Serves Des right

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Cust. What was he thinking? Unless he comes out and says he was injured, this will take some getting over.
And yep, give the bloody kids a go. So hard to keep bracing, and holding your breath waiting for them to run straight past our B grade army.
Nah, why give a kid a go who is actually performing when you can go for a hyped injury-prone star to put in 10 minutes before being carried off yet again...
 
Even experienced coaches stuff up, This is a big one from Des as young Cust did not deserve to be omitted from the entire squad.

The telling thing for me is that we we lost those 3 straight games he stuck with the tried and trusted players and did not change it expecting the team to get it right. You applaud that in some ways. What is upsetting is the Cust omission from tonights game flys in the face of that logic in that the team looked much better with Cust doing his stuff at 5/8.!

Des needs to really think hard about what we do moving forward.

Tonight we were lapped by a team that is younger, faster, stronger, more direct and has a plan and purpose. The schooled us and really toyed with us at times.

The weakness in our left defence was time and time again exposed and surely its time to change things. I love the contribution that Jorge has made for the team but hes being badly shown up and constantly out of position in dealing with kicks and cut out passes that cost us tries. When was the last time he scored a try from a bomb??? Its time to give you Funa a crack!

I understand that Des is probably thinking along the lines that as there is no junior football, that he is so reluctant to give some of our talented kids a chance. I think hes hoping that we crawl into the 8 and have Tommy available to have a crack at the finals. Tonights performance showed how far we are from the top teams. If you look at the stats of the game it was a cakewalk for them!

The game has evolved and changed. If you remember that in 2011 Des had no hesitation in giving DCE, Foran and a young Hoppa a chance to shine and we were such an energetic and exciting team. We have a crop of kids that need to be given a chance and the injuries we have should open the door for them.

My concern is the message that Cust's omission is going to send not only to young Cade but to the other kids who are waiting for a chance.

If you listen to the Bulldogs fans they said that their 2017 and 2018 teams played sterile predictable football and right now with out Tommy we are looking just the same!

This is a real test for Des to show that he can learn from this episode and put in younger and hungry players if the more experienced ones are just not cutting it!
 
We don't have the cattle to expect much. All I want is cust back at 6 and maybe Schuster. I agree with Hasler that chucking them all in at once will threaten the start to their careers. Croker gone hopefully and maybe saddler for Waddell. Guac for siro. Waddell is useless, walker is slow and has always lacked intensity (except in spurts) and defence (aka first panther try tonight).

Saddler could be interesting, no for hoppa, maybe sipley

Above most, I think jake must move back to prop and play 50 minutes a game. He needs to lose some kgs and play a punchier style.

And above all, Suli. Very, very dissapointed in him. Lazy player atm with a serious lack of urgency and involvement. 75% of our problem is that our backline refuse to get involved and when they do they choose to run like a slow front rower
 
how are these kids not ready though? I don't get it...

Metcalf has been training with the first grade team for over 3 years if I'm correct.
Hopoate & Schuster are 'the next big thing' at manly... not even in the 21?
Olakau'atu... has he played this season? What happened? He was good last year
Funa... wasn't the best at start but has pace and got better. God knows he's better than who we put out tonight... really don't want to have to say the two players starting with J and B.
Cust - nothing to be said.
Harper has been signed. Surely he gets a run soon.
 
Des is great when things are going well but when a change up is needed he has no idea. My fear is he turns us into the dogs team he coached.
We have been unwatchable all season imo and instead of backing young Cust as our future 5/8 as soon as Des gets a chance he drops him for a player in Walker who is clearly a centre.
Time to shake it up Des can you do it? if not you risk losing our best young talent because of your reluctance to give them a run.
 
Even experienced coaches stuff up, This is a big one from Des as young Cust did not deserve to be omitted from the entire squad.

The telling thing for me is that we we lost those 3 straight games he stuck with the tried and trusted players and did not change it expecting the team to get it right. You applaud that in some ways. What is upsetting is the Cust omission from tonights game flys in the face of that logic in that the team looked much better with Cust doing his stuff at 5/8.!

Des needs to really think hard about what we do moving forward.

Tonight we were lapped by a team that is younger, faster, stronger, more direct and has a plan and purpose. The schooled us and really toyed with us at times.

The weakness in our left defence was time and time again exposed and surely its time to change things. I love the contribution that Jorge has made for the team but hes being badly shown up and constantly out of position in dealing with kicks and cut out passes that cost us tries. When was the last time he scored a try from a bomb??? Its time to give you Funa a crack!

