Manly fans watching this game tonight

[DanielLehi888]

Considering that we were still in the game with 10 to go I thought we did ok with 8 of our best players out of action

Turbo Tom, DCE, Jake, Garrick, Olakau'atu, Aloiai, Paseka and Lodge.

We were only one DCE away from victory tonight.

We had great go forward and field position throughout most of the game. But zero creativity and zero attacking weapons in the Rabbitohs 20

 

[Ron E. Gibbs]

Im going to be really honest…. We looked like a team that never believed we would win. Apart from bullemore, jaxon paulo and tommy talau… not one of the normal first graders stood up. A total lack of belief.

Yeah, I was worried when I watched Seibold's interview the day before the game and he said they were approaching it like a "free throw at the stumps", or something along those lines. There's a fine line between playing down expectations and making pre-emptive excuses for a loss.

The big issue with this team for many years now has been our willingness to search high and low for excuses: "But this", "If that", The ref did this", "The bunker did that", "We didn't have Tommy" (like that's anything other than the norm), etc. And instead of telling them they were expected to win, Seibold basically told them that it would be alright to lose.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Yeah, I was worried when I watched Seibold's interview the day before the game and he said they were approaching it like a "free throw at the stumps", or something along those lines. There's a fine line between playing down expectations and making pre-emptive excuses for a loss.

The big issue with this team for many years now has been our willingness to search high and low for excuses: "But this", "If that", The ref did this", "The bunker did that", "We didn't have Tommy" (like that's anything other than the norm), etc. And instead of telling them they were expected to win, Seibold basically told them that it would be alright to lose.

In reality , we were playing a South’s side , at their home ground , with two of their stars out.

And , our team had 8 of our normal players out , including all our very best players.

I don’t exactly blame the coach for not being inspirational, he knew , they knew , the chances were grim.

But , I reckon they at least tried , it was 8-0 for a long time and at least we didn’t capitulate like the Warriors.

Yeah we lost but it was far from a flogging.

@Ryan thinks I’m “ proud “ because we lost , of course I’m not happy we lost but I just prefer to look at this particular game with a little more subjectivity.

We’ve actually , apart from that Dragons disaster , played relatively well for much of this year and are a bit unlucky not to be a bit higher on the ladder.

We were never winning tonight so I don’t know why some are so upset about it.

 

[Eagle 1]

Game we could have won if we had better attacking plans.

You are right, and the craziest thing, we should of scored 2 trys tonight, and maybe go on to win the game.

 

[Uk eagle]

Game we could have won if we had better attacking plans.

Definitely. We just shifted the ball from one side to the other without anyone straightening play up. I thought Koula would have been the one to do it up against Kennar with a bit of footwork and speed but he had a shocker. It was a game made for a good running fullback coming into the line to make the extra man but we just put lateral shifts on all game followed by an uncontested bomb. Anyhoo, get a few players back and onwards and upwards

 

[Nordburg]

“Get a few players back” has been the catchphrase of the club for the past whatever many years.At what point do they become a strong club and not rely on a few players being back?

 

[Hibyemama]

3. Lawton
2. Talau
1. Brown

minus 1,000- Toula Koula. cant stand this guy

 

[jbb/james]

Yeah, I was worried when I watched Seibold's interview the day before the game and he said they were approaching it like a "free throw at the stumps", or something along those lines. There's a fine line between playing down expectations and making pre-emptive excuses for a loss.

The big issue with this team for many years now has been our willingness to search high and low for excuses: "But this", "If that", The ref did this", "The bunker did that", "We didn't have Tommy" (like that's anything other than the norm), etc. And instead of telling them they were expected to win, Seibold basically told them that it would be alright to lose.

Not sure if you saw bellamy anf hughes press conference. Storm won, hughes played well, bellamy was into him about poor options when the game needed to be closed out

Huge difference from player and coach to manly

Standards

 

[Seagles68]

In reality , we were playing a South’s side , at their home ground , with two of their stars out.

