Trial Thread - Manly V Tigers

[Moops]

Maaate, I know it was a trial and all but after two ** years weren't you hoping to see at least a change in attitude across the club and we offered a bit more than that total ? It was a trial for the Tigers as well and at least they had a crack. It was same old some old ** from us. No offence to dick eaters but we ate dick.

Anyway, agree, let's see how we go when the real comp starts ... first few rounds are looking great .......

1. Rd 1, Roosters,
2. Rd 2 Rabbitohs
3. Rd 3 Dragons
4. Rd 4 Panthers

That's a dream start! Bring it in...... Koombaya my lord, Koombaya ....... top 4 here we come....

Stock up on lube boys.

Big thanks to todays match day sponsor. Great that they are behind us again in 2021!
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I dont like it when that van makes an appearance. It means things are looking bad...ominous!

 

[wombatgc]

Riddle me this.
Our most important position is hooker.
We have Croker injured, Cust now injured in the first half,
so what does Des do? He leaves the only genuine
hooker in Birt on the bench for 70 minutes. Nice one Des.

 

[Ron E. Gibbs]

I saw enough of Birt to be satisfied he should be our starting 9.

Big call on 10 minutes of game time, but I agree the attack looked a lot more focussed with him out there. At least he looks like an actual dummy half.

 

[sheridanstand78]

Oh well, glad thats out of the way.

Concerning that the team gives up 52 points and that before and after half time we got smashed.

Fantastic to see Josh Schuster score and try and make 2 others, this is just we need in our halves to take the heat of DCE.

The Tigers were a lot sharper and had more of their first team on the paddock than we did.

I dont want to be too fussed as its only a trial, my concern is our rivals in the trials I saw over the weekend looked much sharper at this stage of the season.

Round 1 I predict will be a much better performance!

 

[Ron E. Gibbs]

Riddle me this.
Our most important position is hooker.
We have Croker injured, Cust now injured in the first half,
so what does Des do? He leaves the only genuine
hooker in Birt on the bench for 70 minutes. Nice one Des.

Des is either much smarter than the rest of us or… not. We might be able to answer your riddle after the first month of real footy goes by.

 

[Terry Zarsoff]

It’s not the score that concerns me but our right side defence. Sirro would not be in my 17 at the moment he won’t pass it and keep stepping inside and Leulua owned him today. I was over impressed with Gonski either. Davey and O would be my starting 2nd row. I saw enough of Birt to be satisfied he should be our starting 9.

There are reasons the Geigers’ supporters weren’t sad to see CSIROnen depart.

 

[Shoe1]

That went about the way I thought when I saw the Tiger first grade team selected.

Bright spots for manly were aloiai, birt (excellent), schuster, gosiewski, Davey and Harper.

 

[eagleron]

2021 is ours! Lol

I disagree.. while we got towelled up its only fair to point out they played all there nrl players while we had all of our best players out. After cust got injured we had nothing. Then birt came on very late and showed he can give us direction and stability in the 9. He held the middle better then the other 2 and with more time would of only gotten better. Bit of Harry grant about him. Shame Dasler didn't play him the entire 2nd half, game could of been alot different. With foran turbo saab jake and dce coming into the side it changes completely. Add walker and its a new team. Dont fret yet brother wait till after round 1 for all the doom and gloom. Anyone supporting another team is laughing at comments like that after a trial. Lots of negatives but also some shining lights.
Paseka
Marty
Keppie
Aloiai all looked pretty strong

Davey and Schuster very impressive. Birt looked very good for the limited time he was on, directing the boys where he wanted and not scared to take a dart. Right side is a problem again.. Suli and siro got trampled young rooster winger not 1st grade standard. Davey might be starting after that showing. Very strong runner and has a good offload in him. Could become a crowd favourite. He did oust Lane last year and Lane is better than jetski. Jetski had some good runs and looks more comfortable. Foran will spark up a good combo with him me thinks.

End of the day the tigers showed their hand.. we gave nothing! Harper did a decent job but i think Funa will be fullback come round 1. Chin up mickqld and bring on round 1.

With 9 being our Achilles heel at the moment I can't understand why Hasler didn't give Birt a run much sooner than he did, it's our most crucial position, I can only think that he's already got Crocker pencilled in and isn't looking for anyone else to fill the 9 jumper

 

[Mitch]

Tweet from Gus Gould. He hit the nail on top of the head about our lack of depth outside of the top 17.
@PhilGould15

50 up for Tiger. Tiger 52 Sea Eagle 12. They have run Sea Eagle ragged. One thing this trial has exposed is lack of NRL depth in Sea Eagle roster. Top 17 should be competitive, but they will struggle when experienced replacements are needed. Most of their top players rested today

Yet all that’s been talked about on here has been the increased depth we have this year, particularly in the outside backs.

 

[HoldenV8]

Riddle me this.
Our most important position is hooker.
We have Croker injured, Cust now injured in the first half,
so what does Des do? He leaves the only genuine
hooker in Birt on the bench for 70 minutes. Nice one Des.

