The Truth....

[maxta]

This game was lost in 2 key areas....1 obviously being a new team ....secondly....hate to say it but the ruck!!
The contact & intensity very similar to the Dogs but they won the contest at the play the ball 90% in the first half.
Played it quicker & slowed us down well, with a contentious 3rd man flopping in at times & slow release but their defence was set on most occasions...in comparison Manly were going backwards.
This was the most surprising aspect of tonight's game for me & frustrating to see it unfold.... No doubt Barrett & Co will counter this soon, if this contest is lost, there's little chance of winning on the scoreboard.
To be dominated in tempo, there's a far higher chance of those "sloppy" tries scored also, due to a defence losing its cohesion & individuals losing touch of their role.

 

[cava2323]

Totally agree. Was painstakingly obvious watching the ruck speed what the end result would be.

Owell, first game. We were kidding ourselves if we thought the team would gel off the bat.

 

[Dan]

Ball control again!

 

[robbiea]

Slow ruck ,Ball control & poor positioning out wide killed us.

 

[Mals]

Slow ruck ,Ball control & poor positioning out wide killed us.

Yep. Where are all Hiku haters? Ah yes they have moved onto Williame.

 

[Red Pill]

The very first set of the match where the dogs marched up the field with quick play the balls to reach our 40m line without trouble showed their intent and unfortunately we couldn't match that.

Agree when watching their first set I was thinking where is our line speed??

 

[HoldenV8]

Our defensive line last night looked like 2015 all over again. It moves up a couple of metres and then stops and waits for the attack to come to them. That's gifting metres and inviting trouble from the opposition halves.

In contrast, the Dogs line moved up quickly and didn't give our ball runners any peace last night. That in turn left DCE and Walker little room to work in. They were hitting us within 2-3 metres of the ruck last night. We were gifting them at least 5 metres every tackle.

As much as I love Killer as a player, he has this bad habit of coming in and leaving his winger often facing a 3-1. Hiku copped it last year and Wiliame last night. Not that Wiliame helped things when he came in leaving a HUGE paddock for Rona to run through for their last try.

But aside from all of that, what really killed us last night was a succession of dropped balls and penalties in our own 30 metres in the first half. You can't give a good side like the Dogs that much possession in attack because they will hurt you. And hurt us they did.....22-0 at half time. It could have worse had Rona's effort not been thwarted by the bunker or if Mbye had kicked straight.

The second half, while not great, was an improvement and there were some encouraging signs. But yes, we have a bit to work on over the next 10 days before we face the Tigpies at Leichhardt.

 

[Ron E. Gibbs]

Agree when watching their first set I was thinking where is our line speed??

That's not a drug reference, is it? You do know that's unacceptable in rugby league.

 

[Cameron]

Ball control again!

Sadly she's way better than taufa and brown in the ball control department 🙂

 

[Red Pill]

That's not a drug reference, is it? You do know that's unacceptable in rugby league.

Well we certainly did not have the white line fever last night did we?
ps. White line fever means something different to when you played the game Ronny. 🙂

 

[Cameron]

That's not a drug reference, is it? You do know that's unacceptable in rugby league.

You reckon there will be more speed at Oxford street than off our line. (Roberts, James. Brisbane Broncos 3/4/2016) bugger it I've forgotten how to use Harvard referencing properly 😛

 

[Rusty Cage]

The easy metres the Dogs made up the middle is a big worry.

 

[Napper]

The very first set of the match where the dogs marched up the field with quick play the balls to reach our 40m line without trouble showed their intent and unfortunately we couldn't match that.

Have to agree, i couldn't believe how far they got off the kick off. Bit of a worry

 

[maxta]

Almost like Manly set out to prove this "new forward pack" would dominate Dogs strength...the middle.
Problem was, played at the A & B defenders allowing not only their marker a chance at making a stop , but most importantly - 3 men in the tackle...controlling the Manly speed & also allowing the defence to be set, communicating with time...& shooting up to do it again.
On the other hand Dogs played that fraction wider attacking the edges with their big men like Kasiano, making Manly only have 1-2 players in the tackle with the opposite effect....bending the line & playing it quickly with the defence looking confused & not set.
If Parcell was their hooker would have killed us.....
The errors were forced in poor field position, more on the back of pushing a pass not on....these passes stick if we are rolling through the ruck & bending the line.

 

[Fluffy]

The truth is we have gone backwards.

Pack looks no better than last season when we were decimated by injuries.

Defensive issues like Lyon rushing in have not been addressed. (should point out to HV8 that Williame got to his man, the centre following Lyon in but Lyon was too slow allowing the cut out pass). What is worse this habit now appears on the other side.

Add to this we have made major disruptions to the team to achieve Zero. Therefore added the need for combos factor and cant score points

 

[mjb136]

Was nothing but ball control. How many dropped balls in the red zone?

They poked their nose through the d line and got too excited.

DCE needs to control much better

 

[maxta]

Was nothing but ball control. How many dropped balls in the red zone?

They poked their nose through the d line and got too excited.

DCE needs to control much better

The errors were forced from poor field position & struggling to roll forward in comparison to Dogs, who made 60 metres the first set.

 

[mjb136]

The errors were forced from poor field position & struggling to roll forward in comparison to Dogs, who made 60 metres the first set.

I agree. We also made about 30 tackles in a row and were ****ed the rest of the match. That allowed them to roll through the middle fairly easily.

 

[Woodsie]

We lost the game because we didn't do our homework!

First mention of Bulldogs pack shedding Kg's and getting fit I heard was 10 mins before game time.

Q) If Barrett knew Kasiano and co. had lost upto 13kg's (and be unlikely to tire) would he still have gone into the game with a light weight pack and part time 2nd row?

A) yes, then he's mad.
A) No, Then do your bloody homework, can't have been that big a secret.

All our woes last night came as a result of being on the backfoot all night.

 

[Simonmyers11]

The very first set of the match where the dogs marched up the field with quick play the balls to reach our 40m line without trouble showed their intent and unfortunately we couldn't match that.

There were good the dogs last night. And they do have the best pack in the nrl, lets not forget that. They usually tire but last night looked a lot fitter