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frank stokes

I discriminate indiscriminately
A lot of posters seem to think that we are going alright because we are "Only one win out of the 8" but it is an illusion...

Consider this... the teams we have beaten are coming 3rd, 4th, 5th, 14th, 15th and 16th... not bad right because we are competitive with teams up the top...

BUT...
When we beat those top sides we had Tom in 2 of them AND all 3 of those sides made 15 ERRORS when we played them...

For comparison, in our losses both the warriors and panthers made 8 errors against us, the dragons and knights made 6, the sharks made 11, eels (1st time) and storm made 12...

Anyone who thinks we are going well and have been unlucky is drinking the Dessy cool-aid I'm afraid...
 
We've gutsed out a couple of wins which is commendable, but in general we have looked far from a team in good form. Attack looks stilted and we have a complete inability to build pressure with short kicking game and forced drop outs. I keep hoping it will click, but we are just hanging in games by the skin of our teeth. I didn't see the Bulldogs game earlier in the year so I don't know whether that was a dominant performance given the score. But no other game springs to mind where we have looked in complete control, high completion, good go forward and crisp attack. Couldn't use the word clinical to describe us at any point this season, with or without Tommy.

If we don't find something soon then in 3 weeks time we'll have another 3 marks in the L column and season 2020 has gone.
 
From the get go this season our spine was an issue. Dylan had not cememted 5/8, Fainu did what he allegedly did and we let Api go and we brought in a hooker that is pretty average. Our 7 is not the player he once was and does not consistently manage games and our number 1 has again missed a lot of football over dodgy hamstring problems.

You cannot win games without getting repeat sets or scoring kicks from tries and concending too many like we do.

If you look at last nights game that Penrith played, they were pretty scratchy and met a spirited Warriors sid and they got 9 goal line drop outs, perfect wet weather football, They got more repeats in one game that we get over our last 6 games!!

The team trys hard, I dont fault their effort. We lack quality and creativity and we have a coach who stays loyal to tried and trust safe players who as time goes on become more of a liability.

We average 16 points a game, that is 6 points down a game compared to last year. You MUST score at least 22 points a game to be in contention now.

The fact is consistently we are miles behind the top 4 clubs and although we may sneak into the 8, I dont see us doing any serious damage especially without our top players.
 
I confess to the fact that I am having difficulty discerning exactly what our team "character" is ... we are neither the dogs of war type .... or the entertaining try your arm style .... we are the vanilla ice cream of football teams ....

Now that is not necesarliy bad ... and may have more to do with our roster and injuries than our coaching ... but we have one of the most boring teams in Manly's great history ...our defence plan seems to be don't hit them ... just absorb them like a sponge .... our attack seems to be just make ground and hope to barge over if we have field position .... is not giving our centres any quality ball deliberate or just a result of our boring game plan ??

For the past few years one of the mantras was .... we have no game plan .... if only we had a game plan .... although I haven't heard anyone mention game plans for ages ... I miss it ...

Not turning up was an issue ... but that doesn't seem to have improved ... the number of times we have given away big early leads this year is legend ....

I have no idea who Manly are .... Maybe it is true ... Dessie and Manly are only as good as Tom makes us .... maybe we can only win when Tom plays ....

Bloody sad if true ....
 
The game plan of 15 NRL clubs heavily involves kicking to their fast wingers and banking on success 30 per cent of the time.
We can't do that because our kicking game is so poor and one of our wingers is slower than an episode of Bold & the Beautiful and is a cardigan when we need a jumper.
To component this, said winger allows so many opposition tries to be scored that the game is quickly out of our reach.
But there is a young bloke set to debut on the wing for the Worriers who I believe we have our eye on . . .
 
I confess to the fact that I am having difficulty discerning exactly what our team "character" is ... we are neither the dogs of war type .... or the entertaining try your arm style .... we are the vanilla ice cream of football teams ....

Now that is not necesarliy bad ... and may have more to do with our roster and injuries than our coaching ... but we have one of the most boring teams in Manly's great history ...our defence plan seems to be don't hit them ... just absorb them like a sponge .... our attack seems to be just make ground and hope to barge over if we have field position .... is not giving our centres any quality ball deliberate or just a result of our boring game plan ??

For the past few years one of the mantras was .... we have no game plan .... if only we had a game plan .... although I haven't heard anyone mention game plans for ages ... I miss it ...

