Does Manly pack have enough Mongrel ?

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As the top teams found the way to beat Manly isn’t stopping Tommy it’s dominating the forwards and then Tommy doesn’t get the space he needs.

That’s how the Storm and South’s beat us!!
Spot on Mark..you would have to think our forwards will be on the improve next season though, apart from Marty our pack is relatively a young pack. The experience gained playing Finals footy will hold us in good stead.
 
I just read on the NRL website - Davey is signed for 2022! If there was an option that the club had to pursue I would guess that they would not have him signed until 2022. If the option was in the players favour then they would have him as a signing for 2022 so I am guessing there is no option and he is a contracted player .... because if he was being let go wouldn't he be a 6th Sea Eagle leaving? I am calling BS on the Davey option clause.

Is that a guess or do you have sauce ?
Just some noise - we will see soon enough
 
As the top teams found the way to beat Manly isn’t stopping Tommy it’s dominating the forwards and then Tommy doesn’t get the space he needs.

That’s how the Storm and South’s beat us!!
That's where Des over the off season has his biggest problem to fix our defence and getting our young forwards plus Marty fit and firing.

I think we start dominating in the forwards and start to hunt as a pack ie like we did the 2005-2014 era we are going to be very hard to beat.
 
The simple answer is NO ... but having said that, I believe it is more an attitude thing than a physical one ... I have been saying for 2 years that I believe Kapow is the problem ... FUKK his stats ... he has been the senior player and his total lack of emotional investments has set the agenda ... Keppie, Aloiai, Paseka, Jake and Guac are all capable of high intensity performances ... they just need a leader ... and Keppie may be that man ... ALL HAIL SHAUN THE ROOSTER ROOTER!

I am just not sure about Marty sometimes.

Zerotackle has him on $680k this year and $850k in 2022 which makes him among the highest paid props in the game. But his better performances lately have been from the bench after the initial softening up period has already been done.

Not saying he is not good, but to me that is not what is needed from your #1 prop...
 
I am just not sure about Marty sometimes.

Zerotackle has him on $680k this year and $850k in 2022 which makes him among the highest paid props in the game. But his better performances lately have been from the bench after the initial softening up period has already been done.

Not saying he is not good, but to me that is not what is needed from your #1 prop...
I think he does us fine - he has had a very good year. Maybe not an $850k year but he has been damn good week in and week out.
 
I feel we need to balance our pack with a more dynamic pocket rocket back rower type like a Watmough or Liam Martin type who can raise the intensity both in defence and can also run direct at pace taking advantage of a fast play the ball, or generate a fast play the ball for others.

High work rate, high intensity, tough and uncomprimising type, or we balance this out through our purchases and creating a fitter, sharper more hardened team.
 
No we don't. Our pack as a whole simply doesn't have enough mongrel. We have lots of clever, ball playing forwards (often too many on the field simultaneously), but we seriously lack intimidation. We don't have a recognised enforcer, but we are mostly lacking in the mongrel resilience and intensity it takes to get over the top packs.
Ben Kennedy 2.0 please.
 
I am just not sure about Marty sometimes.

Zerotackle has him on $680k this year and $850k in 2022 which makes him among the highest paid props in the game. But his better performances lately have been from the bench after the initial softening up period has already been done.

Not saying he is not good, but to me that is not what is needed from your #1 prop...
$850k…..Fuuck that. Shop him.
 
Marty has heart ,but he doesn't intimidate anyone.
Those days are long gone.
We need a big ,strong ,hard running,hard tackling, aggressive intimidator.
 
$850k…..Fuuck that. Shop him.
This has been mentioned several times mate...his 3 year 650k/year contract was back-ended and thanks for the opportunity to give my thoughts on this.

If the 680k and 850 k figures bandied about are correct then he only cost us 420k the first year. Any way you look at it he cost us 650k/year. Nobody is going to pay 850k to take him off our hands so we would have to pay some of his freight...likely @ 200k. That does not appear to be prudent book-keeping.

BUT

On the flipside, in his 420k first year we saved 230k off the 650k, his 680k second year cost us an extra 30k, so at the end of year 2 we are 200k in front. If we move him on and pay 200k of freight we actually BREAK EVEN.
Could we get better value than Marty for the 650k we would have leftover? Who can we get for that money? Does that fit our plans? I would say YES now we have a vastly improving Tent and Kelpie, Sione, Tuka coming through and have signed Beef. If we keep him, we pay him 850k.
If we shift him we have 650k to spend...the same amount we signed him for.

