Representative honours (& game day thread)

[mutley]

Dce performance was not dissimilar to the last 8 rounds of the comp where he offered nothing in attack or direction, he ran the ball and organized in manly 2 semi finals and looked good. Dont know if his natural game is being coached out of him or hes lacking confidence but he isnt living up to his price tag.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Let’s not forget it’s been a long season , Aussies looked very tired, Tongans were swept up with the crowd and the emotion.

Play that game mid year at say Hunter Stadium with a small Tongan crowd instead and I bet the result would be vastly different.

 

[manly al]

Didn"t see all of the match but just seemed that Tonga took it right up to the Aussies and matched them and pressured them enough to reduce their attacking opportunities and to stay in the match . . No doubt quite a few unforced errors did not help the Aussie"s cause but even on an individual basis , this Tongan side is very competitive so i reckon credit where credit is due . D C E can not be singled out , he still put in a pretty fair effort , certainly ordinary in attack but most likely just playing to his coach"s instructions and not a good platform to work off yesterday . Had a fairly good 2109 season for Manly so is entitled to a bit of slack just for one test match outing where quite a few of his team mates were[ or made to be ] off the pace also .

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

Fair enough that we demand Australia always win, as we usually do, and how predictable that DCE would be a whipping boy for a loss. True he didn't star, but our whole side was under the pump and the better team on the day won. Most disappointing for me were Klemmer, Papali, Frizzel, Graham (did he play?) along with Munster and Mitchell in the backs.

Haas was our best and he didn't seem to play too many minutes for some reason.

To put it in perspective, we lost to NZ last year and the current Tonga side is just as formidable as the Kiwis, and probably more so.

We also had a much heavier loss to the Kiwis in 2015 despite having ‘future immortals’ such as Inglis, Thurston, Cronk and Smith. Cronk, Smith and Inglis also featured in our losing 2014 side. Can't win them all, credit to Tonga, it was a pretty good game.

 

[BOZO]

DCE has proven to dominate in games at all levels . Last night his 5/8 was not up to his best . His forward back got out enthused , his backs were intimidated and frustrated from Tongas spirited defence and His coach did not seem to make any impact on the team at the half time break on the way the game was heading .

To blame the loss soley on DCE is Delirious .

 

[manly al]

Did not see the Kiwis v England match , What was the standard of play in that game ? If anyone that saw it is interested in commenting .

 

[HoldenV8]

I know there were a few who were unavailable due to injury, but if they had been able to pick their best side.....this is how the Kangaroos should have lined up.

James Tedesco
Josh Addo-Carr
Tom Trbojevic
Latrell Mitchell
Nick Cotric
Luke Keary
Daly Cherry-Evans (c)
Josh Papalii
Damien Cook
Jake Trbojevic
Felise Kafusi
Wade Graham
Cam Murray

Jack Wighton
David Fifita
Payne Haas
Paul Vaughan

For mine, both Cordner and Frizell are overrated as players (at his best even Siro is better). Same with Klemmer who offers nothing but hit ups. He doesn't pass, he doesn't offload and create second phase play. If you're in the defensive line and Klemmer is running at the guys 2 players away from you, you don't have to worry about defending for that tackle because he'll die with it every time. And then there is his defence which as shown with Tonga's first try yesterday can be very lackluster.

How those 3 always seem to be automatic selections for rep sides is beyond me. Its like the selectors only look at them and don't bother with the rest.

 

[HoldenV8]

Did not see the Kiwis v England match , What was the standard of play in that game ? If anyone that saw it is interested in commenting .

Wasn't exactly what you'd call one of the great test matches. Decent enough game, don't get me wrong. But even the way Australia were last night we would have beaten either side.

In all honesty, I think NZ could have won by more and probably would have if Foran hadn't gotten injured 5 minutes in.

 

[HoldenV8]

DCE getting blasted on social media

Pretty much the whole team should be getting blasted. However, DCE is the favourite target for most isn't he. He didn't have his best game yesterday but even at their peak neither Cronk or Thurston or Lewis or Lockyer or Sterling etc could have done much behind a beaten pack.

 

[mickqld]

Tonga played better and deserved to win . The critics need to chill out and get off the Roos back. We played really well in 1st half and then got out muscled in the 2nd. Best test match I've seen since the Roos tour of GB back in the early 90s.

