Pre-Game Cowboys V Manly [Round 11, 2025]

[Brookie1973]

I fear the Cowboys will be looking to pay us back for that Round 1 humiliation at Brookvale, and that no amount of @Wombat64's premium lube will save our collective perineum by the full-time siren.

My perineum is not collective thank you very much.

 

[Thewestisbest]

But that's exactly what he did last week!
(we lost) 🙁

Correct and the week before without Jake. The positional changes didn't stop us from winning last week, though they were less effective than they might have been if our genius coach had made better use of the interchange bench. Particularly the minutes played (or not played) by certain individuals.

Instead he goes back to the formula that saw us lose three in a row.

Insanity.

And should we win, it will only serve to encourage old Spoon to continue the same way.

 

[Ohgeez]

Purdue played all his junior footy as a half, and has been killing it in the centres, a position he had never previously played. He is very quick off the mark and will likely cause plenty of problems in the middle of the field. Dearden never gives up. And on top of that, Drinkwater plays pretty much as an extra half.

Up against them we have an old bloke with one eye on Origin and the other eye on his new red, white and blue team, and a slightly less old bloke who has always struggled to take control of a game.

But the halves will be the least of our problems. The game will be won in the forwards, and ours are just not very good.

I know where Perdue played & that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a 19 year old playing his 1st game of NRL in the half’s defending against a lot bigger bodies than centres. Game plan needs to be get him 1 on 1 with any forward as much as possible & he’ll be steam rolled like round 1 against Olakau'atu

Dearden never gives up doesn’t mean anything, it’s quite obvious the best part of his game is running & playing what’s in front of him not organising a team. His kicking game hasn’t been great this year at all. Dylan Brown turns into a shadow of himself when moved from 5/8 to 7 as do plenty of others, let’s see what happens. As for Drinkwater almost all fullbacks ‘play as an extra half’ these days.

 

[Thewestisbest]

The season is ****ed already, and has been since the Dollar Chaser decided to screw the pooch.

No one gives a **** now , get used to loss after loss with the very occasional win ( when the other team basically stuffs up and the refs start feeling sorry for us).

I’m expecting to run bottom 4 now, we just don’t have the team to do much better

We certainly have the team to do MUCH better.

We don't have the coach to get the best out of the team.

We aren't a Premiership threat but we are much better than what we've seen lately.

 

[Brookie1973]

We certainly have the team to do MUCH better.

We don't have the coach to get the best out of the team.

We aren't a Premiership threat but we are much better than what we've seen lately.

Yes, if DCE has caused a rift in the side, a strong coach would take the appropriate step and drop him, or at the very least, strip him of the captaincy. Or maybe keeping him there provides another perfect excuse if that’s what you are looking for.

 

[Seagles68]

Aaron Schoupp named at #11 in NSW Cup. I wonder if that's a plan moving forward to possibly turn him into a backrower for that left edge spot and/or getting in some reps incase Haumole makes SOS.

I wouldn't mind that. I've watched him at Brookie in reserves and he has some grunt and attitude we could certainly use in this pack of ours. He's also pretty solid.

 

[Wombat64]

This game on Saturday should be renamed the Broke Back Mountain Cup because we're getting done big time by some rampaging Cowboys. BUT, the week after this is the Eels and we'll be missing origin players and hopefully they'll have Moses out, then the Broncos who'll have plenty of players backing up after origin, then the Knights, then the tight ones. In theory, that's not an awful run and if we're any good we should win most of them.... if we're any good...... and unfortunately we're probably not.

 

[Nambawan]

Against that, I look at our halves and definitely see NO game managers there either!

Deardon is a superb player - and competitor. Might bring the best out of DCE

 

[Nambawan]

Note that Navale has been picked - just hope he gets more than 10 minutes game time.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

We certainly have the team to do MUCH better.

We don't have the coach to get the best out of the team.

We aren't a Premiership threat but we are much better than what we've seen lately.

If they want to be better that is.

Not sure it’s all the coaches fault, I’m starting to see a disconnect on the field and that’s down to the players.

 

[Seagles68]

Two steps forward, one step back.