I understand that Des is probably thinking along the lines that as there is no junior football, that he is so reluctant to give some of our talented kids a chance. I think hes hoping that we crawl into the 8 and have Tommy available to have a crack at the finals. Tonights performance showed how far we are from the top teams. If you look at the stats of the game it was a cakewalk for them!

The game has evolved and changed. If you remember that in 2011 Des had no hesitation in giving DCE, Foran and a young Hoppa a chance to shine and we were such an energetic and exciting team. We have a crop of kids that need to be given a chance and the injuries we have should open the door for them.

My concern is the message that Cust's omission is going to send not only to young Cade but to the other kids who are waiting for a chance.

If you listen to the Bulldogs fans they said that their 2017 and 2018 teams played sterile predictable football and right now with out Tommy we are looking just the same!

This is a real test for Des to show that he can learn from this episode and put in younger and hungry players if the more experienced ones are just not cutting it!
People will call bull**** on this but was actually speaking to one of the Bulldogs middle forwards at an event a couple years ago when he had just recently signed with the Bulldogs (still there now). He was saying how when you would walk into a 1 on 1 talk with Des you'd come out of the meeting just racking your brains having no idea what he was saying to you, leaving you baffled and having no idea what to do. Just highlighted poor man management. He had an offer from Parra at the time and said he would've 100% taken the offer if Des had stayed on for an extra year. Des left, and he was relieved, so he stayed. He said he couldn't really form a relationship with Dessie and was weirded out a bit by him.

Love Des and he's manly through and through and has delivered so much to the club but just remembering this gives me concerns that I have held onto for a while. Its a worry that the game is outgrowing him and that he is too old-school to adapt. When you listen to him in press conferences my thoughts have changed a bit from 'the nutty professor' who is smart and a bit out of it to being concerned if the bloke is a bit lost now...

Lets hope the game hasn't outgrown him, or that he hasn't become more conservative with age. Lets hope Des goes back to early manly days when he blooded players left right and centre between 2005-2013. But the 'In Des we Trust' is getting tougher and tougher with more and more poor selection calls as shown by Cust's dropping.
 
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Even experienced coaches stuff up, This is a big one from Des as young Cust did not deserve to be omitted from the entire squad.

The telling thing for me is that we we lost those 3 straight games he stuck with the tried and trusted players and did not change it expecting the team to get it right. You applaud that in some ways. What is upsetting is the Cust omission from tonights game flys in the face of that logic in that the team looked much better with Cust doing his stuff at 5/8.!

Des needs to really think hard about what we do moving forward.

Tonight we were lapped by a team that is younger, faster, stronger, more direct and has a plan and purpose. The schooled us and really toyed with us at times.

The weakness in our left defence was time and time again exposed and surely its time to change things. I love the contribution that Jorge has made for the team but hes being badly shown up and constantly out of position in dealing with kicks and cut out passes that cost us tries. When was the last time he scored a try from a bomb??? Its time to give you Funa a crack!

I understand that Des is probably thinking along the lines that as there is no junior football, that he is so reluctant to give some of our talented kids a chance. I think hes hoping that we crawl into the 8 and have Tommy available to have a crack at the finals. Tonights performance showed how far we are from the top teams. If you look at the stats of the game it was a cakewalk for them!

The game has evolved and changed. If you remember that in 2011 Des had no hesitation in giving DCE, Foran and a young Hoppa a chance to shine and we were such an energetic and exciting team. We have a crop of kids that need to be given a chance and the injuries we have should open the door for them.

My concern is the message that Cust's omission is going to send not only to young Cade but to the other kids who are waiting for a chance.

If you listen to the Bulldogs fans they said that their 2017 and 2018 teams played sterile predictable football and right now with out Tommy we are looking just the same!

This is a real test for Des to show that he can learn from this episode and put in younger and hungry players if the more experienced ones are just not cutting it!
Excellent summation.
 
