My thoughts

[Kiwi Eagle]

Just a few things that are in my head after watching the match

The 2008 version would have won by 40 today, but I am more than happy with the 2 points, and the improvement in our attack and defence today. Probably 1 pass away from another 3-4 tries, along with 2 held ups from Bailey

Stewart is a legend, I wanna boof him, get him up here

Lyon may not be 100%, he seemed unwilling to stretch out after that intercept. Also running into that play, Des or Robbo maybe need to have a wee chat to Bani possibly about which lines to run in support, on that particular break Lyon was waiting for Bani to get into position but he never arrived, and was also another later on where i thought Stewy was waiting for him to get in the right spot which he again couldn't find

Des and Crusher have worked their magic again, Rodney is impressing me week in week out

I like Orford taking the line on as I mentioned in another topic. He is far more dangerous when the defence is in 2 minds

Ballin, Watmough and Stewart were sensational today and what our win was based around

We finally remembered that last season, a short ball to Choc was 1 of our top weapons, went back to it today, and he carved up in a large way. I like the way he was hitting as well

The intensity of our forward pack was lifted today, led by Watmough and later on Kite. They were running harder and hitting harder

Lastly, we are on the board, and the heads of the boys should lift, although we don't want them lifting too high and having a touch of arrogance because there is still a long way to go. Last season we were 2/5, this year 1/5, not far behind

 

[Pepi]

Agree with most of that mate, except "the 2008 team would have won by 40".
The game today was identical to the Souths game last year at brookie (Where we won 20-4, or something similar). I think in both games we were only interested in winning the game (after poor starts) and were happy to take the foot off the pedal toward the end.

Defense was also pretty damn good today considering the Tigers usually score 20+ points win or lose.

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

Good point there Pepi, I remember that one, 2 tries to Stewy that day. I was thinking more along the lines of finishing off the created opportunities

1 more thing that I forgot to mention

2 refs are meant to speed the game up I thought. Well, our games against Penrith and again today have had some of the slowest play the balls I have seen, they got away with murder early on today

 

[The Wheel]

We seemed to get hammered in the penalty count today, not sure what the final count was though.  But I agree KE that they were given a bit of latidue in the ruck (or am I biased?)

 

[Biscuits]

i think we probably won the penalty count. The tigers were given free reign when it came to holding down. We could have pushed our luck in that regard and maybe have been given the same time, but we didnt and that was the most pleasing part of today. We did what we had to do to control the tackle and not push ant further. A great improvemnet on our discipline over the past few weeks. It seems refs hav got us pegged as "layer oners" and to take the whistle out of their mouth by getting off a bit quicker rather than whinge after the fact was refreshing

 

[Ian Martin tragic]

Keep it coming folks! F**kin Setanta over here are screening 2 afl games but have dropped to 1 nrl game per week (this week raiders v. sharks!!!). Haven't been complaining till today; but now it sucks bigtime.

Highlights on youtube showed a cathartic explosion from b. stewart. But were the tigers awful? how much of a gauge was that performance for shaping up to the rabbits? We rarely seem to play well against them.

 

[robbiea]

Screw Setanta -do diwana.

 

[Berkeley_Eagle]

way I saw it, the attack was very bad in parts, no cohesion it seemed, Brett Stewarts tries were sensational to see (no other player would have scored those)
very poor handling by both teams , defence was great at times and Manly held their line well

both hookers Ballin and Lestrange played exceptionally well
Matai will need to come back in for sure and certain, Tony Williams may be a big lad (looking at him from the hill he is a monster of a kid and towered over everyone) but he seemed lazy at times and disinterested get a bit of match fitness into him and pump some enthusiasm as well he will be a great buy but off the bench and not at centre

disappointed in Perry yet again

Brett Stewart  
Michael Robertson
Jamie Lyon
Steve Matai
Michael Bani
Chris Bailey
Matt Orford
Brent Kite
Matt Ballin
Josh Perry
Anthony Watmough
Glenn Hall
Glenn Stewart

Heath L'Estrange
Jason King
Adam Cuthbertson /Tony Williams
Shane Rodney

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

Keep it coming folks! F**kin Setanta over here are screening 2 afl games but have dropped to 1 nrl game per week (this week raiders v. sharks!!!). Haven't been complaining till today; but now it sucks bigtime.