I don't think that Jake plays all that different at prop, than he does at lock. If your lock isn't even going to run the ball, which Tevaga didn't do a lot of on Sunday, you may as well put Jake there, and have two better props. I think Croker will be in NSW cup this week, so Tevaga is genuinely the short term solution this time.

Bullemor and Navale are great changes. Lodge should ideally come in for Waddell.

Could it be that Walsh debuts next week ahead of Arthur? If we want to go all in on freeing up cap space for 2026, we could send Brooks into the abyss, and play Fogarty/Walsh next year. Obviously getting ahead of myself here, but he's doing something right to play two Flegg games, a NSW Cup game, and then appear on a first grade team list.

I agree about Jake. He just doesn't have have the pace or size that's needed for props these days. Or lock for that matter. He really is just in the team for his defence and ..... heart. But this situation isn't on him. We just don't have the engine. I know they get bagged a bit but really Paseka and Aloaia are our best go go forward props. Throw in TKO (I think he's been our best for a few weeks now - which says a lot!) and Bulle and we have a much stronger side. But that just isn't going to happen. I would throw in the fact that poor old Haumole was playing busted on Sunday and looks like he heeds weeks off. It was pretty disturbing watching him out there trying to play on with whatever the heck is wrong with his shoulder. Ben tries hard but isn't a game breaker and we don't seem to know how to use Tevaga and Simpkin. Consequently the pack is just an injured mish mash and it's very hard to compete at a high level like that.
But at least we finally dropped the dumb idea of a back on the bench. Tom is also not fit but the forwards can't afford to be short because of it. But anyway .....

 

[Fibro Eagle]

Is it possible Lodge replaces Waddell on the bench or will he drop Navale off the bench for Lodge
I’m keen to see Navale get more minutes see how capable he is of holding down a permanent bench spot

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Deardon is a superb player - and competitor. Might bring the best out of DCE

He’s probably the Dollar Chasers biggest hurdle to his Queensland jersey , if Deardon nails it and $CE phones it in , that might be the nail in his representative coffin.

 

[Seagles68]

Deardon is a superb player - and competitor. Might bring the best out of DCE

Can only hope. Ego alone should do it. But just maybe his age is actually catching up with him and he just can't put strong games back to back anymore. It's looking like 1 in 5 games at the moment

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

This game on Saturday should be renamed the Broke Back Mountain Cup because we're getting done big time by some rampaging Cowboys. BUT, the week after this is the Eels and we'll be missing origin players and hopefully they'll have Moses out, then the Broncos who'll have plenty of players backing up after origin, then the Knights, then the tight ones. In theory, that's not an awful run and if we're any good we should win most of them.... if we're any good...... and unfortunately we're probably not.

Maybe the Knights , they know how to lose , the others , no chance

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Can only hope. Ego alone should do it. But just maybe his age is actually catching up with him and he just can't put strong games back to back anymore. It's looking like 1 in 5 games at the moment

Yet , supposedly , he’ll get a million a year for two years at the Rorters.

It’ll have to be that as he knocked back $750k with us.

 

[47MVEagle]

Interesting that both Arthur & Walsh are on the extended bench.

Could be indicative of DCE being swapped out?

 

[Seagles68]

Yet , supposedly , he’ll get a million a year for two years at the Rorters.

It’ll have to be that as he knocked back $750k with us.

Maybe he's got everybody fooled, Mark. If he's got enough good players around him like he did back in 2011, he might just get away with it. And the Rorters will have Robson, Teddy and Walker and a strong pack. He's laughing!!

 

[eaglebuzz]

I really hope Lodge replaces Waddell on the bench. Waddell was completely ineffective against the sharks and has done very little to impress me this year.

 

[sheridanstand78]

So the selection regresses back to Jake at lock, Ben in the 2nd row and Waddell on the bench. This to me is the crux of the problem, Jake is too slow for lockforward, Burbo and Waddell are reserve graders. They keep selecting the same old same old and wont deal with the obvious problems we have.

I would have young Joey Walsh on the bench so we can blood a kid who is our future and have a ready made replacement for our halves all set to go!