Still favourites, but I am not as confident

  • We had an issue with background services between march 10th and 15th or there about. This meant the payment services were not linking to automatic upgrades. If you paid for premium membership and are still seeing ads please let me know and the email you used against PayPal and I cam manually verify and upgrade your account.

Dan

Kim Jong Dan
Staff member
Administrator
Tipping Member
All of last year the majority of our attack was through Jamie Lyon and Glenn Stewart working together to get our wingers in the clear down the right hand edge, coupled with Daly Cherry Evans tuning into the mix.

Foran worked the left edge with T-Rex and Matai as his go to men and Brett Stewart chiming in either side.

With Stewart out, we lose a massive part of our right hand attack, but we still have Lyon there to cause problems.
Losing Lyon means we are left with just the halves doing doing all the steering, with very few strike weapons left, in fact it makes us very one dimensional with Brett Stewart being the only target.

Add to that the loss of T-Rex we have lost the ability to strike close to the line and work on tired and soft defenders with him busting over the top and Matai has been missing to eat up the valuable metres he is so good at chewing up.

Not to mention the defense that goes missing with these players too.

In my opinion we have done well to put as many points on the board as we have been doing, and it bodes well, for when the players come back, but with our defense the way it is, we are in desperate danger of being one of those teams that just worries about trying to score more points than the other team, and not worrying about defense.

Whilst Toovey was a tough defender and a tough bloke all in all, he wasn't the same sort of thinking player that Hasler was, and did a lot more purely out of gut reaction. I wonder if this is translating to our defensive structures and how lazy we have looked, and worse still, how soft we have looked. Last year, I was rarely worried when we were defending on our line, now I am starting to worry when they start a set anywhere in our territory.

For mine, although Rose can get a little frustrated in Defense sometimes, we probably need him back in our pack. We need a big bloke who puts on the hits, as none of our players have that ability at the moment.

He also works well hitting holes hard and fast on the line.

I never thought I would be thinking along these lines, but for mine, I think it seems an obvious choice to bring him back and get as close to a defensive and team structure that we know works, as possible.

Otherwise, if we lose this week, I can't see us going into a game as favourites again for a long while
 
The success of most teams comes down to injuries. Currently we have more than our fair share, but I also think that we can cope with injuries better than most teams. I'd say Brisbane, Worriers and Illawarra are the other teams who don't have a player/s essential to their success.
However, if Slater, Smith or Cronk were injured; Benji; Thurston: then their respective teams would have no chance.
Our full side is the best in the comp.
 
good write up Dan and agree with needing some size Cunningham/Rose being worth a shot.

We have been playing with one of the smallest packs in the comp lately and certainly the smallest manly pack for a long time between buhrer, harrison, skinner, mauro added to nood coming back from injury.

Would drop harrison or skinner move buhrer to lock and Joe G to start and bring in Rose/Cunningham.

I would also move choc to the left side like he used to play as he can add at least 1 option in attack there until Trex returns.
 
I think Harrison is more of a front-rower thana lock as well.

But certainly Bhurer to lock and have him working the right edge in a Glenn Stewart type role. I think that would suit him. Bring back George into the prop rotation or give cunningham a run.

I think we also need to consider changing our defense a little bit as well and certainly work on our line speed. We need to make sure that when Brett is forced to make a tackle, that someone else comes into marker allowing him to get back behind the line, because we need his experience back there.
 
Defense is all about attitude. We have looked tired after a pretty gruelling schedule. Our attitude is not where it needs to be. Some of the guys maybe down on confidence, I think DCE is down a bit.

If we had the luxury of the Broncos who consistantly have had a 7 day preperation, I believe we would be higher up with an extra win or 2. Preperation is a huge factor for not only physically but mentally.

We really did cop it in the tail pipe from the NRL in relation to our scheduling. The price to pay for winning the comp I guess, and also being Manly of course.
 
MPC75 said:
Defense is all about attitude. We have looked tired after a pretty gruelling schedule. Our attitude is not where it needs to be. Some of the guys maybe down on confidence, I think DCE is down a bit.