Not turning up was an issue ... but that doesn't seem to have improved ... the number of times we have given away big early leads this year is legend ....

I have no idea who Manly are .... Maybe it is true ... Dessie and Manly are only as good as Tom makes us .... maybe we can only win when Tom plays ....

Bloody sad if true ....
That's a good point, what is our character ? Who are the leaders within the team that are defining this character and culture within the playing group ? Manly have always had a proud history of respecting the jersey, that went by the wayside during the Barrett years. We were a clusterf*ck during his tenure and we lost a lot of the team character and spirit that was built during that decade of dominance. The only other time we have looked less like a team and more like a bunch of individuals turning up to a job was during the Peter Blunt years.

Des may need a bit of time to turn that around, he understands it. Currently we are the embodiment of the cliches sprouted each week about our performances. Dispassionate, will try harder, looking forward to turning it around, articulate excuses basically.

I've said it for the last couple of seasons, we lack true on field leadership.
 
That's a good point, what is our character ? Who are the leaders within the team that are defining this character and culture within the playing group ? Manly have always had a proud history of respecting the jersey, that went by the wayside during the Barrett years. We were a clusterf*ck during his tenure and we lost a lot of the team character and spirit that was built during that decade of dominance. The only other time we have looked less like a team and more like a bunch of individuals turning up to a job was during the Peter Blunt years.

Des may need a bit of time to turn that around, he understands it. Currently we are the embodiment of the cliches sprouted each week about our performances. Dispassionate, will try harder, looking forward to turning it around, articulate excuses basically.

I've said it for the last couple of seasons, we lack true on field leadership.
100%. We have good individual forwards but not one that leads by example (eg. Darcy Lussick in 2017 I think). Too much size, not enough grunt. Our backline has no fight
 
I confess to the fact that I am having difficulty discerning exactly what our team "character" is ... we are neither the dogs of war type .... or the entertaining try your arm style .... we are the vanilla ice cream of football teams ....

Now that is not necesarliy bad ... and may have more to do with our roster and injuries than our coaching ... but we have one of the most boring teams in Manly's great history ...our defence plan seems to be don't hit them ... just absorb them like a sponge .... our attack seems to be just make ground and hope to barge over if we have field position .... is not giving our centres any quality ball deliberate or just a result of our boring game plan ??

For the past few years one of the mantras was .... we have no game plan .... if only we had a game plan .... although I haven't heard anyone mention game plans for ages ... I miss it ...

Not turning up was an issue ... but that doesn't seem to have improved ... the number of times we have given away big early leads this year is legend ....

I have no idea who Manly are .... Maybe it is true ... Dessie and Manly are only as good as Tom makes us .... maybe we can only win when Tom plays ....

Bloody sad if true ....

IMO if you look at sides like Melbourne and the Roosters and how they often still play well with injuries to key players, it all comes down to having those big game/premiership winning players, which we just don't have right now.

We saw it in 2005/06, we had a talented squad, but when push came to shove, we didn't have the polish.

Full strength and we are a chance of beating anyone on our day, however if luck doesn't go our way with keeping the same team on the field, then it's going to take longer to be more consistent. If you look at Penrith this year, if they lost both Koroisau and Cleary for a few games, the cracks would start to show.
 
A lot of posters seem to think that we are going alright because we are "Only one win out of the 8" but it is an illusion...

Consider this... the teams we have beaten are coming 3rd, 4th, 5th, 14th, 15th and 16th... not bad right because we are competitive with teams up the top...

BUT...
When we beat those top sides we had Tom in 2 of them AND all 3 of those sides made 15 ERRORS when we played them...

For comparison, in our losses both the warriors and panthers made 8 errors against us, the dragons and knights made 6, the sharks made 11, eels (1st time) and storm made 12...

Anyone who thinks we are going well and have been unlucky is drinking the Dessy cool-aid I'm afraid...
I reckon we're in the top 16, just
 
The game plan of 15 NRL clubs heavily involves kicking to their fast wingers and banking on success 30 per cent of the time.
We can't do that because our kicking game is so poor and one of our wingers is slower than an episode of Bold & the Beautiful and is a cardigan when we need a jumper.
To component this, said winger allows so many opposition tries to be scored that the game is quickly out of our reach.
But there is a young bloke set to debut on the wing for the Worriers who I believe we have our eye on . . .
Maybe we don’t kick To Jorge coz he’s too slow? But then again there were many kicks to Rubens side last year so not sure why not this year?
 
