Lost the Way Late

[MK Eagle]

Is it that super early defence sucking the energy out of the players for the latter stages, almost a case of putting all the eggs into the basket for the 1st 20 minutes hoping to blow the opposition of the park??
If so & the scores are still reasonably close it could be a real mental drainer & be the reason the wheels fall of once the opposition hits the lead after pretty much dominating but not showing it on the scoreboard.
As posted already, fatigue can contribute to losing attacking shape & direction with structure.
Seen enough from this game to be confident we can flip it around come finals time.

 

[Technical Coach]

This year Manly have been easing up on the defensive intensity and using it in the big games or raising the aggression when required due to injuries and a more steadily paced outlook for the whole season so we have something in the tank come finals time.

Also injuries to our forwards has forced us to play a little smarter more in a containment style of defence with less intensity and aggression to preserve the troops for the big games. Foran is playing smarter and preserving himself also---we don't pay big money for his big hits but more for his attacking abilities but yes it is part of his package.

The positives from this season is the attack has been fine tuned(still not happy with it) to the point where we now blow away the opposition more regularly and not always in the grind against lower placed teams as often. This allows Manly to not always play in such a high intensity aggressive manner which hopefully will lead to less injuries and fresh players all season long.(The last 6 games against weaker opposition and hardly any major injuries is an example of the benefits)

I stated in a previous post if the game is a grind against teams with size like Souths the fatigue factor in the second half is a major worry. Playing with such high intensity and effort it is imperative our attack is clinical in the first 40-60mins or the game will slip away.

The all round effort and intensity from our defence in this game was at the level or close to the GF effort of 2011 and we saw in the last 20mins in that game what happened. Luckily we had enough points on board to stay composed during that game, 10-12 against the big 4 is nowhere near enough with these effort levels.

 

[Darren]

Excellent write up TC!

 

[mickqld]

This year Manly have been easing up on the defensive intensity and using it in the big games or raising the aggression when required due to injuries and a more steadily paced outlook for the whole season so we have something in the tank come finals time.

Also injuries to our forwards has forced us to play a little smarter more in a containment style of defence with less intensity and aggression to preserve the troops for the big games. Foran is playing smarter and preserving himself also---we don't pay big money for his big hits but more for his attacking abilities but yes it is part of his package.

The positives from this season is the attack has been fine tuned(still not happy with it) to the point where we now blow away the opposition more regularly and not always in the grind against lower placed teams as often. This allows Manly to not always play in such a high intensity aggressive manner which hopefully will lead to less injuries and fresh players all season long.(The last 6 games against weaker opposition and hardly any major injuries is an example of the benefits)

I stated in a previous post if the game is a grind against teams with size like Souths the fatigue factor in the second half is a major worry. Playing with such high intensity and effort it is imperative our attack is clinical in the first 40-60mins or the game will slip away.

The all round effort and intensity from our defence in this game was at the level or close to the GF effort of 2011 and we saw in the last 20mins in that game what happened. Luckily we had enough points on board to stay composed during that game, 10-12 against the big 4 is nowhere near enough with these effort levels.

Would have been a much different story if our bench was King,Galuvao, Tom Symonds. Choc is usually an 80 minute machine but had to go off 63 min because of Lima's dog act. George elbowed to the face (no report or penalty what a surprrise ) only had 13 min not to mention the continuous piggy back penalties out of their red zone. Take 2 experienced props and 2 quality backrowers out of Roosters,Storm, Rabbits and watch them struggle. There is enough fatigue in that lot to kill any team.

 

[Technical Coach]

I agree to a point, in the end we are not scoring enough points when it counts.

Occasionally during the final series in the past Galuvao would start to run lines on the right and adding Symonds to the mix would add more straightness and penetration options on that side, so there is easily an added try in big game just with Symonds alone.

We still need more straighter hole running variations all over the park and more variations to the outside in plays beyond Gift coming back in linking with Stewart or Watmough drifting back in linking up with a runner also.
It is like the modern day player forgets to play with variation and decoys off his inside hip and is locked in to just setting up outside options---adding options to your inside hip also helps you play straighter.

 

[mickqld]

We did seem to just spin it wide from one side to the other going sideways too much late in that 2nd half when we had failed to drive home the advantage we had in that first 20 min of the 2nd half. The 40 - 60 min period was where it was lost both with our lack of composure and the Matai no try.

 

[PONTIAN SEA EAGLE]

The game was ours until they found touch from that drop out which we allowed.We were under the pump for about 20 minutes or so we never recovered.

That one blunder changed the whole game.