PRE-GAME DISCUSSION: Warriors v Manly [Round 5, 2021]

[Kevinward777]

Mate i understand you play the positive role..but sometimes you have to push that aside and be honest..these guys are unfit and about as agile as a giraffe in mud..confidence is not going to make say parker top try scorer cause he doesnt have the skill..confidence aint going to make croker play like smith..confidence is great when you have skillful players to work with and unfortunately alot of our team just dont have it

Yes, sadly there are too many fill in type players taking up positions in the run on side at present. This is compounded by the fact it is only round 5 and they have been there since the opening game.

Compare Parker to Lomax, Chrichton, Staggs, Olam, Naden, Best, Manu, Morris, Roberts, Blake, and it is obvious that he doesn't have the necessary pace or skill. Brad's greatest attributes are his willingness and defence. Harper is a good in.

Croker is an even bigger handicap. The guy is easily the worst nine in the entire competition. He offers nothing in attack. Hopefully, Cust will get a run this Friday before the opposition has already put 20 points on us.

 

[Rafferty]

Well , let’s assume we get a win, does that turn our season around or do we just drop the bundle again the following week at Fortfail Brookvale v the Warriors?

First up its still a long shot, but not completely without hope.
A win will most definitely not turn our season around
For and on the record the Titans will give us a complete work over the following week.
so in short nope no miracles coming out of this weeks game, not even sure we can take the opportunity that presents, just hoping we can, every win this season is going to be vital, mate we don’t wont a spoon in our cupboard and if we let games like this go without a fight, we’ll thats it really, let hope things fall our way, because we need the win and the 2

 

[Rafferty]

Mate i understand you play the positive role..but sometimes you have to push that aside and be honest..these guys are unfit and about as agile as a giraffe in mud..confidence is not going to make say parker top try scorer cause he doesnt have the skill..confidence aint going to make croker play like smith..confidence is great when you have skillful players to work with and unfortunately alot of our team just dont have it

I agree, I don’t know Donny but our fitness and or conditioning is dreadful, we are so underdone and not in the same league as the top teams, to use a metaphor it’s like expecting an ss commodore to race Ferrari’s, you can do it, but your not likely to ever win.
Even if you poor time and money into the ss it still won’t win least off be competitive. In terms of relevance I’m not even sure most of our players could wear a ss badge, its sad but blindingly obvious.

 

[Brisbane Tragic]

No I dont think he does. The general consensus here is that his selection policy is poor, his defence tactics are poor, his attacking strategies are poor and I think they are right. We all know there are options out there and we all know Des should be making changes, but Mr Inertia blunders on. Someone stole the real Des Hasler back in 2013-14. He's been missing ever since.

Um well I just believe... while I think I say think like everyone else on here that I know a lot about rugby league that Des might just know a tiny bit more than me. I also am always positive that we will crawl out of this. Everyone has the right to have a different view and you guys/gals might all be right..

 

[Woodsie]

Good to see Zac Saddler added to the 21. Is that special dispensation ?

Sorry if someone has already suggested this ...,.but the new 18th man rules start this weekend .. so a "development" player must be on stand-by ... Saddler or Burbo my guess .

 

[BOZO]

Sorry if someone has already suggested this ...,.but the new 18th man rules start this weekend .. so a "development" player must be on stand-by ... Saddler or Burbo my guess .

Saddler !!!

 

[stoodamire]

Sorry if someone has already suggested this ...,.but the new 18th man rules start this weekend .. so a "development" player must be on stand-by ... Saddler or Burbo my guess .

It’s been changed. Top 30 player.
Can be any player listed 18-21 from the Tuesday team list.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

First up its still a long shot, but not completely without hope.
A win will most definitely not turn our season around
For and on the record the Titans will give us a complete work over the following week.
so in short nope no miracles coming out of this weeks game, not even sure we can take the opportunity that presents, just hoping we can, every win this season is going to be vital, mate we don’t wont a spoon in our cupboard and if we let games like this go without a fight, we’ll thats it really, let hope things fall our way, because we need the win and the 2

Agree with that part 100%

Season 21 is now all about “ avoiding the spoon”.

 

[eagle66]

AFB out for 8 weeks

 

[Shnorky]

Um well I just believe... while I think I say think like everyone else on here that I know a lot about rugby league that Des might just know a tiny bit more than me. I also am always positive that we will crawl out of this. Everyone has the right to have a different view and you guys/gals might all be right..

Right now we are going over Niagara Falls in a barrell. Des is a joke, anyone with half a football brain knows it, not just us supporters but all the actual experts as well

 

[Brisbane Tragic]

Right now we are going over Niagara Falls in a barrell. Des is a joke, anyone with half a football brain knows it, not just us supporters but all the actual experts as well

yes.... all the experts.... yes. Sorry that I don't have half a brain... my apologies. I will from now on defer to those with far more knowledge than I!

