Comparing Manly's forward pack 2022 ??

[maxta]

As a comparison to All NRL teams....where do you individually rate Manly's forwards stack up in 2022 ??

The Best and most improved packs 2022 imo -

I'll kickoff with....

1 -Storm's big versatile pack are obviously there and led around the middle with Grant, the complete dummy half, will again unfortunately be a benchmark.

2 - Penrith a rugged pack and plenty of young guns coming through the juniors are also a yardstick.

3 - The Souths pack led by the games most energetic player Cam Murray, blew us off the park and matched the Panthers middle on GF day, so must be rated also.

4 - Manly - The best thing about being a Top 4 pack - I truly feel has the Most potential and upside...with many youngsters to only improve and the addition of Bullemor who will have positive impact....could well shake up the 3 teams above.

Also a few teams to watch and improve in the middle -

Sharks signing of Finucane along with the forgotten McGuiness will add steel and toughness, add a fit Wade Graham and some good tough youngsters including a bloke named Pele (not soccer) who could be a Monster in the near future.

Knights have the names on paper - Safiti's, Klemmer and Frizzel and a sprinkle of other tough nuts, but seem a tad off the pace.

Laugh out loud at your own peril, the Dogs pack has "the names" to Challenge Most packs in the game....and I reckon will come out hard , win a few games, but the wheels will fall off....I don't they will be cohesive as a team and won't go into reasons, as there has already been 3147 threads on "WHy" and 41,623 posts to elaborate on these threads....will definately be intriging to see how this mob shows up in 2022.

Eels are a good pack and as always will be spoken about as a Premiership threat and even come out the blocks, but will fold over time and don't reackon their pack has true credability under pressure when shots are fired.

 

[Woodsie]

Good review .. my take is that Manly's biggest advantages this year lie in 3 main factors

1) We have an unchanged pack ... of blokes that have been together at the club for years now. Penrith's pack showed what a group that plays for each other can achieve. Team spirit and pack mentality can do wonders, and you can't win the hard games without them ... Keppie knows it, just hope Kapow finally gets it.

2) Pack are hitting the right age and experience mark ... Paseka, Keppie, Aloaia are now the age to play their best footy and become leaders .. Guacamole, Schuster are no longer rookies and have plenty of skills ..

3) We have great depth .... Davey, Bullimore, Lawton, Sipley, Simone Fainu, Alec Tu'itavake, Burbo ..

 

[Stewbojevic]

The Roosters pack is strong if they stay fit. They’ve also got a couple of younger guys who gained some experience last year and could be anything, Egan Butcher for example. He’s in the Cam Murray mould.

I think our pack is still untested in the grind of big games. Great when we have momentum and can do some amazing things. But outside of Keppie there isn’t a lot of intimidation and aggression needed to slog it out in the middle at finals time or when it’s tight.

Hopefully Bullemor and Davey can add a bit of that starch next year, and Guac keeps improving.

 

[Steagle]

Paseka really has to be more consistent this year. Like to see Toff given more chances as he plays with spirit and good for team morale.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Good review .. my take is that Manly's biggest advantages this year lie in 3 main factors

1) We have an unchanged pack ... of blokes that have been together at the club for years now. Penrith's pack showed what a group that plays for each other can achieve. Team spirit and pack mentality can do wonders, and you can't win the hard games without them ... Keppie knows it, just hope Kapow finally gets it.

2) Pack are hitting the right age and experience mark ... Paseka, Keppie, Aloaia are now the age to play their best footy and become leaders .. Guacamole, Schuster are no longer rookies and have plenty of skills ..

3) We have great depth .... Davey, Bullimore, Lawton, Sipley, Simone Fainu, Alec Tu'itavake, Burbo ..

I think the depth might be the most important factor as the season goes on.
With Covid potentially impacting on the sides as the year goes on and injuries as well, having the ability to put out a quality forward pack might be tougher than ever.
Sides lose a couple of backline stars and a good forward pack might be the difference between winning and losing some games as the year goes on.
Some quality utility players might be worth their weight in gold.
I think we are well served and even though it may seem crazy to say this as I had them pegged for competing for the wooden spoon....I wonder as the season drags on if the Dragons might be well served too,they have stocked their roster with forwards and a lot of utility players.
Might come down to how disrupted sides are week to week.

