How far our 1st grade has slipped in 1 season

[Darren]

Does anyone think we would have got near Broncos tonight, 2010 is a big worry, we are a slow team and scoring points is going to be a problem again, must have 2-3 youngsters in to shake things up otherwise top 8 will be a struggle. After 20's now most people will realise that foran, lussick are key players for our future

 

[missing_something]

I haven’t seen a club go so far backwards after winning a premiership ever.
These are just some of areas stand out:
Player recruitment this season – poor
Player Improvement – poor
Recruitment for next year – poor
Blooding future talent – poor
Professionalism of players off field – poor
Static direction of the club – poor we don’t even have a CEO
Cashing in on last year’s success – poor
On filed displays – poor
Professionalism of owners – poor
Professionalism of board – poor
Transparency eases of becoming a member – poor
Nurturing of a inclusive fan environment – poor
Potential for substantial improvement next year – poor
Tactical displays on field – poor
Kicking options - poor
Creativity in the halfs - poor
Ability to build pressure - poor
On field leadership - poor
Crowd - down

 

[Chip and Chase]

Gee how did we ever finish 5th ? Not our best attempt to defend our title by any means, but there were at lot of distractions with the board bull$hit, season launch fallout, Brett's injury and then a couple of player personal issues. Not wrist slitting time just yet.

 

[missing_something]

We fell into 5th by virtue of funny results around us just like the Titians fell into 3rd - neither team deserved to be there

 

[Chip and Chase]

Funny results ? You mean like winning more games than the teams who came 6th to 16th ? Our effort against Melbourne was meek, but that was our problem all year, inconsistency.

 

[Matabele]

Our effort against Melbourne was meek, but that was our problem all year, inconsistency.

  Attitude.  We seemed to spend the whole year trying to do the bare minimum to get the points.  A far cry from the extreme hunger of the previous year.

 

[Ryan]

Ok guys - we DID come 5th - and could have easily been 4th with a Home Final had some dubious calls go our way.

That's not too shabby either way.

I also think there was an element of over confidence in us this year. The "work, and bust a gut at everything we do" mentality left the team. As a playing group, from game one (after the incidents) - our players just looked like they weren't having fun anymore.

All the garbage in management didn't help either - but in saying that, and after our start, I think we admirably all things considered (we could have had all the excuses in the world to just drop our shoulders, but we didn't).

There are heaps of positives to come out of the season too guys:-
1. Keiran Foran (speaks for itself);
2. George Rose's great comeback from an horrific injury;
3. Ben Farrar's player swap with Michael Bani;
4. Jason King having a break out year in my opinion;
5. Anthony Watmough establishing himself as an elite player;
6. Shane Rodney looks to be very good.

With us, I think a lot of our season stemmed from where our energy levels / attitude was at. Playing roster wise, we have one of the best. I mean, Le'Strange, Kite, Rose and Rodney or Hall were on our bench for goodness sakes.

When we fired, we put teams to the sword (Titans, WCC game etc etc).

We also saw our NYC team get the minor premiership, and a lot of emerging players are coming through.

Our QLD Cup team won the whole competition, and again, had some great players starting to emerge.

Next season, with a full off season of hopefully incident free training, a management team that is a lot more stable hopefully, and hopefully less key injuries next year (like Brett Stewart all year remember guys), we will come back as the hunter - not the hunted.

I'm already very excited.

I don't really think Gulovou is a DOWNGRADE as such from Hall, so we are ok there. Matt Cross will probably play in QLD - and for us only when injury arises, and I don't have a problem with Farrar, Foran or Bailey replacing Le'Strange as the utility player - so roster wise, I personally think we have maybe even gone ahead if just slightly.

We're good guys. We'll come out next year, and come out angry, with something to prove.

Just imagine a whole season with Robbo back on his wing, the Bullet at the back.....I think people forget sometimes how good our combinations can be. Imagine Lyon and Ox building chemistry again all year, or better yet - FORAN and Ox. Foran will only get plenty better in my opinion.

Anyway - I'm ranting. Hehehehe

 

[Ryan]

Have to also add, SG Ball came 9th, Harold Mathews 3rd, so as a club all round - pretty successful stuff, right?

 

[Rambo1987]

It all started with the pre-season incident. Not whinging but the media was against us.

It would have been nice to be be the first team to go back to back in the NRL but it wasnt to be. It would have been more heart breaking tonite to watch Manly go out.

Just know one thing the 4 teams left I hate but I hate the Dragons more. 

 

[Cletus]

Gee how did we ever finish 5th ? Not our best attempt to defend our title by any means, but there were at lot of distractions with the board bull$hit, season launch fallout, Brett's injury and then a couple of player personal issues. Not wrist slitting time just yet.

I feel the same way. Just a **** year with Brett at the start and Halls kid dieing at the end with trials and tribulations in between. I wasn't really expecting a lot more this year, at the start of the year I thought I'd be happy with top 4 and a semi final, and considering what happened this year I'm not unhappy.

