Manly used "how to shut down Tommy" blueprint

[maxta]

It's not teams magically shut down Tom T, nor Cleary, not Munster....
Manly reversed the blueprint last night to keep Munster, Hughes and Grant quiet as possible.
They simply defended with angry intent and intensity, which in turn only allowed these "Star players" ordinary field position and minimal space and time to attack.
At full time Munster looked flustered and beaten up, they can say Storm didn't play well, but I guarantee if they had it their way would have put plenty of points on and more credit should be attributed to the robust Manly defence....Storm were waiting for Manly to simmer and thought would wrestle the momentum away and late first half, temporarily did, but second half Manly were relentless and regardless of a confession, Bellamy and his players were in shock Manly maintained such a high tempo for most of that game.
Anyways there we have it, Manly found the blueprint and can hopefully use it on the opposition big gun players.....was great to see.

 

[manlyfan76]

Belted kikau early in the dogs game and he went missing.
Belted Olamb and he went missing.
Coates got belted every hit up and made zero impact.
Kuntster got a few good ones and was ineffective but kept trying.

 

[NREagle]

Agree but Storm also shot themselves in the foot with those two sin bins.

Seibold mentioned in the presser they are trying to close the gap between their best (last night?) and worst (1st half against panthers). Keep working on that and it will be a good season for us fans.

 

[maxta]

Agree but Storm also shot themselves in the foot with those two sin bins.

Seibold mentioned in the presser they are trying to close the gap between their best (last night?) and worst (1st half against panthers). Keep working on that and it will be a good season for us fans.

That is the key point imo
The top 4 teams have a close gap between best and worst, especially during momentum shifts.....Manly have a huge gap in form difference, which has been the main problem in big games recent seasons

 

[The Who]

Souffs also go from off to on. The difference is that when they hit the 'go' button they have a slick backline that delivers. We will need The Shoe, Sandwich and Koala in our backline to have such weaponry.

 

[Eagle 1]

It's not teams magically shut down Tom T, nor Cleary, not Munster....
Manly reversed the blueprint last night to keep Munster, Hughes and Grant quiet as possible.
They simply defended with angry intent and intensity, which in turn only allowed these "Star players" ordinary field position and minimal space and time to attack.
At full time Munster looked flustered and beaten up, they can say Storm didn't play well, but I guarantee if they had it their way would have put plenty of points on and more credit should be attributed to the robust Manly defence....Storm were waiting for Manly to simmer and thought would wrestle the momentum away and late first half, temporarily did, but second half Manly were relentless and regardless of a confession, Bellamy and his players were in shock Manly maintained such a high tempo for most of that game.
Anyways there we have it, Manly found the blueprint and can hopefully use it on the opposition big gun players.....was great to see.

Spot on Maxta, exactly the way I saw it also. We took their platform away from their spine to the point where Grant, Hughes and especially Munster where running around like a headless chooks.

 

[maxta]

Funny how when Toms not running through at will, the commentators start on about how he is not having a good game ect.
The evidence is pretty clear and always has been, you can never 100% shut out a champion player only minimise them.
And the tactic is not throw all 13 defenders on the great players though do need more attention, the real secret is shutting down the team mates around them, till they turn off, slow down, lose the fight to compete, basically take away the teams energy and the star players shine will also become far more dull due to this and as well pointed out above by Eagle 1, the Stilorm gun players looked lost and often uncomfortable to the point of playing sideways...

 

[Eagle 1]

Souffs also go from off to on. The difference is that when they hit the 'go' button they have a slick backline that delivers. We will need The Shoe, Sandwich and Koala in our backline to have such weaponry.

Which makes the win all the more telling, if we had Schuster and Koala last night we would of iced some of our attacking raids on their line. As a team we made a huge stride forward last night.

 

[Ranga]

Funny how when Toms not running through at will, the commentators start on about how he is not having a good game ect.
The evidence is pretty clear and always has been, you can never 100% shut out a champion player only minimise them.
And the tactic is not throw all 13 defenders on the great players though do need more attention, the real secret is shutting down the team mates around them, till they turn off, slow down, lose the fight to compete, basically take away the teams energy and the star players shine will also become far more dull due to this and as well pointed out above by Eagle 1, the Stilorm gun players looked lost and often uncomfortable to the point of playing sideways...

Are you suggesting that Rugby League is a team game? I've been reading over the last few years that our poor performances are down to 2-3 players only.

I agree with what you say 100%.

 

[maxta]

Are you suggesting that Rugby League is a team game? I've been reading over the last few years that our poor performances are down to 2-3 players only.

I agree with what you say 100%.

We know right 🤙