Forwards

[Snake]

That forward pack weren't looking too bad last week against the Roosters.

Spent too much energy tackling tonight to have much left in the tank for making ground with the ball. Losing Keppie early screwed the whole rotation. Looking forward to seeing what Bullemore adds and I'm even hoping Davey plays middle next year as I think he might add something. Marty is on the wane for sure.

That’s a seriously undermanned Roosters side with a 4th string hooker trying to control our middle. Against good packs, we’ve struggled and all the field position Souths had was because we couldn’t get forward and force them to come off their own line. It was the Melbourne game all over again. Struggling for yards and constantly bringing the ball off our own line.

 

[simon_eagle]

He has done this his entire career...he has a big game and then something happens the following week. He smashed the Eels and came out against the Knights and gave away dumb penalties and cost us the game.

Tonight he tried a miracle offload and then got his head in the wrong position, knocked himself out and ****ed the forward rotation up. He is a good kid and all but geez he is hot and cold.

He is but so are most players of his ability, confidence and inexperience. Bit harsh to knock him after tonight. He looked great in those first 5 minutes including a try saving tackle when he was clearly in Disney land.

 

[Damien2812]

Against Storm and South's our forward pack was outplayed and struggled to move forward. Hasler needs to sort out the final makeup of our pack for 2022.
We should soon find out which players won't be resigned shortly so we can get into the player market and get some value for money signings.

 

[The Who]

We really need a blue chip forward which we did have in Afb. Can't ad lib in a finals game

We can't afford one.
But what's to say that Davey and Tenterfield won't prove themselves next season? Surely before you start talking about recruiting players you should give a chance to those in our squad who were injured this season. I see potential in both players.

 

[simon_eagle]

Marty is on the wane for sure.

Will Marty be at Manly next season? Surely we must retain him as we are light in that area. Keppie and Josh are lax in discipline and Paseka will likely never play a full season without injury.

 

[Snake]

That forward pack weren't looking too bad last week against the Roosters.

Spent too much energy tackling tonight to have much left in the tank for making ground with the ball. Losing Keppie early screwed the whole rotation. Looking forward to seeing what Bullemore adds and I'm even hoping Davey plays middle next year as I think he might add something. Marty is on the wane for sure.

Excited to see Bullemore! He’ll be great!

 

[Technical Coach]

We just made to many mistakes ,our middle was gassed from all the defence which made room for South's on the edges, Fainu will help Croker is a solid defensive hooker but Fainu can break games open

We need to stop blaming the mistakes because the mistakes are coming off the back of ineffectiveness in general.

The key parts to work on is effectiveness, efficiency, sharp direct mobility,flat options at the line with most hit ups and composure when the momentum finally swings around and build pressure.(that is what Dessie was blowing up at---probably pissed we risked a short side play when we needed field position and time with the ball to induce fatigue into Souths)

We can still be flamboyant that is underpinned by effectiveness and good structure that holds up under pressure.

Today is soooo disappointing, i wasn't expecting Manly to win if the game was a grind but Souths looked more than brittle enough to defeat with plenty of points put on them if we gave ourselves half a chance.

 

[Snake]

When you really analyse it, I can’t think of too many games this year where we mounted pressure and played % to keep field position. So many tries were scored from inside our own half. We rarely got repeat sets and rarely played the game on the opposition line. Our forwards have been average all year and our backs carried this team.

 

[Snake]

We need to stop blaming the mistakes because the mistakes are coming off the back of ineffectiveness in general.

The key parts to work on is effectiveness, efficiency, sharp direct mobility,flat options at the line with most hit ups and composure when the momentum finally swings around and build pressure.(that is what Dessie was blowing up at---probably pissed we risked a short side play when we needed field position and time with the ball to induce fatigue into Souths)

We can still be flamboyant that is underpinned by effectiveness and good structure that holds up under pressure.

Today is soooo disappointing, i wasn't expecting Manly to win if the game was a grind but Souths looked more than brittle enough to defeat with plenty of points put on them if we gave ourselves half a chance.

100%. The mistakes are a by product of losing the middle. We force the issue constantly because going wide is our only hope of gaining momentum. I also agree that Souths looked brittle and were there for the taking. Walker looked nervous (as did his team mates) until they jagged that first lucky try.

I also agree that we pulled the trigger too often when we just needed to stay calm and even up possession. In saying that, the flamboyance seems to me to be a tactic because it’s been happening all year regardless of the state of the game. I hope Des shifts the game plan away from it and looks at ways to play more % footy.

 

[Snake]

He is but so are most players of his ability, confidence and inexperience. Bit harsh to knock him after tonight. He looked great in those first 5 minutes including a try saving tackle when he was clearly in Disney land.

I don’t wanna be too hard on him because he is a great young guy but I just had a premonition after all the raps he received this week, that he’d fall in a heap and he just seems to be that type of player. Hot and cold.

