Leadership

[Snake]

Fair questions have been asked about our leadership at times in tight games so it was great to see DCE make consecutive try saving tackles to prevent a Raiders win in the dying stages.

First on a rampaging Whitehead and then he backed it up immediately from marker to stop Wighton from diving over.

Captain Courageous!

 

[Pittwater Legend]

Very courageous player is our DCE. That courage is a large part of why he became a star player as soon as he made first grade.

I want to see him play 350 games for Manly

 

[Loobs]

An unbiased review of DCE’s leadership would find that when he’s not “firing”, it’s usually a result of trying too hard which makes him force plays.

For mine, you’d rather have someone fail trying too hard than jogging on plays and clutching air in tackles. Now having said that, what you’d read in the press would never have said that because they held such a hard on for DCE the backflipper and wanted that to be his story rather than courageous leader who can actually string a sentence together.

 

[Technical Coach]

You can never knock DCE for effort and work rate that is for sure, he leads by example.

Does lack composure under pressure in attacking plays though and pushes passes that are not on when out of ideas that are easy to read.

 

[Kevinward777]

Fair questions have been asked about our leadership at times in tight games so it was great to see DCE make consecutive try saving tackles to prevent a Raiders win in the dying stages.

First on a rampaging Whitehead and then he backed it up immediately from marker to stop Wighton from diving over.

Captain Courageous!

Two massive plays by the skipper.

 

[The better Robbo]

Speaking of leadership Thommo being out is a huge blow in terms of leadership and experience in the big games

 

[Technical Coach]

Speaking of leadership Thommo being out is a huge blow in terms of leadership and experience in the big games

Sironen and Thommo add that direct hard running impact on the edges that really elevated Manly mid season to rack up wins but also became a too predictable go to play that needs variation to go the next level in attack.

The good thing is that you need those edge runners to be taken seriously(not just ignored allowing defenders to peel off early) and our over-use of the play actually helps in that regard----the option plays are more dangerous now if Manly develop them.(Melb and the Roosters have the best line running and decoy plays)

Bad thing is both these players are out now so developing options and gaining practice under game pressure in the last few games is going to be hard to develop.

 

[HK_Eagle]

Speaking of leadership Thommo being out is a huge blow in terms of leadership and experience in the big games

Should stop us having tries disallowed for obstruction

 

[The '47ers]

Should stop us having tries disallowed for obstruction

 

[ellakasmar]

Chez is an absolute legend, no one better to be our captain

 

[Snake]

Does lack composure under pressure in attacking plays though and pushes passes that are not on when out of ideas that are easy to read.

Certainly correct, however there are two sides to RL and generally speaking, the analysts like to focus on attack because it is the more "flashy" aspect of the game...
Good coaches know that D is the foundation. DCE's try savers today were as valuable as a field goal in extra time to win us a game or a clutch pass or grubber for a try.

 

[globaleagle]

Very courageous player is our DCE. That courage is a large part of why he became a star player as soon as he made first grade.

I want to see him play 350 games for Manly

400 and his partner gets a nice shiny diamond ring

 

[Spartan Eagle]

400 and his partner gets a nice shiny diamond ring

And Dessie will be taken out on a date by NRL CEO to the ball game..

 

[Oracle]

You can never knock DCE for effort and work rate that is for sure, he leads by example.

Does lack composure under pressure in attacking plays though and pushes passes that are not on when out of ideas that are easy to read.

A lot has been said on how well he defends ?
But Chez would be the first to admit our right hand side has been letting in some soft tries down his edge of late ,In fact our last 5 games.
Chez and JetSki got terribly exposed by Marshall for one of them.(concerning but not terminal)
That aside and more important is our overall teams defensive Systems (Credit Des -which incorporates individual accountability no doubt)
is what is inspiring a steely resolve in this team.
The biggest plus for us has been our consistent defence against quality sides

8 games out Fox media were reporting we had the hardest run home
we have been turning away the best attacking teams in spite of :
=the lopsided penalty count against us
=50/50s
=media predictions -to quote Gus Gould, “nuisance value” (shows how much they know)

So far this is what our hardest run home looks like:
Para= 36-24
Storm =11-10
Knights=30-6
Warriors =24-16 loss
Tigers=32-12
Raiders=18-14
Storm= ?
Parramatta=?

If Fox News in all there wisdom what to keep insisting we are a 1,2,3,4,5, man team ?
Let them !
Just feeding into the way Des and the boys wants it.
My prediction
The best is yet to come

 

[sheridanstand78]

The News filth press are in a total lather about our success. The death riding that was evident in that twit called Voss yesterday tells you that. We again defy them every time win and as someone pointed out to me, they only hate us because they ain't us!!

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

The News filth press are in a total lather about our success. The death riding that was evident in that twit called Voss yesterday tells you that. We again defy them every time win and as someone pointed out to me, they only hate us because they ain't us!!

Very evident yesterday , he’s usually not to bad but that’s the worse I’ve heard him for a long time.

It’s hard I know but I believe every commentator that’s calling the game needs to to be 100% impartial, most aren’t.

I get the bias from some of the sideline guys BUT!!

 

[Paw93]

Had those two consecutive try savers and the effort to rake the ball in the first half. Could very well have been down and out if Wighton had scored. Also had a massive kicking game yesterday. We were stuck in our half for more than a few sets and he came up with some brilliant kicks that didn't allow the Raiders back 3 to wind up on their kick returns.

 

[Technical Coach]

Certainly correct, however there are two sides to RL and generally speaking, the analysts like to focus on attack because it is the more "flashy" aspect of the game...
Good coaches know that D is the foundation. DCE's try savers today were as valuable as a field goal in extra time to win us a game or a clutch pass or grubber for a try.

Certainly correct, however there are two sides to RL and generally speaking, the analysts like to focus on attack because it is the more "flashy" aspect of the game...
Good coaches know that D is the foundation. DCE's try savers today were as valuable as a field goal in extra time to win us a game or a clutch pass or grubber for a try.

Not sure how this relates to my post in relation to your defence points, as if to say i don't rate what DCE does in defence.

DCE's work rate in defence will never be questioned.(positioning in defence is another story though)

A team with good defence shows to me the effort parts of the game and team attitude is right, you need that foundation to stay in games and have/earned the right to win them.

But the analogy of "defence wins games" is over-used this day and age. If your attack is useless, your go forward is poor, the team struggles for good field position, your kicking game lacks distance or creativity, too many drop balls and so on and so on it will add pressure to the defence and exhaust the entire squad.

Defence is a solid foundation but should not be seen as the main method of winning games because if your attacking elements are poor it places more pressure on your defence to hold out.

Des was lucky he could concentrate on defensive structures and mindset all off season because Manly as much as our attacking structures were poor last year still had points in us and strong go forward elements to our game.

The mindset and attitude in the place/squad has been poor and it showed up in our defence also, this is what Des has really honed in on.

If anything the defence has overtaken the attack development wise, our attack needs to improve if Manly are going to go to the next level.

 

[Shoe1]

2 or 3 dce second half kicks found grass instead of a raider, bought us precious extra kick chase time. Really important when we were pinned in our 20.

 

[Snake]

Not sure how this relates to my post

That’s ironic because the only reason I said it was down to the fact that your response did not relate to my initial post.

I was talking about DCE showing leadership in defence and you decided to make it about his attack...so I replied by saying that his defence is just as important as what he does with the ball.

You changed the tack of the thread, not me.