too often we lose posession in a big way in the first half. Fix that and we fix a lot of demons
I like a lot of what you say. Not all, but a lot.
This last line hits it though - teams that grab those moments. We are a momentum-squandering powerhouse. The number of times we play strong, enterprising footy on offence only to give away a penalty/6-again when a team is trying to respond to a dominant offensive set is infuriating. A lot of people see this as Ref bias - but regardless of if it is either side of that fine line, why isn't it a point of hindsight scrutiny?
We lose posession in a big way as you say, either going for a ballsy play after being pinned down and repelling an 18-tackle set off the back of numerous 6-agains, or a standard hit-up or even - after conceding upfield-assisting penalties for ruck infringements/offside play, and forced line drop-outs. We survive that, then a veteran like Marty pushes a dumb offload when he doesn't need to, or Keppie drops it cold, or Harper gets stripped 1-on-1 on our 30m - and they stroll over untouched after a backline movement 4 plays later, and its like 'Our D is shiit'. No. Our decision making with the ball is the culprit.
There is a pattern of Manly putting themselves (or to the partisan viewer - the Refs' calls putting us) in a backs-to-wall-position early. Gas the tank, survive thru tenacious and admirable D, we have our tails up and bang....undo it through some boneheaded individual decision/moment.
This is a mentality problem. After being pinned down and enduring the emphasis should be on consolidation. Soak the pressure and respond - that response doesn't have to be immediate.
The ignored element of this obsession-with-self is the mental impact on your opponent - you hold out a team piggy backed down field, gifted dubious 6-agains leading to free unearned pressure-building, then the mental impact on the opposition unable to capitalise with that assistance is palpable. They can start to doubt and defeat themselves. Then you strike. This is how the great teams like the Storm of recent years work - methodically punish a teams failure to convert. Not through flashy plays that bring instant returns, but through quicksand-like dedication to a grind your opponent doesn't want - dictate the pace, drag them back to a gameplan you control.
Or you can push your own flashy play imperative, drop the ball on play-2 focusing on an impossible offload/poor ball security, and allow your opposition to settle and re-discover that sense of dominance they were heading towards through 6-again/penalty-gifted territory gain. Then they score a try, get their tails up as our heads drop and hands-on-hips from those who repelled the earlier raids.
I swear, this seems to be our pattern this year - an inconsistent gameplan that hits and misses. And once a team that has taken advantage of a favourable run of borderline calls has it's chin up they uppercut us again, and again, and again. Just ask the Storm, Cowboys, Eels and whoever else we let rack up at more than a point-a-minute over portions of a game where we seemingly went to sleep. Then rewind the game and watch what happened in the lead-up.
Long story short, we are a seriously dumb team sometimes, and push unnecessary plays at inopportune times where our intention can't match our execution - at least not without Tom in world-beating form. There is no fear of retribution Bellamy-style if you do a dumb-shiit play that the rest of the team has to work overtime to cover-up.
