Anyone else think...

[Sue]

......winning football games is hard with one kicker in the team.

Croker, Walker can’t/don’t kick
Api doesn’t kick
Tommy doesn’t kick
Hastings offended someone... and when he was picked he played 10 minutes and didn’t kick.

The answer is you dont. Most teams yearn for a left foot kicker amongst their options. We don’t have options.

If anyone can find another team with one kicker in general play I would like to be informed.Does the coach realise how easy it is to pressure single kickers?Does the coach realise how easy it is to defend attacking kicks from single kicker teams( not that there are any).Does the coach realise how bad our attacking kicking and competing is ?

A spine with one kicker. Nice.This is down to coaching. Nothing else. This is a joke!
Storm has 4. Warriors 3. Saints 3. Panthers 3 Go figure
The whole game is based on possession and field position ffs and we have one kicker.In fact excluding Hastings as he is done, with everyone fit, we have ONE bloke who can kick at first grade level in our Top 30

 

[Budgie]

......winning football games is hard with one kicker in the team.

Croker, Walker can’t/don’t kick
Api doesn’t kick
Hastings offended someone

The answer is you dont. Most teams yearn for a left foot kicker amongst their options. We don’t have options.

If anyone can find another team with one kicker in general play I would like to be informed.Does the coach realise how easy it is to pressure single kickers?Does the coach realise how easy it is to defend attacking kicks from single kicking teams( not that there are any).

A spine with one kicker. Nice.This is down to coaching. Nothing else. This is a joke!

Couldn't agree more. The lack of repeat sets means we get one shot when we finally make it to within scoring range and then we essentially give the ball back. Very hard to watch.

 

[tookey]

Fulton's salary cap mess ensured we lost out on signing Pearce

 

[TimmyQ]

......winning football games is hard with one kicker in the team.

Croker, Walker can’t/don’t kick
Api doesn’t kick
Tommy doesn’t kick
Hastings offended someone... and when he was picked he played 10 minutes and didn’t kick.

The answer is you dont. Most teams yearn for a left foot kicker amongst their options. We don’t have options.

If anyone can find another team with one kicker in general play I would like to be informed.Does the coach realise how easy it is to pressure single kickers?Does the coach realise how easy it is to defend attacking kicks from single kicker teams( not that there are any).Does the coach realise how bad our attacking kicking and competing is ?

A spine with one kicker. Nice.This is down to coaching. Nothing else. This is a joke!

That's not a dummy spit - thats just fact. How much pressure can one player take being the only one to kick the pill all game. No wonder DCE is struggling. Refusing to pick Jacko is one thing, but surely to Christ we have to nominate another bloke to help out with punting the ball down field. I really feel for our poor forwards who even in games they dominate we still lose because other facets of our game are clunky and ineffective.

 

[madmax]

If Barrett insists in not selecting Hastings then the obvious choice is to blood Tom Wright at 5/8. Can he be any worse than Croker & now Walker?? He has a very good kicking game both short & long, he has speed to burn, he has that X factor, however he also has a few defensive issues. In saying that he is a better defender than what Green was so what the f$%k is Barrett waiting for? His excuse is he doesn't want to throw him into the deep end........well then let's just persist with playing players out of position & let's just keep f$%king losing games we could be winning! I'm no coach by any stretch of the imagination & considering the players we have available, i would like to see this team take on the Broncos next week:-
Tom T
M Suli
D Walker
B Kelly
A Uate
T Wright
DCE
M Taupau
A Koproisau
T Paseka
S Lane
J Thompson
Jake T

Res: M Wright, AFB, L Perrett, T Sipley

Maybe i'm delusional but we could spank the Broncos by showing a little faith in players & blooding them now!

 

[Sue]

Barrett declared early on that Croker was his man.Every week he stood by him and said he’s in for the season and almost laughed at the press questioning him.This 1 kicker plus the rare kick from Croker, Tom or Api WAS THE 2018 PLAN.

When Hastings was still considered a person worthy of playing he was not picked at 5/8 and didn’t kick at 9.This was a conscious decision.

One kicker was the strategy.It didnt happen by chance.It’s hard to comprehend and he is responsible for the consequences.No repeat sets. defend the side DCE is on, impossible field goal pressure,easy pressure on the downtown. Crazy

 

[manly al]

Certainly missing Green"s ability from last season to get repeat sets but just have to expect and hope for D C E to improve in this area . As far as general kicking , i am sure that Walker at least for longer range kicking could offer something more in that department .Whether Barrett and for whatever reason continues to omit Hastings remains to be seen but for now seems that D C E will just have to do his best and justify his pay packet by being an effective kicker in general

 

[Sue]

Certainly missing Green"s ability from last season to get repeat sets but just have to expect and hope for D C E to improve in this area . As far as general kicking , i am sure that Walker at least for longer range kicking could offer something more in that department .Whether Barrett and for whatever reason continues to omit Hastings remains to be seen but for now seems that D C E will just have to do his best and justify his pay packet by being an effective kicker in general

The problem is that the actual plan, regardless of Hastings because he did play, was for for DCE to do it all. The options are irrelevant if they aren’t used. Was never going to work and doesn’t work.

