We miss AFB as much as Turbo.

[swoop]

Fonua-Blake along with Marty are our go forward players. We needed AFB when we were pinned near our line a number of times. I think AFB is equal or ever better than Marty. In the NRL there is no better pairing than these two blokes with the rotation of Sipley, Paseka and Boyle.

Waddel had a great game as well. Our pack is in the top 5.

 

[The better Robbo]

Definitely missed his go forward. Didn't help that the dragons were 2m offside and again the ref too gutless to give a penalty

 

[Sue]

Fonua-Blake along with Marty are our go forward players. We needed AFB when we were pinned near our line a number of times. I think AFB is equal or ever better than Marty. In the NRL there is no better pairing than these two blokes with the rotation of Sipley, Paseka and Boyle.

Waddel had a great game as well. Our pack is in the top 5.

AFB is not only better than Marty he is better than every prop in the game.The final piece of puzzle is his discipline. Our pack is top 8 but our bench is the opposite. Its passable but no more.That can and will be fixed in next couple of seasons.

 

[manly al]

No doubt that A F B would have put more of a dent and provided more go forward in the Dragons defensive line and his high and very effective work rate was missed . Sipley didn 't seem to get a lot of game time last night unless he picked up an injury . Waddell is a real goer .and plays real tough and hard up front which is a real credit to him considering he was apparently a back rower previously Think that Boyle looks quite capable , maybe in the Mark Bryant mould

 

[The better Robbo]

AFB is not only better than Marty he is better than every prop in the game.The final piece of puzzle is his discipline. Our pack is top 8 but our bench is the opposite. Its passable but no more.That can and will be fixed in next couple of seasons.

With a full strength side i think our forward pack is as good as any in the comp.
Add Turbo and Walker into our backline and they are a very strong backline.
I disagree with what you say about our bench... again at full strength Boyle Tangainoa Waddell and Fainu is as good as any bench in the comp. Admittedly Boyle needs some match fitness though.

 

[ricardo]

I was impressed with the forwards last night, really stood up! Jake and Marty led the way, absolutely. But each one of them did their job 100%

 

[Snake]

TOTally agree hat we missed AFB a lot. He is a beast. His ability to attract defenders and get a quick play the ball is an important part of our attack. The halves have more space and time when he rucks it up.

However, the Dragons were without Widdop and De Belin and got the job done with an under strength side. The game could have gone either way and we definitely deserved a penalty at the end of the match. I do think the Dragons aggressive defence at the end of the game probably got them home in the end and we lacked thrust but hung on bravely.

The thing is, in rugby league, it’s rare to have your best 17 on the field at any time throughout a gruelling season. We need to keep winning those tough games when under strength rather than look to excuses concerning the roster. Every club goes understrength each week and it’s easy to casually glance over the opposition omissions and render them irrelevant, whilst looking at our own and seeing the huge impact...it’s an illusion.

My point is, week in, week out, you have to win regardless of injuries because every club has big outs. There are still issues with depth and our roster is not complete. When it is, we’ll be able to lose the likes of Tommy and AFB and still have enough strike to find a way to win. As it stands, I think our roster is not quite at that level yet.

Look at the Chooks...they lost Friend, Taukiaho, Manu and a host of others but still fielded a team with Cronk, Keary, Tedesco and Mitchell...that’s a fair team regardless of who else is missing...Manly on the other hand, we lose Tommy and AFB and there is a lot of strike missing.

 

[40 nil]

I disagree. I think Boyle on the bench was a gamble that didn't pay off (esp. as it seems Sipley was injured?). It would have been better to have Tanginoa on the bench & rotate three big boppers - esp. useful coming out of own end or punching upfield. This would have covered the absence of AFB to some extent.

Manly were often camped near Saints' goal line. If Turbo had played in such an even game, I'm sure that field position would have resulted in a couple more tries. The Turbo-DCE combo would have been the game breaker.

