Sorry guys - I HAVE to vent:-

[Ryan]

Josh Perry. After we were rumoured to buy him, I have been watching him. Sorry lads, but he is pathetic. Lumbering. Overweight. Slow. Low workrate.

I just don't get how we have lost Monaghan / Burns / Williamson / Dunley probably, and only get that bum, after we upgrade contracts.

Brisbane I agree have released some good talent in Tate & Berrigan. But they had to upgrade Hunt, HODGES, Eastwood, Boyd, Michaels, Moon and co. Now they go and sign Simms. I mean, they already have Parker, Thaiday, Carroll, Eastwood, Stagg & Thorn in the backrow. I guess depth never hurts eh?? !!

I also want to say this player exodus (not only from Manly) is a little frustrating from a fans perspective. I believe I have an affiliation with the players, but it's getting tougher by the day. I know it's a professional sport and all, but in the end, isn't it supposed to be entertainment, for the fans? Where's the passion gone? Thank goodness for players like Beaver.

Now...what is happenning to Manly's season? The Panthers were bad. The Rabbits (even though we won) was a little worse. Last night was plain terrible. Is it just me, or does the team look flat / lethargic? Slow play the balls for example.

Everybody knows how adament I am to always defend Orford. Honestly though, he is a shocker (moreso this year). He offers nothing in attack in the opposition 20. I saw a glimpse of that last year in that final against The Dragons. This year he is geting worse. Is it just me, or does he look dis-interested? I remember him dominating at The Storm. It's like he's just going along for the ride here at Manly. I cannot fathom how someone who doesn't even get selected for City / Country pulls in more than Darren Lockyer.

It then gets me to thinking about Bellamy last year. He dumped Scott Hill and Billy Slater to Norths PL. Can we imagine Des dropping Stewart / Orford to PL? We all know that answer, and as stupid as it sounds, maybe a reality check for the highest paid player at our club is warranted. It's not as though we don't have alternatives. Monaghan has dominated at 1/2 back this year.

Another absolute shocker for mine is Lyon at 5/8. I know Jungle King loves him. But I also bet Jungle King had visions of him making busts out wide in the centres / edges, and tearing the opposition apart, rather than in the middle of the ruck, tackling his guts out !!!

Desmond is just so damned frustrating. Backrowers playing centre. 1/2's playing Hooker. Hookers playing Premier League. 5/8's playing utility. Then these specialised players get released to move one of the worlds best centres to a position he fails at??? Honestly though, that'll do me.

I wanted to discuss our obvious deficiency last night about our forwards compared to The Bulldogs. I won't go down this track, as we all know where that leads.

You all know by beef with Matai. While my opinion is as is, I can understand Nutzcraws and Kiwi Eagles position on him. Frankly, I agree. If he played an incident free year, and was consistent, he would have been one of our better players. BUT, do we roll the dice, and take the chance he will pull his finger out of his bum next year? Des says yes - as he has released Burns to cater for Matai and Lyon.

Rant over and out. :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:
Ryano - at his tragic best !!!

 

[fLIP]

He obviously thinks there are a few blokes ready to step up.

I have faith in him to considering the blokes who have come of age in the last few years.

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

Haha, this one ranks up there with some of "Ryan J Winter"s finest work on the old MSE site

You wouldnt know we were running 2nd 6-8 points clear of 3rd place. There is no need for mass panic lads.

Look forward to the topic "Why we can win the premiership" from Ryan after next weeks win

 

[kingyfan]

I'm with you Ryan.

Kingy is injured and we lost to the dogs.

I've got the razor blades out because all is now lost and we have no hope.

 

[byso]

I pretty much agree with all he wrote.

KE, yes we are going well. But do we want to win this comp?

If so I feel the club is way off the mark. The game plan against us is too simple. Hold onto the ball and bash us with quality forwards.

We all know under this sort of pressure Manly will give first and our attack which is led by The Ox and Lyons gets flustered. So far this season we have only been tested twice in this area. Against the Panthers and Dogs. We lost to NQ from their high skill level, which they can only produce on odd occasions.

 

[Ryan]

Kiwi - yeah, we are running 2nd, but if we continue to play like we have the past three weeks straight, the gap will reduce rather quickly.

Our momentum is shifting.

FFS, I throw up what I think are valid concerns, and every time it gets twisted by some fool into a Ryan-a-thon.

Is there any point in making any suggestions, or voicing any concerns here anymore?

Look at teams that are currently in form Kiwi. You'll notice that how they are going, and how we are currently going is very different.