If we had the luxury of the Broncos who consistantly have had a 7 day preperation, I believe we would be higher up with an extra win or 2. Preperation is a huge factor for not only physically but mentally.

We really did cop it in the tail pipe from the NRL in relation to our scheduling. The price to pay for winning the comp I guess, and also being Manly of course.

Nothing to do with the NRL, we copped it from Channel 9 and Fox.

I don't know that, it is enough to say that the schedule is responsible, The schedule has nothing to do with attitudes.
 
Daniel said:
MPC75 said:
Defense is all about attitude. We have looked tired after a pretty gruelling schedule. Our attitude is not where it needs to be. Some of the guys maybe down on confidence, I think DCE is down a bit.

If we had the luxury of the Broncos who consistantly have had a 7 day preperation, I believe we would be higher up with an extra win or 2. Preperation is a huge factor for not only physically but mentally.

We really did cop it in the tail pipe from the NRL in relation to our scheduling. The price to pay for winning the comp I guess, and also being Manly of course.

Nothing to do with the NRL, we copped it from Channel 9 and Fox.

I don't know that, it is enough to say that the schedule is responsible, The schedule has nothing to do with attitudes.

Preperation can have a big impact on attitude. If guys are carrying niggling injuries and are tired from a hectic schedule they will not perform mentally. Toov's was pretty vocal at the start of the year about the schedule and it is pretty obvious to see why.
 
I thought the odds for parra were tidy. At 3.25 it was tempting to put $50 on them but I couldn't do it
 
torana355 said:
haha i got on them at 3.40. Still thinking how i will spend my 340 bucks :)

Can't believe you would bet against your own team. Each to their own I guess. So who were you barracking for when it was 20 - 18, knowing that you had $340 on the line?
 
MPC75 said:
torana355 said:
haha i got on them at 3.40. Still thinking how i will spend my 340 bucks :)

Can't believe you would bet against your own team. Each to their own I guess. So who were you barracking for when it was 20 - 18, knowing that you had $340 on the line?

When your team has that many players out you are going to lose 9/10 so why not put a bet on? I was cheering for Manly all the way mate, i was still pissed off even though i had won the cash.
 
One other factor we are missing is the tradesman workhorse solid backrower. In 2008 we had Hall and then he was replaced by Rodney. Those sort of players give you a solid foundation, a guy you can rely on to tackle everything,plug holes as well as tough meters from hitups. We have Buhrer as the only likely players but he's not in the tough guy class of people like Hall,Rodney,Costigan,Jeremy Smith,Corey Parker,Ryan Hoffman,Dallas Johnstone.
 
torana355 said:
MPC75 said:
torana355 said:
haha i got on them at 3.40. Still thinking how i will spend my 340 bucks :)

Can't believe you would bet against your own team. Each to their own I guess. So who were you barracking for when it was 20 - 18, knowing that you had $340 on the line?

When your team has that many players out you are going to lose 9/10 so why not put a bet on? I was cheering for Manly all the way mate, i was still pissed off even though i had won the cash.

Dont know how you can bet against your own team. Thats poor form imo. Dont know how to spend your money??? Go and buy yourself a Parra jersey :dodgy:
 
You were cheering for the Eels - silently. Shame, you are not a 'true supporter'.
torana355 said:
MPC75 said:
torana355 said:
haha i got on them at 3.40. Still thinking how i will spend my 340 bucks :)

Can't believe you would bet against your own team. Each to their own I guess. So who were you barracking for when it was 20 - 18, knowing that you had $340 on the line?

When your team has that many players out you are going to lose 9/10 so why not put a bet on? I was cheering for Manly all the way mate, i was still pissed off even though i had won the cash.
 
In terms of odds, Centrebet has been calling me lately offering highly attractive odds each week. Im not a gambler so much so for mine the odds fluctations mean little.

We arnt favourites any longer and well down on market expectations. Thats fine, but anyone who thinks this team has lost its way is well short of comon sense. A long road will travel.
 
Jatz there is a reason they are calling you. Clue - it is not because they think they'll be paying you a lot in winnings.
 

Latest posts

Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
3 2 1 45 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 22 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
3 2 1 10 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
Back
Top Bottom