Rex said:
Sounds like you want to do an Ettingshausen on him!
Your dilemma, CaptainKickass:
Question: What to do with all those wasted "Be Manly, be a Bulldog" T-shirts?
Suggestion: A tiny, tiny alteration and it works: "Be Manly, beat a Bulldog"
To answer the first bit ... ummm, happily married thanks.
As for the second bit ... it's the best suggestion so far out of all "one" suggestions I've got.
DSM5 said:
My thoughts on last night was that that was the best team that the Dogs could put on the park. Ours lacked two quality players Foran and T-Rex, and another three or four who hadn't played for a month together. As well, your coach does have intimate knowledge of our players strengths and weaknesses. Not good enough to lose by two, I would have expected, if I was a dogs supporter, a loss by Manly of at least twenty given the home ground, coach and full strength side you put up. If that's the best you can do then you'll struggle to make the eight. Us? We can only get better. Thanks to the dog's players who have played us back into winning form. And really, Homebush is the pits.
We were missing Hodkinson too there dancing gums.
I'm not sure what footy you like to watch, but I find anytime a team is missing any of their spine (that's footy talk for players in 1,6,7,9), that team will struggle with cohesion. Just like we did last night.
That being said, to go down by two measly points to the reigning premiers (when lets face it, the bounce of the ball could have gone our way twice and left you crying in your weetbix the next morning) ... was a good effort.
Don't get me wrong : I wanted the two points. But YOU guys are the premiers, you were expected to win, we we're missing our #7, and we gave you a good ol' fright. I'm Ok with it. We live to fight another day, and I'll just ahve to have my fun at your expense in Rd20 instead.
PS : No arguments on Homebush. See my other thread.
Jatz Crackers said:
No need for sledging. No need for questions.
Just a statement of fact that as a Manly fan on a Manly fan forum I have zero need to hear the admissions of failure, or the ongoing ad nuseum posts of a bulldog supporter coming here to discuss soap opera topics instead of football.
Right of reply : There's a gazillion other threads for you, and I'm here for a grand total of 5 days a year.
I think you should invest in some of those panties that don't bunch up so much. BTW, I'll be back after Rd20 too ...
😉
jjai said:
Would have been a big ask if Dogkinson was there anyway .. All he would have done when the pressure was on him is kick it dead from his side of the half or kick it out on the full over the sideline when our chasers pressured him, by not having your halfback there made the game closer for you guys
😛
Maybe so. But I went away thinking of we had Hodkinson, we may have completed a few more sets. Reynolds was fantastic and played out of his skin. Keating is a toiler at best. Most Kennel folk don't like the ranga much. But I reckon he did OK with minimal first grade experience to keep Storm to 6, and you lot to 2.
bob dylan said:
A quick question, do you hate going to that Dump of a ground?
In a word - YES.
The negatives outweigh the positives.
The Eagle said:
My question is how do you see Hodkinson as a true halfback? Also what do you think of James Graham?
I'll give the dogs this, they played at origin intensity for as long as they could, the hits were tough
Des now sees manly as the new Melbourne, he thinks we can simply be hit out of a game well we aren't Melbourne, the warriors tried that in the gf and our players will hit back harder, for all 2 strategies he came up with here both failed
Passing inside of the ruck failed and so did bash and barge, what i'm shocked with is he hasn't crafted a set play yet, like Snake does with that second man play, he stopped that last night
I have never hated a player nor coach as much as I do Des and I've seen Billy Slater
Ok then ... well you're a bit all over the shop, so I'll put that down to a late night celebrating.
Hodkinson a true halfback ? = My estimation of a true half differs from the hard-nosed armchair coaching types ... I think he has potential, and I like to judge players after they've had 50 or so first grade games. I'm happy to have him. I want to see him and whichever chosen sidekick to string 20 uninterupted games together as a combo. But for now, he's young and coachable. A lot to like.
As for James Graham ... we were all excited to hear he was coming. He came with big wraps, but it's still early days as far as his NRL tenure goes. That being said, happy to have him too.
As for the rest of your ramble ...
- Des sees Manly as Melbourne ? No.
- Comparing this weeks game to the GF last year ? ... Nothing alike.
- Crafting set plays ? ... Off the top of my head, we did OK with those against Dragons in Rd2. They plays ARE there, but our halfback isn't to execute them.