Can Harper fight back ?

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maxta

First Grader
Premium Member
Morgan Harper had a Shocker vs Storm pure and simple....and I like the bloke and what he offers....in fact did not kick him when down but like everyone else, knew it was a terrible performance and lets not forget, there were many down in form, in fact maybe 2-3 could walk off that field knowing they had a dig.
I have 1 question only - can he fight back and finish the season strong.
Some calling for his sacking and though felt there were a few harsh critics after Friday night, the fact is Harper made more errors and missed tackles in 1 night than maybe the entire season.
Now the emotion has reduced - whats the opinions, as its highly unlikely Des will change anything but the teams attitude.
I'm backing a solid performance against City and right now, it's 1 game at a time...
 
He can bounce back and will. He just needs to make sure he doesn’t try too hard. Do the basics right and the rest will follow. Look to feed the Saab early and often. Dce should have a good look at himself too as he was rubbish inside morgs and Guac. Marking up on Keighran will be a lot easier than Olam - who for mine is arguably the best Centre going around. Morgs and Des I hope have had a chat about Friday night and morgs attitude should be reflecting on that as a valuable learning experience not as a negative now it’s done with.
 
Perspective time

We ALL can only fight as well as our opponent allows us to

Olam the beast is one of the best and the most consistent line breaking centres going around and is hard to stop

Big names play Big games and Big powerful Grand final winning centre Olam always rises to the challenge in big matches

Olam would have destroyed any inferior centre last week .
 
No poll? LOL
Okay, answer - yes, in the long term, but probably not enough this year.
In defence, better this week. In attack, needs better service from an in-control half, as his edge forward is no ball player.
 
Bellamy obviously saw a weakness there, hence at him over and over and over again. Agree with Waz13 though, DCE plays a big part in it with his shooting up out of the line. Hopefully Des has a chat to him too.
Must compliment Bellamy coaching. He was spot on in his game plan against us as well as prep of that team..
 
Yes, he may even come back with a vengeance. It seems he was overawed by the occasion last week, starting badly with the dropped ball leading to a try & never recovered. From memory, I think he had a reasonable game against the Storm in Rd 21, mostly containing Olam. Parker had a shocker a few weeks ago (v. Sharks?) with dropped balls & missed tackles, but we won the game. He was fine next game.
 
Maybe just a confidence thing and for Manly "s sake of course, hope that he can show some immediate improvement . Seems to be good enough individually for a higher standard of play , guess that it comes down to application and game awareness or to be able to get that back again or actually right now . Parker had a poor game against the Storm in the previous fixture game , showed improved form again and hopefully Harper can manage it too . Will no doubt be some ongoing conjecture whether Suli should have been in the run on centres some time ago , certainly made a difference in that crucial Raiders game recently but unlikely to be included again for this week . Just hope that the game day selections for this Friday "s knock out is the best available game day team and squad on offer .
 
Our right edge was successfully targeted and watching the game I remember thinking of Harper, Oh no not again!
But now I can't remember how many errors he made.
Was the first drop ball his fault or DCE's?
Losing the ball in the strip was definitely his fault,and also another cold drop off a decent pass.
But getting palmed off by Olam, and also Bromwich sliding in for his try .. were they all down to Harper? Half the time when centres and wingers are slammed for their defence I suspect that something has gone wrong inside, and that puts the outside men in an awkward or impossible position. Haumole for example may not have been coming across fast enough, or DCE not advancing or advancing too fast?
As for Harper, I'm confident he can play well this week as can the whole team.
 
Morgan Harper had a Shocker vs Storm pure and simple....and I like the bloke and what he offers....in fact did not kick him when down but like everyone else, knew it was a terrible performance and lets not forget, there were many down in form, in fact maybe 2-3 could walk off that field knowing they had a dig.
I have 1 question only - can he fight back and finish the season strong.
Some calling for his sacking and though felt there were a few harsh critics after Friday night, the fact is Harper made more errors and missed tackles in 1 night than maybe the entire season.
Now the emotion has reduced - whats the opinions, as its highly unlikely Des will change anything but the teams attitude.
I'm backing a solid performance against City and right now, it's 1 game at a time...
Good points Maxta, Harper wont be the only one to have a shocker against Melb. Can't recall any centre this season getting on top of Olam, he is a power house, solid and nuggety low to the ground. Morgan will want to bounce back and will after that, he'll be smarting, Des will give him another crack for sure.
 