And , our team had 8 of our normal players out , including all our very best players.

I don’t exactly blame the coach for not being inspirational, he knew , they knew , the chances were grim.

But , I reckon they at least tried , it was 8-0 for a long time and at least we didn’t capitulate like the Warriors.

Yeah we lost but it was far from a flogging.

@Ryan thinks I’m “ proud “ because we lost , of course I’m not happy we lost but I just prefer to look at this particular game with a little more subjectivity.

We’ve actually , apart from that Dragons disaster , played relatively well for much of this year and are a bit unlucky not to be a bit higher on the ladder.

We were never winning tonight so I don’t know why some are so upset about it.

I only saw the game for the 1st time this afternoon and it never ceases to surprise me how different the game looks to me when I see it compared to so many of the comments made during and after a loss. The comments that bother the most are those that say that we're soft and/or don't give a sh*t or sentiments similar. In all our losses (even the Dragons 1st loss (which was just appallingly bad handling and stupidity) I haven't seen anyone not trying.
I agree that it does sometimes feel like there's always an excuse (no Tom etc) but this year, I reckon we've been pretty consistent. If a couple of things had have gone our way in a couple of those games we lost, we would be sitting well in the 8. And injuries HAVE impacted on us again, so I guess that can be considered another excuse. But this comp is very competitive and we are hanging in there.
I'm never "happy" when we lose but the slagging off this team cops (this year in particular) seems over the top. Last nights game was within reach for so long but we just didn't have enough direction to corral our disparate group but at no time did I feel those blokes weren't giving their all.
Poor old Koula had a couple of telling errors but he didn't throw the towel in. He pulled off some good tackles and still ran hard into the defence like he gave a sh*t. Lawton tried his guts out, Talua was in everything, Brooks is obviously better with DCE on the park and the constant bombing got a bit old. It would've been good if he'd just run the ball half the time. I can only assume that was his instructions. I thought the newbies did a decent job - Navale looked good with his leg speed and Shop also had some good moments and also tried hard. Brown also did his usual thing.
We just needed that extra bit of class to finish the chances that we had.
I get that people are p*ssed off that we can't seem to get a high class team across the park but the reality is, we simply don't have the pulling power we once had. We can blame Penn, or Seibs or no juniors pool or hell, all of those things but in my 50 plus years of following this club, the players that are there at the moment do not look like players that are soft or not trying. And I've seen some of those over the years, I can tell ya.
We are definitely in need of a quality ball playing/hard running forward or 2 but we have a decent dummy half now (and I/m still a Crokes fan but not sure where he fits in if he gets fit) and a backline at full strength to trouble any team.
So I'm just hoping that we can get a good run without injury and to string a few wins together to get back into the 8 coz I really believe that if we can get into that 8 at finals time, we can give a good account. That 1st game after the bye will be a big one!

 

[Rocky]

I only saw the game for the 1st time this afternoon and it never ceases to surprise me how different the game looks to me when I see it compared to so many of the comments made during and after a loss. The comments that bother the most are those that say that we're soft and/or don't give a sh*t or sentiments similar. In all our losses (even the Dragons 1st loss (which was just appallingly bad handling and stupidity) I haven't seen anyone not trying.
I agree that it does sometimes feel like there's always an excuse (no Tom etc) but this year, I reckon we've been pretty consistent. If a couple of things had have gone our way in a couple of those games we lost, we would be sitting well in the 8. And injuries HAVE impacted on us again, so I guess that can be considered another excuse. But this comp is very competitive and we are hanging in there.
I'm never "happy" when we lose but the slagging off this team cops (this year in particular) seems over the top. Last nights game was within reach for so long but we just didn't have enough direction to corral our disparate group but at no time did I feel those blokes weren't giving their all.
Poor old Koula had a couple of telling errors but he didn't throw the towel in. He pulled off some good tackles and still ran hard into the defence like he gave a sh*t. Lawton tried his guts out, Talua was in everything, Brooks is obviously better with DCE on the park and the constant bombing got a bit old. It would've been good if he'd just run the ball half the time. I can only assume that was his instructions. I thought the newbies did a decent job - Navale looked good with his leg speed and Shop also had some good moments and also tried hard. Brown also did his usual thing.
We just needed that extra bit of class to finish the chances that we had.
I get that people are p*ssed off that we can't seem to get a high class team across the park but the reality is, we simply don't have the pulling power we once had. We can blame Penn, or Seibs or no juniors pool or hell, all of those things but in my 50 plus years of following this club, the players that are there at the moment do not look like players that are soft or not trying. And I've seen some of those over the years, I can tell ya.
We are definitely in need of a quality ball playing/hard running forward or 2 but we have a decent dummy half now (and I/m still a Crokes fan but not sure where he fits in if he gets fit) and a backline at full strength to trouble any team.
So I'm just hoping that we can get a good run without injury and to string a few wins together to get back into the 8 coz I really believe that if we can get into that 8 at finals time, we can give a good account. That 1st game after the bye will be a big one!

