Where Manly fell short

[SeaEagleRock8]

Sure we all know about the Panthers game, but looking at our season as a whole, we were a shade short of being top 4 quality.

Consistency. We were capable of playing top footy but failed to produce it consistently.

Partly that was due to lack of depth (the Stewart/Matai factor) but inexperience may be the key reason. Inexperience of some individuals as regular first-graders, and inexperience as a team.

If that's right, it augurs well for next year, regardless of who we sign in the meantime.

 

[sheridanstand78]

It was always going to be a year of consolidation after two ordinary seasons. The team did fantastic to make it to the finals. In the last two months our depth was exposed and we didn't have the nous to stay in the contest for longer periods in the games. Vital experience has been gained and hunger to do better next season

 

[The Who]

It was a lack of quality depth. When you look at Doesn'tmatta who have suffered more injuries than us they always manage to have a quality replacement. Now, how they fit all these players under the cap is another question.

 

[BOZO]

You guys have just about summed it up .
A few more quality additions and promising players fulfilling their potential and we will be up there again

 

[bob dylan]

I feel we are in a precarious situation now.

If we dont add serious depth and get injuries we will slide out of the 8 next year.

If we add 3-5 players, a couple of decent quality, we could easily be a top 4 side.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Consistency, or more importantly the lack of it, killed us this year.

And of course 1.2 million on the sideline for 26 games didn't help.

I'm sure we will see a few personnel changes in 2018, and you can be sure there will be more fire in the belly.

Good times just around the corner!

PS: all subject to becoming an NRL favourite!

 

[Ned]

I think we need a really good bench prop or back rower, what Nate Myles was supposed to bring but never delivered.

We played well when going forward, but when the forward momentum slowed the sideways play was all they had to fall back on. If we had that burst of go forward come in at those times (I'm thinking of someone like BK here) straighten up and we will the consistency will come on the back of that.

 

[Pablo]

Consistency, or more importantly the lack of it, killed us this year.

And of course 1.2 million on the sideline for 26 games didn't help.

I'm sure we will see a few personnel changes in 2018, and you can be sure there will be more fire in the belly.

Good times just around the corner!

PS: all subject to becoming an NRL favourite!

If we sign Cronk and he announces 2018 as his final season Toddy will help us.

 

[Spartan Eagle]

I think we fell way short in playing consistently or adhering to a structured game plan. Found a lot of times we should have shown more maturity by settling the game and playing percentages. Also need more depth and some quality signings. TB also needs to harden up. He will improve as a coach each year..

 

[Simonmyers11]

I agree. In saying that, we didn't lose more than 2 games in a row the whole season. We should of been more consistent in the back end of the season, definitely should of won games against tigers and dogs, putting us in top 4.

Bit of an empty feeling this week, 26 rds of competition is a long season of ups and downs just to make finals and to go out in first week against a crap side not playing to our potential is hard to take but see the side being even better next year and having a better crack at the title.

 

[HappilyManly]

Discipline is what wasted our energies and moved our focus from winning the game, to just winning over the opponent.

Simple to fix or continue to suffer the consequences in penalties 😎

Baz must institute a rule where no Manly Player ever talks to the Ref.
The Captain can respond if asked, but otherwise STFU

I actually thought that Jake was going to be sin binned for yelling at the Ref after the Peachy call.
Just dumb and unprofessional - no Ref has ever reversed a 'Try' call

Manly also need to rotate the hooker. Api can not play 80 minutes and 26 weeks of 40+ tackles up the middle

 

[Pete the Eagle]

Discipline is what wasted our energies and moved our focus from winning the game, to just winning over the opponent.

Simple to fix or continue to suffer the consequences in penalties 😎

Baz must institute a rule where no Manly Player ever talks to the Ref.
The Captain can respond if asked, but otherwise STFU

I actually thought that Jake was going to be sin binned for yelling at the Ref after the Peachy call.
Just dumb and unprofessional - no Ref has ever reversed a 'Try' call

Manly also need to rotate the hooker. Api can not play 80 minutes and 26 weeks of 40+ tackles up the middle

For mine we played in to the Riffs hands , they got under our skins and we bought right in to it .
However Baz said what do i tell the players ?. Well they got the rough end of the pineapple but we should never have been in that position for that call to end our year. Cherry should have pulled Lussick , Blake and Walker aside in the first half , and told them to calm down and play the game , instead of the hot head bull**** back chat push & shove , their attack was very average but we kept giving them more shots at us , sooner or later they will get in.
Disappointing end but we have ourselves to blame for a lot of it ....not just the bad calls
But a harsh lesson i hope has been learnt for next year , which is looking bright.

 

[HappilyManly]

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sp...e/news-story/3ce2252344250c5c7a16858da420b18f

BITTER END TO 2017 SHOULDN’T OBSCURE MANLY’S RETURN TO PROMINENCE
Nick Campton, The Daily Telegraph
September 12, 2017

AFTER two seasons in the wilderness, Manly put it all together to surge into sixth place and make the finals under Trent Barrett for the first time.

As painful as their exit from the finals may have been, this was a great step forward for the club as they look to build around skipper Daly Cherry-Evans, the Trbojevic brothers and powerful forward Martin Taupau.

WHERE THEY FINISHED
After some hairy moments in the final few weeks, Manly steadied to finish sixth on the ladder. Penrith eliminated them from the finals courtesy of a controversial late try to Tyrone Peachey.

