Thoughts On The Game

[Ryan]

1st and foremost. Monaghan. Awesome effort for 80 minutes. Unfortunate for Dunley I suppose at the same time. I thought he held the team together very well, and we maintained structure throughout, that seems to go missing when Dunley is on the park. He is really a very very good defender.

Matt Orford. I thought he had a blinder, but that doesn't seem to be the concensus. He scored a solo try, kicked the winning goal which was a difficult one. He ran to the line. He threw very wide passes to Bell etc (something last years team wouldn't do) which gives us width.

Steve Matai regardless of position has to be in our team next year somewhere. Tonight he made excellent runs from dummy 1/2, and chewed up the metres big time. I really liked his aggression. I also like the way he defends physically his players on the park i.e. when Kylie hit Carney a little high.

Brent Kite is a devestating player. We need to tie this bloke up for a very, very long time.

Steve Bell appeared to have lost his slight timid ways from last week, and he's back to his butter slicing the line best. Honestly, has Manly ever had a centre that can make line breaks as much as Bell does ever before? His combination with Hicks in attack is ruthless. Imagine Lyon the other side of the field !!! 8|

Travis Burns. I think this bloke will get better and better. For mine - best game from him (apart from the kick out on the full :evil: ). I was probably a critic early on, because of his size (hypocritical of me I know), but he has shown he plays above his weight. Tonight he took a lot of pressure off Orford, which for me made it look as though Orford didn't do as much...but that's a good thing !!!

I would have like to see George Rose get more game time. I'm sure this will happen though, with Leuluai leaving our shores. Rose definitely makes me feel better knowing he's there when Lulu goes.

Luke Williamson was very, very good AGAIN in defence. Maybe we DO need a player like that on the park espescially in games like this one.

Des Hasler had one of his better games. I honestly thought he selected wisely, even WHEN it may have upset Dunley.

Brett Stewart. No getting back into things slowly. Everything about him is scintilating. Just awesome. How easy did he run down Carney, and the commentators were shocked (apart from Sterling). Definitely no wing for him guys. :lol:

Robertson adds a hell of a lot to the team than just scoring tries. He is very safe against def kicks from the opposition. He gets involved. He runs straight at the line unlike Donald used to.

Bryant - please Manly - sign him up again. Another player (and forward under Roach) who is actually getting better and better. Very damaging runs. I love seeing the determination on his face.

Overall a fantastic effort. At night. Against Newcastle (team 4). On a field we only last won at years and years ago.We need to remember this fact. I had no doubts we could beat The Knights as seen in my threads this week....and I repeat....at full strength, think we can beat anybody, including Melbourne, at their little Graveyard.

Thanks guys...WOOOOO HOOOOOO 3RD !!!!!

 

[Cletus]

I thought it was a pretty classy win. We had Watmough off for a lot of the first half and Kennedy off for the last half hour.

Stewart was faultless. He was everywhere Robertson wasn't for the last two weeks, and didn't drop a ball from a high ball. Stewart adds plenty too our attack as well, I'd love to see him on Bell's side a bit more. I though the cover defence from all the guys was outstanding. We shut down a lot of linebreaks in that game.

Orford was good overall, but he made some bad decisions. His kick for Bell's try was awful, and he threw a speculator to no one off a break.But I think he's the best half in the comp at taking the line on. He's a lot quicker than he seems, and has a great step.

Kite was outstanding. He's making plaenty of metres and spending a lot of time on the field. It works well with Rose not being able to spend any time on the field because he's fat and lazy. But Rose has a great impact when he comes on, and is really our only impact forward.

Williamson was reliable as ever. He's a smart footballer who makes plenty of tackles and not many errors. I'd rather have Dunley out, I think we need the extra prop.

 

[Dan]

disagree with matai. he has to be an eagle sure, but in premier league. bring on lyon.

How can you get rid of Burns from 5/8 when there is more glaring deficiencies in positions held by players like matai when we have the wrlds best centre coming into the team!

 

[Canteen Worker]

Matai was caught out in defence too many times. Luckily they dropped two balls after his misses. His dummy half running is sensational but he gets and extra 50 m at the cost of two line breaks (and usually tries) to the opposition.

