Matai

[DSM5]

To overcome Melbourne , which is entirely doable, Matai has to keep the line and pass to his wingman. Why hasn't this been embedded onto his brain by the coach. He lets in too many tries doing the 'shoulder charge' thing after the ball has been thrown putting way to much pressure on the wingman.

 

[Matabele]

It's good to see I'm not the only one that refuses to buy the hype over Matai. It seems that he has realised his tackling technique was inneffective so he has replaced sane defence with a rush out of the line, a big (and sometimes late) shoulder charge and, as david points out, puts his outside man in an unenviable position.

 

[Canteen Worker]

Has talent but needs maturity and experience Puts in but must use his head to get better results.

Good post davids

 

[Ryan]

Because of our last 9 years, and the players that have come through, naturally we get really excited when someone puts in one good performance. It shows that the club is also feeling the past dissapointments as well in my opinion.

We need to take stock when we have a small run of good fortune.

Not sign up a coach for 3 years because we have won 3 or so concurrent games within a 3 year time frame !!

We did the same thing with Burns. He played well against Cronulla, and in my opinion, has struggled since. People were even saying possible SOO player in a few years !!! After ONE good game. LoL.

 

[Canteen Worker]

Who do you think should be centre and five-eighth? Are these two worth persevering with?

 

[Corso_Pete]

Who do you think should be centre and five-eighth? Are these two worth persevering with?

Now that is true Silvertail thinking. It is oh so easy to be critical of any player after any given performance, you do not have to be Einstein to do that.

If you are going to critique a player you should also give due thought to whom the replacement should be. As mentioned elsewhere in these pages our reserve depth is not strong and will probably prove to be our achilles heel in our attempts to finish in the top 4 this year.

 

[Fro]

Matai has nice hair

 

[Garts]

Im still not convinced on Matai, sure he put in a few good performances and surprised me but I was still not convinced!!! What astounds me more were some fans saying we dont need or want Lyon as a result of his good form.

Matai is worth persevering with as he is young and we have one else that is of better ability except for maybe moving Hicks to centre and Steppa on the wing. But that wont happen so Matai is our man.

Burns is still going ok imo, a better option than Monas at 5/8 and he will only improve.

 

[byso]

One could say that we haven't got good depth, but this would reflect on our coaching staff, which seems to be a touching subject atm

btw I still dont rate Matai. But can't think of anyone else to replace him with. But he has improved alot from last year.

 

[DVS Matt]

I wasn't a big fan of matai....but he did start to change my way of thinking.

He's inconsistant at the best of times. I admit that he does make some metres from dummy half, but so did Hoppa, and the majority of people wanted him in the forwards etc etc.

Matai cannot put his winger away and cannot read defense that well.

In saying this, he is worth persisting with as he does have a great attitude. As an alternative, perhaps Meany? But i don't think he's as good as the posters on various forums make him out to be.

Hard choice for Des. He can eitehr stick with Matai who mixes his bad games with his good games, or we can chuck in a "hyped up" junior and hope for the best.

It's not like Meaney is scoring hattricks every week and setting the PL world on fire.

 

[Canteen Worker]

One could say that we haven't got good depth, but this would reflect on our coaching staff, which seems to be a touching subject atm

That is not a touchy subject. I am just sick of hijacks to make the same point. Do it coherently and interesting with justification and there is no problem.

Can you please outline how you are going to keep the salary cap, get more big line players and improve our depth??? Or is Arko still the Secretary of the club, it is 1980 and we will buy Boyd, Dorahy and Brown from Wests!!!

 

[byso]

Thanks for outlining the rules in what way I can make future comments. :cop:

Depth is something you don't simply throw money at, sometimes fringe players with ability go to clubs with a GOOD coach.

 

[Nutzcraw]

One could say that we haven't got good depth, but this would reflect on our coaching staff, which seems to be a touching subject atm

btw I still dont rate Matai. But can't think of anyone else to replace him with. But he has improved alot from last year.

Don't we have people in place to bring talented kids to us??

I don't really see why your attacking Hasler for who we do and don't have in our ranks. As far as i know he is the coach of the first grade side.. He is given 25 players to work with and coaches them as best he can.... Monday - Friday he is training these 25.. No idea what saturday involves (perhaps a day off) then the game sunday.

I don't see where he fits in with the scouting??

 

[byso]

Are you assuming that some quality fringe players don't want to play for the best coach's/clubs. Do you think Manly is on the top of list of these quality players.

Anyhow I will jump off this wagon as its even boring me now.

 

[Garts]

how can you jump of the wagon when you are driving it Byso?

I dont think players do not want to play for Manly, we have a little bit of depth but not enough to cover for 6 key players being out, not manly clubs can cover that many players with adequate replacements either.

 

[Nutzcraw]

We got BK across from a premiership winning knights outfit that boasts arguably the greatest player to play the game :roll:

There is absolutely no doubt in the world that under hasler the team has performed better than years prior.

 

[clontaago]

We did the same thing with Burns. He played well against Cronulla, and in my opinion, has struggled since. People were even saying possible SOO player in a few years !!! After ONE good game. LoL.

Ryan it was hardly after one good game. The kid has been earmarked as a potential top liner for years. He played for the junior roos if I remember correctly and is still young. You say he has played poorly this year, how many games have you been to see him play this year?

 

[Corso_Pete]

Bringing good quality "back up" players to a club is something akin to picking a system to win at poker machines. Their is no guarenteed system that ensures you will end up being a winner.

You only have to look at so called players that are labelled the next big thing over the past few years that have failed to kick on.

This time 12 months ago players like Tim Smith and Leon Bott were being hailed as future superstars but they and many others have fallen out of favour or out of form (and surpringsly they both play with teams that have (had), argueably 2 of the better coaches in the NRL.

Matai has continued to improve, I don't think anyone could disagree with that. Wether he is improving at a rate that satisfies us armchair critics is fodder for debate. He clearly has the talent, he just needs to bring consistency to his game.

 

[DSM5]

Hey why did this thread wander of the Matai thing? Actually I think Burns is going OK. At least the 5/8th position doesn't leak points as it has done in the last few years. Maybe Matai should be the wingman, then he wouldn't have the pass option to not do, or maybe he should stick his head in the scrum, he's big enough and has a bit of mongrel. Sometimes I worry that Des just can't see that options are available :~?

 

[Canteen Worker]

Matai might be a good winger. He hits up well but might be mistake prone when it comes to fielding kicks etc

Sorry to say david but this forum is famous for its post hijacks. It is usually one or two posters who drearily push the own agendas and take the issue away and it ends up as dribble. Keep posting brother - your opinions are welcome.