Very complex stuff this back-ending and it works IF you move the player on before the last year of his contract. Des is not stupid and he was cut from the Dogs before he was allowed to see out his plan.

Apparently the NRL do not allow back-ending contracts anymore.
 
I think Des has screwed Marty's game. Des just has him hitting the line, which he does well. But Marty's great benefit is his ability to set up second faze play by hitting the line and getting the ball away. Sure he makes the occasional error when it didn't come off but it made him a great value in attack. I can only assume Des has told him to hang onto the ball and play it safe. But that negates one of his important skills.
Des let Marty free!!!!!
 
Our main issue is hooker, we have 0 attack from a key position. Our forwards are fine we need a hooker to get them going. Fainu comes back and recaptures that form he had then we can win the competition. imo we can't win with croker and Parker in the same side. Paseka needs to find some mongrel he is pretty soft for the biggest guy on the field.
 
The Manly pack has size, skill and a mix of most things - but to call it out, lacks intimidation....
Keppie is a fiery customer and Big Guoc the young back rower makes the odd hit....but I just don't see too much fear factor- apart from 1 angry performance vs Eels late in the season, personally my favourite game of 2021.
Watmough, Kennedy and the underrated tough Gifty, had that hard resilience to fight over a bone and I feel our success when it comes to the crunch again, are players who can some how find this.
We do have a young side, so maybe seems a bit harsh and overly expectant, but I really feel it's an area lacking and physically - the finals put a glaring spotlight where we were basically bullied through the middle.
Make no mistake- the number 1 components in the modern game revolve around speed and momentum through the middle....but the physical toughness unlocks these factors and any team with an aggressive mental and physical toughness at the forefront will contest Premiership honours and I feel the 3 teams who finished ahead Manly in 2021, beat us most Clearly - in this area.
Bring back the fcking Biff sexy maxy !
 
Lets these guys develop, none of Paseka, Keppie, Olakau'atu, Schuster heck arguabley Aloiai are the finished article.

Look at Isaah Yeo, debuted in 2014, didnt really start to assert himself till 2019, played Origin in 2020 now arguably the best lock in the league.

Most forwards take time to develop so lets stop expecting Keppie for example to be the finished product.
 
I feel we need to balance our pack with a more dynamic pocket rocket back rower type like a Watmough or Liam Martin type who can raise the intensity both in defence and can also run direct at pace taking advantage of a fast play the ball, or generate a fast play the ball for others.

High work rate, high intensity, tough and uncomprimising type, or we balance this out through our purchases and creating a fitter, sharper more hardened team.
I'm expecting that to come from Bullemor.
 
Guaca does his bit but his forte is in attack more so than defence.
Don't worry, he really whacks in defence too,
I can only assume Des has told him to hang onto the ball and play it safe.
Doubt it, in the Storm quarterfinal, our biggest game of the year to that point, Marty made a half bust and off-loaded, unfortunately the guys outside him screwed it up.
 
I'm expecting that to come from Bullemor.
Time expecting Perspective ...

Bullermor the Human Bullldozer is not the percolated type that takes time feathered friend .

Bullermor is the Instant coffee full of beans, , balls and high testosterone to get the job done

Bullermore is the Instant mix and the Instant fix . Just add a ball in the Bulldozers hands and he has come of age !
 
I think it’s a concern.

We need to put Aloiai’s head on Paseka’s body. One is a psycho but physically limited, the other is a pussy cat with limitless physical potential.

The intensity that Penrith played with in their final two matches was incredible...but it wasn’t just their pack; the whole team seemed ‘up for it’. They were certainly hungrier than everyone else.
 
I heard we were prepared to let Taupau leave if he found a deal elsewhere but he has chosen to stay because he can’t get what he is on at Manly at another club...so financially, it makes sense for him to stick around and get his $850k.

I wish he’d fire up a bit. You look at him physically and he is massive and still fairly quick and mobile but then you look at Hargreaves who is physically running on empty but fires up and refuses to be dominated.
 
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
4 3 1 28 6
3 2 1 10 6
4 2 2 39 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
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