And as Ryan mentioned there were some positives. George had an outstanding year and it's easy to forget that his career was almost over.

 

[Darren]

our centres look very poor, matai is getting slower, jamie as well, matai and lyon would probably be the slowest pair of centres in the league, lyon at 28 another major injury with matai,
* no right hand 2nd row scoring option, glenn doesn't play like that
* orford and lyon, too old at halves
* williams diabolical defence

2009 stats:
matai: played 22 games and 3 TRIES
Lyon: 19 games and 9 tries
orford: 25 games and 3 tries
glenn: 23 games: 3 tries



truly, who are our try scoring options
* wingers if they ever get the ball, brett and choc, realistically brett and choc, teams have worked that out already

Manly mate text me last night, very worried about 2010

Lets hope Lussick, Foran, Whare (dragons 20's) step up

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

We fell into 5th by virtue of funny results around us just like the Titians fell into 3rd - neither team deserved to be there

Have to agree. We deserved to be 9th. Titans deserved to be 6th. Eels deserved to be equal 9th. Dogs deserved to be 1st. Broncos deserved to be 9th as well. Dragons deserved to be 2nd. Only the Dogs & Dragons deserved Top 4, and the Titans were the only other team who deserved to be in the 8.
Storm don't deserve to be in the comp at all.

Having said all that, I'm not 100% sure what 'deserve' means  ???

 

[NYEagle]

I agree with Ryan. Some positives for the year, but overall more nasty negatives. It is a testament to the ability of this team that we ran 5th, not the commitment or the focus.

So, in getting smashed by Melbourne, Manly got exactly what they deserved.

If they had have won a game or two in the finals and say, lasted until the grand final qualifiers and got knocked out there, the reality check would not have set in. They would have called it a good year "under the circumstances".

This was not a good year under any circumstances considering the ability this team has.

So, for the sake of 2010, everything worked out just fine this year.

NYEagle

 

[Fluffy]

I haven’t seen a club go so far backwards after winning a premiership ever.
These are just some of areas stand out:
Player recruitment this season – poor
Player Improvement – poor
Recruitment for next year – poor
Blooding future talent – poor
Professionalism of players off field – poor
Static direction of the club – poor we don’t even have a CEO
Cashing in on last year’s success – poor
On filed displays – poor
Professionalism of owners – poor
Professionalism of board – poor
Transparency eases of becoming a member – poor
Nurturing of a inclusive fan environment – poor
Potential for substantial improvement next year – poor
Tactical displays on field – poor
Kicking options - poor
Creativity in the halfs - poor
Ability to build pressure - poor
On field leadership - poor
Crowd - down

Crowd is up from 13,694 to 13,782

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

I haven’t seen a club go so far backwards after winning a premiership ever.

Ever heard of Wests Tigers? They won a comp and then couldn't even make the top 8. 

 

[DSM5]

That's an improvement Fluffster.  Given the media rubbish Manly took early on, that crowd improvement is remarkable.  Predictably I'm going to say that without a half going forward, we're in for a struggle next year.  Our centres are slow, but so are many centres going around today.  It's not speed that matters it's the brain power and the ability to read a game that's important.  Look at the speedsters and then look at Hodges and co and tell me who the better centres are.  The damage to our season was done early and the poor adjustment (admitted by Hasler) to the two refs, the 5/8th problem, Orford and our slow ball playing were all contributing factors to a season of disappointment.  We'll do better next year with a clean start.      

 

[Moops]

A few people have mentioned a lack of speed. This is very true. After watching last night, we would have been beaten quite easily last night by the Broncos. I have mentioned it before but I think bodyshape is an issue for some of our forwards. Apart from Watmough and Kite, some of our forwards look a bit soft whereas I noticed last night that the Broncs looked incredibly fit and strong. In saying this, Kite has lost the hunger and Perry just looks unfit.

 

[Fluffy]

That's an improvement Fluffster.  Given the media rubbish Manly took early on, that crowd improvement is remarkable.  Predictably I'm going to say that without a half going forward, we're in for a struggle next year.  Our centres are slow, but so are many centres going around today.  It's not speed that matters it's the brain power and the ability to read a game that's important.  Look at the speedsters and then look at Hodges and co and tell me who the better centres are.  The damage to our season was done early and the poor adjustment (admitted by Hasler) to the two refs, the 5/8th problem, Orford and our slow ball playing were all contributing factors to a season of disappointment.  We'll do better next year with a clean start.     

Dont get too excited on the crowd, both years are over 1000 down on the previous 3 before that

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Some of you guys are pretty harsh....ok we didn't go back to back, and we didn't make it past the first week of the finals BUT we were a whole lot better than the other 8 teams who had mad Monday a week before we did.

Personally after the start we had I'm pretty proud on where we got, not Premiers like we were in 2008 but after 46 years of following this team it's not roses every year!!

 

[piggyboy]

If having an ordinary next season is the price of winning the premiership, I'm willing to pay it