Manly verses Melbourne - My Analysis

[NYEagle]

Awesome input from everyone. This has turned out a great thread.

Some points of general agreement:

* Despite the score, Manly played well enough not to panic given the 5 day turnaround. A few decisions and key moments go our way and its a 6-12 point game away from home.

* Melbourne are playing white hot but there are definately some rules being bent in the play-the-ball. It seems to be astute coaching by Bellamy and the league needs to catch up to it.

* Bani and Hall will make tremedous contributions this year.

* Cuthbo seems to be maturing and will get better with fitness. Maybe when he loses a few more pounds he will become an incredible impact player.

* Bell appears past it. Menzies needs a better role to suit is game. He's better out wide and/or off the bench.

* Glen Stewart looks a little lazy, I agree!. Maybe last year was his peak year?.

* We need Matai back ASAP.

* L'Estrange for hooker next week

* Orford is limited - but unfortunately we are stuck with him.

 

[Darren]

I have felt this way about glenn stewart for a while, doesn't make many yards, never any line breaks, could be injured, had 1 big year and we re-signed him for 3 more, watched him in PL for 3 years play this ordinary footy, isn't contributing much at present

yes, no one in PL so its Orford for this year at least, hope no beaver or williamson who in my opinion is one of the least talented players in maroon colours I have watched in 25 years.

 

[Nutzcraw]

Things that changed the game were:

1. After defending our line successfully for 5 sets in a row we kick it down field and choc's tackle on Slater (who is apparently the golden boy of the NRL right now) gets penalised... please! Then they went on to score in the next set.Smith misses the goal 4 - 0

2. 5 minutes later Cameron Smith Blatantly knocks on out of dummy half it rolls across the ground and is dived on by Ryan Hoffman, no surrender tackle is called and we get penalised for holding on. Greg Inglis scores in the next set. Smith Kicks the goal 10 - 0.

3. Just after halftime Ballin drops the ball and forgets to do the first thing any coach tells you to do when you do drop the ball. DIVE ON THE F@#KING THING!! Cooper Cronk picks it up and gets them an extra 20m down field. Quinn then goes over in the corner. Smith misses the goal 18 - 0.

4. Bell scores a try that is disallowed. Enough Said.

5. Then Orford gets penalised for a "push in the back". Are we playing f@#king Gayfl???? Don't even know what that was about but thanks for putting the game now out of reach, Archer.


These are the 5 standout moments of the game for me. These 5 moments drove the nail into our coffin. What put the nails within reach of the coffin was that inept f@#k we have at 7 and his inability to put a freakin grubber in!!

We have just defended our rings out then we get 3 sets in a matter of 10 minutes in their "red zone" and what does he come up with?? A short ball to menzies on the last, then 2 cross field kicks that are too deep and defused easily by quinn and turner. Pathetic. My 10 year old cousin would have known a repeat set was necessary then.

 

[Berkeley_Eagle]

Things that changed the game were:

1. After defending our line successfully for 5 sets in a row we kick it down field and choc's tackle on Slater (who is apparently the golden boy of the NRL right now) gets penalised... please! Then they went on to score in the next set.Smith misses the goal 4 - 0

2. 5 minutes later Cameron Smith Blatantly knocks on out of dummy half it rolls across the ground and is dived on by Ryan Hoffman, no surrender tackle is called and we get penalised for holding on. Greg Inglis scores in the next set. Smith Kicks the goal 10 - 0.

3. Just after halftime Ballin drops the ball and forgets to do the first thing any coach tells you to do when you do drop the ball. DIVE ON THE F@#KING THING!! Cooper Cronk picks it up and gets them an extra 20m down field. Quinn then goes over in the corner. Smith misses the goal 18 - 0.

4. Bell scores a try that is disallowed. Enough Said.

5. Then Orford gets penalised for a \"push in the back\". Are we playing f@#king Gayfl???? Don't even know what that was about but thanks for putting the game now out of reach, Archer.


These are the 5 standout moments of the game for me. These 5 moments drove the nail into our coffin. What put the nails within reach of the coffin was that inept f@#k we have at 7 and his inability to put a freakin grubber in!!

We have just defended our rings out then we get 3 sets in a matter of 10 minutes in their \"red zone\" and what does he come up with?? A short ball to menzies on the last, then 2 cross field kicks that are too deep and defused easily by quinn and turner. Pathetic. My 10 year old cousin would have known a repeat set was necessary then.

SPOT ON post
what about the Forward pass that Croker gave Slater for his 2nd try

 

[KaZa]

clutching at straws. We were never going to score two tries in this game.

Orford is terrible. Ballin has been very average.. Le Strange has looked good.. Bryant is a scared cat.. watch him run the ball.. he turns and faces them with his back.. and they put him down for a dominant tackle.

Manly players continuously laid all over the storm players while they WERENT on their backs.. giving away silly penalties.. TURN THEM ON THEIR BACKS.

Not finding touch last night was horrendous..Orford should be shot.

 

[Zep]

It could be some more Grand Final hangover. They have to get there confidence back, we aren't seeing any of the exceptional football we saw from this team and we know that they have it them. It must be hard to wake up every morning to go to training with constant reminders how hard they tried last year only to be destroyed in the GF. true as professionals they should get over it and play the game, but i can see it the way that menzies play, he just doesn't seem interested, he is missing tackles that you would have thought were materials of fiction.They need one miraculous come from behind win to snap them out of it, bring back the MATAI!!

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

Just on the Orford not finding touch thing, haven't gone back and looked at the tape again yet, but i am sure from the 1 viewing i saw that Turner was standing about 2 feet over the sideline before he jumped

 

[fLIP]

Correct KE. I couldn't believe the touch judge didn't notice. He was 5 meters from where it happened. Then again, he was probably too busy looking for pushes in the back in a contact sport. Turners right foot was out when he jumped to get the ball. Deeming the ball to be out by melbourne and a scrum feed to manly.

 

[danno]

Sorry I am late to this thread.

Nobody has mentioned the abysmal game plan we went into this game with.
I don't recall Manly ever going for a repeat set of six. Whenever we were in the Melbourne 20 we ran it on the last or kicked in the air.

We don't have the strike power across the park that Melbourne do. To beat them we have to win 'ugly'. Starve them of the ball, minimal mistakes,tight football, and be patient. Our plan seemed to be we either score or we hand it over.

Ballin is not playing well (his defence needs work) but I think our tactics are not helping him. All night we ran forwards one out against all teams, Melbourne. Forget chicken wing, it's fricasee. There should be two or three forwards running different angles to give Ballin options and make the opposition defence think about it. Our attack at the moment is either give it to Orford,have a lone forward cart it up,or Ballin have a dart.All extremely predictable.

Like most people, prior to the game I thought Melbourne would win,especially down there. I still can't fathom how we didn't go into that match with a game plan that suited our teams capability.

 

[Fro]

Who is Greg Hall?

 

[Utility Player]

NFL scouts were in attendence tonight and were very impressed with Smiths passing game

Gold KE, I forget how many times I yelled forward pass at the tv.

As you say I dont think it was as bad an effort as the scoreboard shows and it looks like there are about 5 teams fighting it out for 2nd place this year.

Only hope is for a few injuries to bring Melbourne back to the field.

Noticed Glen Stewart trying to give it to Crocker a few times in a bit of GF payback for Brett.