Battle of Hastings 1066 Thread

[brad]

I think we may be seeing more of a kicking game from Croker this round judging by the sponsor on the official team list

6 Lachlan Croker - proudly brought to you by Footpower

It may be Footpower up his backside if he doesn't perform.

 

[Snake]

We will probably only see Hastings at 5/8 if croker is injured

Either that or lose a significant amount of games in a row...every win with Croker at 5/8 seals his spot for the following 2-3 weeks. If we lose 3-4 in a row, maybe he will experiment but even then I doubt it...

 

[Holmsey]

When Barrett gets the chop he can only blame himself.

 

[Damien2812]

So could Barrett if we don’t make the 8. Going backwards shouldn’t be an option.

Well Des Hasler is seating at home waiting for his next coaching gig. I'll throw the coin to get Dessy back to Manly..

 

[1969]

Well Des Hasler is seating at home waiting for his next coaching gig. I'll throw the coin to get Dessy back to Manly..

I don't want Hasler back, he's a traiter, who gets his glory by backloading contracts, then leaves for others to clean up his mess.

 

[Deleted member 26876]

It's rd 5, every win we've had he's looked great. Every loss we've had he's looked bad, although every loss we've had everyone's looked just as bad. He stood out against Parramatta, we need to not jump to conclusions. Im not all for him, although i'm more than willing to wait for our side to play more before i jump to conclusions and join in on the Hastings bandwagon

 

[Scorpio]

Has Hastings ever actually taken the field as a #6 for Manly?

I can only remember him playing for us as a #9 off the bench.

 

[Ben]

Has Hastings ever actually taken the field as a #6 for Manly?

I can only remember him playing for us as a #9 off the bench.

Did he play 6 when we got flogged by saints last year?

 

[eagle40]

Guessing that Trent as a former 5/8 has been teaching Croker and he is his special pet. Im hoping this week is the week and he comes good. Else il be baying for Barrets head.

Maybe TB should have become a school teacher if he wants too teach kids.
Put the kid in Reggie’s if he’s any good he’ll find his way back. Hastings needs to be thrown in now, sink or swim time for him.

 

[eagle40]

Croker should kick the bloody ball . Put up a high bomb. Anything is better than nothing. How hard can it be. Turbo has more goes and that's not really part of his repertoire.

The only time I’m keen on us is when Turbos playing. I also thought Dylan Walker came back too early, did not stretch out fully & seemed very ordinary in his action. I’m worried about T.Barrett now.

 

[HoldenV8]

Did he play 6 when we got flogged by saints last year?

With Green and Api out injured he was named to start at 5/8 with Cam Cullen at hooker (no Brown either so Joey Lussick came in on the bench). But right before kickoff Barrett made the decision to play Cullen at 5/8 and Jacko at dummy half. We looked like a bunch of park footballers for the first 40. No direction in attack and our defence fell apart and we were 30-0 down at half time.

Then to start the second half, Hastings went to 5/8, Cullen got hooked and Joey came on at hooker. Suddenly we came alive, looked a $hitload better and got it back to 30-22 in just over 20 minutes.

Then for reasons only known to Barrett, when we got it back to 8 points he took Joey Lussick off, put Cullen back on at 5/8 and we went back to being the rabble we were in the first half and the score blew out to 52-22.

Even though we looked a lot better with Hastings at pivot, Jacko and Cullen seemed to get the brunt of the blame because it was the last action either saw in first grade for the year.

 

[Paw93]

I also know that Hastings trained primarily in the halves all off-season, not 9. He still trains in the halves even though his role is 9 on weekends?!

Thanks Snake. Really appreciate the insider info mate. Tells us a lot more about how the team appears from the inside instead of leaving it all to speculation, and we all know how good Silvertails is at that.

This info does tell us that Baz sees him as an option at 6 - does add credence to SER8's theory of Baz downplaying his ego a bit.

 

[Fluffy]

Don't think this is a "down on Croker" thread. Don't think anybody blames him... just a bit pissed off that TB can't see there is a better option at this point in time

He has been called a cancer

 

[Fluffy]

Did he play 6 when we got flogged by saints last year?

It was mentioned elsewhere that he was named at 6 but started 9 and Cullen played 6, Api at half. We were a makeshift side though so wouldn't read anything into it.

Scored almost all of our points when down to 12 men with Lussick in the bin

 

[TimmyQ]

You are all barking up the wrong tree. Barrett does rate Hastings, but he is determined to stamp out his tendency to big-headedness.

I’ve heard Barrett go out of his way to avoid praising Hastings in other interviews.

And yet he picks him in our team. Pretty obvious to me that he rates the bloke, he just won’t say so.

Gee, so TB is teaching Jacko 'humility' as our season disintegrates in front of our eyes. Seems a fair trade off to me..

 

[TimmyQ]

That's the feeling that I get about Barrett, that he doesn't like admitting he has made a mistake.

He didn't like it when he had to admit Walker failed at 5/8, in fact he went out of his way to try and not admit it even after being forced to swap Walker and Killer. And it would seem he won't admit that Croker adds absolutely nothing to the side other than making DCE play a style of game which he is not really good at to compensate for the lack of anything from his halves partner.

Correct - and compare this scenario with the best coach of the modern era in Craig Bellamy. Perform or perish. Croft gone after a few indifferent weeks to gain confidence in reggies. TB are u listening????

 

[TimmyQ]

The other thing is players can look a million dollars at training because the pressure is off. They throw amazing passes, banana kicks come off, they run all the set plays nicely...game day and it all goes out the window. I reckon Croker is playing a really steady hand at training and Baz is waiting for him to feel his way into FG and bring his A game (the one they see at training). If he fails for long enough, he'll be dropped but Baz is gonna give him plenty of opportunity to take his game from training out onto the field in FG.

That's the issue. We simply don't have time. Remember this, at the start of the season I thought if we played well we were a shot of being 4-2 ish. We have had a relatively good draw thus far and we failed to capitalize. Its only going to get harder and we need to settle on a team that's going to hopefully produce consistent good footy week in week out with combinations gelling. Hard decisions need to be made NOW. Given poor old Lachlan was beaten up badly last week (I think his reverse play the ball showed he was still in pixieland) TB has the convenient opportunity to 'rest' the kid so everyones egos remain in tact and we might have a chance to win a game of footy.

 

[chuckee]

Can’t wait til we win on Sunday so the real coach can shut half you armchair experts up

 

[Eagles2nv]

Perhaps Hastings is on the way out and the signing is conditional.

E.g. Manly will release him if.....

Only issue is why would baz be playing him off the bench if he was leaving ala lussick.

 

[BOZO]

Interesting interview with Barrett on Talkin Sport this arvo.

They were stating that API has a good chance of playing state of origin this year. TB agreed.
Tunks made a joke about Hastings haircut. TB ignored the statement about Hastings and said we have a great backup hooker Fainu playing reserve grade that can cover if needed.
Not one word from TB regarding Hastings being able to backup if required.


TB then spent several minutes stating how good Croker was going and none of Manlys issues has anything to do with him, and he was a great defender. He said Manly have no problems scoring points, which means the 5/8th is not an issue.

He did not bring up Hastings at all during the interview
I don't think Hastings will be starting anytime soon.

So Trent ignored the obvious .
I am no coach but somethings are so obvious that you don't have to be a coach to see. Sometimes things are so obvious all one needs is eyes to see.
Any way , I am not surprised . Trent persisted with Walker as a 5/8 for a whole year until he finally saw what was obvious .
Trent was the only player ever to be slapped by a coach . I am now beginning to understand why the coach would have been so frustrated to revert to such actions .