Riddle me this

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He needs to be eased back in , they did take him off on Saturday but he had to go back in on due to an injury / head knock ( I forget ).

So there was a plan for this but it didn’t work.
He was cramping and we were comfortably ahead. Seibs saw an opportunity to get Weekes some game time at fullback and made the switch. Then Croker copped a head knock and Tommy jumped to his feet all but demanding to go back on and pushed Weekes to 9. This little exchange seemed to give a good bit of insight into how Weekes will be used for now.
 
You are operating on the sad illusion that Tommy is doing something other than exactly what he wants to do ...
I agree, he was switching sides and playing as he saw it, he overcalled Johns to get the the ball or where he thought best.
How many times did we go left and look threatening,Parker smashed it up all day.
Same as backing up Paseka's bust, that's not coached, that's instinct and awareness.
Our first try came from that, he was bouncing around on the left then looped around right and even though l think the kick from Chez was meant for Guac his presence inside Chez was enough.
He didn't stretch out but did what he needed/wanted pretty much.
 
I reckon Seibs just told him to go out and enjoy it.

He's one of the best players in the game, if not the best, and he plays on instict, and you can't coach that. He turns up anywhere and just reads the play so well.

After a game like that, the calls that he's a 'bit rusty' is a fabulous sign of things to come, when he gets a little polish.

I'd be a bit worried if I was Seibold if we get any forward injuries, as the 'D' in the middle with Blacktown Workers was absoultely horrid in the second half.
 
I'm hoping the difference this year is that we have a plan B, C etc rather than only just "Tom Ball"... think that could be the big factor!
We need to create confusion in opposition defences, we want them wondering if Tom will be involved or someone else, we need to mix it up, that's what brought us undone in the big matches in '21, they were waiting for Tom in numbers every time he injected himself
 
Flanagan is a very good attack coach and I am sure he will fix that.

Tom is known to sprint from the left side to the right side and vice versa or through the middle, and you hear the calls from opposition sides, they always call out Turbo, right side, middle or left side and that can 'suck in' defence, so he attracts 2 or 3 players, and if you look at the Paeseka break, the inside defenders were watching Turbo and Paeseka had one on one and made a break, and then he had the perfect triangle, Paeseka running straight at the fulback, with Turbo inside and DCE outside. Either one could have scored, depending on who Paeska passed to first, which just happened to be Turbo.
 
big, big positives, all been said so i cant take time to blab too much and not get to the point

we still rely on TOM

schuster will help as he has a genuine desire to create chances. his challenge will be to tone it down probably

But tom is underdone, looks to be adapting, tentative and doesnt need to be OVERUSED just yet. poor bugger had to tell 3 million people in the last month he will be busting a nut come kickoff, im ready,

there were multiple touches between halves and tom, and going from memory ALL of them involved tom being the man to run first to create. i get the structure but its about overuse and the unpredictability overuse and consequence

the expectation within the attack, put on tom yesterday was overly onerous at times and looked like a re run in slow motion

reckon TOM would have played with a quick turnaround instead of the BYE with his cramping . des had a man that never let him play short turnarounds from memory
The one thing that grinds my gears and it happened a few times on Saturday is seeing Tom take a hit up. To quote gus no no no no no!!!!! There's other blokes who can do that crap not tom. Like you don't take your Lexus to do a tip run.
big, big positives, all been said so i cant take time to blab too much and not get to the point

we still rely on TOM

schuster will help as he has a genuine desire to create chances. his challenge will be to tone it down probably

But tom is underdone, looks to be adapting, tentative and doesnt need to be OVERUSED just yet. poor bugger had to tell 3 million people in the last month he will be busting a nut come kickoff, im ready,

there were multiple touches between halves and tom, and going from memory ALL of them involved tom being the man to run first to create. i get the structure but its about overuse and the unpredictability overuse and consequence

the expectation within the attack, put on tom yesterday was overly onerous at times and looked like a re run in slow motion

reckon TOM would have played with a quick turnaround instead of the BYE with his cramping . des had a man that never let him play short turnarounds from memory
The one thing that grinds my gears and it happened a few times on Saturday is seeing Tom take a hit up. To quote gus no no no no no!!!!! There's other blokes who can do that crap not tom. Like you don't take your Lexus to do a tip run.
 
I did wonder, watching those "Earning the Right" videos, whether or not Tommy's big brain would have all that information - and all those individual drills - swirling around in the middle of every game of footy he played. At least in the short term, it seemed kind of inevitable that it might, and that he might overthink every movement he was about to make. Might take a while before it's all second nature and not playing on his mind.
 
No issue with tactics seems clear forwards are being challenged to own the middle. While passing to edges may look pretty these boys need to own that area.
 
While Tom is at Manly, will always be the first and last conversation point as the match winner.
Early signs do show a young hungry team, with quality edging up and attitude at this point looking on point which is shown in defence.
It was evident in 3-4 different moments Tom was tentative in running at 70% and the feel I personally got, he was not trying to explosively take off quickly, more a comfortable rhythm to not put any unnecessary strain on his hammies.
This imo is definitely something he followed from his trip to the USA, is to build slowly and let the muscles be more relaxed and will strenthen naturally over time.
He looked smart how he used himself in game 1 and definitely need more than that 2nd man play to get Tom involved against the big teams, as shown vs Storm and Souths in big games where they can blot this 1 trick out of the game....having him float around the middle opens up both edges and I feel we will see this more in 2023 where Tom is not always the "Go to" but be used as a "decoy runner" to gravitate the defence and let others benefit as Tom sucks in 2 or 3 defenders.....he doesn't necessarily have to touch the ball to help create opportunities for this team and in fact, with more variation will only make Tom more dangerous when he does take the line on.

I was crying out for decoy plays before he was injured last season. Give it to Tom ball is way to predictable and he was subsequently double and triple teamed every time he got the ball. Over to you seibs and flanno.
 
big, big positives, all been said so i cant take time to blab too much and not get to the point

we still rely on TOM

schuster will help as he has a genuine desire to create chances. his challenge will be to tone it down probably

But tom is underdone, looks to be adapting, tentative and doesnt need to be OVERUSED just yet. poor bugger had to tell 3 million people in the last month he will be busting a nut come kickoff, im ready,

there were multiple touches between halves and tom, and going from memory ALL of them involved tom being the man to run first to create. i get the structure but its about overuse and the unpredictability overuse and consequence

the expectation within the attack, put on tom yesterday was overly onerous at times and looked like a re run in slow motion

reckon TOM would have played with a quick turnaround instead of the BYE with his cramping . des had a man that never let him play short turnarounds from memory
We rely on our best player, this is normal. Do the rabbits rely on Latrel? Do the storm rely on Munster? When you have a weapon like Tom can be it only makes sense. He might need a bit of match fitness from what I saw but will only get better I think. In a couple of games time watch out!
 

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