The moment Manly's season really died.

[NYEagle]

My theory, contrary to reports out there, was that Manly's season died the day that Glenn Stewart made the decision to have ankle surgery, thus ending his season.
From memory that was announced before the Parramatta game, and they never were the same after that, particularly Foran and Watmough.

I know because I felt it too. I was getting excited even after the Souths loss because I knew Manly were ready to rally around Gift for that last push to leave him with a premiership. Then when I heard he was not playing again, my heart sank, and I think the heart of the senior players did too.

NYEagle

 

[billybob]

Manlys season died when buhrer and ballin were out. we never won a game after we lost them 2. B4 we lost them we finished 1st. nothing to do with gifty

 

[The Who]

No. We played very well in the first half against Doesn'tmatta and were comfortable at 12-nil. Unless Gift came into the dressing room at half time and told them I think your logic may be flawed.

 

[sheridanstand78]

I do agree, once it was announced that Gift would not be playing again this season it certainly took the wind out of the teams sails.

If he had returned it would have been such a boost at a crucial time of the season and the death knell for the season was certain when we lost Ferris and Ballin in the same game.

 

[Shoe1]

Glad Nell didn't die again.

---

I agree with the loss of ballin and buhrer. We coped without gift, but the loss of two more hard workers proved the difference. I'm not sure we missed choc much in that last game. Harrison might have been handy a week earlier. He is a worker bee in the middle. I was interested how many times I noticed him make a tough hit up in the 3rd tackle.

 

[HoldenV8]

Gifty didn't decide to have the surgery, it was decided for him after suffering a set-back.

I agree that it was more the game against the Riff when we lost Matty Ballin and JamieB. We lost our first and second choice hooker and our lock in one hit (until then I think Jamie covered very well for Gifty at lock). In Matty we lost our defensive "Rock of Gibralter" and someone who gave very solid service from dummy half. In Jamie we also lost someone with a tremendous work rate. Those are hard things to replace, especially so late in a season.

I think that is where our season hit the point of no return.

 

[marga]

OMG. When I read that I thought here we go again, but no one has blamed Choc.
Yet.

 

[Masked Eagle]

Gifty didn't decide to have the surgery, it was decided for him after suffering a set-back.

I agree that it was more the game against the Riff when we lost Matty Ballin and JamieB. We lost our first and second choice hooker and our lock in one hit (until then I think Jamie covered very well for Gifty at lock). In Matty we lost our defensive "Rock of Gibralter" and someone who gave very solid service from dummy half. In Jamie we also lost someone with a tremendous work rate. Those are hard things to replace, especially so late in a season.

I think that is where our season hit the point of no return.

It wasnt that we just lost our dummy halves it was arguably our 2 best defenders and somewhere close to 70-80 tackles.

 

[Shoe1]

OMG. When I read that I thought here we go again, but no one has blamed Choc.
Yet.

I think choc is guilty of creating angst, but I don't think the wheels fell off the team
Performance because of his behaviour.

 

[Las Vegas Blvd]

Out in straight sets in what a shame What a warrior and a winner was for the MWSE but the split in the team .... he was up to his eyeballs in it .

 

[marga]

OMG. When I read that I thought here we go again, but no one has blamed Choc.
Yet.

I think choc is guilty of creating angst, but I don't think the wheels fell off the team
Performance because of his behaviour.

Because he spoke about Glenn leaving, didn't we all want to know why/what was happening. Him and DCE cleared whatever differences they had. He said he has not signed or come to any terms with Parra or any Club, I believe him, many don't. Do you really think the Team are going to say, gee Choc doesn't want to stay let's all drop our bundle. He put in 100% as the other guys did, we had some unfortunate injuries. I just don't get the bagging he has been getting from so many supporters. I hope he isn't going anywhere.

 

[EagleFromMay1967]

Our season died when Shame Pain 'failed to retire' at the beginning of the season.
We were gone-ers then.
Honestly i cannot remember a season with lower refereeing standards, more confusion. Silly rules, silly administration, low crowd attendances, illegal play inconsistencies and biased penalties for it, both in the matches and after them at the Judiciary.
I can see where @Ralphie is coming from. Should we be re-appraising our interest in this sport? I'll always be a Manly supporter, but right now, i'm definitely NOT an NRL supporter.
TV stations running the game. Tod Greenslime etc etc. Need i go on.

 

[simon64]

Manlys season died when buhrer and ballin were out. we never won a game after we lost them 2. B4 we lost them we finished 1st. nothing to do with gifty

Have to agree. We coped ok with only Gift out.

But adding MB and Ferris killed us. We had to throw Hodges in and while he will probably be a great option one day, he was too inexperienced to be rushed in this late.

Add Choc and 4 of the first choice pack were missing.

And the Dogs only just got us.

How the hell they can be favourites this week is beyond me. I hope the Riff put a cricket score on them.

 

[NYEagle]

The Bulldogs are favourite over Penrith?.
Holy crap they are a 30 minute team at best. Penrith will kill them.

 

[ALinda]

The Bulldogs are favourite over Penrith?.
Holy crap they are a 30 minute team at best. Penrith will kill them.

Let's all hope so!

 

[Masked Eagle]

The Bulldogs are favourite over Penrith?.
Holy crap they are a 30 minute team at best. Penrith will kill them.

God I hope so.

 

[ALinda]

Losing Gifty didn't help but I think the real catalysts for ending our season were Ballin and Buhrer getting their injuries. They took a chunk out of our defence, let alone anything else, which couldn't be overcome.

 

[cliffhanger]

Jamie Buhrer has got to be the most improved player in the NRL. Everyone is spot on. Ballin and Buhrer are so very important to us. Our team lost 30% capacity due to their loss.
Just look at the points we leaked when they were absent.
Manly is reknown for our rock solid defence,the 4-0 semi final loss to the rorters 2013 is a clear example of our great defence.

Had we had Gift in the side plus a fit ballin and buhrer, we are certainties for being premiers in 2014.

I don't know about you guys but I am very proud of our effort against the dogs. Its great to be an eagles supporter.

Yes, the officials are terrible in the NRL and its Getting worse every year.
That crazy lunatic Reynolds was 4m offside. Snake would have potted the winning field goal otherwise. and the stupid rule with 6 again to the dogs really is disgusting. It turns you right off.

Go the panthers.

 

[Fluffy]

I think the moment was when Reynolds was way offside and the ref refused to blow the penalty which would have given us a sitter right in front.

If it wasn't for the inept refs then we would be playing this week and the season would not be dead

 

[Crusher_Cleal]

I'll go back even further and say it was the moment Gift suffered his injury. We really needed a fully fit side to challenge at the business end this year (let's not forget we were nearly completely injury-free last year come finals).