The Good, The Bad and The Ugly - Rd 9 2014

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The oddball NRL draw threw up a ridiculous second Melbourne encounter in just 9 weeks, with an injury punctured Manly flying south to face the challenge. CF2 thought it was time to grab the keyboard and document the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of not only this match, but the first 9 rounds to date.

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The oddball NRL draw threw up a ridiculous second Melbourne encounter in just 9 weeks, with an injury punctured Manly flying south to face the challenge. CF2 thought it was time to grab the keyboard a
Manly-vs-Melbourne.jpg
nd document the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of not only this match, but the first 9 rounds to date.

by CF2

Player ratings:
Brett Stewart: Understandably missed all 3 of the absent boys setting him alight out wide, instead mostly staying tighter to the ruck and in the process being way less effective. Scored a clever captains try to give us a huge chance of winning, but just 29 metres paled painfully against Slater's stunning 181 metres.
Jorge Taufau: Quietly working his way towards an Origin position, capped of a strong game with a seemingly impossible try, but would still like to see him more involved.
Steve Matai: Tough as usual game, but like Brett missed Foran out on the left. Classic Matai goal kicking, easy kick shockers but nails one from out wide. Sadly those misses really counted but you can't blame a temporary kicker at best. (Just on that, surely it's time we found a proper Lyon back up?).
Peta Hiku: Super game in Lyon's boots, great break to nearly set up an early try, and never gave up with both the ball in hand and rugged defence, plus a super 40/20 save. So importantly versatile.
David Williams: What happened to the mad indestructible force with the hippy long hair? A mere shadow of himself ever since the GF. The Cronk bomb wasn't easy, but it's first grade and you have to get closer than that. Unless there's a renaissance, and save for being an obviously important injury cover, are we seeing the last of our loved Wolfie as a go to match winner?
Jack Littlejohn: Really like the look of Littleforan. The first half 40/20 attempt was the wrong play at the wrong time and unfortunately cost us, but tried his guts out all night. Super effort for only game no. 2.
Daly Cherry-Evans: Looked like a 50% fit version of our usual MOM DCE. Never stopped trying off course and hats off for even being out there.
Jamie Buhrer: The apparent off season bulk up seems to be really paying off for the much improved 2014 model, a great asset and scored an inspired try when we needed it.
Justin Horo: Is it just me or has the 2013 Horo the hero just fallen back a notch? Certainly never stops working though with solid stats of 122 metres and 23 tackles.
Anthony Watmough: Ditto Horo? Yes the work rate is still exceptionally high, but it's been a while since Choc really tore a game apart. Still a great player, but the inevitable journey down the mountain seems to be well in progress having reached the peak a season or two back.
Brenton Lawrence: Not quite the dizzy 2013 heights but still hugely important and worked hard tonight.
Matt Ballin: Can anyone believe 8 seasons and close to 7,000 tackles, without even the slightest hint of fatigue. Another 51 added to the tally tonight in a typical non stop display, but I can't help wondering if it's time for a L'Estrange bench partner that gave us a valuable attacking option a few years back.
Josh Starling: Tries very hard and does a quietly reliable job, but seems to be holding onto a starting jersey from lack of competition rather than being a stand out first choice.

Bench:
Dunamis Lui: I'm not seeing a huge amount, but would love to be proved wrong. Can't help wondering if Hasson isn't a better option, but Toov's must have reasons.
Jesse Sene-Lefao: Looks exciting with every touch, but clearly needs more game time to get vital experience.
Jason King: Sometimes there's just no hiding from the truth. A truly wonderful club servant, but it's many a long season since the tearaway Origin Kingy graced the field, and time is ticking on fast.
Tom Symonds: I said it all last season, the most frustratingly underused talent in the squad. Did an excellent job filling in at right centre. It's depth like this that has a huge input to winning premierships.

THE GOOD:
A game we had every right to lose by 20 was remarkably right in our hands with just 10 to go, but at that point it was plain to see 19 points would likely not be enough. Right on cue the never die wondering Storm rolled the dice, and as it annoyingly so often does, the Cronk russian roulette kicks fell right into their hands. Nonetheless, how incredibly encouraging that despite 3 of our biggest stars missing there were so many positives from this gutsy performance down in bleak city.

THE BAD:
The lack of possession in the final 10 minutes left us lying prone, and pro's like Cronk will make you pay for it. A real pity given we were largely the better team, but disappointing given the win was right there in our hands.

THE UGLY:
The injuries of course, but that's footy and they could have come at a much worse time. If it hadn't been worn for a good cause, the Storm Cadbury wrapper jersey would have been a close second.