Great post.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

I only saw the game for the 1st time this afternoon and it never ceases to surprise me how different the game looks to me when I see it compared to so many of the comments made during and after a loss. The comments that bother the most are those that say that we're soft and/or don't give a sh*t or sentiments similar. In all our losses (even the Dragons 1st loss (which was just appallingly bad handling and stupidity) I haven't seen anyone not trying.
I agree that it does sometimes feel like there's always an excuse (no Tom etc) but this year, I reckon we've been pretty consistent. If a couple of things had have gone our way in a couple of those games we lost, we would be sitting well in the 8. And injuries HAVE impacted on us again, so I guess that can be considered another excuse. But this comp is very competitive and we are hanging in there.
I'm never "happy" when we lose but the slagging off this team cops (this year in particular) seems over the top. Last nights game was within reach for so long but we just didn't have enough direction to corral our disparate group but at no time did I feel those blokes weren't giving their all.
Poor old Koula had a couple of telling errors but he didn't throw the towel in. He pulled off some good tackles and still ran hard into the defence like he gave a sh*t. Lawton tried his guts out, Talua was in everything, Brooks is obviously better with DCE on the park and the constant bombing got a bit old. It would've been good if he'd just run the ball half the time. I can only assume that was his instructions. I thought the newbies did a decent job - Navale looked good with his leg speed and Shop also had some good moments and also tried hard. Brown also did his usual thing.
We just needed that extra bit of class to finish the chances that we had.
I get that people are p*ssed off that we can't seem to get a high class team across the park but the reality is, we simply don't have the pulling power we once had. We can blame Penn, or Seibs or no juniors pool or hell, all of those things but in my 50 plus years of following this club, the players that are there at the moment do not look like players that are soft or not trying. And I've seen some of those over the years, I can tell ya.
We are definitely in need of a quality ball playing/hard running forward or 2 but we have a decent dummy half now (and I/m still a Crokes fan but not sure where he fits in if he gets fit) and a backline at full strength to trouble any team.
So I'm just hoping that we can get a good run without injury and to string a few wins together to get back into the 8 coz I really believe that if we can get into that 8 at finals time, we can give a good account. That 1st game after the bye will be a big one!

Well said 10/10

 

[Seagles68]

Well said 10/10

Hope the fish are biting, Mark and not these fellas.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Hope the fish are biting, Mark and not these fellas.

Yep, but without a boat ( and not wanting to pay a fortune for a charter ) just off the bank , small ones , still fight hard but not keepers.

Crocs everywhere , never go at sunrise or sunset.

 

[Seagles68]

Yep, but without a boat ( and not wanting to pay a fortune for a charter ) just off the bank , small ones , still fight hard but not keepers.

Crocs everywhere , never go at sunrise or sunset.

Geez mate, keep your wits about you. cheers

 

[StuBoot]

In reality , we were playing a South’s side , at their home ground , with two of their stars out.

