How things can change so dramatically so quickly.

[Terry Zarsoff]

Can’t find the ‘Club News’ thread anywhere, so this one will do - at the time of the Round 13 team announcement, MWSE had 11,174 members. With the Round 15 team announcement, that figure has jumped to 12,125.

BOZO - please discuss (but not ad nauseam).

 

[Eagles4Life]

How things can change so dramatically so quickly...take 2.

The great performances by what we all thought was a stop-gap signing, has really thrown the cat amongst the pigeons in regards to ongoing player retention.

Since his Manly debut after being signed while coming back from a serious achilles
injury, Karl Lawton has displayed qualities we were nowhere near prepared for. He is a footballer, plays with skill and passion and could cover just about every position on the park. He does all the 1%'ers, the hard stuff, backs up and has a great attitude. He has been a recruiting revelation.
His very attractive GF stalked him on social media to meet him and was quoted saying "I hope he doesn't get knocked around so he doesn't remember me", so it appears he is a good guy to boot!
This guy is almost too good to be true...can we have 3 of him please?

His emergence has thrown the contractual future of 3 or 4 players at MWSE in a spin.
The futures of Cust, Walker, The Frog and Sirloin are all affected by his ability to make them surplus to our needs...he can cover all those guys probably better than any of them can, it seems
It is not just Karl Lawton...it is how players with his attributes can be invaluable in this "new game". His type are a squad-changer!

I'm not saying we can dump several players because he can cover them all, as an injury would void his value, but geeze i'd like to have 3 of him.

I hope he has lit a light globe in Des' brain.

So do I. If Des was to sign Capewell, Watson and Tualagi (based on Lawtons successful recruitment), our depth looks fantastic for 2022. He could do that by dispensing with Gosiewski, Boyle, Walker, Sironen et al. If we also moved Funa on, and found a way to release Suli), we suddenly have outstanding depth across all positions, and have upgraded 3 of our development players into the 30. (Saddler, Tuitavake, Fainu)

 

[Under the Sticks]

Great player and quality pick up. Have said it in another thread he’s the first guy picked in the 14 jumper. Guys like Lawton and Connor Watson are so valuable these days as the cover so many positions.

In relation to the guys you mention, I’d keep Frog (if Fainu goes to the clink) maybe Cust and that’s it. Siro and Walker gone for mine.

What would Des know about utility players…….he was the best after 1988 when that blonde punk gave it to the poms

 

[court83]

The court jester from 1983 (or is he 83 years old?) has gone very quiet.

Didn't see this as you didn't have the balls to tag me in it..
I'm still here.. very happy with the cowboys win, does it change my opinion? Not yet.. I want to see us beat more than what the cowboys dish up before I start crowing from the rooftops about what world beaters we are...

Keen to see what happens against the Raiders...

 

[Terry Zarsoff]

Didn't see this as you didn't have the balls to tag me in it..
I'm still here.. very happy with the cowboys win, does it change my opinion? Not yet.. I want to see us beat more than what the cowboys dish up before I start crowing from the rooftops about what world beaters we are...

Keen to see what happens against the Raiders...

Is that better? I believe our next opponents are the Titans.

 

[EOL now nesting on the GC]

Didn't see this as you didn't have the balls to tag me in it..
I'm still here.. very happy with the cowboys win, does it change my opinion? Not yet.. I want to see us beat more than what the cowboys dish up before I start crowing from the rooftops about what world beaters we are...

Keen to see what happens against the Raiders...

Parramatta didnt count?

 

[court83]

Is that better? I believe our next opponents are the Titans.

We play the Titans with tom, expecting to win by plenty .
I'm interested in the Raiders game as we don't have tom.. but even that won't be a proper indication as we won't have Jake or DCE either so expecting Raiders to win quite easily

 

[court83]

Parramatta didnt count?

Tom played a starring role in the eels game so no it doesn't count..
My point was we are a one man team, no tom means no wins...
So I was wrong in the cowboys game as we eventually turned up and played great after an abysmal first 15 minutes...
But I will stick to my opinion until proven wrong by more than 1 win...
Again, watched mostly same blokes get flogged weekly for a year and a half without tom.. will take more than winning a game or 2 without him to change my mind

 

[Tragic Eagle]

Cudos to the coach his selections have been spot on.

 

[rmd]

Tom played a starring role in the eels game so no it doesn't count..
My point was we are a one man team, no tom means no wins...
So I was wrong in the cowboys game as we eventually turned up and played great after an abysmal first 15 minutes...
But I will stick to my opinion until proven wrong by more than 1 win...
Again, watched mostly same blokes get flogged weekly for a year and a half without tom.. will take more than winning a game or 2 without him to change my mind

Hmmm.. Warriors

 

[rmd]

I respect your opinion court83 as any team that loses it’s top players will usually struggle… well except Melbourne, who have won 21 of 23 apparently during Origin, which is just nuts however says a lot about their culture.

Manly’s start to the season was way below what they were capable of and I am sure all will agree however, we now have guys who were ‘walk up starts’ to make the team and are now struggling to make the team upon returning from injury.

I am still concerned about a FB replacement while Turbo is out however, that’s my only concern.

