Pfffffffffft, well my prediction last preview sucked.
Last week Cronulla easily walked all over a hapless Dragons outfit, which really came as no surprise from most. Cronulla look very good on paper and they are certainly delivering on this with the stand-outs of the side being Jack Bird and Chad Townsend. They have a power forward pack, good halves and decent backs and I predict will be one of the top teams come finals time.
Manly however were completely ripped apart by the West Tigers, or to be specific we were destroyed by James Tedesco. There was a lot of improvement from round 1, but there is still a lot of work to do for this side to reach anywhere near the heights people were predicting pre-season. Unlike Cronulla we are a very good on paper side that just isn’t delivering, but we are going to need to deliver on Monday if we even hope to beat them on Monday.
Team Lists:
The Manly Sea Eagles
1. Tom Trbojevic
2. Jorge Taufua
3. Jamie Lyon
4. Steve Matai
5. Brayden Wiliame
6. Dylan Walker
7. Daly Cherry-Evans
8. Josh Starling
9. Apisai Koroisau
10. Nate Myles
11. Lewis Brown
12. Martin Taupau
13. Jake Trbojevic
14. Matt Parcell
15. Nathan Green
16. Brenton Lawrence
17. Siosaia Vave
Coach: Trent Barrett
The Cronulla Sharks
1. Ben Barba
2. Sosaia Feki
3. Jack Bird
4. Ricky Leutele
5. Valentine Holmes
6. James Maloney
7. Chad Townsend
8. Andrew Fifita
9. Michael Ennis
10. Sam Tagataese
11. Luke Lewis
12. Wade Graham
13. Jayson Bukuya
14. Gerard Beale
15. Matt Prior
16. David Fifita
17. Chris Heighington
18. Joseph Paulo
Coach: Shane Flanagan
With Chris Heighington returning from suspension Joseph Paulo is pushed out of the top 17 to 18th man. Manly are unchanged from the side that tackled the Tigers last round, probably due to the short turnaround between the game and the team list announcement date. I expect changes in the side, especially if Stewart and Buhrer return from injury.
There is a lot of debate on this site about what the top 17 should look like. It is pretty obvious that there needs to be alterations to it, with every second user on this site giving their opinion on what the line-up should be. If you want my opinion I think Green, Vave, Wiliame and Api need to dropped in place of Mateo, Lussick, Lavaka and Leary (assuming Brett and Buhrer remain injured) with Parcell becoming our starting 80 minute dummy-half player. But enough about the side and onto the nitty gritty.
Analysis:
This is going to be tough for us, this is a great Cronulla side. They have quality all across the park, even Ben Barba is slowly wriggling his way back into form. He has shown flashes of that 2012 form in both round 1 and 2, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he explodes one of these games. I just hope that game isn’t against Manly.
I also hope Brett Stewart finally makes his return for us this game, because as great as Turbo is, we need Snake. They are different players plain and simple. We haven’t adjusted our game style to take advantage of the fast and dangerous running game of Tom Turbo, instead we still rely on the playmaking that Brett Stewart brings. I am going to make a prediction here, we won’t win a game until Snake is back.
Their halves are quite good as well, Maloney is under-performing but so is DCE. Meanwhile Chad Townsend is looking amazing, and completely destroyed The Dragons last Sunday whilst Dylan Walker…. well to put it as kindly as possible he is not used to playing in the halves yet. He scored a try last game, but that was a centre’s try anyway.
Michael Ennis is a wonderful dummy-half. He may be a grub but unfortunately he is a wonderful player. He is smart, hardworking and…. well better than Apisai Koroisau (which isn’t a hard thing to be). He is also a better player than Matt Parcell, because no matter how talented Parcell is, Ennis has the experience that young Parcell just doesn’t have. Parcell may make our ruck speed incredibly fast, but Ennis is a clam, cool and collected head that will never disappoint.
Jamie Lyon, Steve Matai and Jorge Taufua were all horrible last week. Remember how we were supposed to have one of the best back fives in the game? Well where did that go? Age seems to have hit both Lyon and Matai like truck over the off-season, they are struggling big time. Meanwhile Jorge Taufua has suddenly regressed back into his 2014, lazy, error prone self. He may be one of the best finishers in the game, but he needs to sort his issues out desperately. We used to have some of the best edge defence in the game, but it is all gone now. Our sliding defence has disappeared, and as much as I want to blame this suddenly crap edge defence on Brayden Wiliame I can’t.
