DCE - In Perspective

[Simonmyers11]

DCE is my 8 year olds favourite. He can do no wrong just ask her lol. Seriously though when he is on it is great sight. Not sure if he tries to hard at times or over thinks a play but just needs to find a consistent.

Can't be perfect all the time, every game. Your right just needs to work on the 5th tackle options but for most games he is always up there with one of our best imo. Still can come up with massive plays and his right side attack is sublime, the way he runs to the line looks in and throws great balls out in front to tom or Sulu. And his defence last night was first rate, often tackling Siva one on one by himself.

Best teams and players don't always play to their best, but find a way to win when it counts. Manly should of won that, were not at their best for 50-60 mins but when they turned it up really Parra could not go with them.

Long season and heaps of potential in this side. Glad cherry is our 7, we will only get better and can see this side challenging any side as long as they all stay injury free

 

[Bring back the.... Biff?]

My two bobs worth.
To me our game plan last night was predominantly aimed at their right side ( our left - Walker) which reaped dividends. Walker, Parker and Jorge looked threatening all night. Parra were well drilled defensively on on our right edge and we still had quite a few half breaks that didn’t quite come off. DCE, Tom and Sirro were working that channel and created some good chances - Suli seemed off the pace a bit - whether that was because of Parras left edge defence I dont know. Tom is still learning how good he is( and is expected to be) and is getting more involved in the subtleties. Why he didn’t ask for a challenge on his inside pass just before halftime we’ll never know, another set to us and it’s not 12-2 at h/t.
I thought we looked more threatening at h/t and an even share of the ball would turn it for us.
Both of our kicks that went dead weren’t from Chez I'd much rather him be tackled on the last inside their 10 than kick for kickings sake.
We can go on all we like but when the game was there to be won in the last few sets he more than played his part to get us over the line.
Can he be better? Yes
Can he be more consistent? Yes
Will he win us more games? Yes
Would I swap him for any other halfback? No

Did we lose last night due to DCE?
I think no.

Did Moses outplay him? Yes, because he has to, they’ve got him and plan B is get it to Sivo and plan C is to kick it for Fergo.

There best player is a winger... they wont win **** come the big games.
Siro kicked it dead and same with turbo because dce passedto them on the last when HE needs to kick. getting tackled in the last on there 10 is inexcusable when we are chasing points and we have the supposed best HB in the nrl. I never see a playmaker get caught like that because its so stupid.. all they do is play footy but he cant stand back a bit and put in a kick

 

[DieHardManlyFan]

When rating Cherry Evans against the other half’s in the comp I honestly do believe he is one of the best. I agree when compared to other players his organisational skills don’t compare but he has his own attributes that other players don’t have. I think it stems down to our recruitment. Take Canberra for instance they have a #9 who organises there team, or Storm who have Smith. In previous teams the #1 has played that role (Preston Campbell) for example. Foran left a while ago and to be honest no one else in any position has stepped up and taken control of the organisation of the team since. Surely our recruitment should be focused on this? Image how dangerous cherry would be if we played to his attributes like heads up football in the new brand of game and left the organisation to absolutely anyone else on the team. Go Manly

 

[Bring back the.... Biff?]

When rating Cherry Evans against the other half’s in the comp I honestly do believe he is one of the best. I agree when compared to other players his organisational skills don’t compare but he has his own attributes that other players don’t have. I think it stems down to our recruitment. Take Canberra for instance they have a #9 who organises there team, or Storm who have Smith. In previous teams the #1 has played that role (Preston Campbell) for example. Foran left a while ago and to be honest no one else in any position has stepped up and taken control of the organisation of the team since. Surely our recruitment should be focused on this? Image how dangerous cherry would be if we played to his attributes like heads up football in the new brand of game and left the organisation to absolutely anyone else on the team. Go Manly

Ye walker is doing that while dce waits and chimes in. He doesnt even touch the ball some sets and last night he barely kicked

 

[Bring back the.... Biff?]

Whats everyones halves pairing if you could choose for manly??
For me id go
5/8 jack wighton
7 Cleary

Or wighton and dce

 

[The better Robbo]

This game last night and the many other games we struggle to build pressure is exactly why I started the thread about us buying Lachlan lewis. Chez and Manly need a genuine half to partner Chez. Ok, most on here dont like lewis but all we really need from our 5/8 is a good kicking game and solid defender. We need 5th tackle options, at the moment we have chez only. Green was NOT spectacular in any way but had a great ability to get repeat sets and build pressure. This is our achilles heel

 

[BrendonStarr]

I believe we can win the comp with the identical 17 as last night.

So to make changes to a Premiership winning team would be just a little bit retarded.

 

[Bring back the.... Biff?]

This game last night and the many other games we struggle to build pressure is exactly why I started the thread about us buying Lachlan lewis. Chez and Manly need a genuine half to partner Chez. Ok, most on here dont like lewis but all we really need from our 5/8 is a good kicking game and solid defender. We need 5th tackle options, at the moment we have chez only. Green was NOT spectacular in any way but had a great ability to get repeat sets and build pressure. This is our achilles heel

Lachlan Lewis oh hell no! I agree with most of your posts but no... just no Lol he is a park footballer.. walker is pure x factor and he's been great the last 2 weeks.. last night he did pass to thommo too much instead of hitting parker who always makes meters.

