GAME DAY - Manly v Bulldogs [Round 1, 2016]

[Mal Cochrane]

Lawrence isn't backrower, he's straight up the middle with minimal to zero offloading. Not what you want from a backrower when running a bit wider.

He's had a year off, I'll give him a but of time and he should be back in 1st grade

 

[HappilyManly]

Barrett cops 'Wake-Up' call on the chin
Jack Brady
Nrl.com

Sea Eagles coach Trent Barrett labelled his side's 28-6 loss to a dominant Bulldogs outfit as a "wake-up call" in what can only be described as a dire start to his NRL coaching career.

Copping the harsh realities of first grade coaching from the get-go Barrett confessed he felt "empty" following the Sea Eagles 22-point defeat at Brookvale Oval.

The Bulldogs raced out to a 22-0 lead after 32 minutes, but the home side can take some positives out of the match after holding their opponents to a 6-all draw in the second half. Though you won't hear any excuses from Barrett.

"They had 60 per cent of the footy in the first half and I think it showed with the reduction of interchange, if you give a team that much possession it's going to be hard and you're going to run out of gas," Barrett said post-game.

"We didn't give ourselves a chance. Too many errors, we had four coming out of our own end. One area we wanted to be good in is in yardage and we gave them four pretty simple shots on our try-line.

"It put us under the pump and in the end we had no energy and it was pretty evident in some of the attacking plays that we came up with. We looked tired, looked lethargic and it was just off the back of the weight of possession [against us].

"There's no hiding from the fact that it was a bit of a wake-up call for us. We'll cop that, it's a tough competition and we'll have to aim up again next week."


The Sea Eagles only managed a single trial in pre-season, a 58-0 flogging of the Ipswich Jets a fortnight ago.

Yet Barrett brushed aside concerns that their fixture against the reigning Intrust Super Cup premiers wasn't a true indication of their form leading into season proper.

While Brett Stewart's late withdrawal due to a hamstring complaint wouldn't have helped the Sea Eagles' cause against the Bulldogs, Barrett was blunt in his assessment.

"We had four guys in our team who didn't play in that Ipswich trial," he said.

"No excuses here though, we weren't good enough in the first half and we'll have to be against the Tigers next week."

Barrett was confident Stewart would be fine for their clash with the Wests Tigers next Monday and wasn't concerned by possible match review charges to Martin Taupau (shoulder charge) and Steve Matai (high tackle).

 

[tookey]

We still have Mateo, T-Red, Starling and BJ plus Buhrer when he's healthy so you'd think/hope players in bad form can't stay up

Toovey chosen players who will only play again if injuries hit the team

 

[Loobs]

Toovey chosen players who will only play again if injuries hit the team

Mateo is a Penn signing.

 

[HappilyManly]

Mateo is a Penn signing.

Bozo tapped him and Burgo but they both said No

 

[Loobs]

Bozo tapped him and Burgo but they both said No

They should have changed the locks for Burgess

 

[HappilyManly]

Lurker:

Des' cheeky pre-game rev up

Coaches will do whatever it takes to motivate their teams.

So it should come as no surprise that Bulldogs master motivator Des Hasler pulled out a cheeky trick to rev up his troops for last weekend’s stunning upset win over Manly.

Shortly before kickoff, Hasler told his troops to “win it for Tooves” - a reference to his old mate and sacked Manly coach Geoff Toovey!

Plenty of people - including Hasler - think Toovey was hard done by in losing his job to Trent Barrett over the summer.

And there were smiles on the faces of many Toovey supporters - even Manly fans - as the Barrett era got off to a disastrous start at Brookie on Friday night.