It's not the Politics ... really

[EagleFlys]

Hi

Like most of you I am rather pissed that we lost tonight. It's an understatement that we lost badly & perhaps we will be gone in 2 weeks.

But something is bugging me about all the "drama", and tonight really pointed it out.

The "negative faction of Watmough (played well), Matai (played well), Foran (played reasonably) and Stewart (got a free trip to NQ) were not the reason we lost. Nor were they the reason we almost lost to the Riff last week.

The 2 best players were certainly kingy and young jayden (well done).
But the purported "faction" players were the next best 3.

Follwed by Gutho who did Ok, Hiku who was reasonable, and realistically you cant expect more from Starling than he put in.

So that leaves 8 players not aligned to the "we want out" faction that reasonably could put there hand up and say we weren't up to scratch.

Hasson - Ireland wouldn't beat most U20's teams. Says it all really.
DCE - Schooled by Thurston and no interest in responding.
Horo - Really needs to be spoon fed or he's just a body in a line.
JSL - No impact tonight at all, and ran sideways a lot.
Lui - No game time and no impact.
Chee - No game time and no impact.
Jorge - Disinterested and really looked out of place under the high ball.
Killa - Tried a lot, accomplished very little.
T-Red - Tried a lot but an average game for him, by his standards.

So really what I am trying to say is please forget about the media garbage. It may be true, it may be a blight on the club, but..

It is not the reason we lost tonight, and in all reality won't be the reason don't win a GF either.

I know I'm not a 2000 odd poster, nor am I a 60 year supporter, but really I am tired of reading about the "politics" and factional infighting being the sole reason we are losing. The negative faction continues to be at least in the top 4-5 players each week.

Thats my view, and I hope some of you can see it too.

Go Manly!

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

sorry psau14 we don't normally allow rational posting in the first 24 hours after a crushing loss. Nice try though.

 

[torana355]

I think the team as a whole has played poor since all this stuff in the media gained traction. It has definitely affected our performance IMO. There are some players that have been poor for a lot longer but us winning had covered up the issues including Horo and Taufua.

 

[EagleFlys]

sorry psau14 we don't normally allow rational posting in the first 24 hours after a crushing loss. Nice try though.

Appreciated. Will revert to rant status next time.

 

[Killer03]

I'll preface this by saying I have zero internal knowledge of the situation at the club.

From the outside looking in I think that the whole situation is having an effect. Whether the rumours are indeed true or not, I think the situation is starting to tire out the players emotionally. Even if the rumours are 100% untrue the stories have been floating around for months and months. The players are only human and it must after a while take it's toll. Firstly they get asked about it all the time, secondly they have to deny it, and thirdly there would be a part in all of their minds thinking 'is it true? Does Choc hate DCE? Oh yeh I saw him walk past him one day and he didn't say hello'. And this cycle just feeds on itself when you start losing.

I thought the interview at the end of the game with Foz was telling. He just looked emotionally and physically spent. Not in a normal 'we've been beaten and I feel rubbish' type look. It was more looking like the whole continual saga compounded by a loss is just wearing thin.

The antidote for me is winning. Obviously easier said than done. And it's a chicken and egg situation. Do you starting winning and hence get the team unified and happy. Or do you need the team to be happy and unified to start winning? I'll leave to Tooves!

 

[Sillybus]

Cherry hasn't been doing much lately. I think he has hit a bit of form slump and its not doing us any favours. His kicking game was abysmal tonight and I cant really remember him having any impact on the game tonight nor last weekend? Really missing the confident number 7 we know and love

 

[the mauler]

Cherry hasn't been doing much lately. I think he has hit a bit of form slump and its not doing us any favours. His kicking game was abysmal tonight and I cant really remember him having any impact on the game tonight nor last weekend? Really missing the confident number 7 we know and love

Pretty hard for him to dominate when forwards are getting belted or we keep dropping the pill.
If our forwards break even and we get at least equal possession I'm sure you will see DCE and Foz take control.

 

[Sillybus]

Cherry hasn't been doing much lately. I think he has hit a bit of form slump and its not doing us any favours. His kicking game was abysmal tonight and I cant really remember him having any impact on the game tonight nor last weekend? Really missing the confident number 7 we know and love

Pretty hard for him to dominate when forwards are getting belted or we keep dropping the pill.
If our forwards and break even and we get at least equal possession I'm sure you will see DCE and Foz take control.

