The ruck interpretation kills us

[maxta]

I see Manly lose on both sides of the coin in recent seasons
In attack, opposition like NZ tonight, seem to get away with holding us down.
I feel every supporter can claim this at times, but when it happens to Manly, it continues all game and there are errors and pushed plays in the back of it making it twice as frustrating and gassing out our defence even more.

The only answer, apart from blaming officials which is a No Win situation, is to show more urgency
Manly have a real lack of fight to play the ball and in fact spend more time appealing to the ref than fighting to play it ??
I mean the more you fight to play it quickly, the less time defence has to lay around and can win penalties/ momentum

Secondly in defence, the opposition so often creep off the mark and play it behind our markers...often like NZ tonight and Melbourne get away with it every game and you can bet they practice it and NZ looked up the blueprint tonight


The answer here imo, is the Manly defence have not had enough control in the tackle to totally stop the attacking momentum and the attacking player sets the mark "1 - 2 metres upfield" as they are winning the ruck contest and our markers have not been dominant enough to set the mark....if the defence controls the tackle the marker will "always" be first up and set a mark, but due to the attacker winning this battle, for right or wrong, they then also dictate where the ball is played....Manly need to get on this soon, or every team will take advantage of our gentleman door service at the play the ball area like NZ did tonight and the ruck is always going to be the key to winning footy games

 

[mave]

We are a flashy team, with little interest in doing the hard stuff.....and have been for a decade or so.

We actively refuse to get into any sort of grinding footy, despite that being the blueprint to winning comps every year in living memory except 2005.

It all starts at the ruck, as you say, and our overall style of play is not focused on winning the ruck.....we are a fist tackle chip and chase style of team.

Maybe we just need more weapons to overcome our refusal to get down and dirty.

 

[The '47ers]

Didn't see the game, only radio in and out of the work ute but sounds like Jake has a lot of "ruck interpretation" problems. The commentators said he'd given away five 6 agains before his binning?

 

[Bringbackcliffy]

Didn't see the game, only radio in and out of the work ute but sounds like Jake has a lot of "ruck interpretation" problems. The commentators said he'd given away five 6 agains before his binning?

He always does, his lack of pace isn’t just with the ball

 

[maxta]

He always does, his lack of pace isn’t just with the ball

Jake can make a good tackle, but like some other Manly forwards, looks sluggish in controlling the attacker who seem to find their feet first and play it while he is struggling to even get up to assume the market position, therefore handing the dominance in the ruck to the attacking team and making himself offside, along with his team mates still trundling back onside....which creates that momentum through the middle and adds pressure then to the edges in a snowball effect

 

[Dion Johnson]

He was perfect against the Cowboys Jake with his discipline, he had one penalty against him and two ruck infringements against the Warriors, Jake looked liked he needed a rest before halftime, don’t know why he wasn’t on the line for 10-15 minutes. Waddell could have played more minutes.