Mason a huge loss.....

[maxta]

Both last week against Canberra & definately today....
Had plenty of forwards who wanted to play pretty but not much of the number 1 ingredient - direct, hard & aggressive plays to give the halves time to play some footy....
It was like the forwards wanted to play the trick shots instead of laying the platform, which is exactly what Willie has done -particularly in his past 4-5 games & today this led to turnovers & poor field position.
Even the defence seemed more intent on a gentlemans tackle compared to the Eels who looked like they wanted to maul & hurt our forwards, getting plenty of latitude from the refs at the same time...but why not meet fire with fire - there was no return serve....
With the exeption of Jake the pack played sideways & seemed to lack the tempo, almost like a win would just happen - even playing at only 60% & Parra got a good smell of this early.
Many will say Lyon, Stewart & Matai were not on today but the hard cold fact is they got NO quality ball & had the defence on top of them due to lacklustre momentum up the guts.
Theres always going to be what ifs, but I have no doubt the intensity & direction from Mason today would have changed a very important result, as his leadership & presence would have lifted the pack to join the battle.

 

[sheridanstand78]

Losing Mason is the straw that has snapped our surge. We badly missed his authority and in hindsight we really should have challenged his charge cause it has cost us dearly over the last 2 games. The other telling thing is that Jake T got hurt in Canberra and that affected him today as well.

 

[ManlyBacker]

It was a tough game. The forward hits I actually felt in my bones sitting in my lounge room. Parra came with a big level of intensity and some of those hits must have hurt. We missed Big Willie no doubt.

 

[qldeagle]

You really think Willie would've changed the score line today?

 

[JenEagle]

I thought we looked flat from the first 5 mins.

 

[Shaka1eye]

I thought we looked flat in the warm up.

 

[maxta]

You really think Willie would've changed the score line today?

100% - theres no doubt he would have lifted the tempo - exactly what was lacking.
Also would have played direct & won a few more play the balls...
The conditions were exactly what Manly did not want - a dry pitch would have been ideal & Manly could have got away with more of the early lateral spreads to find the wide spaces - but in those conditions needed big men aiming up through the middle & unfortunately they killed us there.
Right from the outset the attitude was down & in the modern game- its almost impossible to change the momentum even against a lessor team.
Tbh Mason is only 70% of his peak, but still offers more of the tough mental attitude required to get it done yesterday, including the ability to lift those around him.

 

[Orko]

Agreed, would love to give Willie another year.

 

[Loobs]

The fact a 35 year old slow and let's face it - average prop is a huge loss says a lot about our pack this year.

 

[Loobs]

If Willie is here next year our recruitment is a failure. He was a stop gap, not a multi year option. We need young and mobile not old and slow.

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

Or we could judge a guy on how he is playing rather than the number beside his age ...

 

[Fluffy]

Don't be stupid KE, the keyboard heroes will judge everyone on any little thing that they can and not let facts get in the way of a good story.

 

[Loobs]

If they are reducing interchange and attempting to speed up the game, why would want we want the oldest guy in the league? I don't know if you guys have already forgotten this but it took Mason about a dozen games to get going this year, and he only really played well once Jake hit his straps.

It seems our little winning streak has made people forget the other half of the season where our pack routinely got rolled...