Not a 1 man show or are we??

[maxta]

The difference in attack with Tom T is out, was obvious as it was frustrating last Sunday....
Early on there was some key second phase where Kapow and AFB popped offloads and the lurking Tom was not there and the play dies harmlessly.
I mean there was support and those players did make half breaks, but with Tom T it was 3 clean breaks early and a possible 2-3 tries.
Also on any wide block plays, there were 3 on 2 situations created where the defence is forced to make a decision with Turbo chiming in, yet the lack of pace without him allowed Titans to stand off - slide - and close down most attacking raids bar that early try.
Credit to DCE as a half who can run the ball well and BK out wide for his fancy feet, but the vibe in attack without Tom is massive and every team has players who add spark, but that game last week really captured his importance.
Even Api missed him when he got out quickly which he has really improved with, where he has had great success picking up Turbo on the fly, but still set a try up through the middle with a good dash picking his moment.
There were plenty of decent chances and field position yet until DCE broke away with an intercept, Manly didn't look like scoring apart from the Kelly dash/dropped ball in that 2nd half.
I also think the Taufua injury which happens to regularly has a far bigger impact than most and gets Manly on the front foot, but with tough footy and others willing to roll up the sleeves this can be somewhat compensated....the talent of Tom T's attack is the key if Manly are to shape up and be any threat at all in 2018.

 

[chuckee]

Similar deal to Brett Stewart’s career. Big difference to team dynamic when they’re in/out

 

[eadie fan]

I agree with Turbo in terms of his spark and his ability to make something happen.

I think that Kapow is of similar importance to the team. His performance is vital to the rest of the forwards - if he struggles, so do the other forwards. Once he goes off, we do not look likely in the forwards in terms of go forward and the loss of Kelepi just exacerbates this. Pretty amazed that we have Frank on the bench when he offers no impact and we have missed a chance to give a big body such as Paseka a taste of first grade. He is such a monster of a person that he has to be given a chance to make an impact for 10-15 minutes a game.

 

[BOZO]

The difference in attack with Tom T is out, was obvious as it was frustrating last Sunday....
Early on there was some key second phase where Kapow and AFB popped offloads and the lurking Tom was not there and the play dies harmlessly.
I mean there was support and those players did make half breaks, but with Tom T it was 3 clean breaks early and a possible 2-3 tries.
Also on any wide block plays, there were 3 on 2 situations created where the defence is forced to make a decision with Turbo chiming in, yet the lack of pace without him allowed Titans to stand off - slide - and close down most attacking raids bar that early try.
Credit to DCE as a half who can run the ball well and BK out wide for his fancy feet, but the vibe in attack without Tom is massive and every team has players who add spark, but that game last week really captured his importance.
Even Api missed him when he got out quickly which he has really improved with, where he has had great success picking up Turbo on the fly, but still set a try up through the middle with a good dash picking his moment.
There were plenty of decent chances and field position yet until DCE broke away with an intercept, Manly didn't look like scoring apart from the Kelly dash/dropped ball in that 2nd half.
I also think the Taufua injury which happens to regularly has a far bigger impact than most and gets Manly on the front foot, but with tough footy and others willing to roll up the sleeves this can be somewhat compensated....the talent of Tom T's attack is the key if Manly are to shape up and be any threat at all in 2018.

I think you summed it up well there maxta . At the moment our team is playing without a competent 5/8 and that is another major factor in our performance that is Similar to the long and draining Walker experiment a few years ago . Trent likes to persist with underperforming players but what this week in week out inept play does is shatter their confidence as far as I am concerned .
Trent predictably has selected Croker at number 6 again against the Tigers this week . I think Trent would make a better coach if he was more proactive than predicable

 

[HappilyManly]

The spotlight on Turbo missing completely missed the problem of Siro and Kelepi missing

Our forwards were outplayed and yet the media only focuses on fullback Turbo

Jono Wright is no Jorge, another key out for Manly in returning the ball

Turbo is a huge impact player, but the other 3 injured players are also crucial to Manly's success

So I don't believe that Manly is a one man team

 

[brad]

