HoldenV8
Journey Man
Our team was nowhere near as fit as it should have been in 2018. Seriously, how many times were we in a game (or leading one) up until about the 60th minute, then we'd just die in the arse and have nothing left to give or to fight off an opposition fight back?
Even our leading players (i.e. rep players) suffered with the possible exception of DCE who is arguably one of the fittest players in the NRL. For mine one of the obvious was actually Tom Trbojevic. How many times did he basically run out of gas 3/4 of the way through a game? Usually right at a point where we needed him to step up, his game involvement became less because he had nothing left in the tank. If you look at the mistakes he made in games such as that dropped ball against Penrith right in front of the posts, how many of them were made at the back end of games?
Dan Ferris is a fraud IMO. Take a look at the Titans when he was there, it was the same thing. Unfit players and a bucket load full of injuries. I know that injuries happen frequently in a contact sport like rugby league and it doesn't matter how fit a player is, sometimes things like an ACL happen. But soft tissue injuries in the NRL are often the result of a lack of fitness and that is what Manly had under Ferris the Fraud.
Sure we had injuries when Donny was last at Manly and no doubt will again, that is the nature of contact sport no matter how fit a player is. But they weren't as numerous as we seemed to have in the past 3 years under the Frauds watch.
When he played, Des was one of, if not the single fittest player in the competition (and that included renowned fitness freaks like Wayne Pearce). Donny is recognised as one of the best trainers, plus we have Matty Ballin back in the house and we all know how fit he was as a player and that he is a fully qualified trainer. The squad being a lot fitter will go a long way to improving our competitiveness on the field.
Even our leading players (i.e. rep players) suffered with the possible exception of DCE who is arguably one of the fittest players in the NRL. For mine one of the obvious was actually Tom Trbojevic. How many times did he basically run out of gas 3/4 of the way through a game? Usually right at a point where we needed him to step up, his game involvement became less because he had nothing left in the tank. If you look at the mistakes he made in games such as that dropped ball against Penrith right in front of the posts, how many of them were made at the back end of games?
Dan Ferris is a fraud IMO. Take a look at the Titans when he was there, it was the same thing. Unfit players and a bucket load full of injuries. I know that injuries happen frequently in a contact sport like rugby league and it doesn't matter how fit a player is, sometimes things like an ACL happen. But soft tissue injuries in the NRL are often the result of a lack of fitness and that is what Manly had under Ferris the Fraud.
Sure we had injuries when Donny was last at Manly and no doubt will again, that is the nature of contact sport no matter how fit a player is. But they weren't as numerous as we seemed to have in the past 3 years under the Frauds watch.
When he played, Des was one of, if not the single fittest player in the competition (and that included renowned fitness freaks like Wayne Pearce). Donny is recognised as one of the best trainers, plus we have Matty Ballin back in the house and we all know how fit he was as a player and that he is a fully qualified trainer. The squad being a lot fitter will go a long way to improving our competitiveness on the field.
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