 

[BOZO]

As a comparison to All NRL teams....where do you individually rate Manly's forwards stack up in 2022 ??

The Best and most improved packs 2022 imo -

I'll kickoff with....

1 -Storm's big versatile pack are obviously there and led around the middle with Grant, the complete dummy half, will again unfortunately be a benchmark.

2 - Penrith a rugged pack and plenty of young guns coming through the juniors are also a yardstick.

3 - The Souths pack led by the games most energetic player Cam Murray, blew us off the park and matched the Panthers middle on GF day, so must be rated also.

4 - Manly - The best thing about being a Top 4 pack - I truly feel has the Most potential and upside...with many youngsters to only improve and the addition of Bullemor who will have positive impact....could well shake up the 3 teams above.

Also a few teams to watch and improve in the middle -

Sharks signing of Finucane along with the forgotten McGuiness will add steel and toughness, add a fit Wade Graham and some good tough youngsters including a bloke named Pele (not soccer) who could be a Monster in the near future.

Knights have the names on paper - Safiti's, Klemmer and Frizzel and a sprinkle of other tough nuts, but seem a tad off the pace.

Laugh out loud at your own peril, the Dogs pack has "the names" to Challenge Most packs in the game....and I reckon will come out hard , win a few games, but the wheels will fall off....I don't they will be cohesive as a team and won't go into reasons, as there has already been 3147 threads on "WHy" and 41,623 posts to elaborate on these threads....will definately be intriging to see how this mob shows up in 2022.

Eels are a good pack and as always will be spoken about as a Premiership threat and even come out the blocks, but will fold over time and don't reackon their pack has true credability under pressure when shots are fired.

Good summary and you have made some very good points feathered friend

I would just like to add the obvious of what the other leading packs have and that is

An Ace of Spades in a High Quality Hooker that trumps in every game and Especially in the Big Games where big Plays counts .

 

[BOZO]

I think the depth might be the most important factor as the season goes on.
With Covid potentially impacting on the sides as the year goes on and injuries as well, having the ability to put out a quality forward pack might be tougher than ever.
Sides lose a couple of backline stars and a good forward pack might be the difference between winning and losing some games as the year goes on.
Some quality utility players might be worth their weight in gold.
I think we are well served and even though it may seem crazy to say this as I had them pegged for competing for the wooden spoon....I wonder as the season drags on if the Dragons might be well served too,they have stocked their roster with forwards and a lot of utility players.
Might come down to how disrupted sides are week to week.

Depth is an important factor

What options do we have if our makeshift hooker goes down ?

 

[Smokin Joe]

Depth is an important factor

What options do we have if our makeshift hooker goes down ?

Lawton,Foran plus Humphreys and GCKT are training there from our development players.
Fainu,Dargan,Ackland are on train and trial contracts.
Workers have stocked their squad with dummy halves..Ott,Roberts,Tramontana,Cantrill,Rizk,McRae.
I think a lot of sides aren't particularly well stocked for dummy halves(apart from Storm),not a lot of elite dummy halves out there(quite a number of quality ones but not elite game changers),covid could play havoc with most if not all sides equally.
Mahoney,Koroisau,Brailey boys,Hodgson,Verrills,Watson,Turpin,Robson are quality dummy halves but hardly game changers,Croker stacks up well with them for mine.
Smith and Grant from Storm and Cook from bunnies are a class apart,shame about Fainus' situation....

 

[Mal Cochrane]

I'd like to see the pack not give up so much ground in defence as often as they did in 2021.

Add to that, the ability along with dce to win back the momentum

 

[47MVEagle]

Who will be our pack leader this season?

Someone has to step up & lead by example.

Keppie?

 

[Kevinward777]

Our pack is looking right up there.

 

[Will on the hill]

Looks good on paper, especially deep into the offseason. But based on last years performances, I'd have our middle forwards in the 6th-10th range. Bullemore and Davey will add a bit of competition but neither are game breakers on their own and both are better suited to an edge imo.

Our 2 biggest failures in 2021 were ball control and inability to slow the PTB.
I can cop errors from creative players but the mistakes from players making simple hit ups need to be curtailed.
At times we looked like we were panicking to get off the tackled player way too early and that panic snowballs with each quick PTB.

