2020 Finals discussion thread

[Brissie Kid]

Seems the referees let a lot more go in the finals this year. Which is would be good for a Des Hasler coached team given his style of match plans. Problem is this sort of team gets hammered in the regular season by penalties and misses the finals. Manly's 2020 team (if fit) could imo have beat any of this weekends four teams.

 

[manlyfan76]

Looks like the NRL has ordered the refs to allow more of the usual slow the ball down play. Goes to show how farce this 6 again rule is. Much prefer teams being allowed to slow the ball down..

The first set restart they called for pennies to release, the player was not even tackled yet, was on his way down, but moving fwd. It was bizzare

 

[Waz13]

The first set restart they called for pennies to release, the player was not even tackled yet, was on his way down, but moving fwd. It was bizzare

The 6 again is a joke. It’s inconsistent and the impact on the team being penalized is too great. There were times last night where I was thinking “how is that/not a 6 again?”. And the play the balls now are shocking. Players are trying to do it so quickly half the time they are incorrect.

 

[40 nil]

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

The 6 again is a joke. It’s inconsistent and the impact on the team being penalized is too great. There were times last night where I was thinking “how is that/not a 6 again?”. And the play the balls now are shocking. Players are trying to do it so quickly half the time they are incorrect.

Occasionally they get pinged for it but I agree as per the rule it’s now a farce !!

ALL about how fast you can get up and get the ball in play again ( before the defence can get set ).

 

[manly al]

Can 't help but notice the more frequent tendency in the weekend ;s two finals of defences holding the running player up and driving them backwards , in some cases many meters . Quite legit of course and hard to counteract and takes so much advantage yardage away . Getting another teammate to try to stop the ball runner's backward momentum has its problems as well with being taken out of the next play and even the injury factor . More power running and mainly bigger bodies running into some tackles but that can not apply to all positions . Maybe slightly more wider ruck running to isolate the defence more but at the moment , certainly making it harder in some instances for good yardage or early possession yardage gain .

 

[Deleted member 26876]

API my goodness one of the biggest mistakes letting him go this club I love has made in a long long time.

Api is great in a squad of playmakers and speed. We had enough speed in trbo, walker, dce to see him cause some havoc but what we needed was a dummy half like Fainu that serves as an extra-playmaker and sharp passer (who also happens to have a lot of api's running attributes).

The only wrong thing about releasing Api was the unfortunate Fainu incident which royally ****ed us. In hindsight we should've kept him, to help us survive Fainu's stand down, but who could've predicted he would be suspected of a Church stabbing? At the time Fainu was noticeably outplaying Api and we had to decide which one to keep. We made the right choice, but then Fainu got into trouble

 

[mickqld]

Seems the referees let a lot more go in the finals this year. Which is would be good for a Des Hasler coached team given his style of match plans. Problem is this sort of team gets hammered in the regular season by penalties and misses the finals. Manly's 2020 team (if fit) could imo have beat any of this weekends four teams.

Aaahhh yeeaahh no. We were far too slow, unfit, lazy, poor leadership, no game management, poor team selections, poor defense technique, poor injury and recovery management, poor coaching. We failed at every level in the club.

 

[manly al]

Aaahhh yeeaahh no. We were far too slow, unfit, lazy, poor leadership, no game management, poor team selections, poor defense technique, poor injury and recovery management, poor coaching. We failed at every level in the club.

But then when last season is taken into account . Manly were more then holding their own and were competing at a good level and not too far off a G F spot . Difference naturally not having such a disrupted season with the best playing personal available but even with the injury disadvantage this season , partly with the new rules and quicker pace , our defence was a shambles . Going to have to be some serious readjustment with some of Manly ;s playing mode next season and hopefully a healthy playing roster on deck for the majority of the season . Look at the Panthers and Storm for next week " s G F , pretty much full strength and limited injury issues for a good part of the season leading up to it .

 

[Shoe1]

Panfers bombed 3 tries in first half. Storm played a perfect game. Raiders would probably have beaten penrif.

penrif an outside chance if they take all their opportunities. If not I see an easy storm win.

 

[Shoe1]

I was at the Storm Raiders game and geez Panthers or Rabbits are gonna have to be good to beat Storm cos they were clinical. What really stood out is the width they play with, Addo Carr positions himself right on the sideline the whole game and its no wonder he gets so many opportunities in space... Raiders defence were 20m infield all night.

Yep didn’t adjust. Panthers did a good job on Souths defending out wide

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Panfers bombed 3 tries in first half. Storm played a perfect game. Raiders would probably have beaten penrif.

penrif an outside chance if they take all their opportunities. If not I see an easy storm win.

The first 20, AND how many set restarts will again set up the win for one side.

 

[Waz13]

Yep didn’t adjust. Panthers did a good job on Souths defending out wide

The makeshift edges prob cost Souths that match. Losing Siro and Graham was tough for them. I can’t stand him but Gagai always seems to play well in big games (with the exception of last year v us when Moses gave him a bath)

 

[Waz13]

The first 20, AND how many set restarts will again set up the win for one side.

Yep I thought last nights game was being controlled to try keep it close. There was a time in the second where Souths should have had a few late set 6 agains that weren’t called. I said to the missus that they won’t favour Souths heavy in the 6 again because they know Souths will blow teams apart with just slightly more momentum.

 

[mave]

I'm tipping Storm to bat first and put on 16 in their first innings.
Penrith will bat second, but go into the innings break down by 10 runs.
Storm will make a further 8 runs in their second dig, after a few favourable umpiring decisions.
And then Penrith will chase down the total after a cameo partnership by Cleary and Kikau to win in the last over.

 

[manlyfan76]

I'm tipping Storm to bat first and put on 16 in their first innings.
Penrith will bat second, but go into the innings break down by 10 runs.
Storm will make a further 8 runs in their second dig, after a few favourable umpiring decisions.
And then Penrith will chase down the total after a cameo partnership by Cleary and Kikau to win in the last over.

Penriff the most likely to get a 50.
Melb can win if they both have a low run rate.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

No judiciary charge for the Panthers so both teams at full strength!!

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Initial odds from the bookies have the Drizzle winning this one although I’m sure those odds will tighten as the week goes on.

 

[Brissie Kid]

Go Manly!

 

[HoldenV8]

API my goodness one of the biggest mistakes letting him go this club I love has made in a long long time.

While I do agree, it must also be remembered that we let Api go in good faith that we would be well covered with Manase Fainu. And no one knew at the time that we would lose Fainu even before the pre-season started. No one knew he would be involved in a stabbing. No one knew that he would be the one accused and later actually charged with doing the stabbing, thus bringing on the NRL's stand down policy. And also, no one knew that his off-season shoulder surgery would lead to an infection that would have basically ruled him out for the season anyway.

What we really did wrong was not having a backup in place. Thus we ended up with the disaster that was Danny Levi and Lachlan Croker. And when added to everything else ... i.e. the injuries to players like Turbo, Walks, Suli and Thommo, plus it must be said some rather poor play from the side during games, it all combined to derail our season big time.

Hindsight is a perfect thing isn't it. Its easy to be right after the fact.