Manly have lost 6/7 of their last Finals games.
Lost 4/5 last games to the Rooters.
The Rooters team doesn't look bad on paper, i'm surprised the Titans took them as far as they did. They are well-drilled enough to put us away if we play careless, undisciplined tripe like what we threw at the Storm - that can turn into a quicksand scenario fast against any of the remaining teams.
Regardless of the result, the Rooters are already being considered as a team going down in folklore for having made it this far given their situation - Robinson will have them amped for an epic showing, with the promise of destiny in an all-time pre-game pep-talk. They will come out hard I guarantee it, they will look to dominate early, force us into the mistakes we have in us - the Rooters have shown this year they have a lot of mistakes in them too.
The only way to take the game is to weather their initial onslaught unruffled, stay composed even if they snag a couple, take the limited opportunities we have until their tanks are drained, and pounce. Then the floodgates will open in the championship minutes either side of Half-time. That is where the Storm punished us, that is what we must learn from them.
The response from the team this week has been what it needs to be - contrite, shame, ownership and accountability of a sub-par performance. No excuses, blame or denial. The big 'get over yourself' reality check - and the reason why that top-4 finish was so important with the 2nd chance it gives.
Better we got pumped in reality, as then there is no hiding the fact that we were outplayed. No illusion like a few weeks ago where we 'thought we played pretty well against them actually, just need to fix a few minor things.'
No. Not this time.
It wasn't a ref decision, a bad line call, a small lapse, the odd dropped ball or a fwd-pass call on a legit tap-on that lost us the game. We were smashed, players were shown up brutally, and we introspect on our failure and regroup, or we perish in a heap of our own trumped-up potential.
The finals restart for us on Friday.
Des has the mental ammunition and big-game strategic know-how to set their minds to task after the grounding performance of the previous week - and if he can, it will show we deserved our spot in the top-4 after all. If he can't get us up against this Rooters team - given our recent history against this club - then it simply wasn't to be, Des failed to ignite them, and I conclude that we simply overachieved. This isn't to say that we should win - far from it. It is more to point out that we have more than enough motivation to fuel a resurgent, statement performance this week.
Some modesty and humility needs to be par for course from here - there is a (realistic) perception we are on the weaker side of the draw, however complacency of that fact will be terminal - Rooters, Souths and Manly are all clubs with top-notch coaches and exceptionally high standards. Bennett/Robinson/Hasler is a more intimidating coach roster than Bellamy/Cleary/Arthur any day of the week - only Bellamy has any yardage, and Cleary was owned by Wayne this last week, less Latrell and an arguably weaker team-sheet.
For Manly, finishing the Cowboys in such style had the goldfish-esque NRL media frothing at what was a highly entertaining finish, sure. They reported as their pea-brains commanded, influenced by the adrenaline hit of a some magic highlights: A jump-knock-back beauty from Guac, a slick bomb-finish and point-scoring record effort from Garrick, the Turbo solo under-8s special and the length-of-field after-the-bell gem....... against a team already placing their drinks orders for Mad Monday. Fantastic to watch, and certainly not undermining our boys - but c'mon... it was a negligible opposition intensity level, you can't deny it.
And perhaps the boys believed the small-minded short-termism of NRL 'experts' of the ilk of Rothfield, Kent, Hooper, Soward and others...classic rookie error to fall prey to the musings of sycophants. Des simply must use that to level off their egotism, drag them back to a grounded position and drum some humility into the team.
Melbourne brought the much-needed reality check. Brutal as it was, we get that 2nd shot. And weirdly, had we won we against the 1st-placed team we would be waiting for the 2nd-placed team - just to get to the GF and likely face the 1st-placed team again, or the team in the form good enough to knock them off. Fate is indeed a twisted mistress.
Now we show if we have the character, patience and hunger to earn a win in the way Finals Footy demands, and make a true return to the '1 game at a time' simplicity. The entitlement complex needed to die last week, and hopefully it did - weaker side of the draw or not, we need to play this week as we currently sit: as the only team that got their asses kicked in week-1 of the finals.