Speaking of Brayden Wiliame, I am starting to think gypsy curses exist, because there is no way you could lose 13 of 13 games. It is weird but it is like our side’s quality is split in half when he comes onto the wing. I said that I would cut him earlier in this article, but honestly it would be my first order of business if I was Trent Barrett. I don’t understand how a player can be that bad that his awfulness spreads to others like an aura.
Our forward pack is going to need to step it up. When you are up against a forward pack with the likes of Fifita, Graham, Lewis and Heighington you are going to have to be on your best foot. I think our pack can match it with these guys, but we need to step it up. The round 2 performance from our pack was a lot better than their round 1 disaster, but they are going to have to show that sort of improvement again. Nate Myles specifically needs to shape up, he has been good in defence but he just provides nothing in attack. He doesn’t bend the line at all and just casually strides over to the defence every single time. Vave may suck but at least he puts effort into every run he makes. Myles has the ability but he just isn’t using it.
Our team’s big problem is cohesion. We have talent. But none of it is working together. Players are just doing their own thing out there, but that is not how you win games of footy. A champion team will beat a team of champions every time, and we are playing like a team of champions. Most of the tries we have scored haven’t been team tries, they have been individual blasts of brilliance from one player. That is par for the course considering how so much of the team is new, but if we want to be a top 8 team we need to gel soon and start winning immediately.
There is one thing in our favour though, and that is that the Sharks can’t beat us at home. They haven’t won at Brookvale since 2008 and have only beaten us 5 times in history at our Fortress. That is a crazy low win rate, and their win rates aren’t much better outside of Brookie either. The last time Cronulla beat us was in 2012. It’s almost comical how great our record against them really is.
Conclusion:
The Sharks are going to win. They looked great against the Dragons, their forward pack is dominant, their spine is great, their backs are acceptable and they are well coached. Meanwhile we have a middling pack, struggling and old backs, halves that aren’t gelling or firing and a coach that a lot of people have question marks over. Brookvale hoodoo or not, I don’t know how we will win unless we start magically firing. I was wrong last time though, let’s hope I am wrong again. I am going against history by saying this but I think Cronulla will rack up their 6th win at Brookvale in history on Monday. Cronulla by 16.
KeithSheldon
Last week Cronulla easily walked all over a hapless Dragons outfit, which really came as no surprise from most. Cronulla look very good on paper and they are certainly delivering on this with the stand-outs of the side being Jack Bird and Chad Townsend. They have a power forward pack, good halves and decent backs and I predict will be one of the top teams come finals time.
Manly however were completely ripped apart by the West Tigers, or to be specific we were destroyed by James Tedesco. There was a lot of improvement from round 1, but there is still a lot of work to do for this side to reach anywhere near the heights people were predicting pre-season. Unlike Cronulla we are a very good on paper side that just isn’t delivering, but we are going to need to deliver on Monday if we even hope to beat them on Monday.
Team Lists:
The Manly Sea Eagles
1. Tom Trbojevic
2. Jorge Taufua
3. Jamie Lyon
4. Steve Matai
5. Brayden Wiliame
6. Dylan Walker
7. Daly Cherry-Evans
8. Josh Starling
9. Apisai Koroisau
10. Nate Myles
11. Lewis Brown
12. Martin Taupau
13. Jake Trbojevic
14. Matt Parcell
15. Nathan Green
16. Brenton Lawrence
17. Siosaia Vave
Coach: Trent Barrett
The Cronulla Sharks
1. Ben Barba
2. Sosaia Feki
3. Jack Bird
4. Ricky Leutele
5. Valentine Holmes
6. James Maloney
7. Chad Townsend
8. Andrew Fifita
9. Michael Ennis
10. Sam Tagataese
11. Luke Lewis
12. Wade Graham
13. Jayson Bukuya
14. Gerard Beale
15. Matt Prior
16. David Fifita
17. Chris Heighington
18. Joseph Paulo
Coach: Shane Flanagan
With Chris Heighington returning from suspension Joseph Paulo is pushed out of the top 17 to 18th man. Manly are unchanged from the side that tackled the Tigers last round, probably due to the short turnaround between the game and the team list announcement date. I expect changes in the side, especially if Stewart and Buhrer return from injury.
