NYEagle said:
Well I was at the game and had a good whole field perspective on the game. Manly played a tight game, I can't remember if we made an error, and Souths certainly didn't. They were perfect for 30 minutes.
But you could see clearly, even after 5 minutes, the starch was out of the Manly pack. Manly were making 30-40 metres per set of 6, while Souths were cruising and making the ball go 60-70 per set. I knew it was a matter of time before the points came you could see it. The effort was there, but the dummy half metres were open season and the Manly forwards were making tackles the whole time on the back foot.
It was sad to see, I haven't seen anything like it since 1999.
This just gave Souths latitude to create structures all over the place and they just picked Manly apart. To see tries off simple runarounds was very sad.
Ballin will help if he can make it back, but I don't see any hope for a turnaround if he doesn't.
Perhaps Souths are just that good, that's the only hope I guess.
NYEagle
Pretty much how i saw it, it has been this way for most of the season even during our winning periods and it is why i stated earlier in the year that i have not been overly impressed with our forwards.
Souths forwards winning the tackle in go forward and defence.
Bending the line fatiguing the defence with good intensity in each hit up and landing face down on their stomachs in the perfect position for a quick play the ball. Strong upper body strength staying upright in tackles and offloading and in defence swarming in packs putting the shoulder in and dominating the tackle doing a Manly on Manly.
The team knows we are lacking in the forwards and the self belief is shot knowing no matter how hard they try it will not be enough.
Our hitups don't drain the defensive line on impact and it was draining us very early on, more effort required in each tackle to stop and bring the Souths forwards down or at least stop the momentum.