SUMMARY:
Rd 1 we should have beaten Melbourne comfortably at home with a big 20 point lead, only to let Smith snatch it off the hook. 9 weeks later we once again had their measure only to stumble again, albeit in very different injury hit circumstances this time. The game was ours but we just lacked possession in those vital last 10 mins, and as mentioned Cronk's bingo numbers came up.

A bad sign? Far from it, in fact I'm more than convinced that come finals time, presuming we are near full strength, we will more than have Melbourne's measure, just as we proved with Souths last year.

With a bit of luck, two Melb wins that were right in our hands would have given us an incredible 8/9 tally. Nonetheless, despite that frustrating double disappointment, we've still racked up an impressive 6/9 with 12 important points in the bag. Significantly, those 9 rds have already ticked off our arguably toughest competitors in Melb twice, Souths, Roosters and Cowboys. That's an excellent base leading into the Origin period, setting up a very strong position to cement yet another top 4 finish, and with it a big opportunity to go all the way.

Highlights to date? The Souths and Roosters wins undoubtedly, proving that we have sheer guts in spades. The Canberra whitewash was just plain fun to watch, it's been a while since I sat in my seat in the Jane Try stand chuckling loudly every second minute as DCE carved the Raiders into small pieces. 42-0 after 30 minutes was certainly one for the books, and the look on the surliest coach in history's face was priceless. (Hey Ricky that's 54 points two games running, what's this weeks excuse buddy?).

The Glenn Stewart thing? Firstly it's an absolute criminal joke that the NRL doesn't have a full cap exemption for 10 year loyalty. It's infuriating to think that massive error means one of our most loved sons will not only have to leave, but worse still wear THAT ugly jersey. Actually it makes me sick to think about it, but I can only hope, as we all do, it will drive us even harder to win the premiership this year and send Glenn out on our collective shoulders.

However, talk of blaming David Perry is just plain ridiculous. It doesn't take a genius to see that 3 grand finals in 6 years, including 2 premierships, (should have been 3, but that's for another day), finally had to take its toll. As brilliant as he is, as valuable as he is, as maroon and white as his is, the simple fact is that Glenn will be 31 next season, and his knees aren't getting any younger. Not only that but Hasler's regime left us with the well documented heavily back ended contract dilemmas. Quiet how David Perry has managed to keep the team this intact is nothing short of remarkable. (Just on that subject, isn't it laughably ironic that after all that post 2011 'Hasler will steal our team' hysteria he's ended up with a grand total of just ONE player in the hopelessly lazy T Rex). The fact is we have the two best young halves in the game who love the club and love playing together. They are our absolute future and they naturally must be first in the queue for the big bucks, in fact whatever takes to keep them, and don't spare the horses. Let's just trust David and the board to make those right decisions, and accept that it's impossible to escape the inevitable salary cap pain in the process.

Heroes like Brett, Jamie Lyon, Stevie Matai, Anthony Watmough, Matty Ballin and of course vital re-signings such as Peta Hiku, Jorge Taufua and Jamie Buhrer, along with emerging stars like Jack Littlejohn, Clint Gutherson and Jake Trbojevic, and hopefully several more rookies, will see the great Manly Sea Eagles continue to be a dominant force in the competition for many years to come.

The future is very exciting, as is this 2014 season, and with it the very real opportunity to right the Roosters wrongs of 2013 and bag our 9th glorious premiership.

Looking forward to Monday week down at the Fortress to continue the march.
 
These reports are always a good read.

Well done and keep up the good work, glad your back.
 
Brilliant report as always agreed with all your points.

Thanks very much CF2 awesome stuff hope we hear from you again soon we've missed you.
 
Can they retire that UGLY jersey now that they're 0 from 2 whilst wearing it? Why did they wear it anyway? As far as I know women don't necessarily prefer Pepsi to Coke, do they?
 
Great report - disappointing to lose last minute but great effort by the boys they just got tired late with no possession - it wasn't a game too many people gave us a chance in and cant cry too much about the result. Ballin, Hiku, Buhrer all great & I though Horo & Lawrence went Ok too.

Those metres gained for Snake are very enlightening - surprised its not even lower actually. The handbrake is well and truly on 95% of the time these days....fortunately that other 5% of the time is still very good and leads to a try or two. But last time I checked running was still part of the game. Can we get someone to run for him ??
 
It's all been said above. Thank you cf2 for taking the time to write these reports. Thoroughly enjoyable read and invariably right on the money. Cheers
 
there's clearly a lot of time and commitment goes into these reports. great stuff. I love the read even after this annoying loss. I do reckon we are a far better side than the endless wrestle slow - the - play down kings the storm are. we so massively have their measure if and when we meet them late into the season.
 

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