There is a lot of debate on this site about what the top 17 should look like. It is pretty obvious that there needs to be alterations to it, with every second user on this site giving their opinion on what the line-up should be. If you want my opinion I think Green, Vave, Wiliame and Api need to dropped in place of Mateo, Lussick, Lavaka and Leary (assuming Brett and Buhrer remain injured) with Parcell becoming our starting 80 minute dummy-half player. But enough about the side and onto the nitty gritty.
Analysis:
This is going to be tough for us, this is a great Cronulla side. They have quality all across the park, even Ben Barba is slowly wriggling his way back into form. He has shown flashes of that 2012 form in both round 1 and 2, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he explodes one of these games. I just hope that game isn’t against Manly.
I also hope Brett Stewart finally makes his return for us this game, because as great as Turbo is, we need Snake. They are different players plain and simple. We haven’t adjusted our game style to take advantage of the fast and dangerous running game of Tom Turbo, instead we still rely on the playmaking that Brett Stewart brings. I am going to make a prediction here, we won’t win a game until Snake is back.
Their halves are quite good as well, Maloney is under-performing but so is DCE. Meanwhile Chad Townsend is looking amazing, and completely destroyed The Dragons last Sunday whilst Dylan Walker…. well to put it as kindly as possible he is not used to playing in the halves yet. He scored a try last game, but that was a centre’s try anyway.
Michael Ennis is a wonderful dummy-half. He may be a grub but unfortunately he is a wonderful player. He is smart, hardworking and…. well better than Apisai Koroisau (which isn’t a hard thing to be). He is also a better player than Matt Parcell, because no matter how talented Parcell is, Ennis has the experience that young Parcell just doesn’t have. Parcell may make our ruck speed incredibly fast, but Ennis is a clam, cool and collected head that will never disappoint.
Jamie Lyon, Steve Matai and Jorge Taufua were all horrible last week. Remember how we were supposed to have one of the best back fives in the game? Well where did that go? Age seems to have hit both Lyon and Matai like truck over the off-season, they are struggling big time. Meanwhile Jorge Taufua has suddenly regressed back into his 2014, lazy, error prone self. He may be one of the best finishers in the game, but he needs to sort his issues out desperately. We used to have some of the best edge defence in the game, but it is all gone now. Our sliding defence has disappeared, and as much as I want to blame this suddenly crap edge defence on Brayden Wiliame I can’t.
Speaking of Brayden Wiliame, I am starting to think gypsy curses exist, because there is no way you could lose 13 of 13 games. It is weird but it is like our side’s quality is split in half when he comes onto the wing. I said that I would cut him earlier in this article, but honestly it would be my first order of business if I was Trent Barrett. I don’t understand how a player can be that bad that his awfulness spreads to others like an aura.
Our forward pack is going to need to step it up. When you are up against a forward pack with the likes of Fifita, Graham, Lewis and Heighington you are going to have to be on your best foot. I think our pack can match it with these guys, but we need to step it up. The round 2 performance from our pack was a lot better than their round 1 disaster, but they are going to have to show that sort of improvement again. Nate Myles specifically needs to shape up, he has been good in defence but he just provides nothing in attack. He doesn’t bend the line at all and just casually strides over to the defence every single time. Vave may suck but at least he puts effort into every run he makes. Myles has the ability but he just isn’t using it.
Our team’s big problem is cohesion. We have talent. But none of it is working together. Players are just doing their own thing out there, but that is not how you win games of footy. A champion team will beat a team of champions every time, and we are playing like a team of champions. Most of the tries we have scored haven’t been team tries, they have been individual blasts of brilliance from one player. That is par for the course considering how so much of the team is new, but if we want to be a top 8 team we need to gel soon and start winning immediately.
There is one thing in our favour though, and that is that the Sharks can’t beat us at home. They haven’t won at Brookvale since 2008 and have only beaten us 5 times in history at our Fortress. That is a crazy low win rate, and their win rates aren’t much better outside of Brookie either. The last time Cronulla beat us was in 2012. It’s almost comical how great our record against them really is.
Conclusion:
The Sharks are going to win. They looked great against the Dragons, their forward pack is dominant, their spine is great, their backs are acceptable and they are well coached. Meanwhile we have a middling pack, struggling and old backs, halves that aren’t gelling or firing and a coach that a lot of people have question marks over. Brookvale hoodoo or not, I don’t know how we will win unless we start magically firing. I was wrong last time though, let’s hope I am wrong again. I am going against history by saying this but I think Cronulla will rack up their 6th win at Brookvale in history on Monday. Cronulla by 16.
KeithSheldon
... no he is another four letter word starting with c