And , our team had 8 of our normal players out , including all our very best players.

I don’t exactly blame the coach for not being inspirational, he knew , they knew , the chances were grim.

But , I reckon they at least tried , it was 8-0 for a long time and at least we didn’t capitulate like the Warriors.

Yeah we lost but it was far from a flogging.

@Ryan thinks I’m “ proud “ because we lost , of course I’m not happy we lost but I just prefer to look at this particular game with a little more subjectivity.

We’ve actually , apart from that Dragons disaster , played relatively well for much of this year and are a bit unlucky not to be a bit higher on the ladder.

We were never winning tonight so I don’t know why some are so upset about it.

Yep, and the standard "but they had players out too" doesn't take into account they still had Cook, Kaloamatangi, Wighton, Walker & Arrow playing.
Regardless of their current form they're all Rep players who apart from Cook were still being spoken about as possibles for this current SOO series.
They should've lapped us.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Yep, and the standard "but they had players out too" doesn't take into account they still had Cook, Kaloamatangi, Wighton, Walker & Arrow playing.
Regardless of their current form they're all Rep players who apart from Cook were still being spoken about as possibles for this current SOO series.
They should've lapped us.

110% and the fact they didn’t points to our misfits going pretty well in defence.

Attack was dreadful, but anyone who said they weren’t trying wasn’t looking.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Geez mate, keep your wits about you. cheers

Of course , I’m no novice.

Find a spot , a few flicks in , then immediately move on.

They are ambush predators, they watch & wait , and especially like sunrise or sunset when you can’t see.

 

[lsz]

I am not much of a fisherman so can not add to that but I think there is some context missing re the game on the weekend.

In isolation for this one game I think we can all look and say that we were proud of the effort from the team and puzzled by the approach. The issue is that it is hard to look at the season in isolation without seeing how we have been the past couple of years.

A number of promising juniors (the club told us over and over they were our future) have left and while we have been much closer in a number of games the frustrating inability to win games is still there as is the uninspiring bargain basement recruitment strategy.

For mind there is a clear reluctance of our owners to engage the fans in any meaningful way on what the actual vision is for the team.

Maybe I am getting older but it all does feel a bit meh

 

[Ron E. Gibbs]

In isolation for this one game I think we can all look and say that we were proud of the effort from the team and puzzled by the approach. The issue is that it is hard to look at the season in isolation without seeing how we have been the past couple of years.

Maybe I am getting older but it all does feel a bit meh

Agree, lsz. Nothing about the game felt particularly inspiring or unusual really. It was just another game we could have won (given the outs, maybe not should have won) if we'd taken our chances and limited our errors. Of course we did neither of those things, and we lost. So for me, it was simply more of the same.

Yes, I enjoyed watching some of the new blokes play and they did a decent job. I'm also enjoying watching Lehi Hoppa develop - even though he wasn't outstanding in this game, he was still one of our best. But like everyone else, I would have enjoyed it a lot more if we'd managed a win.

We're still in touch with the top eight, but our record does not inspire confidence. Even if we'd had all our players available, I still wouldn't have banked on us managing to win two games in a row because it's just not something we frequently do.

Right now, our position on the ladder says everything I need to know. We are where we deserve to be, and we will finish the season where we deserve to finish. Here's hoping it's a few places higher than where we sit right now.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

Right now, our position on the ladder says everything I need to know. We are where we deserve to be, and we will finish the season where we deserve to finish. Here's hoping it's a few places higher than where we sit right now.

True!
But as for Yay we are in the 8 (last week), then Woe, we are out of the 8 (this week) the anomalies in the draw were widely discussed here earlier in the year.

For example, Dogs Broncos dragons and raiders are only ahead of us this week because they've already had 2 of their byes. Aside from that they have the same number of wins & losses as Manly, but we have a point in hand due to our draw with the Wahs (in a high quality game, as I recall).

As we get nearer the end of the regular season the ladder will be a bit easier to read, in terms of where anyone 'deserves' to be at any given moment.