The REAL Wolf verdict

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maxta

First Grader
Premium Member
Is he playing THAT bad??
Certainly not up to his early career form & doubt he will again....
Has had serious injuries that have effected his confidence & speed which is a blow for any winger.
The GF, well not his best game but there were plenty of others who's mistakes were every bit as bad including the whistle blowers.
Keep in mind it was a freakish try against Souths the week before that helped steer us to the decider & how many wingers would have stayed in...beaten Inglis...& got it down?? Hiku or Blair??
Always there to do the tough yards also & credit to Hiku, plays every bit as tough as Wolf here but not as quick & Wolf has a super understanding with Lyon usually getting the positioning right to cash in on those 50/50 opportunities for tries.
Confident that Blair is a capable winger but Hiku is far better suited to Fullback/centre & maybe not far off handling the 2nd row imo.
Yes Wolf will cop more bombs than Pearl Harbour this Friday for good reason, but he is still our best option with Taufua & once his confidence is back I have a feel most will be happy to start him.
 
He is the whipping boy due to his many attributes and a bad game :cool:

Fortunately most Fans, 2v and most Team mates still believe in his abilities.

Today's SMH has Foz articulating all of the above.
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/wolfman-williams-determined-to-forget-gf-howler-20140325-hvml8.html#ixzz2x0WhnIV6

Wolfie owns his mistakes and is up front in answering all the simple minded accusations :angel:
The Alex situation would also weigh on his family's mind this week and most probably his too :(

I expect to see him score a lot more amazing tries, and continue to blithely ignore the verbal abuse :)

The South's final assault was broken by his taking the bomb and the quick restart , followed up by the intercept that led to the penalty.:cool: But it is dismissed :huh:
 
Wolfy & JT were the leading tryscorers for last year's comp with 20 each. Some kind of record i remember. His attacking professionalism is not in question.

His defensive game could be improved. Can you coach the ability to read the game in defensive context ?. Yes. Look at the improvements JT has made.
 
I think the problem is not so much with how he is playing, rather it's the size, height and quality of the opposition wingers. These days catching/diffusing bombs is a critically important attribute for a winger. He is up against giants like Tupou and Edrick Lee so he can't compete in the jump. On Sunday he was up against the Fijian flyer who is built like a brickouthouse. Wolfie is not an overly powerful runner that can break tackles. He is not as quick as he once was.
Compare it to the other two Manly wingers: Tafua breaks tackles (but is not good under the high ball. Blair is tall so he can catch bombs. Both have advantages over Wolfman.
These days wingers are as big as front rowers. The game has changed. Physically I think Wolfman would be better suited to another backline position but I dare not suggest it for fear of coping the satirical barbs that an earlier poster received.
 
I agree that his gutsy interception probably saved that Souths game ( imagine if they'd scored instead? Best have left the country Wolf man!)

I was surprised at his lack of pace thereafter...run down by Reynolds, I think. Understandable with his injuries.

Also agree without his try we don't even get to the GF, but yeah he was poor on the night, and he admits that.

Deserves a chance to shine again, but do feel he's running out of those chances and needs to perform soon.
 
Can't decide whether to blame him for missing the relatively regulation put down of DCE's grubber on Sunday. Personally I thought it a 50/50 call that would have gone with us in seasons past. He was pretty fortunate that the ball he fumbled with the line open was knocked forward by us.
 
One of the problems with Williams is that for several years now he refuses to put his shoulders into a tackle.

No doubt he is worried that his brittle shoulders will break again but his defence is second rate as he now prefers to let a winger run past him and then tackle him from behind.

He also often rushes in defence and leaves his winger unmarked. Combined with his lack of height makes him a liability now
 
"Maybe I have blanked it out but just what did Wolfie do wrong AFTER Manly had a 10 point lead in the grand final? Anything?"

I am pretty sure it was in this period (haven't checked) he dropped, or more accurately let bounce off him, an uncontested bomb, probably because he was looking at the chasers. Another kick and repeat set later the Roosters scored. That was worse, I think, than being outjumped by Toupou.
Arguably Wolf should have cleared up the last grubber Jennings pounced on.
Even he has admitted to having a bad match (or a bad three quarters of a match if you prefer) but he didn't lose it solely. Leaving aside the refs, I'd say the season went 20 minutes too long for us, the hard-way finals campaign and forward depletion eventually told and the Roosters stormed home.
The point is more whether the GF was an aberation or a warning sign as far Wolf goes.
 
Actually, following Wolfie's last drop - Killer is the one that drops the bomb that leads to Guerra's try (in the 54th minute )- who walked past Horo, Ballin and Tafua :dodgy:
Killer is also the one that threw a ball to Wolfie's shin, and this is also Wolfie's black mark. :dodgy:
Choc and Horo missing SBW in the lead up to the forward pass try are also exempt from blame :dodgy:

Luckily for Wolfie, he has played in both a winning and a losing GF, so he has a good perspective on the vagaries of the Manly Fans :cool:
 
tookey said:
One of the problems with Williams is that for several years now he refuses to put his shoulders into a tackle.

No doubt he is worried that his brittle shoulders will break again
Neck
 
I think Killer's drop was contested, Wolfie's wasn't. (Killer had a mixed match, it's fair to say).
Anyway I agree you shouldn't pin the loss solely on Wolf but also you shouldn't blank out what happened. You can't say he had a good match or even a not so bad one, but, yes, he was not alone.
I'd say the positive has greatly outweighed the negative over the course of his Manly career and I have loved watching it but what trajectory is that career on? For the first time I am not confident there might not be a better option, namely Blair. Anyway happy to be proved wrong.
 
IQofalimabean said:
Defense wins premierships, and if Manly's right side defense struggled against teams last year it is up to Toovey to improve it.

And you would also hope that players can come up with a better read than, say.., an Andrew Bolt blog about any subject at all. :)
 
I like Wolfie because whether he makes a few mistakes or not, he's there in the contest and gives way more than his weight suggests.
 
Brissie Kid said:
Maybe I have blanked it out but just what did Wolfie do wrong AFTER Manly had a 10 point lead in the grand final? Anything?

From memory, I think he let a Roosters bomb bounce rather than attack the ball, this resulted in them gaining possession in very good field postion and scoring soon after.
 
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
4 3 1 28 6
3 2 1 10 6
4 2 2 39 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
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