Make or Break

  • We had an issue with background services between march 10th and 15th or there about. This meant the payment services were not linking to automatic upgrades. If you paid for premium membership and are still seeing ads please let me know and the email you used against PayPal and I cam manually verify and upgrade your account.

Snake

Snake's Alive!
Personally, for me, I feel like next week’s game against South’s is gonna make or break our season. I know it’s only rd.8 but it’s time for Manly to decide what sort of team they want to be. Since Hasler’s return, we’ve been inconsistent; particularly in defence. We regularly win a string of games against lesser opposition, but consistently falter against decent sides. There always seems to be factors that compel us fans to ‘keep the faith’, whether it’s a crippling injury toll or the selection mistake or an injury during a game.

Last years dream run was largely against cannon-fodder and even the big wins came with close first half contests before Tom exploded. Maybe we’ve overestimated the abilities of this team for 2022.

Basically, I think it’s time for Manly to put all excuses aside and start showing desperation to win at all costs against all comers or start planning a new approach with some big roster changes because we are a middle of the road team at the moment. To concede 32 points against any opposition in one half of football is extremely alarming, regardless of a second half comeback.

If we lose to South’s, we’ll start to lose contact with the top4 and it’ll be making up the numbers again like the last few years.
 
Yeah, I'm feeling ya.

Footys a funny game though.

If we can make the 8, anything can happen in the last 4 weeks.

I do agree that any team conceding 32 points in one half, regardless of the circumstances, is not in the blueprint for going close to winning comps.
Defence is key, and any 13 blokes in a jersey can do that, if the desire is there.
 
Last years semi finals exposed our weaknesses and provided a blueprint for teams to contain tom and attack our weak edges, 2022 is gone already we are cannon fodder for the top teams with that weak left edge and saab under pressure with the high ball has been added to the blueprint. complete lack of foresight by des in regards to recruitment and the retention of taufua,and boyle is nothing short of Ludacris
 
SmartSelect_20220424-160125_Samsung Internet.jpg
 
Yeah, I'm feeling ya.

Footys a funny game though.

If we can make the 8, anything can happen in the last 4 weeks.

I do agree that any team conceding 32 points in one half, regardless of the circumstances, is not in the blueprint for going close to winning comps.
Defence is key, and any 13 blokes in a jersey can do that, if the desire is there.
In these days of momentum possession footy this is what can happen to any team. One player exposed a glaring weakness on our right side, we have the time to rectify this. Also having our best forward out in Alioi, and with Turbo and Schuster out as well. I'm not pressing the panic button just yet.
 
doubtful tom made the likes of harper and saab look good in 21, 22 he has been contained along with injury and rule changes and the fact saab and harper are now targeted at will. one learns to tackle as a kid, you can learn positional play in defence but its moot if your defence is ordinary at best
 
i still think this team knows its abilities and knows it has to smash teams early as we get the wobbles. As a result we chuck it all on red from the get go. We are just not an 8- 6 halftime team . No patience and manly, the other teams know it . That is our teams identity . Having a stable team without turnover means they all know it

How many times have we seen our captain lay down the law and choke on it next play. (kickoff last week) Pretty hard to take that **** serious

the beatiful optimistic posters on silvertails give up hope, week in, week out and i love it But thinking we turned it around in the second half is fanciful

Last weeks game where the sharks knocked off, we didnt have to earn the right, we fired some passes, if they dont stick, it doesnt matter by then , some did. It was pretty b grade footy if you watch it knowing the result, take the hope of a comeback out of it and it was pretty ordinary. The ref just did his even up **** because the sharks were going to declare and channel 9 has us locked in for more tv and toms injured
 
In these days of momentum possession footy this is what can happen to any team. One player exposed a glaring weakness on our right side, we have the time to rectify this. Also having our best forward out in Alioi, and with Turbo and Schuster out as well. I'm not pressing the panic button just yet.

Not to attack you personally, but this is the sort of attitude that I’ve harvested for a few years now and it’s gone stale. Injuries don’t account for inconsistencies when you’re a good side. The Sharks had Hamlen-Uele out and their forward leader in Finucane and didn’t miss a beat. Last year Pappy went down for basically the whole year and Hynes comes along and Storm go on a record winning run. Good sides that are fair dinkum win regularly regardless of disruptions to the roster. We’re full of excuses here at Manly when we lose.

Essentially, I think the excuses are just a way of keeping the faith but the stark reality is we are not good enough at the moment. I’m done with excuses and think it’s time for us to step up or we start planning a different approach/direction for the future.
 
Last edited:
Not to attack you personally, but this is the sort of attitude that I’ve harvested for a few years now and it’s gone stale. Injuries don’t account for inconsistencies when you’re a good side. The Sharks had Hamlen-Uele out and their forward leader in Finucane and didn’t miss a beat. Last year Pappy went down for basically the whole year and Hynes comes along and Storm go on a record winning run. Good sides that are fair dinkum win regularly regardless of disruptions to the roster. We’re full of excuses here at Manly when we lose.

