Snake
Snake's Alive!
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.
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.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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.