Des' team selections are just straight up ridiculous! The non selection of Sipley all year, the dropping of Cust, the refusal to even consider Hoppa and Schuster is beyond a joke. We are too slow, we have no spark and this is all on Des. The game has changed and is now a young man's game. We have Cust, Schuster, Funa, Hoppa, Olokoatu, Metcalfe and Saddler and Des just won't go near them. Meanwhile every other team is fielding their young guns and they are all performing. Des needs to get his head out of his ass and stop being so old school. We are becoming what the Dogs were under Des' watch and we all know how that ended. But unfortunately all the fans have to sit here and suffer. I can take a few mistakes from young guns because they'll all be better for the run next year. Look at Panthers, they were pooh last year but they blooded some young guys and are now getting the rewards
Mate i really respect your opinion..... but to question the coaching staff that live and breathe the squad every day and week is questionable. We dont know where the others are. Most havemt played a single game this year. The fit players would obviously take precedence. I agree Cust should be played over Croker but at full strength neither would be in the team anyway.
 
No cust and then croker on the team. Fmd what a colossal fuk up! Brought on afB too late also. Parker needs to go hes just weak and slow but now walker is injured after 1 minute and gone for 6 weeks he will be there for the rest of the year. If siro is injured then we will see one youngster come into the squad. Unless jetski comes back.. well warriors next week we can cream them and get some mojo back. Expect the same team bar cust and siro with waddell to start. :(
 
Mate i really respect your opinion..... but to question the coaching staff that live and breathe the squad every day and week is questionable. We dont know where the others are. Most havemt played a single game this year. The fit players would obviously take precedence. I agree Cust should be played over Croker but at full strength neither would be in the team anyway.
Who would be 14 full strength? If Manase back potentially Levi. The point is Cust is good enough for our full strength side now, not that that is hard, with horrible centre and winger form.
 
Hasler has trouble string a couple of sentences together at pressor and sounds like he's ****ting himself, a bit like his team tonight,
Down hill from here and can't see us making the 8. We are almost at same caliber as the Dogs, Broncs as we are clueless once we are in the opposition 20.
Getting Ugly.
 
No cust and then croker on the team. Fmd what a colossal fuk up! Brought on afB too late also. Parker needs to go hes just weak and slow but now walker is injured after 1 minute and gone for 6 weeks he will be there for the rest of the year. If siro is injured then we will see one youngster come into the squad. Unless jetski comes back.. well warriors next week we can cream them and get some mojo back. Expect the same team bar cust and siro with waddell to start. :(
Agree disappointing on the team selections, Des is not going forward with injecting some youth, we looked better in our last two games of 2019 then what we do now in attack.

I like what Cleary has done at the Panthers they have looked a better outfit after giving younger players a run. So much enthusiasm and energy.
 
The problem is difference between our best and worst footy show by this game dragons and sharks. Very concerned by lack of trying new things from Des. Back in the day he bloodied Foran, Dce, watmough, stewart boys, Matai and moved on likes of Witt, monas, randall and so on.
He selections are boarding lunacy I mean not even tried other options in back row with gucamole and even trex not seen sipley all season.
The 6 is a shambles and blind freddy can see lachlan croker belongs in reserve grade forever, Cust gave both Dce and Levi time. Dce tries his guts out and played well in a beaten side.
I simply prefer not to make the 8 to get taken out in first week than blood the youngsters that should be there, Jorge days are done. Funa, young hopa need to get some game time. He going around in circles
 
A freshen up is needed. Bit more of a kick up the behind then blooding a couple of kids. This team has for way too long now taken the easy out, Im looking at our captain.

For me he could be the best ever in Maroon and White, but his kicking game and resulting game management reflects what's missing.

He has a long boot, but clearly struggles with feel. It's simply not enough hard work. The biggest issue? Has his kicking game changed or improved since 2011?

Under Baz couldn't land bombs near the try line. Instead of improvement the game plan went to landing them 10 metres out.

Under DES that grubber into the ingoal goes too long too often, instead of improvement, the game plan has moved to just getting tackled on the last.

Good teams get down that end and keep us there and wear us out.

Conversions. DCE might not have wanted that job, but he needed it.

Everyone always remembers the field goals he kicks off his left foot to win the game. Time and time again a lack of game management to get into correct spot and distance to kick the percentage play off his right foot.
 
Don't get me wrong. The turtle is our captain and he is the right man for the job, he runs his guts out on field, and that's the problem. He needs to play smarter, not harder. As a halfback the hard work needs to be at training.
 
My big problem with Croker is that he doesn't seem to know he is rubbish so is out there trying to throw cut out balls, kick 40/20s , beat people with his "speed" and "dummies" and get involved in play after play. He just keeps throwing his lack of ability in our faces.
Haha yes he a special talent for where he belongs Crookwell first grade
 

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