We've gutsed out a couple of wins which is commendable, but in general we have looked far from a team in good form. Attack looks stilted and we have a complete inability to build pressure with short kicking game and forced drop outs. I keep hoping it will click, but we are just hanging in games by the skin of our teeth. I didn't see the Bulldogs game earlier in the year so I don't know whether that was a dominant performance given the score. But no other game springs to mind where we have looked in complete control, high completion, good go forward and crisp attack. Couldn't use the word clinical to describe us at any point this season, with or without Tommy.

If we don't find something soon then in 3 weeks time we'll have another 3 marks in the L column and season 2020 has gone.
My expectation is that the season is already over, just based on the bad luck that continues to happen, and the referee decisions that always go against us rubbing it in.

I know injuries and the like are happening to other teams but I think the way this all is shuffling we will be a gaining team who will run 9th when Too Late Tommy comes back.

Any resurrection from this situation will be a surprise to me, and I am nothing less that F$&$&ing pissed about it.

NYEagle
 
My expectations as a Manly fan is the same as what our Great club has and the Great Des has
And that is high expectations !!!

OUR CLUB DID NOT BRING BACK DES FOR MANLY TO MAKE UP THE NRL NUMBERS

Excuses are a weak and incompetent persons response .....
The Warriors came to Lottoland without a Coach for next season , without their full squad of players due to defection and injury , Without a home ground .
Despite all the Warriors Adversity they did come to Lottoland with high expectations and they set the bar high and they delivered .
The Moral of the story ......
You get what you ask for so set the Bar High !!!

171086087-c280a66e737d9d527df49c8911c595e0.jpg
 
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My expectation is that the season is already over, just based on the bad luck that continues to happen, and the referee decisions that always go against us rubbing it in.

I know injuries and the like are happening to other teams but I think the way this all is shuffling we will be a gaining team who will run 9th when Too Late Tommy comes back.

Any resurrection from this situation will be a surprise to me, and I am nothing less that F$&$&ing pissed about it.

NYEagle
100% mate. I mean we ain’t even getting any luck with other results right now. I still have a shred of hope left we play finals even with a loss tomorrow, but we’ve just had too many out this year. Like others have said our back ups try hard and with only a couple out can play their role, but the reality is that outside Easts (and we know they are stocked anyway cos they f***en cheat) we are the most decimated team in terms of key personal in the comp. just look who we have out this weekend. Outside of maybe a Melb, no other team in the comp competes when in a similar situation.
 
At fulltime last week, we had 8 of our starting 13 out of the match, I don’t really think you can expect many better results at that point. It was over half of our salary cap sitting on the sideline

3/4 of our first choice spine have played 10-12 games between them this season

I’m not sure you can really expect a lot more than inconsistent form when that is occurring

When the majority of the side is fit, as they were at the start of the season, we were a **** call away from being top of the table after 5-6 weeks

This comp runs on very tight margins and a lot of luck, ours has been out and probably doesn’t have enough time left to turn

There are plenty of areas to work on, but it certainly isn’t chicken little time for me
 
The real nightmare is that this has happened for the last five years. I don’t buy into the bull**** about it being a conditioning issue etc

it’s plain bad luck.

thete cannot be any more ladders or chinamen north of the spit bridge surely.
 
The real nightmare is that this has happened for the last five years. I don’t buy into the bull**** about it being a conditioning issue etc

it’s plain bad luck.

thete cannot be any more ladders or chinamen north of the spit bridge surely.

I didn’t think it could get any worse than last year then bang, this happens

Thing is we aren’t just getting 1 a game, when it happens it is 3-4 at the time and it cripples you and have guys filling in all over the show. Not a great name to mention on here lol, Lewis Brown was purchased as a backrower and probably played 30% of this footy there at best for us, centre or hooker cover ended up being his go
 
I hope we never see Dylan Walker in the number 6 again.
If Josh Schuster is as good as we are told, he needs to play. If Dylan Brown can play 6 as a teenager (and do it well), then I believe Schuster should be playing.
 
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
3 2 1 45 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 22 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
3 2 1 10 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
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