Riddle me that.
Would you want him getting injured too?
Or left on the bench so he's at least fit if required when the real stuff starts?

 

[HoldenV8]

Yet all that’s been talked about on here has been the increased depth we have this year, particularly in the outside backs.

Trial game only, but the lack of depth outside of say, our top 18-20, got exposed like a flasher in the park.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

WAIT MARK WAIT.......

Can you leave me your red wine collection?

kthnx

I’m not dead yet !!!

 

[north coast eagle]

No surprises, really, since 2021 has looked like a continuation of 2020 in all areas, but man, it really worries me that all of the glaring faults in our play from last season are still glaring faults in our play: absolutely no idea what to do with the ball whenever we're in the attacking zone, and absolutely no commitment in defence. Watching senior players like Tapau and Sironen turn their backs and walk back into the defensive line just bugs the **** out of me. It doesn't matter if it's a trial - play the game with a bit of pride.

Agree. Way too often caught with one marker, which comes down to attitude. No line speed in defence. Strategy seems to be too stack the middle with large plodders and the outside with inexperienced backs. Has the coaching staff done any work at all on our structural problems in defence and attack. If they dont adjust quickly to the faster agame this could be another long season for us.

 

[Bring back the.... Biff?]

With 9 being our Achilles heel at the moment I can't understand why Hasler didn't give Birt a run much sooner than he did, it's our most crucial position, I can only think that he's already got Crocker pencilled in and isn't looking for anyone else to fill the 9 jumper

Or maybe he's scared he'll get injured like the rest hah!

 

[Jigzkiller]

If it wasn't for the dragons i would have us favorite for the spoon. We have nothing all off season the usual suspects rave about our depth well how did our depth look today? as weak as it was last season.

A fullback who never plays an old busted 5/8 we somehow hope can deliver and no hooker that would get a game at another club.

We are a bottom 4 team until we do something about our depth.

I'm sick of reading about how good our young players coming up are, every time I see them play they are not special at all.

Another long winter and they want $70 to see these clowns play? wouldn't cross the road to see these imposters disgrace the jersey.

Yes yes bring out the usual "it was only a trial" excuse I have us winning 2 out of the first 10 games (beating dragons and broncs who are both worse than us) and today changes nothing.
Croker as hooker and Harper as fullback on top of Garrick, Davey and Parker is a joke. They are all Blacktown level should never be seen in a nrl squad.

 

[The Royal Soup]

Sure. Why not. If your happy to concur with Strones whining drivel, illiterate trolling, and nonsensical dribble, masquerading as support for the Manly Sea Eagles, I am more than happy to accomodate your request.

You are a fool with no idea champ

 

[Mitch]

Trial game only, but the lack of depth outside of say, our top 18-20, got exposed like a flasher in the park.

Clearly there’s a few issues (Hooker and Turbo until he is back), but I think it’s hard to judge the depth that Gus has spoken about when the team is largely made up of that depth against a team which will look very similar in round one.

 

[Fluffy]

Its a trial

Schiluster looked as good as anyone hoped.

Davey better than most thought

Harper more versatile than most thought

Not a lot else going on either way.

We have a tough first month so hope they are focused on that rather than a trial. Would make sense.

 

[Deleted member 26876]

Can’t take much from a trial, especially this one but a few positives and some negatives that come to mind

• Davey was just awesome, so much energy, great solid defence, good running lines and he actually has some good speed on him.
• Harper was great at fullback for a majority of that match and his elusive footwork and good one on one tackles remind me of snake (not that he is going to be a star fullback but I liked him there today). He’ll take some time to get better under the ball in high-pressure situations.
• Cust was going OK at hooker so im not too concerned as long as he isn’t badly injured
• Poor Tuipulotu got stuck on the edge where mainly Siro and Weekes (who had some good one on one tackles though) created hole-city but i’d still rather him in Rd 1 than Garrick who showed nothing
• Schuster had some great touches but I still don’t think he should start over Foran. Kicked dead twice, few risky near-intercept passes, and a little indecision attacking in the 20. Great game from him overall but he needs to keep building under Foz’s lead at least in the first half of this season. I like his short kicking game, and pulled off a great 40/20, but I must say the try scored off his boot was a little too flukey to give credit for.
• Paseka good
• Aloiai pretty good considering his knee is limiting his mobility a bit. He provides some aggression in defence with some good hits. Looks like he needs a little more fitness in him.
• We were Very fatigued. The right edge leaked plenty early on, then tigers got majority of possession and in the heat the boys really lacked match fitness. The problem of having only one trial. Defence was so bad, but I put that down to fatigue more than anything at this stage.
• Very disorganised despite a promising start, probably dur to playing without the main spine members of Dce, Foz and Tom.

This match overall doesn’t change my feelings about 2021. But it was an interesting, albeit frustrating game.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

I liked seeing our players running around getting a hit-out.
Not so good to see them conceding massive metres and many points of course, but it's called a trial for a reason. We are in for a strong season, not a genuine premiership threat yet but should be pushing up into that group.