Things we we learnt from Round 13

[Freagle]

Thought for the night. Anthony Siebold leaves, and we become crap...while the Bunnies go from crap to very good.

 

[The Who]

Lacking in attack and resolve I agree with.

But I am not sure how letting in 24 points (while only scoring 12) can be considered good defence against a side that was running 15th and, other than Taumalolo and Granville, had an at best reserve grade quality pack.

1. Their first try was a fluke; simply a case of the ball bouncing the Cows' way
2. Their try from a kick was an outstanding piece of football from the Cows. We defended the catcher but he got away a marvellous pass
The other two tries were, again, a result of our outside backs being outflanked. It has happened all year. Yes, it's bad defence but only by a couple of players.
The rest of our defence was good, imo. We defended our line stoically. We scrambled well. We had commitment. In fact, our on-line defence was better than the Cows.
Where we failed was not challenging them in attack, and DCE and Hodkinson are most to blame here. They are two of the most experienced halves in the NRL, yet reverted to a fifth tackled kick-and-hope - none of which were any good. Where are the Manly backline movements we've grown up with over the past 50 years? We are playing boring, safety-first football that is proving to not be so safe after all.

 

[HoldenV8]

Part of the problem was that, thanks to a poor 5th tackle option in our very first set of six where instead of kicking the ball Cherry was caught in posession on the halfway, we had to do so much defence early that by the 60 minute mark we were looking for the Shell Answer Man.

Our 5th tackle options were deplorable. DCE's mid-field bombs weren't working yet he kept on putting them up all night. And why were DCE and Hodko kicking for touch late when we were behind? That's almost like conceding defeat.

The goal line defence was generally good, that I won't argue with. Our right edge though.....especially when Jorge isn't there 😵