 

[Ned]

Certainly missing Green"s ability from last season to get repeat sets but just have to expect and hope for D C E to improve in this area . As far as general kicking , i am sure that Walker at least for longer range kicking could offer something more in that department .Whether Barrett and for whatever reason continues to omit Hastings remains to be seen but for now seems that D C E will just have to do his best and justify his pay packet by being an effective kicker in general

We are missing those repeat sets, but what good are they if there's no attacking imputes when we get them.

They seem to have very little attack inside the opposition red zone, so many forward hitups/settlers from 15m out to soak up 5 tackles then another fizzer of a run or an ineffective kick. This needs to be addressed IMO.

 

[highlandeagle]

If Barrett insists in not selecting Hastings then the obvious choice is to blood Tom Wright at 5/8. Can he be any worse than Croker & now Walker?? He has a very good kicking game both short & long, he has speed to burn, he has that X factor, however he also has a few defensive issues. In saying that he is a better defender than what Green was so what the f$%k is Barrett waiting for? His excuse is he doesn't want to throw him into the deep end........well then let's just persist with playing players out of position & let's just keep f$%king losing games we could be winning! I'm no coach by any stretch of the imagination & considering the players we have available, i would like to see this team take on the Broncos next week:-
Tom T
M Suli
D Walker
B Kelly
A Uate
T Wright
DCE
M Taupau
A Koproisau
T Paseka
S Lane
J Thompson
Jake T

Res: M Wright, AFB, L Perrett, T Sipley

Maybe i'm delusional but we could spank the Broncos by showing a little faith in players & blooding them now!

Should happen but it won't happen. Safety first from our brain dead coach.

 

[manly al]

In all fairness to Barrett and approaching the commencement to this season it looked in order that first Moylan , then Pearce , then Hodo and his then preference of Carney had every chance of being in Manly colours at the season start but of course circumstances then prevented this . I seriously don"t think that Croker was his first choice 5 / 8 when every indication previously was that all things normal , one of these players on the market then would have been an addition and then consequently then expected to be in the role of 5 / 8. . Croker and possibly at the time Hastings were the only other option then when the other options all then became unavailable but if it was Barrett:s preference at the time , of course if any one of those players on the market previously at the start of the season them did arrive at the club , would have been his starting 6 .

 

[Chip and Chase]

And our one kicker isn't that good. The only part of DCE's kicking game that I would rate is his 40/20's. The rest is average at best. I'll give him some concession in that he is easily targeted by defences being the only kicker in the team, so he gets put under pressure constantly. But even so I wouldn't rate his kicking game as anything special. Look at yesterday for example, a slightly better attacking kicking game and we may have got the win. So many uncontested bombs and poorly executed cross field kicks.

 

[Sue]

In all fairness to Barrett and approaching the commencement to this season it looked in order that first Moylan , then Pearce , then Hodo and his then preference of Carney had every chance of being in Manly colours at the season start but of course circumstances then prevented this . I seriously don"t think that Croker was his first choice 5 / 8 when every indication previously was that all things normal , one of these players on the market then would have been an addition and then consequently then expected to be in the role of 5 / 8. . Croker and possibly at the time Hastings were the only other option then when the other options all then became unavailable but if it was Barrett:s preference at the time , of course if any one of those players on the market previously at the start of the season them did arrive at the club , would have been his starting 6 .

But they didn’t arrive. Hastings can kick well and didn’t. Croker can kick at some level and was obviously instructed not to. Options were there. Not great options but anything is better than this tactic.Coaching is all about adapting to circumstances thrown at you. We don’t

And how many teams have a fullback and hooker who don’t kick as well. That’s just as crazy list management. It’s not only about the five eight.and who didn’t arrive .NONE of them can kick or are allowed to kick.

 

[simon64]

In all fairness to Barrett and approaching the commencement to this season it looked in order that first Moylan , then Pearce , then Hodo and his then preference of Carney had every chance of being in Manly colours at the season start but of course circumstances then prevented this . I seriously don"t think that Croker was his first choice 5 / 8 when every indication previously was that all things normal , one of these players on the market then would have been an addition and then consequently then expected to be in the role of 5 / 8. . Croker and possibly at the time Hastings were the only other option then when the other options all then became unavailable but if it was Barrett:s preference at the time , of course if any one of those players on the market previously at the start of the season them did arrive at the club , would have been his starting 6 .