He can bounce back and will. He just needs to make sure he doesn’t try too hard. Do the basics right and the rest will follow. Look to feed the Saab early and often. Dce should have a good look at himself too as he was rubbish inside morgs and Guac. Marking up on Keighran will be a lot easier than Olam - who for mine is arguably the best Centre going around. Morgs and Des I hope have had a chat about Friday night and morgs attitude should be reflecting on that as a valuable learning experience not as a negative now it’s done with.
Most of the time in defence Oka is inside Chez ,Munster got at Oka a few times
 
Most of the time in defence Oka is inside Chez ,Munster got at Oka a few times
Sterlo did an interesting analysis on Nine of the game and where it went wrong for us. He highlighted our right side defence for the Storm tries and in particular Oka’s inability to push up. He was only getting up 3-4 metres from the try line while the outside guys were 6-7 metres. It was encouraging the Storm to run the ball and created a disjointed defensive line.
 
Of course he can ... he has given a bath or at the least played off a break every opponent he's played against this year ... except Olam. he struggled against him first game. and got toweled in the last game ... Olam simply has the wood on him ... just like he has the wood on just about every centre he plays against ..

Perhaps if he was so distracted by concerns of covering up the defensive shortcomings of the "wide receiver" he would go better ...
 
Sterlo did an interesting analysis on Nine of the game and where it went wrong for us. He highlighted our right side defence for the Storm tries and in particular Oka’s inability to push up. He was only getting up 3-4 metres from the try line while the outside guys were 6-7 metres. It was encouraging the Storm to run the ball and created a disjointed defensive line.
Guaca and The Shoe are primarily attacking players. Putting them together in the second row works brilliantly when we have the ball, but when we play Melbourne we seem to only get 40% of possession.
Do we need to start with a solid defender in the second row alongside Guaca/The Shoe and keep the other one on the bench until the sting has gone out of the contest?
 
Guaca and The Shoe are primarily attacking players. Putting them together in the second row works brilliantly when we have the ball, but when we play Melbourne we seem to only get 40% of possession.
Do we need to start with a solid defender in the second row alongside Guaca/The Shoe and keep the other one on the bench until the sting has gone out of the contest?
Yes, kind of. Shoo's side wasn't the defensive problem though, it was Guac's side. Starting Kelpie instead of Guac would help. I would like to have Kelpie start and Shoo in Walker's place on the bench...for overall middle security.
 
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i would stick with harper and put suli in for parker as crazy as it sounds.

Parker hasn't been the best all year and was found out (although a lot less so than harper) in our round 20 match v melbourne.

If you put suli running off schuster the game will be changed and we'll naturally be making an extra 5-10 metres per set just off the back of suli's running.

i think it is a big gamble because suli's defence is sub-par but putting him in a clearly (recently) detatched right edge would only highlight suli's defensive weaknesses...

for me
3. Suli
4. Harper
18. Parker

Harper has been great all year and could/should fight back strongly v chooks.

In reality v top sides we need people who create options for Tom. Harper and Parker hardly create options for Tom but it in reality Suli does. We need more attacking options vs good sides.
 
Of course he can ... he has given a bath or at the least played off a break every opponent he's played against this year ... except Olam. he struggled against him first game. and got toweled in the last game ... Olam simply has the wood on him ... just like he has the wood on just about every centre he plays against ..

Perhaps if he was so distracted by concerns of covering up the defensive shortcomings of the "wide receiver" he would go better ...
The brilliant and powerful Olam is a gun centre that not many can contain
 
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
4 3 1 28 6
3 2 1 10 6
4 2 2 39 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 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
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