Defence

[seaeagledave]

They say it is the team with the best defence that wins the premiership. Just wondering what everyone's thoughts are on how our defence will be next year compared to the year just gone. My thoughts are that the guys we have brought in to our top 17 all seem to be strong defenders, with the occasional lapse from Taupau. But will it take time to develop the structures and combinations with so much change in personnel up the middle. Losing Ballin leaves a hole.

 

[The Wheel]

Communication, structure and trust are the keys to defense- given the amount of change across the team this might be hard to find in the first part of the seadon - if they do find it early then Barrett will have earnt his pay packet.

 

[Ryan]

I think our defensive line will have a lot more intimidation in it. I thought the big mobile sides leaned on us previous (Roosters / Chooks / Dogs), and kind of easily unsettled us. Taupau, Taufua, Matai, Lussick, Myles, Trbojevic would all be players the opposition would want to steer clear of, and I hope there is healthy competition to see who can put on the biggest hit (legally). I also hope it doesn't spill over, and they don't get too competitive and want to be the tough guy and get suspended. Shoulder charges worry me this coming season.

I really hope our defensive structures out wide change this year. Even from the Des days in 2008, our wingers quite often were found in no mans land. To the point I think it cost us a GF one year, when Wolfy was found out of position many times (which kind of killed his career imo).

Barrett mentioned he wanted to change some of the defensive structures to me a few weeks ago when I asked him what he'd like to improve the most. I was actually hoping for goss, but got that 😉. But he's right. I hope our defensive line is much more mobile and aggressive - but that winger being our of position thing 80% of the time pissed me off royally the last 1/2 a decade or so, and that was from Des.

 

[bones]

When was David Williams found out of position in that GF?
His only problem was not being able to catch a bomb. It had nothing to do with our defensive structures.

 

[fLIP]

Im still of the opinion the referees had a bigger part to play on the result of that game than Dave.

Shayne Hayne played 18th man for the roosters that day. Never forgiven.

 

[TagMonster]

I think this year Manly is going to be one of those teams everyone dreads playing. We have some many plays across the board who can snap you in half in defence and also have brought in guys who can trample you in attack. I can see Manly becoming the Manly of 06-08 where we beat teams up with our brutal forwards then carved them up with our classy backline.