The horror! The horror!

[Kiwi Eagle]

And that last post is a far better way of putting your thoughts across too

Des holds everything close to his chest to everybody outside the club, but i would suggest that the players and insiders at the club know exactly what it going on, and what he want's from them each week

Look, 7 weeks ago, Des had a side running 2nd that in all honesty, no manly fan pre season could have expected with the 2 new halves and the loss of Stewart. Since that point we had some major injury concerns and our standard of play has dropped a long way, but Des simply can't go from a good coach to a bad coach in 7 weeks

We are sitting at this point where I expected us to sit pre season

DSM, I don't agree with all strategies he employs with the bench, my best example being I want to see a lot more minutes from Big Joe who comes on and only goes 1 way, forward

imo, Des has earnt the right to be trusted in his decisions for a while longer yet, we keep saying you can't live off the 08 comp forever, but then again, at many points in 2008, I read the same stuff about Des, for example, his continual picking of Bryant, who turned out to be a really good member of that side, Hall starting was questioned, again he stepped up, and the biggest one of all, for 18 months everybody told Hasler that Lyon would never be a 6. Des stuck to his guns, and he played an extremely vital role in that 6 jersey to win us the comp

 

[hoax1210au]

I remember back in the day Desi used to be the fittest player in the comp and Manly were the fittest team.

Something is clearly wrong at the moment.

 

[MPC75]

Thats better KE
Now we're debating
Des holds everything close to his chest - thats common knowledge
So my theory is the players could be jack of that and losing
Des being not that bright - bit harsh I'll admit = and I take your point that he has steered us to a premiership in 08
But times change, the playing roster changes and I worry that Des banging on with the under the radar, not dropping players and interchange strategies not to mention the lack of fitness problems clearly seen are all symptoms of Des and his stuck and rigid mindset

Last night was the first game we have had our best team (baring stewie and wolfie) on the park for a few weeks. We weren't that far off where we need to be. I think it's a little premature to be pointing the finger at Des and his coaching. I understand everyone is upset, we have every right to be upset, but if you take a step back and look at the big picture we are not dead and buried just yet. No one is giving credit to the raiders defence last night. From what I saw they actually prevented some certain tries that they would normally have let through.

 

[bazeagle]

beyond Des the main issue is that our forwards are not dominating at all, ever
partly because they don't seem to be fit enough
or have the right attitude
Des?

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

And in the 1st 8 weeks of the comp, not 1 forward pack got over our forwards at all, our pack was aggressive and dominant

Is weird how things change in a short space of time

 

[DSM5]

Just why now, is the big question.  Have other teams stepped up where ours has been paddling along?  Hard question for any of us to answer.  What is obvious is that next week is our Waterloo.  Win, and we can move forward, lose, and we're cactus.   

 

[Guest]

Just why now, is the big question.  Have other teams stepped up where ours has been paddling along?  Hard question for any of us to answer.  What is obvious is that next week is our Waterloo.  Win, and we can move forward, lose, and we're cactus.   

In the last 7 games we have only won 2 of them. We beat the real wooden spooners (Nth Qld) by 4 points and we were dead set lucky to beat Souths by 1 point. To be sure of playing in September we need to win 5 of the next 8 games. We play the following:
1. Cronulla - Should win, but we should have beaten Canberra
2. Wests Tigers - They will put 30 on us
3. Newcastle - We always struggle to beat them in Newcastle
4. Melbourne - They will put 30 on us
5. St George - They will put 30 on us
6. NZ - Maybe
7. Easts - Maybe
8. Canterbury - Maybe

So we must beat Cronulla, Newcastle, NZ, Easts & Canterbury and then we will be in 7th or 8th and cannon fodder for the real contenders.

We should be planning for 2011 and blooding DCE, Hoppa, Lussick & Whare.

 

[DSM5]

The loss to the raiders was very expensive.  The Warriors will be tough, as will the rorters and the Dogs.  I wonder if we'll win again this season.  finish about 12th or 13th. 

 

[OneEyedEagle]

My observation has been that we fail consistently to get over the advantage line when in possession or we go backwards. We might make a few breaks and get over the 10m but it’s not consistent. We always seem to run 5 or less meters and the defence is up in our teams face.

When we are in defence, sides are making 10 plus yards against us on each tackle. When we put the kicks in, they go straight to the opposition player and we had no defence there ready to tackle.

I don’t think you can blame Des and without mentioning any names a few of a senior players need to take a hard long look at themselves and ask the hard question of themselves if they really want to be there playing for us because they aren’t putting in a solid effort week in week out, to many EGO’s.

I am not certain if we have underlying problems, i.e. boardroom spats that are filtering to the players but the side is not gelling well as a team as we did when we won the comp in 2008. Something is going on which isn’t being aired in public.