You're spot on Al.

If Baz intended to use Croker at 6, he never would've chased Pearce or Moylon or Hodko. The cap mess meant he missed out on all 3 and so the only option left was Croker.

Even Baz is smart enough to realise you don't use a 6 who has only a couple of games of NRL as anything less than a back up.

He was handed this mess. And the Hastings fiasco just made it worse. I really think he needs to use him because he's the best option right now.

 

[Rodo]

......winning football games is hard with one kicker in the team.

Croker, Walker can’t/don’t kick
Api doesn’t kick
Tommy doesn’t kick
Hastings offended someone... and when he was picked he played 10 minutes and didn’t kick.

The answer is you dont. Most teams yearn for a left foot kicker amongst their options. We don’t have options.

If anyone can find another team with one kicker in general play I would like to be informed.Does the coach realise how easy it is to pressure single kickers?Does the coach realise how easy it is to defend attacking kicks from single kicker teams( not that there are any).Does the coach realise how bad our attacking kicking and competing is ?

A spine with one kicker. Nice.This is down to coaching. Nothing else. This is a joke!
Storm has 4. Warriors 3. Saints 3. Panthers 3 Go figure
The whole game is based on possession and field position ffs and we have one kicker.

Yes Sue kicking has been one of Manly's big issues this season and Barrett has not rectified this. Is there no one else in the team who can kick besides DCE? DCE has always been good (but not great as he often picks out a defender) with long kicks but not with short kicks and attacking kicks. And he often makes the wrong decision when under pressure on where and how to kick the ball.

It's disappointing to see that a big part of Manly's game last year was repeat sets with Manly dominating this area of play but this year it's non-existent. Surely Barrett should realise this and get someone to stay back at training and practice this skill.

With Manly completely dominating the run metres yesterday against the Roosters, they should have easily won the game but there are some glaring issues (including kicking) that are making it so much harder for them to win.

 

[manly al]

Was surprised that Croker was not used or given more scope to kick in general especially with his junior rep background . Academic now but may have also helped croker"s overall confidence level as well if he was given more kicking responsibility , maybe Trent is just a little too conservative in his coaching style sometimes . Anyway best approach now and if he is fit is for Walker to practice some better kicking options and more so long range kicking options but i am sure that D C E " kicking game can be better then he has shown in recent times .

 

[weev]

In all fairness to Barrett and approaching the commencement to this season it looked in order that first Moylan , then Pearce , then Hodo and his then preference of Carney had every chance of being in Manly colours at the season start but of course circumstances then prevented this . I seriously don"t think that Croker was his first choice 5 / 8 when every indication previously was that all things normal , one of these players on the market then would have been an addition and then consequently then expected to be in the role of 5 / 8. . Croker and possibly at the time Hastings were the only other option then when the other options all then became unavailable but if it was Barrett:s preference at the time , of course if any one of those players on the market previously at the start of the season them did arrive at the club , would have been his starting 6 .

Baz is not responsible for the salary cap mess but bears the burden of it in totality. We would have had pearce, Moylan, hodgo or kept green. But they all believed the rumours (or their managers did) and so this is what salary cap punishment actually feels like.

 

[manly al]

You're spot on Al.

If Baz intended to use Croker at 6, he never would've chased Pearce or Moylon or Hodko. The cap mess meant he missed out on all 3 and so the only option left was Croker.

Even Baz is smart enough to realise you don't use a 6 who has only a couple of games of NRL as anything less than a back up.

He was handed this mess. And the Hastings fiasco just made it worse. I really think he needs to use him because he's the best option right now.

I"ve still got mixed feeling on Hastings being reinstated as i and like most others still am not aware of the full circumstances concerning him . Would really like to go now with a backline now of Tom, Tom Wright , Kelly , Suli , Uate , Walker and D C E and see how that goes . Nothing to lose now and at least that line up would not lack speed and even power . Again what is there to lose now and to try something different for a bit of extra real interest .

 

[Budgie]

We are missing those repeat sets, but what good are they if there's no attacking imputes when we get them.

They seem to have very little attack inside the opposition red zone, so many forward hitups/settlers from 15m out to soak up 5 tackles then another fizzer of a run or an ineffective kick. This needs to be addressed IMO.

Repeat sets tire the opposition - helps a rubbish attack.

 

[Woodsie]

Why isn't that congenital and continuous pest Hastings on a slow boat to Botswana yet ... FFS I am sick of hearing about the serial ****-up ... get him gone, he is beginning to take on the aura of the living dead .....