The good, the bad and the ugly report - rd 23

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THE GOOD:
Is not easy being a footy coach. No doubt Des would have spent the week ramming home the fact Parra would be embarrassed and determined to right their 50 point wrong, how they'd come at us very hard, how we can't possibly afford to show any complacency, and how we must focus from the opening whistle. No doubt Des would have repeated this in capital letters in the sheds before the game. So what do we do? We go out there and play like we warmed up at the pub.

1st half:
We couldn't have looked sloppier if we tried. Loose passes, disjointed attack, no concentration, and yes the shock of shocks for us, sloppy defence. Even Foran was guilty of the latter when he failed to stop Hicks twice to let him over for their opening soft try. On top of that was a dreadful 1-5 penalty count. Lucky it was only Parra cos we would have been down 24-6 against a better team. But a HT score of 14-6 was a massive let off and it was simply a matter of how we'd react to Des' half time spray.

2nd half:
It didn't take long to see Des had issued two simple HT instructions, brutal defence and no penalties, and that's exactly what we produced. Bone crunching tackles to slam Parra on their backs, and a 2-1 penalty count turned the tide, notwithstanding the luck of possibly the two softest tries in history gifted to Matai. The first in the 44th minute when a dreadful error in front of their own posts handed Matai a loose ball that he just managed to clutch between his legs to force a try. Warren Smith and Brandy did their biased best to bring up the red light, but a try it was and at 14-12 game back on. Just 5 minutes later poor old Chris Hicks failed to retrieve a kick not once but twice to fumble in the in goal and hand Matai an even bigger gift try. 14-18 and momentum swung. A 59th minute penalty was sensibly slotted over for 14-20 and in that instant you could see the Parra heads drop like stones.

So greatly in fact that 60 seconds later DCE put on a classic dummy on our 20m line and burst through a gaping hole, straighten up and sprint 40 metres downfield before sending a perfect inside ball to Lyon who got an equally perfect ball to Brett who was flying through so fast the past nearly went behind him, but in true Brett style he tucked it into his side ribs and flew over in trademark diving style to hammer the lid on the Parra coffin. 26-14 and game over. The remaining 18 minutes should have been an opportunity to practice some more attack, but instead it became (a no doubt Des instructed) defensive drill where we simply bored Parra to sleep. A final minute grubber try to Parra made it look closer than it was for 26-20, and yes there was a ridiculously sloppy scare on full time when T Rex was left in charge of a bomb which Luke Burt so nearly grabbed to force extra time, but the game wasn't worthy of anything close to a golden point, and as Burt knocked on they all shook hands.

Individual performances. Brett still looks like he's in 3rd gear to me, but that's a positive. Lyon and Matai simply great again. Foran looks tired and understandably so after playing every game. Glenn was a rock with 44 tackles as was the equally every game machine Ballin with 47. Watmough was solid though not spectacular but did work very hard all night. Kite and George also worked hard as did Joe who damaged Parra up the middle with some strong runs. Lussick tried hard off the bench but still looks a little green. T Rex? Well he looked to be dangerously back to his old laconic slow motion self to me, but the fact was that he didn't really need to do anything much. MOM was undoubtedly DCE who worked his butt off, scored the first try, and set up the brilliant match winner.

THE BAD:
Our first half attitude and execution. Dreadful. If we do that again we might not be so lucky to turn it around against stronger opposition. And Des please, Hoppa being left on the field, what was that about? Anyone could see he was on one leg (well anyone except Jarrod Hayne who bizarrely kept kicking to Robbo).

THE UGLY:
The ugly 2 points for winning, but ugly ain't always quite so bad.

We'll take those 2 points with open arms, but we'd better be a lot mentally sharper next week.
 
Spot on, again.

I'm loving the way DCE is playing. He is a real terrier. There's no doubting he's giving 100% every time. He's our next leader.
And, yes, Foran looks like he needs a rest.
 
Great read again! I have just watched the replay of Snake's try, well i have watched it 10 times!! what a beauty!!!!!
 
lloydy said:
Great read again! I have just watched the replay of Snake's try, well i have watched it 10 times!! what a beauty!!!!!

Great take by snake that the commentators never even noticed.

Ugly, there have been a few this year, but ultimately happy win by the boys.
 
