SELECTIONS are NOT the problem ..

[DieHardManlyFan]

Don’t disagree Woodsie but gee Garrick was bad and his poor play led to multiple tries. And put us on the back foot. We competed for a deal of the first half just dropped too much pill on attack and built zero pressure. There were times where the roosters were looking tired only for us to let them off the hook with mistakes.

100% agree. Only problem is the same thing has been happening for the past year. Our ball control is poor.

 

[DieHardManlyFan]

Garrick, Parker, JetSki, Croker, Boyle and almost Siro would struggle to play first grade at any other club on current form. Not up to standard

 

[Ron E. Gibbs]

I can’t remember a game where we gave away so much ball attacking the oppositions line. Yuck

Really? I can't remember a game where we haven't done it. It's become a Sea Eagles "trademark" after the last few years. We always cough up the pill, always have no idea in the attacking zone (exacerbated without Tom) and never take advantage of opportunities to dig ourselves out of the many holes we create for ourselves. We are not a smarty footy team.

 

[Ryan]

I agree @Woodsie .

One thing that always resonates with me was the days back when I used to work for NAB, and I got our commercial team at Dee Why to become a commercial partner and get a corporate box from our Eagles.

We had a function, and a few of the players came (one of which was Jason King). Geez he was a down to earth, but really smart fellow.

This was, hmmm, probably 2005 or so when we were pretty awful. Jason King presented to the group, that The Sea Eagles had a team of individuals playing a team sport, and that mentality was crueling them.

He then went on to say what the senior playing group decided to do, was change that mentality, so that they became a "team first" where the individuals made the sum of all parts.

Honestly, at present, we have many individuals (some very talented) playing for themselves, in a team sport. Same as the past.

As we saw, within a few years (from 2005), our team became very close and bonded which culminated in Grand Final appearances etc. I remember things like Brett Stewart and Heath Le'Strange doing rock, paper, scissors to decide who scored the try and everyone laughing. I remember the "paper" calls. I remember the bearing of teeth after scoring tries. Things like Wolfman howling at the moon. We've lost characters.

There needs to be an attitude adjustment (which may require a broom) through our team, and I agree whoever is selected needs to do a job. DCE and Marty Taupau are very talented players. But jeez, they are themselves before team first types.

 

[Jay Eagle]

just spent two hours reading through all the posts in this thread, the manly V Roosters game day thread and Sack Des thread one thing is very VERY obvious as the MAJORITY of replies are saying the same or very similiar things..
1- Garrick not first grade material, terrible defender, no footy smarts , zero confidence and has to go

2- Parker, tries hard but not first grader , way too slow and has to go

3- Croker, no attacking options, passes ineffective from dummy half and error riddled game, NOT a hooker and has to go

4- Fanu- hes not a utility and shouldn't be put on the bench as a utility player

5- Walker is a center and should play in that position.

6- Sirro- games to predictable, a ball hog and needs to be dropped to the bench

7- Davey- should be in the starting side

8- Shuster should be in the team on the bench at least and if at 5/8 then Foran should be our utility player

9- Jake needs to get back to being "Jake" tackle hard and play with his emotions, I don't know what happened but someone must have told him to ease it up, I remember in 2018/2019 he was basically the reincarnation of Tooves ( just bigger) .. always in the refs face, leading by example, now he looks like hes just going through the motions and at a very sloooooow pace.

10- DCE- Needs to be told he doesn't have to do everything, Just feels like he plays with so much pressure on himself that he actually cant play

So all in all in most of what I have written is what most of teh fans are seeing and complaining about then surly Des and team management can see this also.
SO F*#cking fix it..

And it starts with dropping the three pub players we have at the top of the list,
Putting Walker at center, Harper to fullback
Drop Sirro to the bench and Davey to start
Bring Shuster into the team
and give Jake the freedom to play with the emotion he displayed previously..
The DCE situation will also be alleviated because he will have a far better side on the park and start enjoying his footy rather than looking like a man carrying a team.

Now everyone will carry on " key board warriors" "sausage roll eating fools" blah blah .. but its really really plain to see where the problems are and even my 17 year old daughter who knows nothing about footy can pick our teams faults... NO HEART and NO TEAM SPIRIT.

Fix it Des that your job!

 

[Shoe1]

Croker not engaging the middle defenders was a glaring issue. He simply passed it left or right, and Easts stacked their defence depending on the direction of the dummy half pass. It meant they often had an overlap in defence.

A good dummy half gains an extra second in attack by engaging the middle defenders.

 

[jbb/james]

No leadership in this team. The rot started with the Barrett years and we haven't been able to shake that soft underbelly. They throw the towel in too easily and there's no one on the field willing to set a minimum standard and hold others accountable.

Pretty much spot on .i would also add.

Players got control and des hasnt been able to get it back . Its now a buddy club , not a footy club.

The 25 CEO's manly have had has been part of the issue also.
Staff accountabilty has been as bad as player accountability and has allowed little groups to form with different agendas over a period of time

Manlys last 15 years has been a virtual soap opera. Only now do we realise how bonded our last gf team was with all the little bullcrap wars going on around the club under the guise of whats best for the club

Rome wasnt built in a day. There is no quick fix to whats been undone

Our brand and culture was destroyed by pettiness and egos and our team represents the club as a whole.