Ball control is the biggest issue. Our pack has survived the most menacing forwards in the roosters and the souths coming out on top this year so its not a matter of can we do it because it's been done. The last 5 weeks our completions have just been shocking.

 

[Scorpio]

If there are issues with internal politics then they had better shelve it for another month.

More performances like this will see the boys out in week 2, having been top of the table for most of the year.

Having said the obvious:

Gutherson was good tonight but it looked like we missed the attacking options of Brett Stewart there tonight. He is still in contention for a wing spot though.

Not sure if it was because he was compensating for lack of defense in the middle but Hiku's defence was uncharacteristically poor out wide. He was good under the high ball, whilst Taufua was not.

Too many silly offloads and drop-balls. Maybe the team aren't backing the halves or forwards to make the metres, so they are looking to create opportunities themselves.

Lawrence was out but King was played for way too long. Dunamis wasn't given enough time to make his usual impact from the bench. I very much doubt this will be the case next week but it looked like it was a contributing factor to the loss.

Manly can win next week but not if they play like that again... my $0.02.

 

[Snake]

I thought King was fantastic given the circumstances

 

[Scorpio]

I thought King was fantastic given the circumstances

He was solid tonight, I'm just not sure of the decision to leave him out there on his feet for that long.

 

[Snake]

I thought King was fantastic given the circumstances

He was solid tonight, I'm just not sure of the decision to leave him out there on his feet for that long.

I don't think it cost us anything. He was really putting in; in fact, I would say the whole team put in, but were beaten by a better side on the night. We had plenty of injuries, and the game went according to the script. You sit Snake, BJ, Ferris, Gifty, and Ballin out, and we lose by 14 points in one of the toughest road trips in the NRL.

 

[Denno]

Just sick of greedy selfish money Hungry Cuncs Piss the lot off and get some players that want to play for us ,,,,,,,,Brett Stewert could not play because his brothers monthly,s were coming........fuch him off

 

[MPC75]

We had 5 players out last night. The reality is we don't have the depth. In saying that if you took 5 regular players out of Bunnies or Roosters, I think you will find that they would put in similar performance. Our forward pack is depleted. It's going to be tough the next couple of weeks.

 

[mickqld]

For anyone trying to figure out what's going wrong just watch Toove's post match. He said it in one word. mindset. The reason our completions are poor, our ball handling is poor, our last tackle kicks are poor, our options in attack are poor, all comes down to mindset. Our players are not focused on the job. REASON........all the media rumblings about contracts,player unrest,players wanting out. It's pretty darn obvious. Half the team aren't concentrating on the job required so the other half get thrown off track as well. Only the players as one team can fix this. They've got 1 week to decide.

 

[MPC75]

For anyone trying to figure out what's going wrong just watch Toove's post match. He said it in one word. mindset. The reason our completions are poor, our ball handling is poor, our last tackle kicks are poor, our options in attack are poor, all comes down to mindset. Our players are not focused on the job. REASON........all the media rumblings about contracts,player unrest,players wanting out. It's pretty darn obvious. Half the team aren't concentrating on the job required so the other half get thrown off track as well. Only the players as one team can fix this. They've got 1 week to decide.

Or , their confidence is shot because we are down on troops. How often do you hear the players say that when they are down on troops, they are confident the players coming in will get the job done. Are they really confident?

 

[torana355]

For anyone trying to figure out what's going wrong just watch Toove's post match. He said it in one word. mindset. The reason our completions are poor, our ball handling is poor, our last tackle kicks are poor, our options in attack are poor, all comes down to mindset. Our players are not focused on the job. REASON........all the media rumblings about contracts,player unrest,players wanting out. It's pretty darn obvious. Half the team aren't concentrating on the job required so the other half get thrown off track as well. Only the players as one team can fix this. They've got 1 week to decide.

Or , their confidence is shot because we are down on troops. How often do you hear the players say that when they are down on troops, they are confident the players coming in will get the job done. Are they really confident?

We played horrible a few weeks ago and we had close to a full team.