Silver Lining

[eaglebuzz]

Canberra beat us last time without tom, i kind of expected a loss. The fact we won shows manly has improved.

They beat us without Tom, Jake, DCE, and Schuster. Not just without Tom.

 

[eaglebuzz]

Considering how many times the Raiders got let off by the ref and how bad we played in the first half I'm pretty happy we were able to grind out the win. That start to the second half was very encouraging, that we were able to blow them away without Tom. Just need to do that more.

 

[Highflier]

Wasn't he suspended for one game?

no that was last week ,he started and then came off after 22 mins when Walker came on

 

[davohan123]

I’m actually glad that we won a game with such a flat performance. Beating the Eels who were down and out with touch footy was great but it’s not championship quality stuff.

to turn up flat and play a desperate Raiders who had all the momentum and play that scrappy style that we hate, was truly memorable. I’m ecstatic after that win. We lose that game every other day of the week.

we learned to win ugly tonight..to roll the sleeves up and win off the back of desire and rugged defence...to play with patience and not try to chase points through stupid shifts...

that’s one of our best wins of the year IMO.

Warriors game in round 5 it was exactly like last night we had no right to win that night and in my mind was the turning point of our season all the way back in April.

 

[Technical Coach]

Yeah, although I think that’s quite an easy conclusion to come to (same with probably all sides if you took out their most dominant player).

But I thought tonight showed we are a better team without him than we think they are. Raiders played the same against the storm last week and were close to winning. Weren’t too much different today yet without trbo we were able to grind them down. Had flashes of being that destructive team we know.

Now we know without trbo we can score 50+ (cowboys win) and that we can grind down desperate teams (raiders).

What teams also learn is that in general if you limit our ability and confidence to spread the ball laterally early with or without Tom our performance drops off significantly.

Some teams will push up fast to try and limit the spread then slide as you can't be fast enough all the time(can create issues like Parra when you don't win the contact and slow the play the ball then you get caught up in two minds in rushing up and some sliding too early creating an indecisive defensive line)

Some teams will back themselves to be in our face with up and in risking the long balls to the edges to cut short the lateral play early on in the sequence and try and induce errors due to a lack of time to execute.

Some teams will get the balance of rushing up straight and then sliding just right like the Panthers and force us inside with under plays, Parker is essential for Manly to maintain straight shape on that side so the slide doesn't keep pushing us sideways or playing unders.

Our forwards need to be more consistent in generating punch and thrust without Tom but we also can't go into our shell with too much tense one out stuff when the points are lacking.

Manly still have a lot to learn to be more effective and consistent without Tom, that is what Melb do so well, their systems and structures are drilled in to be effective no matter what or who is in the squad----it is the good structure and execution that brings in the points not overly reliant on a specific player to make the structure work.