Essentially, I think the excuses are just a way of keeping the faith but the stark reality is we are not good enough at the moment. I’m done with excuses and think it’s time for us to step up or we start planning a different approach/direction for the future.
I agree totally. We have to be above the injuries, the officals incompetence, the weather. I'm just getting worn down watching us these days. It's just the same rinse and repeat , beat up a few sh*t teams then come up against decent opposition and fall to pieces and then play catchup. For the money we are paying certain players it's not reflected in our results for a decade now. I just don't see any change coming. Our pathways aren't yielding the talent we are being led to believe. I have no confidence that I'll see as ever at full strength for any length if time. I can see us struggling around the bottom of the 8 for years to come.
 
Not to attack you personally, but this is the sort of attitude that I’ve harvested for a few years now and it’s gone stale. Injuries don’t account for inconsistencies when you’re a good side. The Sharks had Hamlen-Uele out and their forward leader in Finucane and didn’t miss a beat. Last year Pappy went down for basically the whole year and Hynes comes along and Storm go on a record winning run. Good sides that are fair dinkum win regularly regardless of disruptions to the roster. We’re full of excuses here at Manly when we lose.

Essentially, I think the excuses are just a way of keeping the faith but the stark reality is we are not good enough at the moment. I’m done with excuses and think it’s time for us to step up or we start planning a different approach/direction for the future.
Yep our best and worst is lightyears apart
Systems v ad lib, absolutely. Des seems to coach to players strengths and energy The better teams are about roles and players fill in those roles.

Des creates loyalty and is a great man manager,
 
Far from deciding the season and missing key players, would not take any more out of this game than the intensity/effort the players bring.
Would love a win though and see it more as a character building victory if Manly do win, to give confidence and belief for the games ahead - early days
 
I'll wait and see who we have available before getting too worked up about next week. We've got off to a moderate start in this year's comp. Last week felt a bit like going back to square 1 but it's not really, the side is continuing to evolve.
However for anyone who plans to give up on Manly's season next week, go for it!
 
This feels a bit like a commentary on Des so I'll throw in my two cents here.

Ivan Cleary was turfed out by Penrith at the end of 2015 with a career win ratio of less than 50%. Three years later he returned and now they are winning 75% of their matches.

So... were Penrith right to sack him the first time? Was he actually a better coach when he returned? Or is neither true and the stars simply aligned upon his return?

I'm not really a fan of the idea of getting rid of the coach while we are still doing, on the balance of things, a passable job. There are not any demonstrably better options available and as 2018 proved, you need to be careful with the candidate you select.
 
I'll wait and see who we have available before getting too worked up about next week. We've got off to a moderate start in this year's comp. Last week felt a bit like going back to square 1 but it's not really, the side is continuing to evolve.
However for anyone who plans to give up on Manly's season next week, go for it!
Not saying give up, just think it’s crunch time if we are going to actually make a rise up the ranks and be one of the top teams in this competition.

We keep finding excuses week in week out for failing to take things to the next level. I’m getting a bit tired of the excuses and I’m starting to lean towards us not being good enough, as opposed to building towards something big.
 
Ivan Cleary was turfed out by Penrith at the end of 2015 with a career win ratio of less than 50% or less. Three years later he returned and now they are winning 75% of their matches.

So... were Penrith right to sack him the first time? Was he actually a better coach when he returned? Or is neither true and the stars simply aligned upon his return?

I'm not really a fan of the idea of getting rid of the coach while we are still doing, on the balance of things, a passable job. There are not any demonstrably better options available and as 2018 proved, you need to be careful with the candidate you select.
Not calling for Dessie’s head. I’m talking about taking a different approach to the game and reinventing the shape of our squad to move away from slow centres and big chunky forwards. We’re too cumbersome for this fast game in 2022.
 
This feels a bit like a commentary on Des so I'll throw in my two cents here.

Ivan Cleary was turfed out by Penrith at the end of 2015 with a career win ratio of less than 50%. Three years later he returned and now they are winning 75% of their matches.

So... were Penrith right to sack him the first time? Was he actually a better coach when he returned? Or is neither true and the stars simply aligned upon his return?

I'm not really a fan of the idea of getting rid of the coach while we are still doing, on the balance of things, a passable job. There are not any demonstrably better options available and as 2018 proved, you need to be careful with the candidate you select.
Really good post.
 
Not calling for Dessie’s head. I’m talking about taking a different approach to the game and reinventing the shape of our squad to move away from slow centres and big chunky forwards. We’re too cumbersome for this fast game in 2022.

I may be too optimistic... but I get the feeling that that we may not be too far away from having a squad capable of making it to October.

But as it doesn't seem to be Des's style to make bulk changes and reinventing to make that happen... I guess we'll just have to see which players force their way into the squad and go from there.
 

Latest posts

Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
3 2 1 45 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 22 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
3 2 1 10 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
Back
Top Bottom