Is this team SOFT?

[maxta]

I recall only recently, every team feared the clash against Manly due to the physical contact , the players basically bashed the opposition into submission winning 90 % of the contacts in attack & defence.
Apart from Jake defensively & Vave in attack....the players are being bullied.
I can understand why in attack- no support players pushing up with the ball carrier, so the 3-4 defenders charge in & dominate & control the speed of the play.
This is reversed in attack, offering more option runners the opposition, in this case Penrith, iscolate a defender to either make a break or win the contact , at very least winning a fast play ball as Manly back peddle with yawning gaps both behind the ruck & on the edge...& so on & so on.
The tempo of the game is being owned by the opposition every game, so sad to see after such a tough, resilient standard had been set just a few years ago built on winning that collision & usually....the game.

 

[ManlyArmy]

The team is soft because the coaching staff is soft. They are poorly trained that it's already Round 14 and they still can't play for the full 80 minutes.

People will still say that we have injuries/suspensions/interruptions, but that's a pathetic excuse from weak fans who don't realise that that same side led 24-4... 24 TO FARKING 4!!!!

 

[Killer03]

I will never forget watching matches during our golden era of 2005 to 2014 when suddenly we would up the ante in defence and the commentators would say 'here we go! Manly are winning metres in defence!'

We would suddenly go wallop and limit the running metres to 20m and just hammer them with our defence, and it was glorious. The forward would hunt in a pack, and of course you'd have the backs chiming in for some bell ringers also.

You would start to see genuine trepidation from the opposition about running the ball as they just knew they would cop a flogging.

The problem with this is that it's self fulfilling. You build up this mentality and other teams fear you, so it becomes easier to do, and often teams are beaten before they play us. Now that just doesn't happen, there is zero fear from opposition teams.

 

[Chip and Chase]

Currently we aren't a physically intimidating side. We are getting dominated in the ruck by just about every pack we play and that kills the bulk of your attacking opportunity and structure.

 

[SoaringEagle]

Our fitness is ****. Wen we tackle, we need to rush to markers. We were caught out with only one or no markers in the 2nd half.

 

[Clay]

Marshmallows

 

[midsteyne]

we are being beaten like a red headed stepchild,
manly have lost their will to play hard,or at least their willingness to do so.
however it wont last forever,we will be back some day

 

[Shoe1]

Manly played great with the ball in the first 60 mins. Quite creative and high tempo, with Penrith giving us plenty of room. As soon as the going got tough manly wilted. So yes, soft.

 

[Snake]

I will never forget watching matches during our golden era of 2005 to 2014 when suddenly we would up the ante in defence and the commentators would say 'here we go! Manly are winning metres in defence!'

We would suddenly go wallop and limit the running metres to 20m and just hammer them with our defence, and it was glorious. The forward would hunt in a pack, and of course you'd have the backs chiming in for some bell ringers also.

You would start to see genuine trepidation from the opposition about running the ball as they just knew they would cop a flogging.

The problem with this is that it's self fulfilling. You build up this mentality and other teams fear you, so it becomes easier to do, and often teams are beaten before they play us. Now that just doesn't happen, there is zero fear from opposition teams.

This used to happen because of Des. He was largely responsible for the physical culture that was established at Manly...the players really played for him...Unfortunately Toovey was a victim of Des' back ended deals and the culture started to disintegrate when crucial elements of the culture left; Kite, Choc, Gifty, and the flow on effect of that.

 

[Snake]

The best thing would have been to weather the cap storm with Toovey at the helm and allow him to rebuild his own team without the devisive senior group undermining him.

Tooves could have done wonders with the improved stocks that Baz has at his disposal this year. Marquee recruits like Walker, Myles and Taupau look like NSW cup players under Barrett.

 

[susan]

Yep we are pretty soft but to be honest look at our forward pack physically and it shouldn't be a great surprise. Other than Kapow we have no seriously powerful explosive bodies.AFB has the potential but not there yet.Jamie Buhrer gets so many wraps on here and it seems to all and sundry he is just about our best forward with Jake and that says it all really.He tries incredibly hard but he gets owned every week.

Technical Coach has been banging on about this and he is dead right in this case.Every one of the top sides has these big strong juganauts that smash the advantage line like Tomololo.We never play with any momentum unless we get a string of repeat sets which is rare.Our sets start with Snake strolling back or offloading to a winger under pressure.Our first play the ball is always slow and we get owned from there.

Unless we find a couple of seriously aggressive power forwards and get some energy from the back 3 early in the set the deeds of Walker,Tommy etc will be of little use.

 

[willie65]

Soft as a pensioners sh#t

 

[cherry_poppins]

Sawft

 

[Technical Coach]

It's been obvious for years even when leading the comp, our backs and ball playing spreads covered our weak or aging forward packs in the go forward element of the game.

I recall during 2014 people basically calling me crazy to say our forwards are not up to par while leading the comp, they were struggling at times during 2013 also which i must say is one of the most inspirational team performances over an entire season i have ever seen.

I would go as far to say the 2013 tough games and performances started draining the tank for the senior group and breaking them down physically at a faster rate. Combine this with the attitude shift and realization they didn't have the firepower to match teams even if they wanted to and it's been downhill since.

You can get by without power players to a certain degree if you play with smarts and ball movement which we don't have, even Melb has had to up the size and power of their stocks to stay competitive---for a while they were sitting ducks also.

Physically Manly has been a generation behind for around 4 years.

 

[Shoe1]

Agree with the above from TC and Susan. I see buhrer as the worker in the pack and he does this job well. But he can't lead the pack or provide the power that is required. In a better balanced pack his 40 tackles, hole runs, hit ups, decoy runs and passing game would be the icing on the cake.

Right now there is no cake.

 

[double hoops]

Yep. Soft.

 

[tookey]

Soft as

 

[Eagleheart]

Yes.

 

[wedgetail eagle]

As soft as the hint of down on the upper lip of a young Mediterranean girl.

 

[nightster]

As soft as the hint of down on the upper lip of a young Mediterranean girl.

poetic m8