Junior Schmuck

[Matabele]

That useless, premiership-less clown Pearce made his bold prediction tonight that the GF would be Storm vs Eels - "the two best sides in the first half of the season".

Seems he's still smarting from that beautiful day in 1990 when we bundled the Toigers out of the finals and consigned them to 15 years of mediocrity.

As I see it, we can lose the next three games and still be in second place.

We are virtually assured a top 4 spot and home semi final.

Every team experiences a dip in form at some point in the season.

I'm happy to fly under the radar and see the players hit their straps in late August with a Top 2 spot still there for the taking.

 

[Ryan]

To be fair, a hell of a lot of people are writing Manly off now, inlcuding Gould, Sterling, Brandy, Freeman and co.

 

[fLIP]

Who would have thought? After just 3 losses you can be written of as pretenders.

 

[Nutzcraw]

I'm happy for them to write us off. Orford owes us IMO... What better way to repay us than to steer us around and bring us home in the remaining 9 games of the season after Origin.

I want to come on here on the 6th of August after attending the Broncos V Manly game at Suncorp on the 5th of August and say "here we come baby, bring on the finals"

I want orford to get over his knee injury in the next week or two and get out on that field and say "pi$$ off monas, Lyon and snake... give that friggin ball to me and watch me put you bastards through these holes"

 

[Matabele]

To be fair, a hell of a lot of people are writing Manly off now, inlcuding Gould, Sterling, Brandy, Freeman and co.

Which only serves to reinforce my point. These fools hate Manly and need little excuse to sink the boot in.

It will be amusing to watch them wiping away egg in September. Wether they like it or not, we will be in the Top 4 and every chance.

 

[silver]

After our performances against Penrith and the Dogs I can't argue with the people who are writing us off. We are struggling for line breaks, our attack is poor and kicking game is mediocre at best. With Lyon at 5/8 we have gone backwards and our attack non-existent. If you take away our tries from kicks we score very little from open play and that does concern me. The backs do not get decent ball or opportunities.

Also, our defence around the ruck area has been crap in recent weeks with soft tries being let in.

Sides like the Broncos and Eels are improving as much as I hate to admit - remember where the Broncos were sitting mid way through last season???

 

[Ryan]

Of the teams that are hitting form, it looks very scary in how they are playing compared to us.

 

[Matabele]

So you gents think we are at top form??????

 

[ants]

the short answer Mata is No. And we haven't hit top form all season. So to be sitting second and to be written off at this stage is good. Our defence is still ok, so if we can improve our attack leading into the finals we can do it IMO. But our $500,000 No7 has to pull finger.

 

[silver]

Mata, I am not saying we are at top form, I just think we have gone backwards a little - especially since Orford came back. I feel we are missing that next step up to be genuine contenders based on the last 5 performances.

Orofrd has been ordinary to say the least this year - not worthy of his $500k that is certain. Maybe he should run at the line more, pass out wide to the backs - he is just not producing the goods with his cuurent game.

We are no were near top form. Question is can we get there???

 

[KaZa]

our attack will be **** all season if Lyon is at 5/8

Cant believe how blind Dessie is and hasnt rectified this yet.

 

[Matabele]

We are no were near top form. Question is can we get there???

Plenty of time and we have the luxury of our stellar start guaranteeing a Top 4 berth so we can persist with things like the Lyon experiment for a while longer.

 

[DSM5]

Don't agree with persisting for just persisting. We were winning with Lyon at centre and now losing with him at 5/8. If I can see this, surely Des can. The Ox thing worries me as well. Is he playing injured or just out of form. If any of those, then he should be rested or dropped to PL. Play with form and we win, play without and we lose. We'll cruise into second spot imo, but we need to fix up the halves or it will unravell in the finals. As I've said before, to win a team has to have excellence in the halves, that's the reason Qld is winning at SOO and Melb at the comp level.

 

[Matabele]

You seem to forget that everyone was bagging the Inglis at 6 experiment just a few weeks ago.

The silence when he was firing bullet passes past desperate Dragons was gold. Perhaps the Drag Queens will play Lyon into form in a similar way.

Oh, damn, that's right. Lyon will not be available because he is playing SOO.

 

[DSM5]

I never bagged Inglis at 5/8, where else could Melbourne fit him in? It's just that Lyon is a very good defensive centre. I'm not wishing he would 'cut loose' as I value his defensive work, it's just that he is wasted tackling his shouldert of in the ruck when he is more of a creative centre like Fulton was. I worry about Des's inability to see this. Is Burns playing on Sunday?

 

[Garts]

So the whole reason we are losing is because Lyon is now playing 5/8?

 

[fLIP]

DSM has a point about the amount of defensive work that Lyon does.

I don't know many other halves that are making close to 40 tackles a game.

Perhaps it's causing too much fatigue and impacting on his ball play.

 

[Garts]

Burns was generally making more tackles than that when at 5/8. And imo he has looked more dangerous so far this season when at 5/8 than centre, and Bell has also looked more dangerous when Lyon is inside him.

 

[fLIP]

Do you think he looks like a 5/8th though?

For the record I don't think he needs to be moved. I think things need to be changed (like the way we use the ball) but to me he look like a center just playing 2 off the ruck.

 

[Garts]

What does a 5/8 look like nowdays? Burns definately was not what I would class as a "classic" 5/8.

To me Lyon offers more in attack and with him playing there we get Bell and Matai in the centres.

As for changing the way we use the ball, I think that needs to be considered as our attack is not firing, but then again it might just be taking time for the new halves to gel as we need to remember they have only played together a few times.