate.

We did only have 5 days to recover you could see that on our players faces. Who ever does the draw is off it. Plus going to Melbourne Plus the crook decisions tonight
well it seemed like nothings going our way.
But when we play them again at Brookie it will be different if not well I don't have a clue what else is there.
 
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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