The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly report - finals week 2 2013

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After so narrowly going down to the Roosters in the most brutally defensive war of attrition, a week two final just six days later loomed as a physical torture test. Could we somehow find a way to survive the Shark attack?

by CF2

Player ratings:
Peter Hiku: Another outstanding display from the Manly rookie of the year. Safe as houses and ran the ball as hard as he could all night for 20 runs and another hugely impressive 230 metres. Needs to learn how to find the right pass but that will come.
Jorge Taufua: Bollucked his way through 16 runs for 175 metres, and just held on to the ball long enough to plant the critical 2nd half try, going close again for a 2nd that would have cemented the match save for Gordon's desperate tackle (that looked suspiciously close to a shoulder charge).
Steve Matai: Some vital busting runs in those last out of gas 30 minutes but we will need a lot more of that next week, then again that goes for everyone.
Jamie Lyon: Is it a bird, is it a plane, or is it Captain Courageous? Looked to have been down for the season count with some an awful leg injury (that thank the northern beaches god turned out to be just a cork). Miraculously got up and survived the last half hour, including the brilliant split second thinking to go back inside to send DCE over for the winning try. Inspired performance.
David Williams: Took the ball up with the usual vigour matching Jorge's runs with 17 for 161 metres, but there's those lingering alarming defensive misreads, and tonight a simply horrendous one on one miss to gift Cronulla's Wright a shattering try that could easily have led to costing us the match. Homework needed.
Kieran Foran: Simply inspirational gallant performance, putting every ounce of his body on the line for 80 gruelling minutes, and going within a whisker of a sensational solo 2nd half try.
Daly Cherry-Evans: Ditto Kieran. In everything for the entire 80 mins, layed on two match winning try assists and backed up Jamie's clever inside ball to score what turned out to be the sealer himself. Brilliant.
Glenn Stewart: The usual defensive rock of gibraltar, but limited opportunities in attack and seemed to have trouble finding the right angles. Clearly missing Brett too.
Justin Horo: Monumentally tireless workhorse for 80 gruelling minutes. Smashed late in the 2nd half from a hit that literally made him throw up, but simply shook it off and went back to battle. Hats off to Horo the hero.
Anthony Watmough: Cronulla would have needed an ocean of Sharks to stop the Choc Rock. 16 runs, 165 metres and 28 tackles, all on one leg, or was it half of one leg? Inspired seems to be a well overused word here but there's none more apt.
Brenton Lawrence: One of the best first halves of any prop this season smashing through the line time and again. Superb.
Matt Ballin: Words fail the machine that is Matty Ballin. How on earth he continues these physically awe inspiring efforts, racking up 50 odd tackles every single week for 80 minutes, is well beyond anyone's belief.
Brent Kite: The Landcruiser combined brilliantly with Lawrence in the first half going so close to a well deserved try, before understandably like the rest of the 17, running out of fuel in the 2nd. Even more significantly, it comes to light that he's doing all this with a busted right hand forcing him to play left handed. Hero.

Bench:
Richie Fa-aoso: Quite how anyone can play the toughest sport in the land 6 days after being knocked out cold, (not to mention how they are even allowed to, but that's another story) is beyond baffling. Courageous performance.
Jamie Buhrer: As always worked his butt off. His lack of penetration through sheer lack of size (not effort) worries me. See comment below.
Tom Symonds: At the risk of being boringly repetitive I am STILL completely baffled by the lack of match play Symonds gets, particularly when we so badly needed a fresh BIG body out there tonight. But perhaps Toovs knew better to hold him back for the last 20 minutes when the tank was empty?
George Rose: As always smashed it up the guts as hard as the big rig could go. Great stuff.

THE GOOD:
Winning.
Our fearless rookie fullback.
Our machine no. 9.
Our never stop working pack.
Our inspirational super champion halves.
Our courage and sheer guts beyond all belief when the opposition, led by the frighteningly unstoppable Fifita and Tupou, could not get through the fortress gates one last time.
(and whilst this is a rare moment, let's add Hayne and Klein to the good, given they made the right critical calls all night, including sending Gallen and his foolish no 9 away to sook).