 

[Sue]

Latimore was just on ABC raving about how hard our boys were in defence and said we will be real tough to beat with AFB and Tom back.

 

[globaleagle]

Latimore was just on ABC raving about how hard our boys were in defence and said we will be real tough to beat with AFB and Tom back.

Good, I now want the 2 points.

find me a good lawyer and make it so!




(cough...lol)

 

[stoodamire]

Let’s not forget dragons were also missing Widdop, JDB and Korbin Sims

 

[HoldenV8]

This is a worry though. Posted on Twitter last night by NRL Physio....

 

[Paw93]

Let’s not forget dragons were also missing Widdop, JDB and Korbin Sims

We were missing Tom, Walker and AFB. That's a lot of strike from our backline and the best prop in the game. You could say our forwards just about managed to hold the Dragons and while our backline punched well above their weight, they just had too much class out of the side. Even having Albert Hoppa in the side would have helped.

 

[castle eagle]

without AFB playing there was no second phase from offloads, i think kapow only offered 1 offload the whole game

 

[Scorpio]

This is a worry though. Posted on Twitter last night by NRL Physio....

Any explanation? That is pretty concerning.

 

[ALinda]

This is a worry though. Posted on Twitter last night by NRL Physio....

Fact or fiction??

 

[Technical Coach]

AFB is not only better than Marty he is better than every prop in the game.The final piece of puzzle is his discipline. Our pack is top 8 but our bench is the opposite. Its passable but no more.That can and will be fixed in next couple of seasons.

Still needs to hit the line harder and back himself more, it's more his size and leg strength that carries momentum through the tackle than his impact speed.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

Latimore was just on ABC raving about how hard our boys were in defence and said we will be real tough to beat with AFB and Tom back.

After the battering our confidence would have taken last year, I'm sure the boys have taken a lot out of how we've stood up so far this year against highly rated sides such as Souths and dragons. We seem to be relishing the physical battle and if we can keep that up then it is a great foundation to build on. Hopefully losing at the death won't derail our upward momentum, but with Des at the helm I'm fairly positive we will keep going.
Next home game will be a beauty. They do have a lot of strike power but they'll need it to get over our blokes, the way we are going. Fortress Brookie lives!

 

[QueefRichards]

First post, have been properly following the team for a bit over 10 years...

Introductions aside, I was a bit concerned with Taupau and have been for a few games both this year and last - he sometimes finds himself running across the oppositions defensive line looking for an opening rather than trying to rip a hole straight through it or carry a few players and get an offload away. He hasn't looked his best this year.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

TOTally agree hat we missed AFB a lot. He is a beast. His ability to attract defenders and get a quick play the ball is an important part of our attack. The halves have more space and time when he rucks it up.

However, the Dragons were without Widdop and De Belin and got the job done with an under strength side. The game could have gone either way and we definitely deserved a penalty at the end of the match. I do think the Dragons aggressive defence at the end of the game probably got them home in the end and we lacked thrust but hung on bravely.

The thing is, in rugby league, it’s rare to have your best 17 on the field at any time throughout a gruelling season. We need to keep winning those tough games when under strength rather than look to excuses concerning the roster. Every club goes understrength each week and it’s easy to casually glance over the opposition omissions and render them irrelevant, whilst looking at our own and seeing the huge impact...it’s an illusion.

My point is, week in, week out, you have to win regardless of injuries because every club has big outs. There are still issues with depth and our roster is not complete. When it is, we’ll be able to lose the likes of Tommy and AFB and still have enough strike to find a way to win. As it stands, I think our roster is not quite at that level yet.

Look at the Chooks...they lost Friend, Taukiaho, Manu and a host of others but still fielded a team with Cronk, Keary, Tedesco and Mitchell...that’s a fair team regardless of who else is missing...Manly on the other hand, we lose Tommy and AFB and there is a lot of strike missing.

Yes but they’ve got possibly 5 million in TPA’s that we don’t have so you’d expect Easts to have about 6-8 top players as reserves wouldn’t you?