Game Day: Dragons v Manly [Round 9, 2020]

[eaglebuzz]

We need Turbo, Walker and AFB to have any chance this year. Our "depth" are hopeless and DCE is acting like he needs to do everything himself and playing like crap as a result.

Cust is the only backup player I'd keep. We desperately need Schuster, Burbo and Hoppa to step up. Yesterday.

And where is Metcalf? Surely he'd be better than Croker.

 

[Tragic Eagle]

Diabolical.

 

[The Royal Soup]

Season over

Im done

no heart, no pride, no passion, no respect for the jersey.

 

[davohan123]

24-0 in the 2nd half including 16-0 in the last 8 minutes.....

shocking really. Never should of gotten so bad but did.

very disappointing night tonight

 

[joeboy]

C

Classic Joeboy!

maybe, but am I wrong?

 

[SeaEaglez]

Very disappointing, not the Manly we know and love.
There are some obvious contracts that will not be renewed at years end

 

[susan]

DCE is shot it seems.
But seriously how many times can Parker Garrick Elliot Croker JetSki and co get rag dolled in one season. The most embarrassing thing out of that loss , outside the ineptness of the captain, is the total lack of physicality in our backline.They just get smashed physically every week. Parker is embarrassing like when under Barrett.Rag dolling of the backline and the total lack speed just screams at you through the TV.

Big decisions for Des ahead.

 

[Moops]

OK Des.

You quite frankly needed a bloody nose to recognise that this backline is not going to win you games without Tom T and Walker. DCE is left trying too hard to cover the deficiencies of a pedestrian attack out wide.

Some of us regretfully could see this happening 3 weeks ago. You are a top coach and you should be seeing it yourself. You MUST make some big changes to that backline. You MUST get attacking players with speed in the side.

This team is quickly losing confidence. Even their good defence is breaking down, because they cant score. The team is now 12th in attack and not far from the bottom side.

This is looking more and more like what Barrett was doing last year. He also got stuck in a rut and wouldn't move. Risks must be taken. Start getting players like Schuster and Hopoate in this side before Manly falls down into the last four in the comp...and that's not far off.

To be fair, the game had probably passed Des by halfway through his Bulldogs stint. There were plenty of red flags towards the end at the Dogs. Let's see if he has any answers...

 

[Little Grubber Kick]

Has Barrett snuck back into the coaching box. ? This reminds me of a game we played at win two years ago and we were equally as pathetic.

and the only other thing missing is seeing Cartwright have a good chuckle at our misfortune!

 

[Jerry1]

Maybe I was harsh on Barrett....

 

[Waz13]

In this instance, I have to agree. Yet, how many d1ckheads were crying out for Elliot to play fb this week?

If you think Elliot was the problem tonight you are seriously delusional mate.

 

[Jerry1]

If you think Elliot was the problem tonight you are seriously delusional mate.

Elliot offered nothing in attack or defence - in defence he was a turnstyle.

 

[wescliffy]

Hard to watch, what a disgrace, there are bad calls by Hasler as coach and that is he never makes drastic changes, we need dynamic attacking players in attack, give the young guys a go Des it has to go better that that, at least they will have a go, the club is in Avery bad position with the next 3 games
Bottom 4 for Manly 2020 is a reality now.

 

[Nordburg]

I have a theory, which is most likely wrong.

You have a $1.3 million per year player, playing like rubbish most weeks, camps out at second receiver, and keeps getting named every single week.

Makes you wonder how that rubs off on the rest of the team, when they put in for much less money, only to see their efforts wasted when we can't even come up with a simple repeat set or a good 5th tackle option.

Maybe benching him for a game might do wonders.

He certainly doesn’t believe in Tom Brady’s way of thinking I’m NE by taking less so the team can afford to have some weapons around him

 

[mickqld]

Wow glad I missed watching it. Don't think I'll watch a replay. Season over although it was as soon as gammy hammy went out.

 

[Cioran]

Maybe I was harsh on Barrett....

It’s simply not possible to be too hard on Barrett. One must remember the lessons of history.

 

[eagleron]

Still plenty of time. If we just don’t play dumb. Sadly we are not a smart team

Not any more,

Worst performance for years...even twenty had us playing better footy. Total rubbish 3 weeks, Tommy T can't make that big a difference

I'm embarrassed, to just put up the white flag against a s**t team like st merge tells me there's much more wrong with this team than just losing turbo and Walker, Cherry-Evans is going from bad to worse, Croker is rubbish and I don't think Cust is much better, Garrick is a lesser player this year than last and the list goes on, Hasler seems to persist with players when they're clearly out of form, I think Parra will put a cricket score on us next week, sad times ahead for us all and after our start to the season I never thought I'd be saying this, another bad ending to another weekend of promise

 

[sheridanstand78]

The stuffing and belief has been knocked completely from the team. We are seeing experienced errors make some amazing errors and tonight was a train wreck.

I hope that this defeat finally makes Des understand that he cannot continue with a lot of players who are just not cutting it right now. The loss of players has hurt us so much. The last week was just a distraction as AFB lost the plot and we spent the whole week in damage control.

Tonights game was always going to be about basics and discipline. the longer the game went the more you saw Saints control the game with their kicking game and they kept us pinned 5 line drop out and ran away in the last 10. It was so disappointing that we had no cohesion what so ever with the ball.

The mindset of DCE is all over the place. Tonight he got so flustered with the ball, errors from him were costly and he is the main man and surely he must lift his game.

Our weakness at 6 is chronic at the moment. Cust trys hard, Croker does not have it. Our 9 is not creating a thing and we are getting smashed at the play the ball.

One thing that is really noticeable is our lack of aggression and passion. Earlier this season it was so wonderful to see them display that and now we have a team that is sorry for itself and is lacking leadership and direction.

The time has come for change. There is no where else to go now, we need an injection of youth and enthusiasm. I am so tired of seeing how inept we are with the ball, we are creating and there is nothing from our kicking game. Des needs to be brave now, you cannot allow them to dish that up or we will be utterly humiliated next week by the worms!!!!

 

[Waz13]

There was a lot of poor individual performances tonight (capt being top of that list) however this was an atrocious undisciplined team effort tonight. We cone out in that 2nd half, complete our sets, kick to the corners and bloody tackle we win that in cantor, even with the troops we have. It was as bad a team display as I’ve seen in a long time. Tbh I was worried after the knights game, high emotions and all of that. Looking through our draw. We really needed the w tonight. Des needs to pick a team for the next month and bloody stick with it. I honestly believe if Elliot was pickers at 1 when Tom went down, we’ have won at least one of the last three.

 

[Simonmyers11]

Elliot offered nothing in attack or defence - in defence he was a turnstyle.

I thought he would be better at the back, but was horrible. I mean the whole side is playing horrible with no confidence. Even Jake, worst I have seen him play the last few weeks. Our fringe players did ok last year but getting found out this year. DCE, when he threw that intercept he just went into his shell and look defeated.

We don't offer enough punch with the ball in attack from both Forwards and backs. That's what I see lately is our biggest weakness. We are being man handled and contained easily. We don't make enough inroads with the ball and do everything slow