 

[Kevinward777]

Didn't see this as you didn't have the balls to tag me in it..
I'm still here.. very happy with the cowboys win, does it change my opinion? Not yet.. I want to see us beat more than what the cowboys dish up before I start crowing from the rooftops about what world beaters we are...

Keen to see what happens against the Raiders...

I thoroughly enjoyed the win against the Eels - you should watch it.

 

[Kevinward777]

Tom played a starring role in the eels game so no it doesn't count..
My point was we are a one man team, no tom means no wins...
So I was wrong in the cowboys game as we eventually turned up and played great after an abysmal first 15 minutes...
But I will stick to my opinion until proven wrong by more than 1 win...
Again, watched mostly same blokes get flogged weekly for a year and a half without tom.. will take more than winning a game or 2 without him to change my mind

You were very wrong in fact.

 

[Eagles4Life]

Cudos to the coach his selections have been spot on.

Team selections, recruitment and player development since round four has been outstanding.

 

[EOL now nesting on the GC]

Team selections, recruitment and player development since round four has been outstanding.

I agree but may I just add a little caveat regards thinking the team selections from round 4 have been the most important change. Many say that the Sirro, Go jet ski, Suli injuries forced Des's hand to bring in the kids and while I'm 100% elated that they have done so well its a lot more than that.

Don't forget that Garrick, Froggy, Dce to a point and others were also derided as reserve grade chumps and look at the turnaround in those guys.

Its a fantastic team effort from the Boss down to the ball boys that has transformed our season. well done.

 

[Eagles4Life]

I agree but may I just add a little caveat regards thinking the team selections from round 4 have been the most important change. Many say that the Sirro, Go jet ski, Suli injuries forced Des's hand to bring in the kids and while I'm 100% elated that they have done so well its a lot more than that.

Don't forget that Garrick, Froggy, Dce to a point and others were also derided as reserve grade chumps and look at the turnaround in those guys.

Its a fantastic team effort from the Boss down to the ball boys that has transformed our season. well done.

I'm not going to disagree. The massive turnaround in our performances since round four has been an absolute credit to the whole club. Team selection since round four is only one of the factors that has contributed to this. Our young players, once given a shot at first grade have been outstanding. The development of these younger players, and the renaissance of others, has resulted in a situation where we have real competition for almost every position on the field. (Injuries not withstanding of course). The club's future is looking great. Go Manly.

 

[alafua8]

Tom played a starring role in the eels game so no it doesn't count..
My point was we are a one man team, no tom means no wins...
So I was wrong in the cowboys game as we eventually turned up and played great after an abysmal first 15 minutes...
But I will stick to my opinion until proven wrong by more than 1 win...
Again, watched mostly same blokes get flogged weekly for a year and a half without tom.. will take more than winning a game or 2 without him to change my mind

Played against the Knights and we lost .Tom is the key to most our plays but the others help out to open the door .

 

[Bearfax]

The big change for me has been the strategy in attack that has finally adapted from what it was over the past 5 seasons.

Because of the addition of players like Foran, Schuster, Garrett, Saab, Harper in the backline, Manly are now spreading the ball wide on far more occasions. Before that they were playing a game more tightly centred and dominated by forward play with little imagination.

I was getting the sense from Des and even Barret before him, had no confidence with the three quarters outside of DCE especially when Turbo and Walker were missing. They are now spreading the ball and you can see now that the backs are scoring most of the tries, whereas before the forwards were. They had much of the time a pedestrian backline who couldn't score tries.

Now we have speed and imagination in the backline, an improving group of forwards and consequently confidence has gone up. They are now playing like they should have been for the past half a decade.

 

[jbb/james]

If you look at the des interviews early it was like he expected us to lose. He is the best at timing a run.

Team looked flat, des looked flat. I wonder how it would have been if tom resisted the corso challenge. Were we up at seasons start or did even the coaches spirits dive

Maybe des thought the hammy was going to take 6 months and was buoyed by a relatively speedy recovery.

Who knows but even though the team rose last week without tom cast your mind back to last year. They stayed in the hunt for a game and a half playing gutsy and then capitulated to close to the worse form in the clubs history from then on.

 

[frank stokes]

The big change for me has been the strategy in attack that has finally adapted from what it was over the past 5 seasons.

Because of the addition of players like Foran, Schuster, Garrett, Saab, Harper in the backline, Manly are now spreading the ball wide on far more occasions. Before that they were playing a game more tightly centred and dominated by forward play with little imagination.

I was getting the sense from Des and even Barret before him, had no confidence with the three quarters outside of DCE especially when Turbo and Walker were missing. They are now spreading the ball and you can see now that the backs are scoring most of the tries, whereas before the forwards were. They had much of the time a pedestrian backline who couldn't score tries.

Now we have speed and imagination in the backline, an improving group of forwards and consequently confidence has gone up. They are now playing like they should have been for the past half a decade.

i think the ball-handling on the edges by Tom, Foran and Schuster has really made a difference... it allows players like Guac/Parker/Harper to be effective because they are receiving the ball at speed against a defensive line that is under pressure or has already been caught out...

when we spread the ball last season we looked pedestrian and we never seemed to create any doubt in the oppositions mind... teams were able to pressure DCE out of the game because our other playmakers struggled with straightening the attack and delivering passes to the advantage of their outside backs...