 

[Berkeley_Eagle]

Manly also won the game at the end with our inspiarion al skipper on the sideline (this is why the guy should be at Manly in some form next year)
whoever said to stick stewie on the wing put another tablet under your tongue, he reads the play from fullback beautifully and cleaned up at least 4 dangerous situations and pulled off a couple of trysavers to go with that Made the difference back there

Mona's had a great game and his service is getting better

Travis was definately my MOM as the commentator said he links he is 140kg and he plays that way

Matai may be green but he is still plying his trade and just watch the little things this kid does it really makes a diffence

Orford had a 7/10 game from me , did some good things and some poor things but he gets the ball more than anyone, but you can see he is scheming all the time, remember this is his 1st season with us and he will get better for sure

Menzies played the full game and the guy is all class, he was in everything and again like the commentators said any hits he makes they are hits not flops

Our 4 props were great, really stood up to the knights

Watmough and BK were a bit on the quiet side (injuries again)

but it was a real team effort and I am proud to be a Manly Fan

 

[Guest]

You forgot to give a wrap to King Ryan as I thought he had his best game of the year. It will be intersting to see how he goes against the bunnies next week though.

Mattai made several crucial missed tackles last night and his defence is still a major concern. Bring on Lyon.

Choc is in the same boat as he missed a couple of vital tackles. That is the difference betweeen him and BK - BK always makes the tackles that count.

How good is burns. This guy will be dynamite next year.

 

[Downie]

I'd put Matai on the bench next year, as an impact backrower. He could be great to bring on around the half an hour break to do a lot of running to cover for our tiring forwards and can add some sting in defence. His poor decision making will hopefully be covered up in the middle of the pack.

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

I thought Matai was very good last night

Only real miss in defence was on Simpson, and he held Gidley bloody well, they were more dangerous on the other side of the park, where Burns was caught out of position a lot of the time too

He and Burns are pretty much identical players, plenty of talent and potential, but both make rookie mistakes and give away penalties from trying too hard.

 

[earl]

1st and foremost. Monaghan. Awesome effort for 80 minutes. Unfortunate for Dunley I suppose at the same time. I thought he held the team together very well, and we maintained structure throughout, that seems to go missing when Dunley is on the park. He is really a very very good defender.

Matt Orford. I thought he had a blinder, but that doesn't seem to be the concensus. He scored a solo try, kicked the winning goal which was a difficult one. He ran to the line. He threw very wide passes to Bell etc (something last years team wouldn't do) which gives us width.

Steve Matai regardless of position has to be in our team next year somewhere. Tonight he made excellent runs from dummy 1/2, and chewed up the metres big time. I really liked his aggression. I also like the way he defends physically his players on the park i.e. when Kylie hit Carney a little high.

Brent Kite is a devestating player. We need to tie this bloke up for a very, very long time.

Steve Bell appeared to have lost his slight timid ways from last week, and he's back to his butter slicing the line best. Honestly, has Manly ever had a centre that can make line breaks as much as Bell does ever before? His combination with Hicks in attack is ruthless. Imagine Lyon the other side of the field !!! 8|

Travis Burns. I think this bloke will get better and better. For mine - best game from him (apart from the kick out on the full :evil: ). I was probably a critic early on, because of his size (hypocritical of me I know), but he has shown he plays above his weight. Tonight he took a lot of pressure off Orford, which for me made it look as though Orford didn't do as much...but that's a good thing !!!

I would have like to see George Rose get more game time. I'm sure this will happen though, with Leuluai leaving our shores. Rose definitely makes me feel better knowing he's there when Lulu goes.

Luke Williamson was very, very good AGAIN in defence. Maybe we DO need a player like that on the park espescially in games like this one.

Des Hasler had one of his better games. I honestly thought he selected wisely, even WHEN it may have upset Dunley.

Brett Stewart. No getting back into things slowly. Everything about him is scintilating. Just awesome. How easy did he run down Carney, and the commentators were shocked (apart from Sterling). Definitely no wing for him guys. :lol:

Robertson adds a hell of a lot to the team than just scoring tries. He is very safe against def kicks from the opposition. He gets involved. He runs straight at the line unlike Donald used to.

Bryant - please Manly - sign him up again. Another player (and forward under Roach) who is actually getting better and better. Very damaging runs. I love seeing the determination on his face.

Overall a fantastic effort. At night. Against Newcastle (team 4). On a field we only last won at years and years ago.We need to remember this fact. I had no doubts we could beat The Knights as seen in my threads this week....and I repeat....at full strength, think we can beat anybody, including Melbourne, at their little Graveyard.

Thanks guys...WOOOOO HOOOOOO 3RD !!!!!

Ding Ding Ding. Ryan has got it. Finally,lol. I understand what you were trying to get at before but this guy has a mortgage on fullback. Hes the best at the moment by far.