How things can change so dramatically so quickly.

[alafua8]

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.

We are going great because of the players are enjoying themselves and restricting our error rate .I keep on repeating that we are hard to beat if we go set for set against any team .The error rate in the first four weeks killed us .

 

[Ron E. Gibbs]

It can still be a fine line between brilliance (vs the Eels, the Broncos and the Cowboys) and blah (vs the Knights) for us. But the consistency in our game is definitely improving.

In his glory years, Des was an absolute master at getting the team to peak at exactly the right time of year, and we were able to approach the finals in almost untouchable form. Be interesting to see how we fare this season.

 

[Bearfax]

We are going great because of the players are enjoying themselves and restricting our error rate .I keep on repeating that we are hard to beat if we go set for set against any team .The error rate in the first four weeks killed us .

Errors tend to come from overplaying what they try to do. This was especially noted with DCE earlier and last year. When the rest of the team is struggling to make an impact, panicky plays result.

There didnt seem confidence in the players mind that they could make an impact without overplaying. The understanding between the players was lacking and in the past the forwards no doubt considered that their backline was second rate and not able to exploit the damage they were attempting to create down the middle.

So I suspect DCE and the forwards took it upon themselves to try to make the impact and floundered. With speed and creativity injected into this side they are suddenly no longer required to attempt the risky plays by trying too hard and making mistakes. Its very obvious that DCE is now more effective with his play as a result.

 

[alafua8]

Errors tend to come from overplaying what they try to do. This was especially noted with DCE earlier and last year. When the rest of the team is struggling to make an impact, panicky plays result.

There didnt seem confidence in the players mind that they could make an impact without overplaying. The understanding between the players was lacking and in the past the forwards no doubt considered that their backline was second rate and not able to exploit the damage they were attempting to create down the middle.

So I suspect DCE and the forwards took it upon themselves to try to make the impact and floundered. With speed and creativity injected into this side they are suddenly no longer required to attempt the risky plays by trying too hard and making mistakes. Its very obvious that DCE is now more effective with his play as a result.

As evidenced against the Cowboys ,Marty dropped the ball and a six again got the cowboys 12 points .If we can win or match it with Canberra ,Parra and Storm ,we will be hard to stop going into the finals . (barring injuries of course ).