Defence

[Snake]

Jamie Soward wrote this in his power rankings this morning:

2. Manly Sea Eagles (3)
I wrote last week that I was worried about Manly's defence - and I still am, because I don't feel like you can concede 24-odd points per game and be a genuine contender. When Des Hasler has taken teams to grand finals and won, they've been very good without the ball.

Attack-wise, the Sea Eagles will be up there, but you need to be able to lean on your defence in big games. But after getting the Sharks out of the way, they can now focus on the Storm and Eels.
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Personally, I don't believe a team can reverse a trend in a week. I believe there are serious concerns with our D. Cronulla scored a try of simple shape in their first attacking opportunity of the game. It's not as if they pulled a rabbit out of a hat. They did it again in the second half, scored a try with 12 men on 13. This has been happening week in, week out. We leak too many points and I just cannot see how we can turn up against Melbourne and keep them to under 20 points when the likes of Cronulla, Tigers and Titans scored more than that.

The problem seems to be marker defence and the A defenders. There is too much space around the middle of the ruck; it's not decisions on the edges that are costing us (even those tries scored on the edge were caused closer into the ruck). It's up the guts. Paseka and Taupau are currently not effective enough. Croker and Jake are doing their thing but need help.

 

[Rafferty]

The first Sharks try was helped by a bad call, the ref stole our momentum with a dud call and I think that had a negative psychological effect on us, we need to refocus quicker and get on with it, our slow reaction to restructuring for D didn‘t help, which lead to poor positional structure that contributed to a bad miss from Parker.
The 12 on 13 try, is totally bad, not good enough at this level, but we just touched on that in another thread and I don’t think you can use it against us under the circumstances.
Yes there is some lazy marker work that needs attention, I don’t know that you can single out Tent and Marty though, Jake was guilty a couple of times last week and once led to a try, not pulling on Jake here, the hole side just needs to work that bit harder on the mental side of competing for the 80 and holding themselves accountable especially on turnovers and changes in the run of play.
Frogs D was outstanding last night, I still think you will see a different side this Sat when we are fully focused against a side that will bring out the best in us.

 

[Dan]

Our marker work is pretty bad and i am surprised we aren't being called on it more. We are mostly standing next to each other rather than behind each other meaning our markers are rarely square. At one point last night Schuster was called on it, so he stepped out and put his hands up, our defense was still retreating and had our backs to the play the ball and they ran straight past a retreating marty.

 

[Kevinward777]

Defence needs work - always good to have something to work on five weeks out from the finals.

 

[Chip and Chase]

It's really a matter of whether Tommy can score more points than our defence lets in.

 

[Waz13]

I think our balance is a little off. We are putting so much emphasis on scoring tries our D has suffered a bit. Naturally I feel as I think we have a very strong mindset that we will purely out score the opposition. Look at our last two games and the game v Titans. It’s like we know that we will score the points to beat them and our D is a bit secondary. I still feel we can defend well and have shown this, I just think at times we get dragged down to the level of the opposition - which tbh has been for quite a long time against sub quality teams. I think we will see a different game v Melb on both sides of the ball. The stiffer opposition upcoming is finely imo.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

 

[Kalvin]

Hey last year's gf was 26-20... anything is possible

 

[QLDSeaeagle]

and had our backs to the play the ball and they ran straight past

This sort of defensive error was knocked out of me in under 12's, very worrying such simple errors still in our game, we won't find simple errors in the Storm defense, but we are already found out.

 

[Woodsie]

On topic ... but random thoughts.

We may be able to get away with a light weight bench and expansive glory road footy against the 7th -16th placed teams ... but not against the top teams ..

We can not afford both Lawton and Walker on the bench ... we need middle grunt.

He is young and getting better but Schuster gets lazy in defense late in games ... often tuning his back ... yesterday he was caught in no man's land near marker for their 1st try of the second half .. and then was slow to move off the line for their second ... just a few things he will work on .

 

[Cliffymagic]

Defence has been a bit wobbly for sure. But on Saturday night we will see what we really got.
It's too bad keppies not there as I don't know who else could replace Walker on the bench if we want another forward. Apart from De Luis I forgot

 

[cc eagle]

It's really a matter of whether Tommy can score more points than our defence lets in.

And that's possible in every game, whether he scores or sets them up, come finals, for and against doesn't matter,

 

[cc eagle]

Defence has been a bit wobbly for sure. But on Saturday night we will see what we really got.
It's too bad keppies not there as I don't know who else could replace Walker on the bench if we want another forward. Apart from De Luis I forgot

As said before, it's easy to switch off mentally when leading by 30 and they were down a man, also Jake, frog and Tom rested

 

[QLDSeaeagle]

Schuster gets lazy in defense late in games ...

He was even more lazy yesterday after being smashed a number of times during the game.

 

[Rafferty]

He was even more lazy yesterday after being smashed a number of times during the game.

Talaki got him good, saw him clutching the chest, sternum area a couple of times last night, hope theres nothing to worry about there, re lazy, his only a couple of games back from a lengthy injury lay off himself.

 

[QueefRichards]

I've always maintained that Sowies powies are high IQ

But yeah our defense was nowhere near good enough

 

[Stewbojevic]

Our right edge defence is the best in the league, left edge is satisfactory, and middle is at times lazy and very worrying.

I’ve noticed a lot with Paseka and some of the other big boys, they don’t get back to marker in time and it puts us on the back foot.

In my opinion, it all comes down to the tackle. We’re not winning the tackle which means the ball runner gets up quickly and the tacklers aren’t back at marker.

 

[QLDSeaeagle]

only a couple of games back from a lengthy injury

True absolutely, but my reference point for a Manly player is Lawton, He returned from injury fully fit and ready to fight for a place on the team.

 

[ellakasmar]

Definitely could notice when Jake, Crokes, and Tommy went off - was when the Sharks got those last minute tries

 

[Woodsie]

He was even more lazy yesterday after being smashed a number of times during the game.

Yeah, took a few hits, but he's a tough kid, and he doesn't mind taking the hard yards either. But he does need to work on his effort in defense when he gets tired.