We need to smarten our act up, or we'll start to get dusted more frequently.

 

[fLIP]

We've won 2 games in the last 5 rounds.

Its nothing to go crazy about but it just brings back those 2005 mid year slump feelings.

I didn't see anything last night that had me confident that we are improving.

Every week we hear Des say the side still has a lot of improvement but so far IMO we have gone backwards.

Someone seriously needs to take over the attacking side of the show at Manly. Des just isn't doing it.

Sure, we can defend (sometimes) but you can stop all the trys in the world but if you don't score?

All it takes is one good performance in defense against us and we don't win cause we can't score.

 

[Ryan]

It's as though the players are intimidated by some squads. Nth Qld for example. Why? I don't know.

 

[Canteen Worker]

Most teams have some sort of poor period in a 26 week season. Do any of us perform at 100% in our jobs every day. Better to be slow now than at finals time.
As for signings - the real issue is the salary cap and players that want to play in their preferred position.

The powers that be have committed long term to Orford and Lyon. If Monas and Burns want to play half and five-eighth then they have to go elsewhere. We didn't want or ask them to go but they have made their choice. C'est La Vie!!!!

PS the rant should really be how Brisbane can sign these guys and stay under the cap!!!!

 

[fLIP]

Desmond is just so damned frustrating. Backrowers playing centre. 1/2's playing Hooker. Hookers playing Premier League. 5/8's playing utility. Then these specialised players get released to move one of the worlds best centres to a position he fails at??? Honestly though, that'll do me.

Ryan, that is your best work right there.

I could not have put that any better. And the more I read it, the more I become frustrated that the side can be some much better if everyone just plays the position that got them their contracts at manly.

 

[fLIP]

Most teams have some sort of poor period in a 26 week season. Do any of us perform at 100% in our jobs every day.

Most of us don't go to work just 1 day a week for 90mins and 25 weeks a year.

 

[Ryan]

Most teams have some sort of poor period in a 26 week season. Do any of us perform at 100% in our jobs every day. Better to be slow now than at finals time.
As for signings - the real issue is the salary cap and players that want to play in their preferred position.

The powers that be have committed long term to Orford and Lyon. If Monas and Burns want to play half and five-eighth then they have to go elsewhere. We didn't want or ask them to go but they have made their choice. C'est La Vie!!!!

PS the rant should really be how Brisbane can sign these guys and stay under the cap!!!!

Have to say I disagree Dave. Melbourne haven'ty had poor "periods". They may have a very spasmodic poor GAME (i.e. Tigers on Central Coast, Warriors at Melbourne), but they don't have poor PERIODS like Manly does. We have been poor (espescially in attack) for a fair good while now. I don't care what people say, I think we have a roster that matches Melbournes. We shouldn't then have "down periods". It's attitude and coaching that is letting us down.

Our team on its day can beat anybody !

 

[Canteen Worker]

The end of the season will tell. Melbourne played well all last year. Brisbane were dead ducks six weeks before the finals and came through to win the comp, playing well when it mattered.

Of a comp at this standard any team can win when they are on and the other team is slightly off. We have won games at less than our best and last night we ran into a desperate team. How they and we back up next week will be just as important.

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

Kiwi - yeah, we are running 2nd, but if we continue to play like we have the past three weeks straight, the gap will reduce rather quickly.

Our momentum is shifting.

FFS, I throw up what I think are valid concerns, and every time it gets twisted by some fool into a Ryan-a-thon.

Is there any point in making any suggestions, or voicing any concerns here anymore?

Look at teams that are currently in form Kiwi. You'll notice that how they are going, and how we are currently going is very different.

We need to smarten our act up, or we'll start to get dusted more frequently.

Mate, wasn't intended to bag you at all, was more in fun

I just don't push the panic buttons so early on in the piece. We are going to be at worst 2 points of the competition lead this weekend.
We can look at the teams that are currently in form, such as the Tigers, who lost 4 straight to start the season, or the Eels, who were woeful at the start as well. Teams will go up and down all season, Melbournes performances this season i feel have been inflated by their past 3-4 games, i thought they were pretty lacklustre through the 1st 2 months

I feel in this comp, there will not be a team that doesnt go through a period where they flatten out a bit, and i expected it to come at around this point, mid season, huge game with the storm, and a bye thrown in. Also it has been a long time since we have had this many players in contention/playing in Origin and that is something new as well

People can panic and say in our 2 real tests, the Cows and Dogs, we failed. What i will hold in me is the most hyped, anticipated game of the season, we played an intense, semi final game and came up trumps in that atmosphere repelling EVERY move they threw at us through the hands.