Here's the real ugly

Manly Storm
B Kite 99m J Bromich 97m
M Ballin 15m C Smith 99m
G Rose 96m B Norrie 163m
Choc 102m A Blair 97m
Rodney 36m S Manu 123m
Gift 59m K Proctor 83m
Joe 63m J Lowe 112m
Lussick 65m R Kostjaysn 85m
T Rex 57m Si Waqa 70m

Rodney is not up to grade at moment and what is doing with Ballin's meters. That is appalling for a hooker who's on for 80min.
 
mickqld said:
Here's the real ugly

Manly Storm
B Kite 99m J Bromich 97m
M Ballin 15m C Smith 99m
G Rose 96m B Norrie 163m
Choc 102m A Blair 97m
Rodney 36m S Manu 123m
Gift 59m K Proctor 83m
Joe 63m J Lowe 112m
Lussick 65m R Kostjaysn 85m
T Rex 57m Si Waqa 70m

Rodney is not up to grade at moment and what is doing with Ballin's meters. That is appalling for a hooker who's on for 80min.

Back in my day we used to enjoy a win, come on mate we won, we won and we are sitting in 2nd!!!
 
Despite the negatives from this game the fact DCE is getting better each week is great. I still think our weak point is our forward pack and we should spend the money we would have used for Hoppa on a decent Prop. I also agree that Foran probably needs a rest before the finals.
 
mickqld said:
Here's the real ugly

Manly Storm
B Kite 99m J Bromich 97m
M Ballin 15m C Smith 99m
G Rose 96m B Norrie 163m
Choc 102m A Blair 97m
Rodney 36m S Manu 123m
Gift 59m K Proctor 83m
Joe 63m J Lowe 112m
Lussick 65m R Kostjaysn 85m
T Rex 57m Si Waqa 70m

Rodney is not up to grade at moment and what is doing with Ballin's meters. That is appalling for a hooker who's on for 80min.

Bought a purple jersey yet Lotti?
 
The Eagle said:
mickqld said:
Here's the real ugly

Manly Storm
B Kite 99m J Bromich 97m
M Ballin 15m C Smith 99m
G Rose 96m B Norrie 163m
Choc 102m A Blair 97m
Rodney 36m S Manu 123m
Gift 59m K Proctor 83m
Joe 63m J Lowe 112m
Lussick 65m R Kostjaysn 85m
T Rex 57m Si Waqa 70m

Rodney is not up to grade at moment and what is doing with Ballin's meters. That is appalling for a hooker who's on for 80min.

Bought a purple jersey yet Lotti?

He;s allowed to have an opinion about how crap we were tonight.I feel the same,and if you tell me to buy a storm jumper,buy it urself,and insert it rectally!!!
 
mickqld said:
Here's the real ugly

Manly Storm
B Kite 99m J Bromich 97m
M Ballin 15m C Smith 99m
G Rose 96m B Norrie 163m
Choc 102m A Blair 97m
Rodney 36m S Manu 123m
Gift 59m K Proctor 83m
Joe 63m J Lowe 112m
Lussick 65m R Kostjaysn 85m
T Rex 57m Si Waqa 70m

Rodney is not up to grade at moment and what is doing with Ballin's meters. That is appalling for a hooker who's on for 80min.

Come on mate, you can't look at statistics in a vacuum, especially in rugby league. The circumstances in both games were vastly different. Yes, their pack had a better night than ours - does it mean they are better? Not a chance in hell.

What's with the MB bashing as well? He had a very solid game from what I saw, one of our better players on the park. He took what the defense gave him in regards to meters run (also bear in mind that Smith dropped back to halfback after Cronk's injury).
 
Can someone tell me when it stopped being about getting the two points and became about playing like Melbourne.

Mickqld you oxygen theif you wanna compare it to Melbourne well here's a comparison parra lead Melbourne 18-zip when they played they only lead us 10 zip.

A wins a win deadset I can see some of you wankers being here gf night complaining that we didn't win by 40 again. Get a grip.
 
Good report CF2. Re: the penalty count
We should have received a penalty every time Manly had a scrum feed. Hindmarsh broke from the scrum early (before the ref called 'out') enabling him to effect the tackle EVERY single time.
It was almost as blatant as Brad Fitler never getting back 10 mtrs in defence during his playing career.
 
We've been playing great pretty consistently all season.No team is going to play perfect footy for 80 minutes every game of the year, it's never going to happen. Compared to last year our injury worries are negligible. We might not be winning every game pretty but we are winning. The finals are coming up and we'll be there. Sounds good to me!
 
cast your minds back to 08,our run into the semi,s was similar to this,but when the semi,s started,Manly switched on and noone got close to us
 
Great read cf2. In hindsight, it was always going to be a tough game. They had their pride on the line after the Souths slaughter and we started soft. Why we did that I will never know. We did enough and got the 2 pts. I'm ok with that. I reckon our guys have got their eyes on the game after the dogs = storm. If ever there was a game to make a statement its that one.
 

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