Where I'm most worried in defence

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1. Pearce and Maloney kicking bombs for their tall wingers. Taufua and Wolf are going to be peppered all game.

2. Guerra, Aubussen, SBW & Cordner running off Friend close to the line on the fringes. Will be very hard to stop, and they would have seen how easily Sutton splipped past Glen for that first try.
 
The tall bloke on their left wing is the danger, he looks like he is about 8ft, that means wolfie has to jump two foot just to get to his head height.

We should be practising Union style line out jumps to help with height
 
A running leap is required. Even if you miss you make it hard for the winger storming in. It's when you're planted to the ground and try and jump that you'll be punished like Uate was on the weekend.
 
I think mabye wolf should potentially stand his ground and make a tackle. I dont think he cant out jump tupou.

I think defensively we need to clamp down on friend. Especially after a jwh charge.
 
Our Wingers are not known for taking the high ball with attackers around them.

The simple solution is to keep the attackers in their own half and smother their kickers. Worked well last week:idea:

If that fails, to position yourself to latch onto the ball, to prevent the ball touching the grass in goal; or bat the ball safely out of the cluster, volley ball style.

Manly have used all these tactics effectively this year.

If 2v was savvy enough to keep Snake back in a must win final against the Sharks, he will have covered this Wing issue too :angel:
 
Good blocking is the key as well, make sure they (Tupou / RTS) get checked in running as much as possible ("legally" of course)
 
HappilyManly said:
The simple solution is to keep the attackers in their own half and smother their kickers. Worked well last week:idea:

That's the key right there - minimise their chances by keeping them out of attacking field position. Attacking kicks can be a lottery. Sometimes the bounce of the ball doesn't go your way and there's nothing you can do about it. But if we don't give away silly penalties and keep them in check we should be okay.
 
Anyway the real key to these guys is up the middle. They just try and bash you into submission through the ruck. Suck in defenders, quick play the balls and then go wide to fringe runners. They were brutal in middle third against Knights and us. We held them out, but Knights couldn't. If we repel that battering ram then we cut down their roll on and starve Pearce of time and space. He doesn't have a running game that can hurt us so we just need to pressure his kick game. Maloney has been good this year, but our RHS is pretty solid so I think we can contain him.

Jennings is overated IMO, but he is super quick, only needs a sniff of space and boom. Killer and Wolf will need to have their mojo going.
 
Pierce does most of the kicking, need good pressure on him, as stated he doesn't run that much so you can shepherd him to buy time and close the width down.

Maloney like a run so you always need to tackle him.

SBW will offload without thought, get a player behind him when possible early on, one offload to us and he will go quiet. Also a big hit early usually shuts him up, he doesn't like the tough stuff.

Need to get players in tackles to slow the play the ball down which will negate Friend.

And keep up the good kick chase so they are bringing it out of their own end.
 
Crusher, Glenn won't make that mistake again. To win this all we have to do is play like we did against the storm. Up fast and tackle. Hopefully we won't have Hayne as ref. I thought Cummins didn't do a totally bad job.. Hayne shouldn't get the gig after letting two forward passes through. I think we can win this through superior attack and a tough defensive effort. Kicks when near their line seem the best way through their wall.
 
No doubt these Roosters will attempt to pummel the ball into field position , then kick wide.
Tupou is great in the air but matching up with Lyon/Wolf, Maloney/Pearce could well target Taufua, as Sheck can certainly get air & has a great catch.
Still surprised that more defenders do not allow a catch & belt the attacker, which is deemed legal to hit an attacker making a catch , even in the air.
The chances of spilling the ball/being held up or knocked over the sideline are pretty good imo.
Theres a darn good chance Tooves will be practising legal block plays & getting numbers around the wingers for this inevitable scenario.
 
Is anyone worried about the Roosters throwing the ball wide and scoring down Wolfman's side? It seems like the opposition has scored at least one try like this in most games this year. I'm still not sure why Manly has the compressed defense on Lyons/Wolfman's side. Anyone have a theory? Good opposition have exploited this weakness with quick passing to get on the outside of the Wolfman. And unless Brett and others are positioned well in cover then it's difficult to stop a try.
 
Rodo said:
Is anyone worried about the Roosters throwing the ball wide and scoring down Wolfman's side? It seems like the opposition has scored at least one try like this in most games this year. I'm still not sure why Manly has the compressed defense on Lyons/Wolfman's side. Anyone have a theory? Good opposition have exploited this weakness with quick passing to get on the outside of the Wolfman. And unless Brett and others are positioned well in cover then it's difficult to stop a try.
This was exposed in the rabbids 2nd try.
Seemed to really improve after that & although they were often outnumbered, the timing of Lyon & Wolf at the same time seemed to shut them down comfortably.
Have seen Lyon blow up a few times when the Wolf has been in no mans land & caught out, but when he just makes up his mind to come in & commit to the runner after Lyon, it would take a Joey Johns cutout pass or pin point kick to get outside them.
 
The Wolfman "leaky defence" seems to have grown as a bit of an urban myth. Sure he comes in, but you have to remember that wingers are tethered to centres, so if Killer goes he HAS to go. Maybe sometimes his timing/commitment may be a little off and he looks posted. But I don't see him coming in and jamming on killers man and leaving his winger free without reason. The numbers game starts at the ruck. Anyway have a look at the following extract from the Jamie Lyon article posted last week, doesn't seem an issue with defence down our RHS, we are conceding only 0.5 try per game down that edge.


Manly’s right edge, as a result, has been peerless, particularly this year, scoring tries but also saving them. Twenty-seven tries have been scored via the Sea Eagles’ right side, which includes halfback Daly Cherry-Evans, edge back-rower Glenn Stewart, centre Lyon and winger David Williams. But equally impressively, just 12 tries have been scored down their side.

Teams generally attack well down their left side, passing right-to-left, but most outfits have had huge difficulty penetrating Manly through that corridor.
 
I must admit I have been worried about their forward pack but my assessment below suggests we have a better pack than they do.

Maria = Kitey
Friend < Ballin
Moa < Lawrence
Guerra < Choc
SBW > Horo
FPN < Gifty
(If Fit) O'Donnell < or = Rose
Napa < Symonds
Aubusson = Buhrer
Liu = Gower

If they decide to play Cordner he will be terribly under done after a couple of months on the sidelines.
 
DSM5 said:
Crusher, Glenn won't make that mistake again. To win this all we have to do is play like we did against the storm. Up fast and tackle. Hopefully we won't have Hayne as ref. I thought Cummins didn't do a totally bad job.. Hayne shouldn't get the gig after letting two forward passes through. I think we can win this through superior attack and a tough defensive effort. Kicks when near their line seem the best way through their wall.

I hope ur right there about Glen, DS - most uncharacteristic.
 
Friend has been on fire recently his game is better than Matty's right now.

Matty has been better in attack but rarely has any back up because he never used to run hence waste of energy.
 
HappilyManly said:
Our Wingers are not known for taking the high ball with attackers around them.

The simple solution is to keep the attackers in their own half and smother their kickers. Worked well last week:idea:

If that fails, to position yourself to latch onto the ball, to prevent the ball touching the grass in goal; or bat the ball safely out of the cluster, volley ball style.

Manly have used all these tactics effectively this year.

If 2v was savvy enough to keep Snake back in a must win final against the Sharks, he will have covered this Wing issue too :angel:

I was thinking the same thing.
 

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