It was unrealistic not to expect some sort of period like this during the season, and personally, I dont feel it will last too much longer. We have had a lot of injury and positional changes effecting the side, hopefully now we can get some consistency in selections and really start to build now. I dont want to be playing our best footy in week 13-18, i want us primed and on the ball week 25 onwards

 

[ants]

Sorry but i am another who agrees with Ryan on this - damn good post by the way - I never really thought about the players out of position but like Flip the more i read it the more frustrating it sounds!

Another way to look at this is that we have $1million in the halves and quite frankly they are playing like 50c. I have long held the opinion that since Orford came our way it has made both Melbourne and Manly better, still don't now whether this is a good thing. When we look back Monaghan did not have the cattle next to him that the Ox has now.

Whilst i'm not bothered that we have the odd blip along the way, like other posters its the attack that ****s me. Des keeps saying there is room for improvement, sorry des where is it?!?

 

[PEPSI]

Another absolute shocker for mine is Lyon at 5/8. I know Jungle King loves him. But I also bet Jungle King had visions of him making busts out wide in the centres / edges, and tearing the opposition apart, rather than in the middle of the ruck, tackling his guts out !!!

I gotta say Ryno, Friday night i saw some awesome aspects of Lyon's play, for the first time this year he consistantly beat a man one on one which was missing thus far this year, he really needs to do more of this as its his strength, he is a ball runner! I got very excited buy all this BUT all this proved to me is as he would be a fantastic CENTRE!!!!( or should i say IS a fantastic centre ) BUT yeah i dont know if his passing game is anywhere near 5/8 standard, problem is i dont Think Travis' passing game is much better so in attack i dont kn ow what the answer is long term.

As far as this year is concerned i dont know if Travis should play 5/8 and Lyon centre if only for the defensive reasons as i rate them both amongst the best defensively in their positions.

 

[Andrew..]

I only post on here on occasions so in my mind it doesn't really entitle me to much of and opinion, but I must say I pretty much agree with Ryan's summation even down to the fact that Matia was a liability , but now I can appreciate the fact that at least he is playing with some passion.

 

[Nutzcraw]

I'll say this once more for the slow people.

Lyon should be at 6 as a ball runner!!

We don't want two dominantly ball playing halves.... The game doesn't work like that anymore and Orford can't play with a ball playing 6 outside him.

Yes, Lyon is a ball runner but Lyon can also ball play a bit.. he has a sharp pass both ways and has good vision.. perfect for a 6. He hasn't reached anywhere near his potential but a few here have already touched on why he would make a good 6 but haven't said that he should be 6.

Lyon can beat a man one on one and this creates an overlap... once he gets firing (which i'm hoping isn't far off) he will continue to do this and then feed the ball off to Bell or Matai... here come the tries!

The razzle dazzle fancy stuff NEEDS to come from Orford NOT lyon. Orford is very much capable of doing what is required but for the first 14 games of this season he hasn't done it.

Orford is the first receiver.. he should receive the ball, look up and sum up what should happen.. if he can conjure up something than he should go with his instincts and put the grubber in, throw the cut out ball, quickly shift it to Lyon or take the line on himself.

If he chooses to shift the ball to Lyon.. than Lyon will beat his man and feed it off to Bell or Matai hopefully with an overlap.

I believe this is the plan... but there are a few things blocking all this from happening at the moment and I believe that these things are:

1) The fact Lyon and Orford haven't played many games together

2) Lyon is still trying get back to his best

3) Orford has been pretty ordinary all year

I think we are on the right track guys, we just need to be patient and keep these guys in their positions which will give them confidence and once they have the confidence, we should see some great attacking play.

 

[Jatz Crackers]

In regards to the original post topic on Perry, I will only say that I can understand anyone who has doubts about him. For whatever reason I see the potential for him to improve once in a new club that has the right facilities, medical, training etc. There are no guarantees but Manly could be just the ticket for him and for us.

As for the issue of Lyon at 6, I am still of the opinion that he can work and I have a similar take on the issue to Nutz.

 

[Chip and Chase]

We are basically buying Perry to replace Rose, so I think they have equal degrees of immobility and lumberingness, so we are no better or worse off. If we bought Perry to replace Kite, for example, I'd be pi$$ed.

I think Perry will add a bit to depth. It doesn't seem like we have a lot of PL props knocking on the door otherwise Rose and Hall would have struggled to get a bench spot at times.