Manly's spine is not good enough

[DaveLP]

Melbourne - Smith Hughes Munster Papenhowzen
Penrith - Api Cleary Luai Edwards
Souths - Cook Reynolds Walker Mitchell
Manly - Croker DCE Foran Turbo

The spine is the most important part of the team. they are who your game plan is usually structured around. As you can see we are a far cry from the top 3 teams I mean only turbo would walk into any other club at the top the other three wouldn't get a start.

Hopefully things change next year for us otherwise like Wayne said in his presser you can't build a team around an individual for the simple fact that if he gets injured your season is done. If manly had any other fullback other then turbo im not even quite sure we would have been in the 8.

 

[Terry Zarsoff]

So our spine isn’t strong enough, but you’re not sure if another fullback would have taken us three weeks into the finals?

OK…

 

[Nordburg]

So our spine isn’t strong enough, but you’re not sure if another fullback would have taken us three weeks into the finals?

OK…

Also forgetting the fact they’re missing their best no.9

 

[DaveLP]

So our spine isn’t strong enough, but you’re not sure if another fullback would have taken us three weeks into the finals?

OK…

What i meant was turbo is the only reason we are where we are and it showed last night. DCE and Foz offered nothing in attack same as Croker.

 

[Frogz]

We need 2 good centres who can tackle, run and take good options. Suli has been a waste of money and Harper has been shown up again. And good old reliable Parker is and always will be a good standby. Lyon and Mattai....Bell and Mattai....Hill and Innes....Williams and O'Connor.....and of course we now what the 70's were. We will not win comps when our left and right sides are turnstiles. We have a spine, just nothing hanging out off it

 

[Chip and Chase]

I think it's pretty obvious Tommy carried the side this year.

What options do we have for next year ?? Outside chance that Fainu comes back and may give us some spark at 9, but the 7, 6 and 1 look locked in for another year.

 

[DaveLP]

Walker to centre fainu at 9 schuster bench for foz or the other way around. I guess your right everyone of them are locked in again for next year

 

[ManlyArmy]

1, 6 and 7 aren't our issue and to be honest 9 hasn't been an issue for 95% of the season but 9 definitely needs to be looked at.

Centre position is a concern. We know what we're going to get from Parker, which is commitment but I'm worried about Harper on that right edge. Hopefully it's just that he's burnt out but he needs to work on his tackling style and defensive reads, not to mention bulk up a bit. I back him to improve in the off season.

Suli didn't really add much last night until the 65th minute when the game was over and his defensive reads were worse than Harper's at times. Walker is at the point now where he's been out of the centre position too long.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

If Schu has serious designs on playing 5/8 next year he could be proactive, and come back to November training (or whenever they come back) looking a bit leaner and faster.
If he comes back the same shape he is now I think Des will just go with Foz again.

 

[Chip and Chase]

Walker to centre fainu at 9 schuster bench for foz or the other way around. I guess your right everyone of them are locked in again for next year

The couple of times that Walker filled in at centre I wasn't that impressed. Don't get me wrong, he has been bloody good coming off the bench in the middle - but I see that as his spot moving forward. I don't see him moving back to centre personally. But I'm not Des.

We've got two bench utilities already in Lawton and Walker. I don't see how we add Shoe and Foz into that mix as well unless Lawton starts at 12. I've often wondered if Foz ends up in that 9 rotation ? my worry was whether his body would hold up defensively, but he had a remarkable injury free run this year.

 

[Eagle1]

We need 2 good centres who can tackle, run and take good options. Suli has been a waste of money and Harper has been shown up again. And good old reliable Parker is and always will be a good standby. Lyon and Mattai....Bell and Mattai....Hill and Innes....Williams and O'Connor.....and of course we now what the 70's were. We will not win comps when our left and right sides are turnstiles. We have a spine, just nothing hanging out off it

I can understand what your saying ,but at the same time this spine after round 5 with turbo back as scored an average 36 points a game so something was going right .

 

[40 nil]

Walker is at the point now where he's been out of the centre position too long.

Disagree. IMO, he is currently our best centre and is an experienced big match player. Maybe he could train with Saab & Fabri during the off season to try to regain his zip off the mark. He is still young enough to do this - turns 27 on Monday.

 

[Kaufusi's Elbow]

Our team is fine. Our spine is fine. 1-17 is fine. A bit of experience and fewer errors and we would be in the final. It would be a mistake to think otherwise.

 

[Kaufusi's Elbow]

Also: Walker is a gun 14 and I won't hear a bad word about him.

 

[KNUCKLES]

We need to pray that turbo doesn't get injured next year

 

[Kevinward777]

We need to find or manufacture a strike centre who is defensively sound. No doubt about it. Do that and we are competing for a premiershil next season. Tuipulotu, Koula, Walker, Parker and Harper are the options at present.

 

[Karshy]

Well, we did win 4 of our last 5 without Turbo.
Walker has been great at 14. Probably too slow for centre now.

 

[Remy]

Our spine is fine, they have a good balance, and when they are on, they are unstoppable. Our 9 just doesn't have a dimension in attack that the other top 9s have, but that's all on Fainu's return.

 

[JBW]

Who do you upgrade the spine with? The three teams above us allegedly have a better spine, are there any other numbers 1,6,7 and 9 in the comp that would make out spine better. Yes Fainu if he's ever allowed to pull on a pair f boots again. I think we've got the 4th best spine and we came 4th on the ladder.

 

[eaglebuzz]

I have thought for quite some time that without Fainu at 9 we are nowhere near our best. Croker is an excellent defender but he offers almost nothing in attack.

That wasn't the problem last night though, the problem last night was the same problem we had against the Storm - not enough starch in the forwards and too little respect for possession. We could have easily won that game with our current spine.