Pre-Game Manly v Roosters [Finals Week 2, 2021]

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17 Sep 2021 07:50 PM

Team Lists


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.
Almost brought a tear to my eye!!
 
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.
Good post.
 
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.
Great post!
 
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.
Fantastic post.
 
In this week's "Northern Beaches Review" Adam Lucius writes:

"They call Morgan Harper "Lionel Ritchie" due to his likeness to the super smooth 80's singer, but it's fair to say the Manly centre didn't have fans dancing on the ceiling as his game fell apart against Melbourne in week one of the NRL finals.
The Storm targeted the Sea Eagles' fragile right-side defence all night long, with Harper coming up with a series of handling errors and bad reads in the 40-12 loss.
It's led to calls from some for the destructive Moses Suli or Dylan Walker to come into the starting side at Harper's expense for Friday night's elimination semi-final against the Roosters.
But Des Hasler has forgiven Harper - and the team - for one off night and will give them a shot at redemption.
'If you look at the season, our right side hasn't been an easy picking for tries. If people want to continue going down that path that's fine, but it's not an Achilles heel of this side", skipper Daly Cherry-Evans insisted.
"We got a massive lesson from the Storm in how to play finals footy. It was definitely a wake-up call.
"Maybe we had too many people who just assumed it (recent winning form) would continue to happen. We know we need to take our game to another level and we can and we will."

Melbourne did such a good job containing Tom Trbojevic he was reduced from superhuman to human.
But an interesting stat, forwarded by Phil Gould, gives Manly fans hope that Turbo will bounce back quickly.
It's probably an anomaly but looking at Tom's recovery times - whether he has a four-day, five-day, six-day, seven-day, eight, nine, 10-day break - his performances are off the charts when he has a recovery time of seven days or more", Gus pointed out.
"Any recovery time less than six days, his contribution almost halves and they're the games Manly get beaten. History shows on less than seven days' recovery he doesn't perform anywhere near as well as his peak."
There were six days between Manly's last game of the regular season and the Melbourne match. There are seven days between the Storm game and the do-or-die shootout with the Roosters on Friday, September 17. In Gus we trust."
 
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Interesting to listen to a preview of the game on SEN yesterday afternoon with Jimmy Smith and Gerard Condon from Reading the Play. He said he thinks the line of 11.5 is too small and has placed his biggest bet of the season on Manly -11.5.
 
Interesting to listen to a preview of the game on SEN yesterday afternoon with Jimmy Smith and Gerard Condon from Reading the Play. He said he thinks the line of 11.5 is too small and has placed his biggest bet of the season on Manly -11.5.
If Gerard "Condom" thinks we're a good bet, then I would say we're well and truly farked
 
Just watched a replay of Roosters Titans; aside from butchering the end of the game, Roosters had most of the crucial decisions.
However, my take is they rely heavily on Tedesco and Radley for their points, and if we can show any resolve, the game should be in our hands. I can see why the bookies have us as heavy favourites, as we should bounce back, especially against lesser opponents, with one day less to recover from an energy sapping Townsville match.
Also Verrills, will be a big loss; you only need to see how we struggled without our first choice hooker, and he played the 80 and topped the tackle count, so will be very hard to replace at short notice.
Really hope we stand up and take this opportunity to have a chance at the GF.
I'm hoping Mackay will be a bit cooler and drier than Townsville was.

I think the rest of the matches after this week will be in Brisbane? That would suit us much more than FNQ night matches. Much drier!
 
I'm hoping Mackay will be a bit cooler and drier than Townsville was.

I think the rest of the matches after this week will be in Brisbane? That would suit us much more than FNQ night matches. Much drier!
I had two weeks at Yeppoon ( 50kms east of Mackay ) just two weeks ago.

Mild conditions at night ( about 15/16 degrees ) but one thing I did note was a lot of dew in the air.

I’m home now , temperatures about the same but almost zero dew in the air.

Just FYI.
 
I had two weeks at Yeppoon ( 50kms east of Mackay ) just two weeks ago.

Mild conditions at night ( about 15/16 degrees ) but one thing I did note was a lot of dew in the air.

I’m home now , temperatures about the same but almost zero dew in the air.

Just FYI.
It has occurred to me more on reflection that that the combination of the conditions and the short turnaround from the Cowboys game probably had our guys a bit flat last week, especially since we played a Storm side that has been resting a lot of players.

We've got longer turnarounds and more favourable conditions ahead, so I think we will be a lot better.

Roosters, by rights, should be utterly screwed with their injury and suspension toll. We won't have any excuses for losing to them.
 
It has occurred to me more on reflection that that the combination of the conditions and the short turnaround from the Cowboys game probably had our guys a bit flat last week, especially since we played a Storm side that has been resting a lot of players.

We've got longer turnarounds and more favourable conditions ahead, so I think we will be a lot better.

Roosters, by rights, should be utterly screwed with their injury and suspension toll. We won't have any excuses for losing to them.
I would be exceptionally dissapointed if we lost to them considering all of this, that said they still have Tedesco / Crichton/ Radley so despite being decimated they are still putting up a team most other sides would dream of.
 
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I guess if (when, hopefully) we win, the media narrative will be about how poor ole roosters did so well with all their injury problems and aren't they brave and everyone should love them maybe some salary cap rule should be changed so this doesn't happen again.

Because - no other team has ever had more then 2 players injured, apparently. And as MFB said above, they can still run out a damn fine team.

though - takes all the attention off Manly.
 
It doesn’t matter what we think, what matters is the 17 that play and what they are prepared to give to get the job done, we can win this game, but so can the Rorters, it will come down to who turns up and wants it the most, we haven’t got long to wait now, I see us winning, I feel last weekend will be the driver that gets our heads in the game, no one wants to feel that way again, especially the playing group.
 

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