 

[Pete the Eagle]

Our current back 5 in their current positions are getting no go forward what so ever. The fact that Walker was the only player in the backs that had over 100m is poor. That puts so much extra pressure on the forwards who then gas out. So the centres and wings are making metres and are dropping off tackles are record rates.

Sadly, I cant see Des changing a damn thing. The positives for me was Jake seemed to get decent punch through the middle and Aloiai was fantastic off the bench. Oh and Cust played great too. As I said, I was clasping at straws.

Back 5 , go forward ?? Pass to the player ??............ill be happy when they can catch and hold the bloody ball and pass correctly , seems no Manly player is capable of this basic skill at the moment .
As long as our completion rate is what it is , it don't matter whos playing in our team.

 

[The Who]

AFB out for 8 weeks

Shame.
That means he'll also miss our Round 9 clash!

 

[Kevinward777]

Back 5 , go forward ?? Pass to the player ??............ill be happy when they can catch and hold the bloody ball and pass correctly , seems no Manly player is capable of this basic skill at the moment .
As long as our completion rate is what it is , it don't matter whos playing in our team.

If Parker can somehow get through a game without dropping the ball a couple of times, that in itself will be a win.

 

[TimmyQ]

What are those calling for Harper to fullback basing it on ? He doesn't have much of a history it that position. Are we just hoping he'll be slightly less hopeless than Walker ? I watched Harper play fullback in Tigers trial game and it was a bit underwhelming to be honest. I don't see what Harper offers at 1, other than freeing Walker up to play centre.

Harper at centre is a reasonable call though, he had a couple of good games there last year. Will he get any decent ball outside DCE and Jetski though ? Plus he better have his shoulders warmed up, that right edge will be seeing some traffic if the Warriors have been doing their homework

The argument - which I agreed with was based on Walker playing out of position for years as a manufactured 5/8 and now a #1 - Mr FixIt according to Des because he has 'experience.' Most of us thought a Dally M winning centre when we're struggling for points and confidence would be better at centre where he has excelled. I thought Harper did some tremendous things in the last trial. Defensively gave it 100% and would only improve in other aspects with more games under his belt. Remember we do have Snake sniffing around at training so he could have been more than adequate backup for Tom. Remember ffs we perservered with ole Elliott for ages and he was bog average but kinda 'reliable.' I think Harper has a bit more spark than that dude ever did. And 4 games in, what have we gained from playing Dylan out of position?? Nada and recently I read he was whining he was made the scapegoat for our losses so clearly he's unhappy being in this position too. Just dum dum stuff all round.

 

[Jerry1]

One could be forgiven for thinking you're not in a good mood Mal, a splendid bottle of Rummy Port has done wonders for my Manly RLFC malaise, I can only suggest you give it a try, wonderful therapy ;=)

Partial to a Galway pipe or two myself...

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Partial to a Galway pipe or two myself...

The wines in QLD are mostly absolute **** BUT there’s a unique winery on the banks of the Balonne River at St George called Riversands.

They make to my surprise a very very good port and an excellent white muscat.

They call their port , FGP.

Yes****ing Good Port

That's what the label says and they sell truck loads of it!!

 

[The Admiral]

Yes, sadly there are too many fill in type players taking up positions in the run on side at present. This is compounded by the fact it is only round 5 and they have been there since the opening game.

Compare Parker to Lomax, Chrichton, Staggs, Olam, Naden, Best, Manu, Morris, Roberts, Blake, and it is obvious that he doesn't have the necessary pace or skill. Brad's greatest attributes are his willingness and defence. Harper is a good in.

Croker is an even bigger handicap. The guy is easily the worst nine in the entire competition. He offers nothing in attack. Hopefully, Cust will get a run this Friday before the opposition has already put 20 points on us.

I agree with the Cust logic here. Get him on early and hopefully your not playing catch-up in the second 20 minutes of the first half.

 

[ManlyTragic]

Des is like the guy who rocks up to the same nightclub every Saturday night, sees the same gorgeous leggy blonde at the bar and goes up and hits on her only to be shot down.

Next week, he sees the same blonde and hits on her using the same line he did the week before.

And next week. And the week after that.

Sadly, this will keep going until she kicks him in the jatz crackers. And even then it's still possible he might go back next week. Albeit with a bit of a limp.

.......and what's wrong with that?

Just sayin’

 

[Bring back the.... Biff?]

No hiku no CHT no bunty afoa no aitkens and no afb....

Ok Manly #MIGOTY!!!!!!
If we are going to win a game then its this one.. they still have rts and Nikorima and they alone can beat us but if just IF! We hold onto the ball tackle hard and as a unit... produce some offloads! We can win this... can't we?
If dce has a decent game we can im sure of it.. cust needs to come on earlier as croker sucks