The difference in attack with Tom T is out, was obvious as it was frustrating last Sunday....
Early on there was some key second phase where Kapow and AFB popped offloads and the lurking Tom was not there and the play dies harmlessly.
I mean there was support and those players did make half breaks, but with Tom T it was 3 clean breaks early and a possible 2-3 tries.
Also on any wide block plays, there were 3 on 2 situations created where the defence is forced to make a decision with Turbo chiming in, yet the lack of pace without him allowed Titans to stand off - slide - and close down most attacking raids bar that early try.
Credit to DCE as a half who can run the ball well and BK out wide for his fancy feet, but the vibe in attack without Tom is massive and every team has players who add spark, but that game last week really captured his importance.
Even Api missed him when he got out quickly which he has really improved with, where he has had great success picking up Turbo on the fly, but still set a try up through the middle with a good dash picking his moment.
There were plenty of decent chances and field position yet until DCE broke away with an intercept, Manly didn't look like scoring apart from the Kelly dash/dropped ball in that 2nd half.
I also think the Taufua injury which happens to regularly has a far bigger impact than most and gets Manly on the front foot, but with tough footy and others willing to roll up the sleeves this can be somewhat compensated....the talent of Tom T's attack is the key if Manly are to shape up and be any threat at all in 2018.

3 tries went down thru drop ball or forward pass and would have had us around 30 odd points . Obviously Tom makes a difference to our Attack, but we have enough weapons in the team without relying on one bloke .

 

[nightster]

Marty was quite disappointing against the tits he needs to back up his talk ... imho

 

[maxta]

3 tries went down thru drop ball or forward pass and would have had us around 30 odd points . Obviously Tom makes a difference to our Attack, but we have enough weapons in the team without relying on one bloke .

Mate we are talking Titans where ANY team will create multiple chances....with Turbo would have cashed in on at least 2 of them.
More the lack of potency he adds....when Manly went wide just lacked that zip on second man plays to pressure the fullback and also around the ruck Turbo constantly challenges following Jake and API all day.
I do agree however mate, that there is other quality, just seems Turbo is the standout like the jewel in the crown.
As stated above and I tend to agree, the impact is almost like Snake from the back, though Turbo has a long way to go with his organisation and positional play defensively.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

HM is dead right, remember last year when we lost Horhay and Sirro?

I’m not so sure Kelepi has the same impact but we miss the attack and metre gaining efforts of Jorge, and the sumbline skills of Curtis.

Going to be a long , difficult and up and down year I feel!

 

[brad]

Mate we are talking Titans where ANY team will create multiple chances....with Turbo would have cashed in on at least 2 of them.
More the lack of potency he adds....when Manly went wide just lacked that zip on second man plays to pressure the fullback and also around the ruck Turbo constantly challenges following Jake and API all day.
I do agree however mate, that there is other quality, just seems Turbo is the standout like the jewel in the crown.
As stated above and I tend to agree, the impact is almost like Snake from the back, though Turbo has a long way to go with his organisation and positional play defensively.

I agree with you that Mr Trbojevic would no dought make a big difference.

 

[Simonmyers11]

The difference in attack with Tom T is out, was obvious as it was frustrating last Sunday....
Early on there was some key second phase where Kapow and AFB popped offloads and the lurking Tom was not there and the play dies harmlessly.
I mean there was support and those players did make half breaks, but with Tom T it was 3 clean breaks early and a possible 2-3 tries.
Also on any wide block plays, there were 3 on 2 situations created where the defence is forced to make a decision with Turbo chiming in, yet the lack of pace without him allowed Titans to stand off - slide - and close down most attacking raids bar that early try.
Credit to DCE as a half who can run the ball well and BK out wide for his fancy feet, but the vibe in attack without Tom is massive and every team has players who add spark, but that game last week really captured his importance.
Even Api missed him when he got out quickly which he has really improved with, where he has had great success picking up Turbo on the fly, but still set a try up through the middle with a good dash picking his moment.
There were plenty of decent chances and field position yet until DCE broke away with an intercept, Manly didn't look like scoring apart from the Kelly dash/dropped ball in that 2nd half.
I also think the Taufua injury which happens to regularly has a far bigger impact than most and gets Manly on the front foot, but with tough footy and others willing to roll up the sleeves this can be somewhat compensated....the talent of Tom T's attack is the key if Manly are to shape up and be any threat at all in 2018.

when brett didn't play our win % dropped to 40%. When Glen and Brett were both out it dropped to 30%.

Very similar with Tom and jake

 

[Simonmyers11]

HM is dead right, remember last year when we lost Horhay and Sirro?