WHAT WENT WRONG
Manly’s discipline was an issue throughout the season. They were one of the most penalised teams in the NRL and while one bad week could be excused, the consistency of their discipline breaches points to a wider issues among the playing group. The Sea Eagles grew defensively as a team throughout the season but they put themselves under far too much pressure with preventable penalties.

WHAT WENT RIGHT
Daly Cherry-Evans had one of the best seasons of his career, as did Martin Taupau while Tom Trbojevic continued to develop as a footballer.

One aspect of the Sea Eagles season that will please coach Trent Barrett would be the rise of players like Curtis Sironen, Akuila Uate and Lloyd Perrett — getting the best out of players who hit tough times at other clubs is the sign of a strong club and a good coach.

STAT THAT SUMS UP THE SEASON
512 points conceded — the sixth worst mark in the competition.

Only the bottom five teams conceded more points than Manly in 2017 and sorting out those leaks will be the major concern for the club in the off-season.

As talented as centres Dylan Walker and Brian Kelly may be, they were found out without the ball far too often — particularly Walker, who should be better in that department after five full seasons in the top grade.

IT’S A SHAMBLES: THE MAIN AREA THEY NEED TO IMPROVE
Defence is the main obstacle for the Sea Eagles but goalkicking is also a major concern. The kicking tee rotated between Walker, Cherry-Evans, Apisai Koroisau, Jackson Hastings and Matthew Wright throughout the season and while Wright ended up kicking at a tick over 70% he was far from automatic. The Silvertails will be hoping he can lift that number closer to the mid-70s over the off-season.

A little bit of backrow depth wouldn’t hurt either. Frank Winterstein was solid and Curtis Sironen had the most consistent season of his career, but apart from Shaun Lane there isn’t much else to choose from.



HIGHLIGHT OF THE SEASON
Either of the two victories against the Roosters — both the narrow 18-12 win in Round 5 and the more comfortable 36-18 triumph in Round 22 were among the Sea eagles best performances of the season. The late match heroics of Daly Cherry-Evans against the Raiders and Warriors and Walker’s golden point penalty goal in Canberra were right up there as well.


LOWLIGHT OF THE SEASON
Apart from the way their season ended, losing four of five matches from Round 20 to Round 24 put paid to Manly’s top four hopes. Conceding 50 against the Dragons, 40 against the Storm and losing to the lowly Tigers and Bulldogs gave a radical re-evaluation of where Manly stood in the premiership pecking order.

BIG NAME RECRUITS
Toafofoa Sipley is the only new man for the Sea Eagles in 2017.

BIG NAME LOSSES
Brenton Lawrence is off the Titans, but that’s it. The Sea Eagles will roll out a very similar squad in 2018.


WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT YEAR?
Best case scenario

Manly’s key players continue to improve, Walker repeats his strong start to the season from 2017 but extends that same form throughout the entire year and the Sea Eagles surge into the top four. Tom Trbojevic wins the Dally M and Daly Cherry-Evans returns to Origin as Queensland’s new halves kingpin in the post-Cronk/Thurston world.

Worst case scenario

The scars of the finals loss halt the progress of the roster and the close wins of this season turn into close losses. Cherry-Evans regresses and Blake Green is allowed to leave. The defence remains leaky and the club misses the finals.

COACH SAFETY RATING
7. Trent Barrett was under pressure following a tumultuous first season in charge but has gotten more out of this roster than many believed was possible — the mark of a good coach is getting players to achieve their full potential on the field and Barrett has shown he’s capable of doing just that. The test for him now is to help push Manly to the next level.

 

[maxta]

Think it comes down to 2-3 more quality players needed.
That attempt to get Cordner pre season would have been enough to keep Manly alive this weekend regardless of refs blunders and 1 more player....anything would have been possible.

 

[brad]

You guys have just about summed it up .
A few more quality additions and promising players fulfilling their potential and we will be up there again

Brett morris very well could be in our colours next year . Not sure if 100% correct but was told this tonight. Also going hard for josh jackson.

 

[PONTIAN SEA EAGLE]

We had no consistency cause defence let us down in most games.Case closed people.

 

[ricardo]

If we sign Cronk and he announces 2018 as his final season Toddy will help us.

. Can see it now a Manly(Cronk) V Storm(Smith) end of year match with a $1m sign off bonus. Gee I wonder how the other players would feel playing that

 

[johnperi01]

In relation to the Penrith match we were definitely dudded when it came to the try reviews, especially the Walker no try.
The fact that the NRL has come out today with technology that they have been trialling with a line across the field,(which wasn't used in adjudicating the try on Saturday), shows they are just trying to justify their errors. If they have such a reliable line, they should use it for forward passes also.
However, we did blow the best opportunity a few minutes before the Peachey "try", when Api went left to Tom after DCE made that bust up the middle around the 68 minute mark. DCE was screaming for the ball to go right where we had a big overlap and we would certainly have scored to go up 16-10 with 10 minutes left.
So in spite of the crucial calls against us, we should have won anyway, even though I don't think we could have gone all the way.
For a lot of the team it was their first semi final, so I am sure the younger players will get a lot of benefit from that in the years to come, especially the Trbojevic brothers.

 

[germaneagle]

I am thinking that our poor form at home killed us this year we never developed that home ground thing that in the past Manly has built so many premierships on. Away we were great except for the Dragons debacle. Why this has become such a problem is strange otherwise I feel we did enough to again be a top 8 side again next year and if we get some good buys we may be top 4.

 

[The Who]

German Eagle....
Judging by your moniker you'd be the best to advise us how to Blow Up The Bunker.