What people don't seem to understand

[lasvegas]

What people don't seem to understand

look i think we are better than last year and thats all u can really ask for is improvement overall.my only real concern is the continual spot in first grade being reserved for a player like king (who obviously isnt fit or isnt up to it depending on opinion).hasler has to adopt a more flexible approach im my books instead of this no change policy he adopts the majority of the time.

 

[Matabele]

What people don't seem to understand

I agree with you on that one Vegas.

If Hasler were a blackjack player he'd sit on 12, even if the dealer was holding an ace.

 

[ManlyBacker]

What people don't seem to understand

Great discussion. Brazda and C&C make very, very valid points. Ryan, you are probably hurting more than usual this season, like all of us, as we showed more promise at the beginning than any of us could have hoped for. To see it all crumble and all the outside smart arses who said it wouldn't continue be proved right just plain hurts big time. The fact is we were ruined by SL, the merger and lack of funds. Some of the purchasing decisions over the last 4 years have been shockers and unfortunately it is going to take time to build the right combinations. I have a lot more positives this year so keep the faith.

 

[Ryan]

What people don't seem to understand

I would think that success is finishing in the top 1/2 of the competition, but that is only one indication of what I believe success to be.
Success is having a player kiss The manly emblem after a try (ALA Riddell for Parra). Success is The Coaching Staff & Players publicly announcing they owe it to their loyal fans to be successful. Success IS NOT hearing from a current player of the team, that they all play like induviduals. Success is not losing 6 straight games.

Look, we say The Super League almost broke us, and it was ALL The Bears fault. What about St George Illawarra or Wests Tigers? They have been successful. Demographics suggest that The Northern Eagles should have worked even better than the 2 previous mentioned teams. We are at the upper end market financially wise, and we have a higher population per capita then both the other teams. We should have been able to snag solid financial backers in this area. Products of Norths are Stringer, Morrison, Matt King, Matt Orford, Inglis, Mark O'Mealey & co. so to state it is the Bears fault is ludicrous. To put this in perspective, in the last 10 years of The Bears being in the competition, you will find that they were in the finals MOST of those years. The last when we had a HOME final to The Bulldogs, the year of their expulsion.
If Manly had no money, and that is why we didn't or don't have the personnel who's fault would that be? We HAVE a plethora of potential sponsors around us. Take a look at St Georges depth & player listings.

Whilst I respect your opinions, I still don't see why after us losing 5 games straight, it is business as usual. You want ideas I guess of what could change that.

Didn't Bozo swap the reserve grade team with the PL team one year?
Didn't Bozo make harsh decisions about players that aren't up to scratch, regardless of what they were being paid?

I could go on.

 

[Garts]

What people don't seem to understand

I would think that success is finishing in the top 1/2 of the competition, but that is only one indication of what I believe success to be.
Success is having a player kiss The manly emblem after a try (ALA Riddell for Parra). Success is The Coaching Staff & Players publicly announcing they owe it to their loyal fans to be successful. Success IS NOT hearing from a current player of the team, that they all play like induviduals. Success is not losing 6 straight games.

Look, we say The Super League almost broke us, and it was ALL The Bears fault. What about St George Illawarra or Wests Tigers? They have been successful. Demographics suggest that The Northern Eagles should have worked even better than the 2 previous mentioned teams. We are at the upper end market financially wise, and we have a higher population per capita then both the other teams. We should have been able to snag solid financial backers in this area. Products of Norths are Stringer, Morrison, Matt King, Matt Orford, Inglis, Mark O'Mealey & co. so to state it is the Bears fault is ludicrous. To put this in perspective, in the last 10 years of The Bears being in the competition, you will find that they were in the finals MOST of those years. The last when we had a HOME final to The Bulldogs, the year of their expulsion.
If Manly had no money, and that is why we didn't or don't have the personnel who's fault would that be? We HAVE a plethora of potential sponsors around us. Take a look at St Georges depth & player listings.

Whilst I respect your opinions, I still don't see why after us losing 5 games straight, it is business as usual. You want ideas I guess of what could change that.

Didn't Bozo swap the reserve grade team with the PL team one year?
Didn't Bozo make harsh decisions about players that aren't up to scratch, regardless of what they were being paid?

I could go on.

1. The mergers mentioned above did not occur between 2 sides that had a huge rivalary like Manly & Norths. Nor did they hate each other like Manly and Norths. It was never going to work, I also did not see people blaming Norths. Remember the Tigers are only starting to come good now. As people are saying, things take time.

