Manly's Matai a kamikaze no more

[Chip and Chase]

Manly hitman Steve Matai will be reining in his kamikaze defence heading into the NRL finals, after admitting he's needed to rethink his approach.


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[manlyfan76]

We need steve in the finals, He always plays his heart out in finals.

 

[Rodo]

Haven't we heard this before? I really hope he means it this time.

I still think he's got a lot more work to do with his "kamikaze" defence. That play at the end of the game against the Roosters a couple of weeks ago is a case in point.

 

[Brissie Kid]

The difficulty for all of Manly's players but especially Matai is that every time the opposition is working from their own end of the field, if we come forward as a defender and hit with even the slightest hint of aggression, the soft lot of referees we have all go to water and penalise for any excuse they can find. They penalise saying the player was offside or not square at marker. But if you look at the video there is nothing different about what the tackler did to a squillion other tackles through the game, except that the Manly player hit hard.

 

[eagleE]

There was a tackle Mattai made on Ben Smith towards the end of the first half last week that was a text book tackle around the ankles. Parra were attacking from about 25 when Mattai made the best tackle I have seen in ages. He is not just about smashing the other guy. He has developed into the probably best centre in the comp. I cannot genuinely think of a better centre at the moment. I rate Lyon with very high regard but I think he is struggling a bit.

 

[ManlyBacker]

I love the Matai smash tackles - keep it up Stevie.

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

See a lot of people have bagged his last effort against the Roosters and the reason for doing it, personally I didn't mind it

To me it was the sign of a guy (and hopefully the team mentality) trying to send a message around that Manly go for 80mins and won't back off and go soft in any situation (not that last weekend backed that up)

 

[master blaster]

the thing that gets me is,would all the explayers who are defending pritchards tackle on graham,defend steve if it was him,I reckon not and media would roast him as well,ahhh the media have their favourites

 

[The Eagle]

Good, its open slather now

 

[torana355]

Love Matai!!! His runs from dummy half are invaluable and his big hits at the right time can inspire the team.

 

[bones]

Matai can do it to the bulldogs halfback now and use the Pritchard shot as precedence.

 

[Jerry1]

Matsi would get a month off for it