 

[Shoe1]

Dce was ok never gave up, unlike the forwards Klemmer, Vaughan, Murray, who wilted under the pressure of the big Tongans. Munster was embarrassing, no game sense, and errors from Mitchell and teddy cost tries.

Mal’s use of our bench rotation was woeful.

There was a case for hooking Munster and putting Wighton at 6.

 

[BOZO]

To put all things in perspective .....

DCE does not get the biggest pay and the hottest woman because he is just an ordinary player

Have a great day every one

 

[Loobs]

DCE should do himself a favour and follow the Killer model and tell Mal to piss off.

 

[The Who]

It was bound to happen. Just like the make-up of teams in the NRL, Tongans and their fellow Polynesians dominate and will continue to because they are 'built' for RL.
The win is a result of players opting to play for Tonga, Fiji and Samoa over representing Australia or New Zealand. They have opted to play for pride in country over match payments.
However, it won't continue to happen if the Island nations don't have the funds to pay their stars a reasonable appearance fee. As we know, money buys success.
The situation is the same in rugby. The All Blacks would be a much weakened force if their Polynesian representatives opted to play for their home countries.

 

[mutley]

Dce has never dominated at origin or test level , he has played well on a few occasions, and being ordinary on a few more. If the broncos came knocking id let him walk tomorrow, yes we are a poorer team without him, but his performances dont warrant his exorbitant price tag

 

[ManEagle]

One thing being overlooked is that Tonga were allowed to get away with a lot of cr@p in the play the ball, slowing it down so we couldn't get a flow on specially with Cook. Even with some poor performances from our boys if Tonga weren't allowed to lay all over the tackled player for as long as they did or the mess with hands and feet everywhere a much different end result.
That said, they deserved the win and good luck to them.

 

[HoldenV8]

Dce was ok never gave up, unlike the forwards Klemmer, Vaughan, Murray, who wilted under the pressure of the big Tongans. Munster was embarrassing, no game sense, and errors from Mitchell and teddy cost tries.

Mal’s use of our bench rotation was woeful.

There was a case for hooking Munster and putting Wighton at 6.

The only Kangaroos forwards who could hold their heads up after last night's game were Jake and Haas.

Munster really only got the gig because Keary was ruled out and because he'd played halves with DCE previously for Qld. And if Tom wasn't injured he'd have been in the centres with one of Wighton or Munster or Hunt on the bench.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

It was bound to happen. Just like the make-up of teams in the NRL, Tongans and their fellow Polynesians dominate and will continue to because they are 'built' for RL.
The win is a result of players opting to play for Tonga, Fiji and Samoa over representing Australia or New Zealand. They have opted to play for pride in country over match payments.
However, it won't continue to happen if the Island nations don't have the funds to pay their stars a reasonable appearance fee. As we know, money buys success.
The situation is the same in rugby. The All Blacks would be a much weakened force if their Polynesian representatives opted to play for their home countries.

Good point that one!!

 

[Simonmyers11]

Got out enthused and out muscled second half. Blaming loss on DCE is ridiculous, but expected from Fitler.

Munster, klemmer and Mitchell were a lot worse imo. Style of game really suited Tonga and they played to their strength.

I can't understand all the criticism to the roos, just lost to a better side on the day.

No injuries to Jake or DCE so thats the main issue for me. Give em a break and move on 2020

 

[HoldenV8]

Got out enthused and out muscled second half. Blaming loss on DCE is ridiculous, but expected from Fitler.

Munster, klemmer and Mitchell were a lot worse imo. Style of game really suited Tonga and they played to their strength.

I can't understand all the criticism to the roos, just lost to a better side on the day.

No injuries to Jake or DCE so thats the main issue for me. Give em a break and move on 2020

Fittler will never blame any of his NSW players. But last night I thought that Klemmer, Mitchell, Cordner, Frizell, Cook and Tedesco had poor games.

DCE and Munster weren't great either, though I thought Cherry was the better of the two with Munster (along with Mitchell on the left) often throwing either silly or panic stricken passes.

You know something? DCE could have kicked a couple of 40/20's, scored a couple of tries, given out a couple more, made 40 tackles without a miss.....and the knockers (which is basically everyone but most Manly fans) would still blame him if we lost.