[Resurrected] Opinion on the Manly “clockoff”

[Scorpio]

The team was mentally weak and lacked structure both with and without the ball. Consistency and Committment were also lacking.
Head coaches are responsible for tactics and game plans, so given the players improve their overall efforts and attention to the detail of what Des is teaching them, improvement will follow.
I expect things to look a tad boring for a while until the team achieves cohesion. Des builds wins on defence and discipline, he who does not follow will be out of the side and eventually the club.

I think this is closest to the mark.

The Roosters had (and still have) an absolutely stacked roster, but they did exactly this (played a boring, very structured game) in early 2018 and came away with the trophy in October.

 

[Fibro Eagle]

The team lacked a mental toughness ,It seemed when things were going well we could compete but as soon as something went against the team they dropped there bundle until the calls went the teams they were never able to overcome adversity in games then would go on and loose ,and at the highest level there’s not a lot of difference between your best and worst which I think is all mental attitude

 

[KOMORI]

Good defence has always got the rock solid foundation of ATTITUDE. We lacked in that area for the past few seasons: that attitude to never give in, and make that goddamned tackle NO MATTER WHAT. You make it when you’re hurt, tired or whatever, you put everything you have into that effort because you know and trust that the guy next to you and every other guy in the line will make that effort with you and for you..

 

[Brissie Kid]

A lot of it is desire.
Manly (and other teams) struggle when there is a shift of possession and ref's penalties. We find ourselves at times with only 30-40% possession and the majority of that is off our line. Energy sapping. However, the team struggles and lacks a momentum shift like, a crunching tackle or strong hitups from a few players not one.
If it happens again it will at the peril of Des' ire.

Nailed it. There is a death spiral element to NRL games once the momentum goes against you. Every Manly semi final vs Storm in Melbourne has gone that way from the kickoff and the first run of penalties. The grand final last season was a typical example. Play the game again and Storm win by the same score instead of the Roosters.

It is ridiculous that one team can fight really hard over the first 70 minutes of a game and then get run down in the last 10 as the opposition has been gifted 100% possession. There is no team in the NRL that can hold out against momentum.

The NRL need to adjust how the game is officiated and rules to let the defending team fight back.

We can all remember how many times Manly even in their prime would try to get back into a game by successfully kicking deep to the corners & then look to belt the team trying to get out from their own 10m or 20m line through Choc or Gift coming in hard and quick to tackle them, only for the referee to penalise Manly for inside the 10m.

 

[maxta]

Good defence has always got the rock solid foundation of ATTITUDE. We lacked in that area for the past few seasons: that attitude to never give in, and make that goddamned tackle NO MATTER WHAT. You make it when you’re hurt, tired or whatever, you put everything you have into that effort because you know and trust that the guy next to you and every other guy in the line will make that effort with you and for you..

Nice summary mate - I'm at the office yet looking for a chair to tackle.....jokes aside - true story!!

 

[Tragic Eagle]

Fatigue affects decision making and generates errors. That on the back of a run of penalties against us and it’s been game over. Fitness and discipline were absent last year.

 

[Lyonstomenzies]

1 Fitness
2 Constantly changing the lineup due to injuries
3 Rookies who lacked the mental focus for 80 minutes

And a coach whom didn’t get the best out of the players.

 

[ricardo]

What I saw was Marty and AFB coming off and opp teams suddenly destroying us through the middle.

 

[COMMANDER]

The players ran the show last year; to everyone's detriment. I know Des will re-install the separation of powers.

 

[MadMarcus]

I have no doubt that lack of club supplied garden furniture was the reason

 

[Eagles2nv]

I think it was a number if factors.

I don't deny mental energy was one, you could see the lack of motivation some games.

I do think fatigue was a factor. The lack of attacking structure, poor handling and lack of B2B sets results in alot more defence. We all know defending can gas a team.

I think we missed Green more than we thought. DCE missed having a solid halves partner, we missed the B2B sets from kicks in goal and we missed the consistency of a backline.

Donny and des will work on these areas and hopefully LG grows in to a dependable halves partner.

 

[jbb/james]

We only got leads or in charge if games when posession went our way early. Generally due to the oppostions ball control, a few penalties and repeat posession on the back of tries. When posession evened out we rarely had the defence/ attitude to match them or the footy smarts to find ways of turning posession back. We were too attack focussed and our playmakets played like millionaires with posession when we needed to arm wrestle. It looks good when it comes off but it rarely did and our ladder position reflected our ability to hang in with defence, ball control and kicking game.

All of this is directly connected with poor on field leadership. It may have been poor off field but the players are accountable for there own game

Mid season when we decided all kicks would go into touch to slow down play we had 2 of the best kickers in hodko and cherry kicking for touch , and gaining 8 metres from inside our half. Sure it may have ticked the box on want the coach wanted but surely the players of that stature could add some professionalism to the instructions

To me the whole set up just stank , and just blaming barrett is way to convenient regardless of how he went

 

[EOL now nesting on the GC]

It was a cancer that was spreading for whatever reason..

when two of the backroom guys important to the club and players come to blows then you know something stinks. It was like the patients were running the asylum...