Des owned the team last stint. I doubt he feels the same way anymore . The club screwed des, the legends, tooves. You reap what you sew

You cant sack tooves with this crappy its a results driven business line and expect to have a soul and then accept less

Thats not manly.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

G'day All,My view on what we've seen in the last dozen games are performances that are indicative of a team that doesn't want to play for the coach or disharmony in the club.
cheers mike

I think you are right , I heard this on the off season from a not so trusted source that things aren’t exactly “ happy campers “ there.

If this continues that rumour will start to gain credibility.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Croker not engaging the middle defenders was a glaring issue. He simply passed it left or right, and Easts stacked their defence depending on the direction of the dummy half pass. It meant they often had an overlap in defence.

A good dummy half gains an extra second in attack by engaging the middle defenders.

We all knew he was **** , yesterday confirmed it!!

 

[wombatgc]

And thinking changing a winger and fullback, or having a team selected by Silvertails rather than Dessie, ... is going to turn around a 46 - 4 flogging ... is head in the sand drivel ...

Yeah, we would have flogged if you had selected the team ...

How funny (not really) would it be if we’re 1/8, and Des says fuk yaz, I’ve had enough. Let ‘Silvertails pick the fkn team. Then that’s when it’s your time to shine @Woodsie . You run a poll for Tuesdays team, then another, cuttting it down to 19, and then the final poll a cpl hours from game time. Then Des (who has signed a do-what-Silvertails-say contract). Is given the team sheets, and like it or not, that’s the team that runs out.

 

[Waz13]

33 missed tackles is a coaching thing

100% agree. Only problem is the same thing has been happening for the past year. Our ball control is poor.

Yep let’s be honest our attack has been woeful for a long time. It’s so predictable. Even with Tom we are like an under 10s team. Give it to Yom and hope he does something

 

[The Who]

The way I look at the situation is simple:
Five or six of the players in that top 13 yesterday have proven over the past 10-12 matches that they are not the answer to us winning matches. So why keep picking them?
It would give we fans much more hope to see promising players taking their places. They may not all succeed, but we will only find out if they are given a chance.

 

[Snake]

We all have different opinions on who should be picked .... but the big issue is that we expect whoever is picked to do their job

Who plays on the wing does not suddenly make your forward pack soft and ineffective ... who plays fullback doesn't make the other 16 players play like 5th grade suburban rugby players ...

The entire team is well off the pace in all aspects of the game ... and not one little bit of it has to do with team selections ..

Across the park We look like a 70's kombi van entered in a V8 super series race ...

Yeah I agree. A well coached side will not get 46 points out on them in the first round when opposition attacks are still rusty. There is something wrong with the team as a whole. Picking one or two people in different positions is not going to be the difference between what was dished up yesterday.

 

[Yaz Eagle]

To put in perspective there were moments our forwards were on top of the Roosters then the left edge let the Roosters gain big metres tiring our players. Dessie needs to change the left edge players for the team to at least solidly the defence.

I have also noticed that unlike other coaches Des doesn’t bag his players in public - look at Payten’s comments on Taumolo last night. That’s how you lose support of the dressing room.

also if the club has signed Lawton they would have just dished out money to an injured player. They would know when he is available to play before making any decisions.

I don’t expect a win next week but if the players pull their fingers out of then it will be a closer game.

I won’t write of the season just yet - there are 25 rounds still to go and we only had game 1.

 

[QueefRichards]

I think hooker is a problem, does Foran have to play there in attack?

 

[Snake]

Croker was terribly ineffective. 1 run for five metres in 80 minutes of football. His service was pedestrian and really hampered our go forward. I thought he was the biggest concern to come out of yesterday’s game. A good 9 is so important to go forward and we got badly beaten in the middle. Once you lose that middle battle, your forwards are gased and it’s all down hill from there.
You could feel after 15 minutes that the chooks forwards were poking their noses through.

 

[Deleted member 26876]

We all have different opinions on who should be picked .... but the big issue is that we expect whoever is picked to do their job

Who plays on the wing does not suddenly make your forward pack soft and ineffective ... who plays fullback doesn't make the other 16 players play like 5th grade suburban rugby players ...

The entire team is well off the pace in all aspects of the game ... and not one little bit of it has to do with team selections ..

Across the park We look like a 70's kombi van entered in a V8 super series race ...

I agree in part but removing Jetski, Parker and Garrick for some more willing top 30 players (eg Davey/Olakautau, Harper and Funa) is neccessary imo because 7 tries down one edge is absolutely ridiculous in a 9 tries to 1 game. If we can change that edge with better selections, maybe the 7 conceded tries on that edge turns into 2. We have more ball and the game ends much closer and more competitively.

There’s no point our whole team commits and competes for 80 minutes if Garrick and co throw all the effort away with princess defence time and time again.

That edge was looking like a weakness on paper, and was worse than we expected. Foran defended with plenty of intent and courage but Parker, Jetski and especially Garrick all just watched and backpedalled, while also not shifting as a unit like the dce/suli/saab edge at least attempted (and improved at throughout the match). Also, what was with all the backpedaling yesterday (even our forwards)?

We need to press forward in packs of players in motion (both attack and defence).

 

[Shnorky]

In your opinion ... but obviously not Dessie's

I will drink the raspberry cordial and look forward to us flogging teams when Dessie comes to Jesus and picks a team you approve of ...

I'd trust Kevin over des any day

 

[Shnorky]

This manly team is not fit. The teams we are playing against are fit

 

[tookey]

Selections are a major issue as Crocker, Jetski, Garrick and Parker are simply not first grade players

Foran's body is busted and he should never have been signed