Highlights on youtube showed a cathartic explosion from b. stewart. But were the tigers awful? how much of a gauge was that performance for shaping up to the rabbits? We rarely seem to play well against them.

Tigers were poor but very game in defence.

We had a lot of possession for the first 60 min or so. But before we could get in any attacking rhythm the ball was dropped. Then the tigers would drop it! We were unable to score while they had Payten in the bin in the 2nd half.
Yet we scored 4 tries and also Bailey was held up overt the line twice.


We kept them to 2 tries - and they are one of the highest scoring teams. However they had 2 disallowed, a forward pass and an obstruction, both times the defence was beaten.

Bunnies form so far has been much better than ours but they will be worried about us for sure!

 

[Berkeley_Eagle]

Hopefully it will be a really hard game for the Rabbits and dogs tonight with a heavy ground and a short turnaround will make it a bit easier for us next week

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

...The tigers were given free reign when it came to holding down. We could have pushed our luck in that regard and maybe have been given the same time, but we didnt and that was the most pleasing part of today...

Good point. Also accounts for why our boys looked so tuckered out in the second half. But what that will do for their match fitness is priceless. Reminds me of last year when we'd go through some of the early round matches without using all our replacements. Des certainly wouldn't have forgotten the benefits of superior fitness. Some fans are questioning the players fitnss levels, I think they are barking up the wrong tree.

 

[KaZa]

I thought Orfords last tackle options were again poor. T Rex and Ballin were poor as well. G Stewart is clearly struggling with his weight.. looks like hes lost mobility?

The rest played well...thank god for Lyon and B Stewart

 

[Volley]

Ballin poor? You clearly didn't watch the game. He was superb.

 

[KaZa]

I thought he made too many mistakes... and we looked sharper when Heath was on. I was at the game. Ill review after watching the replay but i remember him makin quite a few errors or not creating anything. Heath makes us quicker.. more fluid.

 

[Jethro]

I thought Orfords last tackle options were again poor. T Rex and Ballin were poor as well. G Stewart is clearly struggling with his weight.. looks like hes lost mobility?

The rest played well...thank god for Lyon and B Stewart

I thought that Ballin played a lot better. Whilst Glenn Stewart looks like he may be struggling a little bit with his weight, I thought that he still played alright as well.  I also think that Perry looks like he is also carrying more weight (and I don't mean muscle weight) than last year which could be hindering his play of the game.

 

[KaZa]

yeah well im basically comparing to their premium form.. the forwards did not win us that game.. they still were poor.

Our backline and Watmough won us that game. Kite especially is really down in form.. compared to his absolute best.. we all know how good they can be..

 

[Nutzcraw]

Ballin was definately better than Heath.

Heath needs to hold onto the ball more often when he creates an oppurtunity.

Twice yesterday he had the defence at his mercy and probably could have scored himself on both occassions had he run himself through the gap but he instead tried to put someone through just outside him. I'm sure if he went himself he would have got over.. maybe not on both occassions but definately one of them.

Something he could look at anyway and at least he was creating oppurtunities. Ballin brings alot of stability to the team and I thought he was excellent yesterday as mentioned earlier I breathed a sigh of relief when he came back on with 20 to go.... we were kind of losing our way a bit til he got back on... we straightened back up and worked our way to a try (stewarts 3rd) and put the game out of reach.

When heath and cuthbo are on the field we can score points from anywhere... but we seem to lose some cohesion. This will come as the season goes on. Good to get the 2 points and to be honest you'd be spewin if we played the best we could because it would mean we don't have much to work on. Still a long way to go for manly and the premiership but we at least have a coach and the team to guide our way to the finals and then explode like last year... all we need to do is make that 8 and all the boys know what to do... remember our for and against through the 08 finals series???

 

[Pearso]

I agree with your thougths on bani, he just doesn't seem to be able to read the game to well. Although I can forgive him a bit when Stewart made his break and was looking for him, a match fit stewart would have gone all the way. You could see him struggling a bit after that run.

A couple of more games and he'll be on fire. For a bloke who missed the first month he had a sensational game and I'm sure he will be wearing the no. 1 for NSW.  Just hope Belly ache actually uses him and doesn't bench him like the last game last year. I reckon Brett's still pulling splinters out of his butt after spendiing 60min on the bench.

 

[reyam]

Average performance had every reason to put 40 on them yet second half ended up 7-6 A lot of work before the rabbits