Then you have Gladstone and the fallout. Like WTF was that. you have Cherry and Hastings falling out, players taking sides, the coach that can't get control of the situation. cherry and teammates then seemingly going to watch Hastings as a show of support. It was straight out of 'Days of our lives'....

If des changes one thing it will be that the team will be a team again. That will sort out a lot of the so called fade outs that happened. They will work for each other.

 

[manly al]

Inexperience and a regular lack of basic communication seemed to go hand in hand to cause some fragile defence last season . The injury toll and then subsequent lack of familiarity and uniformity or whatever also no doubt contributed. but can also attribute a lot of the defensive inconsistency problems to poor coaching input also and with just not enough attention directed in this area on most indications . Even injury affected or an unfamiliar playing group with reasonable playing ability can be drilled into offering some form of effective defensive efforts . Improved on field leadership and covering better for each other no doubt also can play a part but again definitely need the right off field coaching expertise to help in this area as well . Better expectations for next seasons in this department and of course hope that these can be realized .

 

[Sue]

Agree Ryan but pl

I think it was a lack of mobility, intensity and pace, which meant were were always chasing the game, being cut apart, or being opened up.

Even small things like the play-the-ball speed , or the ruck speed in defense. Guys like Taufua playing it so slow, the opposition has the ability to set their defensive lines, which made it hard for us to come out of our own end.

Everything we did was a yard or two slower than the opposition. We have too many power type players (Parker, Suli, Taufua), and not enough speed and finesse guys who do everything at high pace.

We looked and played lethargic. For this reason, we looked burned out sometimes 20 minutes into games, and teams would focus our weak points (we all knew where that was) and would more often than not, score.

We need to reset our attacking and defensive structures (these were poor under Barrett). Play to our strengths.

Agree to a certain extent Ryan but the play the ball speed and ruck speed aren’t small things , they are EVERYTHING in the modern game

 

[Ryan]

Agree Ryan but pl

Agree to a certain extent Ryan but the play the ball speed and ruck speed aren’t small things , they are EVERYTHING in the modern game

Hey mate ! You don't post enough anymore. Hope you've been well !!

Agree. The Chooks (man I hate that team) are masters at a quick play-the-ball, and controlling the ruck. That's why they are constantly rolling over the opposition.

That's where we really fall down. Our polynesian group (mainly) culture of, shoulders slumped, slowly get up, play the ball and walk back into position head down, just doesn't cut the mustard. We need to be explosive and intense.

That's why we play against set defenses all the time. A team gains momentum, when the opposition defensive line is on the back foot and retreating.

I really hope this is a focus area for Des and the team. And I'm talking minute 80 as well as the early minutes. Pop up on your feet, and play the ball immediately. It comes down to heart, effort and energy.

P.S. Even some of our best players (Walker, Thompson & others) have very slow play the balls.

 

[Fluffy]

Another thread got me thinking and just interested in opinions...
The past 2 seasons there have been many games where Manly were matching, if not in charge.
Almost like a switch was pressed, the opposition got a call or score against the run of play, them proceed to score 16-26 points in a 15 minute period.
Do you find these horror patches as Attitude and belief or worse still - Desire to fight.....Or has it simply been a case of fitness where the wheels fall off at important points of the game.
Personally see both these attributes improving in 2019, but whats the thoughts on how and why Manly had these terrible spells in most games??

I think a lot comes down to experience, we had the least experienced side last year, I recall we fielded approx. 1200 NRL games compared to some teams at over 2500.

 

[BK13]

I've said on other threads to me one of the key reasons was Mental Toughness and apparent sulking at decisions/moments in games. Watch the golden era......we get a dud call, or something just goes against us.....we don't sulk and complain for the next 10mins (and concede 2 to 3 tries)....you see Matai, Watmough, Gifty, Killer etc etc roll their sleeves up and bash the bejesus out of them in defence. We would use that as a spur and often teams would struggle to make 20metres against us as we launched into them in defence. At times it was absolutely brutal.

In the current team even Jake (who tries his heart out) would often still be complaining 5mins later.....not good enough.

 

[sheridanstand78]

Fitness was a big issue in the Barrett led conceding clumps of points in a game that cost us many a victory, I also think it was attitude, lack of game management from our halves. No one seemed to want to take control and slow the pace of the game when we conceded and the mind set of our halves to kick negatively when we were behind in games which invited our opponents on the attack. Hopefully Hasler changes this!

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

I think a lot comes down to experience, we had the least experienced side last year, I recall we fielded approx. 1200 NRL games compared to some teams at over 2500.

This was my thought as well, inexperience. Especially in key positions.
We will be a little better off in experience this year, despite losing Kelly and Lane (who were both starting to show decent improvement).
Ideally you want a squad where everyone has at least 50 games (probably more for front rowers).