What was different ... observations

[Stevo]

What spine excites you the most

Weekes ,Schu, Johns, Chan Kum Tong

or

Turbo, Schu, DCE, Crocker.

Neither

Turbo, Schu, DCE, CKT

 

[Kalvin]

When a winger has to make a choice of which one of 3 unmarked men running at him, 10m from the try line to tackle ..... you can bet London to old undies .... it ain't his fault.

Defensive structure it is then?

 

[bob dylan]

Neither

Turbo, Schu, DCE, CKT

Nice.

Weekes has to be in the 17. He oozes class.

 

[Woodsie]

Defensive structure it is then?

Not so much structure as execution ... game awareness (numbering up) ... simple missed tackle or mis-read inside, or faster player getting outside his defender, or just good play by the attack to load a side, etc etc ...

 

[castle eagle]

Paseka is uncoacheable. Not even an off season with new coaches can change his mindset or ability going in the right direction.

Tippytoes and Harper's defence remain terrible and Reuben got better as the game went on.

Scorpio still leading with the head which has a used by date. I hope he is having a big steak meal today to get that lost iron back with the the amount of claret he spilt last night.

Everyone else seemed to improve noticeably.

Paseka is the new version of tony t-rex williams

 

[Stuey Davis’s Socks]

Garrick still doesn’t dive low enough when scoring tries - how he butchered that first try to get bundled over the line I will never know.

Hard to believe a left winger hasn’t learnt to ground the ball with his left hand yet.

 

[Eagle 1]

Paseka is the new version of tony t-rex williams

Dare I say it, a poor mans Marty T...

 

[Dion Johnson]

They had energy, played with some real grit.

The defensive efforts were good by the middle forwards, had some sting in their tackles.

Intensity was there and they were in it together.

Josh Alioia is edging towards a Nate Myles type purchase.

 

[robbiea]

I thought Alioia looked fat & unfit.
We missed out by not purchasing one if not two quality forwards.

 

[Nambawan]

Nice.

Weekes has to be in the 17. He oozes class.

Completely agree. It is clear that Weekes will bvecome a very significant member of the Manly NRL side.

 

[Seagles68]

Felt like there was a lot less of those nothing plays / hitups and as mentioned the crabbing runs disappeared. Nearly all runs had intent (ex-jesus) and looking to break through and or players getting to their knees for quick play the balls.
Dummy half getting out and past markers or engaging before distributing makes such a difference in my opinion.
Defence was better organised all round.

That dummy half play adds so much value to getting us on the front foot. It will be interesting to see if Croker tries to do that more this year. Was it Des telling him to just distribute or was it just that he is not a natural dummy half?? Either way, Gordo has to be the long term 9.

 

[Seagles68]

Absolutely, it was a beauty. Anyway I'm sure over time he will take the line on plenty of times.

I reckon Shu was playing to the game plan of get the basics right for now, don't overplay your hand. There were the little touches that he's known for but I think conservative was the way to go until he settles into the role.

 

[mickqld]

Weekes, the GTong and Fifi will be knocking down the doors to get picked. Seibs won't be holding them back like the dinosaur did.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

We need to improve the wrestle. Our players hit well in defence and tackled well but for a lot of the game the Chooks seemed to be making easy metres and they were getting to our defenders rather tham the defenders moving up to meet them.
I'm just guessing that was down to us not slowing the play the ball?
Against the top sides it is hard to make gound, all game and at all parts of the field. We aren't playing like that yet.

 

[jbb/james]

GCKT made a huge impact, giving us a point of attack from dummy and bringing the forwards onto the ball, and the edge forwards were outstanding, but I still reckon we're short of a dominant prop or two. That's the weakness in our pack that other teams will exploit.

I also worry that Croker is just not a natural dummy half, and that DCE is simply unable to play structured football, so throwing those two into the mix might actually end up being the two steps back to the one step forward we seem to have taken.

Really happy with the wins though. For all the talk about "just a trial" and trying combinations, it's really nice not losing. That (ie, winning a game of footy) was the major difference for me.

big time agree from me

even though our props didnt make a massive dent in the go forward, gorden schu and cooper J found a way to get early ball to ignite the backline and the backrowers who stole the show. something our main spine players just couldnt seem to do. Kaeo was good but he didnt add the threat and decoy abilities that tom will also which makes it more impressive
they seemed to need less forward platform than the top tier fellas need

the more games we see without them the better the team looks overall

Ive always thought we would look good with frog on the bench and a starting hooker, he could slot in everywhere. some new guys will cloud that issue obviously, but he is steady, can kick could play hooker, in the halves and even in the middle for defence in short bursts and looks like he could take a message out there and complete it

gorden will need to be both available and get more experience first

 

[Bloke on the hill]

Props still uncertain.
2nd rowers impressed.
Jake does what Jake does.
Weekes is quick - a starting centre for mine.
Burbo bigger & improved but still outside 17, same for Fulton.
Gordon has earnt his opportunity as starting hooker - do when can.
Team has more enthusiasm now.

So far- so good, plus I don't miss the coaches post game waffling excuses.
Looking forward to the start of it all.

 

[jbb/james]

What I saw last night was a team not curtailed by a coach who wants a game played in a specific way , and only his way.

All you Des lovers , if this doesn’t show you he was “ past it “ then nothing will.

Oh , and don’t take this is disrespect for what he did from 2005-2011 , but that’s 15-20 years ago , and that’s my point !!

Im a big dessie fan and some crazy circumstances probably cost him. as did that contract he had based on renewal and where the team finishes
after 21 id had enough. for me he was coaching for a top 4 and not improvement and in the finals it cost us
but his accountability , use of the bench and youth was pretty awful
it was clear his time was done even though it was good that he replaced barrett

regardless of his coaching ability you cant have club culture where the coach locks the owner out of the dressing room. that only ends one way and fair enough. being told to hire a successor and not is looking for trouble. dessie made his bed which is sad
that us v them worked years ago when there were a stack of factions brawling away off field but never under this one owner model
in essence he was just trying to repeat his success so yes ,past the job. one suspects if willow made a comeback he would have been our first choice hooker

 

[Jerry1]

Some things were the same though. I found myself yelling at the TV FFS get off him Jake

 

[double hoops]

GCKT made a huge impact, giving us a point of attack from dummy and bringing the forwards onto the ball, and the edge forwards were outstanding, but I still reckon we're short of a dominant prop or two. That's the weakness in our pack that other teams will exploit.

I also worry that Croker is just not a natural dummy half, and that DCE is simply unable to play structured football, so throwing those two into the mix might actually end up being the two steps back to the one step forward we seem to have taken.

Really happy with the wins though. For all the talk about "just a trial" and trying combinations, it's really nice not losing. That (ie, winning a game of footy) was the major difference for me.

Yeah it’s our big 3 up front that worry me.
Jake still gave away ruck penalties when we didn’t look under stress.
Nella might be serviceable at prop but still a princess and not a knight.
AOA just looked off the pace. I reckon that knee of his needs more time, I wouldn’t pick him in game one.

Keppie seems to have a new lease on life.
Bull looking good in the middle.
And Sipley and Fifita would both offer something off the bench for the short stint.

 

[Eagle 1]

They had energy, played with some real grit.

The defensive efforts were good by the middle forwards, had some sting in their tackles.

Intensity was there and they were in it together.

Josh Alioia is edging towards a Nate Myles type purchase.

Oh please....comparing Ailoai to Myles is pretty insulting tbh. The only reason we had Myles was to keep DCE warm and fuzzy in the day and being a fellow Qlder and all. 500k NOT well spent, had a few good games for us, then hightailed it to Melb for the rest of his retirement plan.