Penrith and Melbourne are masters of finding where the referee is drawing a line in the sand and playing right up to that line for the rest of the game. We need to take a page from their book.

We can improve but only if it's done as a unit. One person stepping up will have little to no impact.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

I still think we lack a real forward leader, Marty should be ( but isn’t ). Jake try’s but seems to fail in that department.

 

[BOZO]

I still think we lack a real forward leader, Marty should be ( but isn’t ). Jake try’s but seems to fail in that department.

That was the case in last years finals .

 

[BOZO]

Who will be our pack leader this season?

Someone has to step up & lead by example.

Keppie?

Leaders / Enforcers of a pack are Dominating and generate a strong feeling of dislike and hatred

Keppie on his good day seems to be . Consistency is the key

We have Jake every now and then being animated to our troops before the game but when the game starts there is no animosity / hostility against the opposition from him .

Fabio Taupau is a Good looking specimen but he looks more of a pretty boy than an enforcer on the field

Josh Aloiai had plenty of wraps when we signed him but was far from a stand out

Paseka is a big fellow and has his moments but he seems to be a follower

Last Years finals quick exit in straight sets was evident we need more from the boys in our pack

 

[BOZO]

We need to raise our standards across the park in order to rise from top four to the top of the tree

and live up to our legendary clubs high standards as the greatest club of all

 

[BOZO]

Lawton,Foran plus Humphreys and GCKT are training there from our development players.
Fainu,Dargan,Ackland are on train and trial contracts.
Workers have stocked their squad with dummy halves..Ott,Roberts,Tramontana,Cantrill,Rizk,McRae.
I think a lot of sides aren't particularly well stocked for dummy halves(apart from Storm),not a lot of elite dummy halves out there(quite a number of quality ones but not elite game changers),covid could play havoc with most if not all sides equally.
Mahoney,Koroisau,Brailey boys,Hodgson,Verrills,Watson,Turpin,Robson are quality dummy halves but hardly game changers,Croker stacks up well with them for mine.
Smith and Grant from Storm and Cook from bunnies are a class apart,shame about Fainus' situation....

Thanks @Smokin Joe . We seem to have plenty of development and other hopefuls and hopefully they can surprise as our makeshift hooker Croker was out of his depth in the finals against the quality and dominant number nines.

It is a shame on Fainus situation as he is a very talented player

 

[BOZO]

Our pack is looking right up there.

On paper we look good
I would like us to look even better on grass

 

[jbb/james]

no doubt we have a number of players on the rise. keppie, paseka, bullemore, oka
pretty much the addition of davey
tapau, sipley, boyle
not sure if ailoi will rise after a mixed season , but the man has promise, add in jakey and lawnton

i love the players we have but im unsure if our pack is balanced enough with combined skillsets

schuster did an admirable job but there is no room for him in the pack unless injuries mount. its d day for schuster in some regards to define his position but the pack works better without him particularly if jakes game is managing by slotting in at first receiver


our pack features a lot of similar body shapes. they lumber more than they dart and while all can be very damaging wound up with momentum and the ball, defence, not hits, laterally can be a bit of an issue for the big lads who are more suited to a style of footy that gets us an even share of the pill

they are not suited to absorbing 60/40 defence particularly early in games when we have our starting side out there

the DCE, foz, wallker schuster, puzzle is the key to next season and that is fast tracked by the shoe being expelled from the pack IMO

martys last year id say and i think its good his is playing for another contract

one has to assume lawnton and walker on bench so starting pack needs to be better balanced in workload, go forward and grunt work as a few of our players dont have the game time high intensity

our pack needs to improve in a few areas but are building nicely. Rome wasnt built in a day.

the game plan needs to be tweaked to get them to play in conditions better suited to there imposing skillsets more often. because getting them confident is the key. they have the tools.

we also need a game plan that gets us out of the bog because it doesnt come naturally

if not just play tom at second row , then we will have the best pack in the comp

 

[Tragic Eagle]

Depth of squad will be key this season. Our pack looks great on paper but they haven’t yet reached the level of performance and consistency required to win the premiership. Once they can play week in and week out with steely resolve and consistency they will be a real chance.