I’m not so sure Kelepi has the same impact but we miss the attack and metre gaining efforts of Jorge, and the sumbline skills of Curtis.

Going to be a long , difficult and up and down year I feel!

I agree. Jorge makes over 150m on avg a game, and siro can have his off days, but he adds that extra ball playing, off loads and runs great lines.

 

[sheridanstand78]

Losing key players is all a part of the game, its the average players that step up to fill the breach means the difference between wins and losses. I watched the game on Sunday and from early on it was apparent that the teams attitude was not as it should be. The Titans looked hungrier.

End of the day it was 2 tries coming from direct turnovers that was their margin of victory, errors that MUST be cut out if we are to be a finals threat!!

 

[manly al]

Wouldn 't be so bad if a good attacking or quicker player can fill in for Tom but Matt Wright is not of that calibre . Pleasing thing is if Dylan can run into good form soon and combined with Kelly "s undoubted improvement and a settled 5/ 8 input , Tom has the opportunity to be even more effective in approaching games . Much is still dependent however on Manly forwards all putting in as a unit and laying the platform with or with out Siro and that certainly did not happen against the Titans . No doubt however , Lose Tom for a match and the winning prospects reduce by quite a few percentage points .

 

[Deleted member 26876]

The difference in attack with Tom T is out, was obvious as it was frustrating last Sunday....
Early on there was some key second phase where Kapow and AFB popped offloads and the lurking Tom was not there and the play dies harmlessly.
I mean there was support and those players did make half breaks, but with Tom T it was 3 clean breaks early and a possible 2-3 tries.
Also on any wide block plays, there were 3 on 2 situations created where the defence is forced to make a decision with Turbo chiming in, yet the lack of pace without him allowed Titans to stand off - slide - and close down most attacking raids bar that early try.
Credit to DCE as a half who can run the ball well and BK out wide for his fancy feet, but the vibe in attack without Tom is massive and every team has players who add spark, but that game last week really captured his importance.
Even Api missed him when he got out quickly which he has really improved with, where he has had great success picking up Turbo on the fly, but still set a try up through the middle with a good dash picking his moment.
There were plenty of decent chances and field position yet until DCE broke away with an intercept, Manly didn't look like scoring apart from the Kelly dash/dropped ball in that 2nd half.
I also think the Taufua injury which happens to regularly has a far bigger impact than most and gets Manly on the front foot, but with tough footy and others willing to roll up the sleeves this can be somewhat compensated....the talent of Tom T's attack is the key if Manly are to shape up and be any threat at all in 2018.

We aren't a one man show, but we are an attitude side, if we're in the mood we're undefeatable, if we're not than we're soft.

We were absolutely fine without trbo last year when he was injured (our side started hitting form during then) and we'd be fine without him at the moment. 20 points is enough points to win, and we blew countless opportunities to score more against the Titans. He's a brilliant player, possibly the most valuable in our side, although we are capable without him.

We are more a team than any in the comp, we are always collectively the same. For eg, when we are performing poorly, there's not one good player, whereas when we win and play in lively fashion, there's not one player in the side that plays poorly. It's either we're on, or we're not, no inbetween. Cons of this is inconsistency and a smaller chance of turning around a bad start to games.

Youngest side in the comp, and it's only been 5 rounds. Consistency will come.

 

[COMMANDER]

I don't think we win many games without Tom on the field.

 

[tookey]

Jono Wright is a similar player to Tom so we shouldn't have noticed any difference

 

[Paw93]

Turbo would have made enough of a difference for us to convert those half chances and win the game but then so too would have a cut down in errors. I think we made almost twice as many errors as the Titans. Some of those were early in the set, giving the Tits good field, some were during a good raid - lost chances and some directly resulted in tries being scored against us.

Cut out the errors and we win by a lot. We saw what we can do by cutting out errors for 80 mins against Parra and again for 40 mins against the Raiders. Agree, they aren't the best opposition but errors played their part at killing any momentum that we'd have. Ridiculous that a first grade team drops the ball or makes silly errors like we did last weekend.

 

[Fluffy]

Points are valid but if we didn't miss him and struggle in that area it would be a bigger concern. You shouldn't have a million dollar a year player out and not notice.

 

[Harvies elbow]

I agree with you that Mr Trbojevic would no dought make a big difference.

And if you take it back even further, where would we be without Mr and Mrs Trbojevic???