2. You mention the Manly area is generally better off financially, which I generally agree with. What you also must consider is these people may now support Union, generally you will find this is the case with the people who are better of financially. Also these people may have been turned off league as a result of SL or the merger. I am however encouraged to hear Peninsula Holden is sponsoring the Eagles in some form next season. Peninsula is owned by Dilip Kumar, ARU chairman. To me this reflects our growing appeal to the area.

3. Players mentioned as part of Norths above did not want to sign with the Eagles due to financial security, Manly could not offer this.

4. What else are me meant to do after losing 5 games Ryan? Sack 1st grade and give the PL side a shot :doh: We can not change the cattle we have this season and from my view Des is putting the best 17 on the paddock week in week out bar maybe 1 or 2 players I disagree with. But then again what do I know? I am just an accountant. Not a coach.

 

[Chip and Chase]

What people don't seem to understand

" I could go on "

Please do.

As for Riddell, I didn't realise he was a Parra junior and a ten year loyal servant of the club. He is probably kissing the emblem because it is in his contract, or he feels indebted to Fitzy for throwing him a lifeline.

St George Illawarra wasn't really a merger, more a takeover (what did the Steelers get out of it, the socks I believe). Wests Tigers wasn't all rosy to start with either if you believe the rumours, and as Garts said it has taken them time to settle in. The NE JV was a disaster, and I'm not blaming Norths solely for that. But we threw them a lifeline and it ended up a political mess. It was doomed to fail from the outset. Sure the Bears made some semis during the 90's, so did Manly. But unlike the Bears, Manly took it all the way to the Grand Final 3 years running and were unlucky not to win all three. Can you remember back to 1922 ??

We are still trying to recover financially, once we are solvent again the rest will come. Players, success, crowds, sponsors, and fair weather fans galore.

All I'm saying is Rome wasn't built in a day. I'm not 100% convinced as to Des's credentials to lead us all the way, but at the moment he is doing the best he can with the cattle he has. The leader of this herd of cattle was a player I seem to recall you stating last year was a great player and would definitely play SOO. Now he should be dropped to PL. Imagine how Des feels.

 

[Fluffy]

What people don't seem to understand

Some good comments there.

Add to that some info from the Q&A session that wheel so kindly passed on - we are not spending our 400K in PL. This has a big effect on depth - the players we have when at full strength have done the job more often than not, but once we lose more than 1 or 2 we seem to struggle.

This year is about building as a team, getting more experince for our under sub 50 game players and learning what we need to improve to give it a real shot for 2006. The goal was top 8, we still look a good chance to achieve it.

At the start of the year anyone who tipped higher than 7th copped an absolute flogging for voicing their opinion, those who tipped 7th or 8th copped a fair bit.

All that has happened is that people have changed their expectations too quickly. Some at the start of the year tipped a good start and poor finish due to the draw, most seem to have forgotten where we stood 6 months ago.

 

[Ryan]

What people don't seem to understand

8th is still in the bottom 1/2 of the competition.

I know I'm a half empty dude.

 

[Volley]

What people don't seem to understand

Technically it's not.

 

[justiinn]

What people don't seem to understand

its funny how when the team is not doing so well that, the support is some what lessened. shouldnt it be the other way around. dont worry ppl, manly will be back, just you wait.

 

[Ryan]

What people don't seem to understand

With 15 teams...8th is pretty much the bottom 1/2.

 

[Matabele]

What people don't seem to understand

In a perfect world Ryan it could be argued that a perfect referee would have resulted in Manly recording two more wins (Cowboys and Penrith).

This would have us in the Top 4.

Manly is a multi-million business, yet a slpit second mistake like that (on two occasions) can whipe potentially hundreds of thousands, maybe even a million off the bootom line.

There's very little control you can have over that - except that maybe the players shouldn't have left is so close.

 

[Ryan]

What people don't seem to understand

I think it appropriate right now to re-visit this thread in light of what we have just been forced to endure.

 

[Matabele]

What people don't seem to understand

There is a need for much soul-searching at all levels this week.

 

[gomanly]

What people don't seem to understand

i agree with your point of view in regards to the individuals and he fans being there for the team, its time they woke up and started being a team of team players instead of a team of individuals and acknowledge the support they get from the fans. todays loss was not the norm but it is fast becoming in some small way expected, i personally was not surprised with the result with the way we looked out there, you would think these guys have never met, let alone played a game of footy together. dont expect any backlash from me if anyone posts threads bagging anyone after todays non effort.

 

[Matabele]

What people don't seem to understand

That's very considerate of you vice.

 

[Ryan]

What people don't seem to understand

the quotes from Dailey & co. were interesting;

players don't trust each other
men versus boys
inept
embarrassing
hopeless

then they started being critical.

Face it. We support a team with an absolute losing culture.

It's sad. I very much want the opposite.