The reason's we "seemed" more penalised imo, is the fact opposition teams have a Blueprint of pinning us deep in our own territory and waiting for the defence to capitulate....as we are very ordinary at matching opposition tempo and the momentum other sides build, particularly through the ruck (middle) has the side looking constantly on the back foot and leads to multiple (6 again calls) which are NOT featured as a penalty and we give away these calls often on tackles 4 and 5 and while we scream "what's that penalty for, they done it to us the other end"....but the difference is, the opposition are better at controlling the tackle and dominating us physically on the ground and the wrestle, giving them more time in the tackle....as opposed to our tackles which more allow the bloke with the ball to bend the defence and struggle that bit more to (earn that 6 again)
I get annoyed with opposition getting more latitude, but they earn the decisions by winning the tempo and this is an area I believe Manly are working on in the off season....we are not a picked on team and simply need to get better and I feel confident we will in 2024.
A big part of this momentum is through stronger kick returns and outside backs getting in with some power runs and quick play the balls to get on the front foot and pressure the opposition defence and also more dummy half dashes to break down their ruck area, which in effect, then also collapses their outside defence also, which again is where we are getting beaten in most games and after losing this part of the game, it's a tough time winning on the scoreboard rely on solo efforts from Tom or DCE to freakishly win us the game even after basically being outplayed....
This may work "sometimes" against the weaker teams, but it's why we struggle against the better teams who know to win the key area's, which takes away Tom's impact and after this happens, we start pushing passes with errors and slowing down from fatigue and you know the outcome from this point....