 

[Dion Johnson]

When you really analyse it, I can’t think of too many games this year where we mounted pressure and played % to keep field position. So many tries were scored from inside our own half. We rarely got repeat sets and rarely played the game on the opposition line. Our forwards have been average all year and our backs carried this team.

Round 11 was it for me, played with good intensity and discipline with the ball.

 

[Snake]

Round 11 was it for me, played with good intensity and discipline with the ball.

Yep that was our best performance

 

[NYEagle]

Do we have any mobile forwards?. Ola for sure, but he has kind of lost the plot a litttle lately.

We have strong forwards, but outside of Ola they are really quite slow and have little mobility. I think both Paseka and Aloiai were quite hindered by the end of this year. Tapas used to but he does not have the mongrel any more.

We have a terrific backline, but until we win middles we can’t beat these top teams. We have to speed and mobile up the middle.a bit next year.

I’m proud we franked being a top 4 team when we beat the Roosters but the gulf to the other 3 teams seems enourmous.

I’m sad it’s over but there is no denying this was a successful year. At least the NRL can’t take our license away as a top 4 team. Have to back it up next year and keep up the success, and hopefully improve.

NYEagle

 

[simon_eagle]

I don’t wanna be too hard on him because he is a great young guy but I just had a premonition after all the raps he received this week, that he’d fall in a heap and he just seems to be that type of player. Hot and cold.

True. Pretty much sums up every single member of our 2021 side, except Croker and Garrick who were exceptionally consistent. The others were either hot or cold.

 

[simon_eagle]

Yep that was our best performance

The Bozo factor. What a great win on a terribly sad day.

 

[Snake]

The Bozo factor. What a great win on a terribly sad day.

Yeah we showed the Tigers how to send off a legend and then did it again for the Brookie farewell a couple of weeks later.

 

[Deleted member 26876]

Here’s my overview of the forward scenario for 2022.

I watched 2013 PF the other day and it was evident that our forwards lack leaders. Keppie was one last week. The reason I was so deflated when Davey got injured is that he showed a lot of intent and in the few minutes he played tried to change the game with hard runs and solid tackles. Earned his starting role then got injured. Reminds me of a second-row version of foran and to me was a throwback to manly’s experienced forward leaders of the ‘golden era’.

Next year I think Davey will join the bench to start and may well move up to start at second-row by some point. He doesn’t have too much nrl experience but he has the qualities and composure of a forward leader. Schuster and Olakautau still have a ways to go. Olakautau could even be tested as a bench prop, he sure runs hard, just seemed like a defencive weakness this finals series.

I don’t think Taupau will be here if we sign Bullemor (potential bench) and Woods (experienced last-ditch depth option) as we’d have to squish Paseka, Keppie, Davey, Schuster, Olakautau, Bullemor, Taupau, Aloiai, Sipley, Lawton, Ben Trbojevic and Woods into 7 spots (2 props, 2 second rows, 3 bench players w/ Walker locked in at 14). That’s 11 quality options (Woods not included) that must fit into 7 spots. Leaves our backline depth and competition for centre/wing spots very short.

Our squad is still a tad imbalanced and Taupau’s 750K + Suli’s 450-550K could work wonders for pushing the team to go one further in 2022. Now is the time, if we can find players we need for 2022 there’s no need to wait till it’s too late. Taupau isn’t going to get better at this point. Someone else will take taupau easily.

 

[Eagles4Life]

We need to do something about this pack to improve on this season.

Agreed @Snake Realistically though what are our options? Our squad is almost set in stone for 2022. We already seem to have too many middles in that squad? Fainu won't be available until August 22, and we can't expect him to walk straight back in and be our automatic saviour. Do we move Jake into starting prop? If so what does this actually achieve? Taupau probably doesn't play for us next season, but we will end up paying some of his freight. What is our cap situation? Can we go to market and get better options than what we have currently, for less money than we are paying now? Where does Woods fit in?Where do we play Bullemore?
Do we start him with Keppie/Paseka/Jake/Aloiai or Sipley for example?
Do we fast track S Fainu or A Tuitavake? Where does Saddler fit in? Or doesn't he? Too many questions I guess but most of them are rhetorical, as I don't believe we have the capacity to make the changes that are arguably necessary.

 

[Scorpio]

Jake's 900k salary is very hard to justify.

Plus Marty on $850k and he isn't even a starting prop most of the time. $1.7m on two middle forwards is just silly no matter how good they are.

On the other hand Souths will have guys like Nicholls as a starting prop in a Grand Final, on presumably not a lot of money.

We can win a premiership but we'll need the stars to align to do it as our salary cap distribution seems... imbalanced.

 

[George Rose's Butcher]

He knocked himself out...I’m not saying it’s entirely his fault but I had a feeling before the game that he would struggle to play off last week’s glory because he has made of habit of these hot and cold performances. His offload started the rot.

We never recovered from that offload