 

[The better Robbo]

Lachlan Lewis oh hell no! I agree with most of your posts but no... just no Lol he is a park footballer.. walker is pure x factor and he's been great the last 2 weeks.. last night he did pass to thommo too much instead of hitting parker who always makes meters.

Yeah I wasnt so much pushing the Lewis issue this time, more the fact that Chez plays his best footy when he has someone else do most of the short kicking. If we had a hooker that can kick it'd be ok but Levi, Walker and Turbo dont really help out in this department. Agreed Walker has been great but just not sure the combo works when we are under pressure in big games. We seem more often than not to take the wrong 5th tackle option when attacking the line in particular.

 

[Bring back the.... Biff?]

Yeah I wasnt so much pushing the Lewis issue this time, more the fact that Chez plays his best footy when he has someone else do most of the short kicking. If we had a hooker that can kick it'd be ok but Levi, Walker and Turbo dont really help out in this department. Agreed Walker has been great but just not sure the combo works when we are under pressure in big games. We seem more often than not to take the wrong 5th tackle option when attacking the line in particular.

I dont know why levi cant kick.. its not hard at all.. these guys are pro's. **** i can do really good grubbers why cant he? I think walker improved his options this week whereas dce did nothing. Imo he did nothing good in that game and walker was much more involved and he scored for our come back. Dce doesnt have many big game moments anymore unless its a field goal. That being said i reckon he will kill the Broncos next week... he always plays good against them and they have a crap team so

 

[Jethro]

Its called the 'myth' status happens to him every year
Walker out plays him regularly and he's a center turned 5/8. I had a thread on here called dce is he a myth.... but its long been deleted. By the bedazzled no doubt

That must have been in your other life as the banned member Order66 with the thread titled:

'DCE... Myth or legend?'

 

[EOL now nesting on the GC]

FSS!
Walker is a very very very good player where he should be @ centre. He is not a 5/8.
He adds little to DCE's game. He doesn't kick long. He doesn't possess a short kicking game. Other than an out the back pass he doesn't put people through holes.That's not his fault. He's a world class 3/4 end of.

Now lets look at facts as so many would like to call on.

When Blake green was here DCE had a great season. Why i hear you ask? Because he didn't go into every game thinking every job was his and his alone....

Green had a great kicking game both long and short. Could organise if needed or could sit back and let DCE do his thing if it was one of those days.

 

[EOL now nesting on the GC]

On a side note i wonder how many players actually read these boards?

On Instagram yesterday one guy on the manly fan page cussed out DW only to get a direct reply for said player in the comments.

There was famous beer add that would have been apt for that moment. Have a VB mate....

How do you feel???

 

[Lyonstomenzies]

DCE’s game declined ever since we lost a real 5/8. He is our only real playmaker and any half would suffer the same consequences under similar circumstances. He can’t do it all himself however much of our cap space he takes up

It’s the hooker not the 5/8. He needs a hooker whom organises the play.

 

[BrendonStarr]

We have a unique blend of talent across the park. We practically beat a team running red hot after giving them a 16 pt head start. We almost defeated the biased match officials but they got us in the final minute.

 

[maxta]

Seriously - Manly will be there at the business end and I felt they want it....maybe not the best performance from DCE and about 8 others...but enough where they gave a chance to win...others here will crucify me but I reckon the better team won the game, BUT that was a try...point being Eels win that game by 40+ against most and even not our best , could easily have stolen it...

 

[The better Robbo]

Seriously - Manly will be there at the business end and I felt they want it....maybe not the best performance from DCE and about 8 others...but enough where they gave a chance to win...others here will crucify me but I reckon the better team won the game, BUT that was a try...point being Eels win that game by 40+ against most and even not our best , could easily have stolen it...

Agree mate. Eels were the better side. They schooled us on playing smart and deserved the win in my opinion. Its a good sign when the opposition are flying high and play well and we can still nearly sneak a win when we are way off our game

 

[HK_Eagle]

Our kicking game sucks big time.

DCE came into the big league with a rep for a big boot, which seemed well justified in the first season or two. We still get treated to the odd bit of 40/20 brilliance but even his big kicking game has been underwhelming in terms of development over the seasons.

I had been critical for many a season over our inability to utilise Tommy's height and athleticism with attacking 6th tackle bombs near the line. It seems we are slowly starting to see some of that in the past season or two, which is encouraging. I believe it can be exploited far more and hope to see us push it further. Ironically, it is a ploy that has often been used to exploit our wingers in the past seasons, though we seem to be doing better defending it more recently.

Our short kicking game is just generally diabolical. Yes, DCE has the occasional outstanding game in this department but is far too unreliable for somebody in his leading position, who should be managing games with this skillset under lock. I mean, it's like having a hooker who can't pass the ball from dummy half.

A final note or observation... we seem to have a major weakness on the critical last tackle at both ends of the field. I would concede that we have probably been doing a bit better defensively this and last season, though it is far from a strength for us. As better as Jorge has been he is far from instilling confidence in me whenever a high bomb is put up on his head defending our try line. And as was highlighted in the Eels game, but has really been present for many seasons now, our ability to apply an effective kicking game in attack and manage a game on a consistent basis is quite pathetic (barring Blake Green's brief appearance). I think if Des focused on last tackle options at both ends alone, we would really start to develop into a fearful and dominant team to rival our recent great teams.