THE BAD: 
The defensive lapses, including an alarming 46 odd missed tackles, but let's just go to the ugly.

THE UGLY:
The most crippling physical toll of all time after being forced to back up from the Roosters torture.
Just how we managed to cling to the edge of the sinking boat, with a school of ravenous Sharks tearing holes in us for the last gruelling 30 minutes, is absolutely beyond anyone's comprehension.
Worst still, just how we can possibly recover in a week to face the most physical side in the comp next Fri night, including those monster Burgess boys and of course the hulking Inglis, is painfully perplexing.

SUMMARY:
With no disrespect to either side, a better team than the Sharks should have shredded us in the end given our petrol light was not just blinking, but flashing madly out of control.
However as it happened they just didn't quite know how to do it, and our impregnable defensive fortress and steel trap minds refused to allow it.

Our so called contentious tries? Please. Matai's first half knock back was CLEARLY backwards leaving Choc free to collect and touch down. Taufua's? Looked certain to my eyes that he grounds the ball both inside the chalk and with downward pressure before it's knocked lose. The acid test is how would we feel if THEY scored off those two plays? I would hand on heart say I couldn't say no to both tries.

As for the thug Gallen's mind numbingly boring complaints, none were more infuriating that his incredulous "everything's going their way" rant to Hayne when his try was disallowed, yet of course replays showed John Morris' offside tackle on Matt Ballin, a player standing in DEFENCE no less, was as 100% obvious as any penalty could be.

Shane Flanagan? Seriously is that bloke related to Neil Henry? The only thing he has any right to whinge about is why his team weren't able to figure out how to bury our walking dead.

It may not have been pretty, but one of the most death defying, guts on top of guts wins in the clubs 66 year history deserves standing ovation praise.

Our desperately unfortunate loss to the Roosters was always going to be close to a knock out blow, given it resulted in the sheer physical improbability of getting through 3 gruelling finals weeks just to even make the Grand Final, let alone be in any shape of getting out of bed with a chance of winning it.

Missing that priceless week off leaves even one of the most one eyed and life long optimistic supporters as myself struggling to imagine how we can now possibly find the strength to endure another 80 minutes of Everest climbing pain next Fri night, and in the process conjure a way to beat a freshly armed team of leg twisting giant Rabbits.

But where there's a Sea Eagles will, there is ALWAYS a Sea Eagles way home. This Manly side simply does not know how to roll over, and it's a magnificent testament to our stellar season to have made the last four, giving Souths the unenviable task of breaking down the sheer iron will of 17 courageous David's in order to prove they are a deserving Goliath.

Wouldn't it be nice to dare to dream we can do the impossible and make another historic Grand Final by surviving the toughest path of them all.

Bring it on.
 
Great summary, but I can write off every error of the night due to the fatigue factor :angel:

Manly may have no fuel in the tank - Media's pet derision of our Team.
But Manly's will to win, overflows into their stretched ligaments and bruised muscles :angel:
 
I agree with everything in this article except I think the effects of fatigue on next week are a touch overblown. I think Manly will be up for it.

This team can win this on skill alone. I believe the forwards can hold a rusty rabbits team long enough to allow the best backline in the NRL to accumulate a winning lead.

What I will acknowledge us that Manly will need to be at least 12 points ahead at some stage to win this. The way Souths play, it will be akin to a torture chamber during the last 15 minutes. And they will be rolling.
 
absolutely brilliant report
only thing is this: can we dare to believe that we can actually beat souths? I reckon we can and also, how do they feel about playing us? they would have been watching our last two matches and I reckon our efforts would have got their attention big time
so then, can we dare to believe that we can knock off souths, go onto the GF against easts or the knights and then win the sucker?
I now honestly reckon we can
 
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
3 2 1 45 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 22 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
3 2 1 10 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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