Gee Canterbury played terribly. They completed Just 25 of 37 sets for a completion rate of just 67%. They lost the penalty count again 5-3. Their all run metres were a measly 1239. They only had 48% of possession. They missed a massive 39 tackles. The only thing in their favour was, we were worse. We now have injuries to key players, suspensions looming and an opponent next week keen to avenge their 2011 exit (Remember we knocked them both out last season). My confidence is down a little right now.
Agree with Ralphie - both teams were awful. Unfortunately for us, we were more awful than the Bulldogs. We seem to save our worst footy for the Dogs. Maybe we're just too revved up, too aggressive. It's like we put so much into the wind up that we end up knocking ourselves out.
100% on the money and I think Dogs fans that watch with a degree of impartiality would agree. Both sides had woeful completion rates. We were just slightly more crap than them. Had we held the ball we would have dusted them. And vice versa. Can you imagine what they would have put on us with decent ball security ? Now that we have that out of our system, next week we'll see the real Eagles.
There was a period in the second half I thought the dogs would put 30 on us. I just can't work out why both teams were no where near their best - was the wind a factor?
Aggression ? Yes. IMO we try to thump our way through. Didn't work again. If we concentrated on playing football like they train, and not try to over-muscle, we'd win more games (and have no judiciary appearances).
Agreed lismore. My bulldogs supporting mate made the same observation. He reckons we just tried to bash our way to victory. He said if we just concentrate on footy we'll go a lot better. [hr] And yep ralphie you are right. I don't think either coach would have been happy with the completion rates of their respective teams
Yep true. Bulldogs pack is too big to simply bash into submission. Our skill game was off last night - kicks not finding space (or out on the full), passes behind the man or to the ground, not enough bodies in motion & generally running poor lines.
Those stats say it all and I agree with everyone's comments. We were just a lot worse. I'll be up by next weekend and believe we can do it.
remember we tried to bash the Storm in 2007 gf! It was so odd that day as we hadn't really played like that before. We tried to do that the other night and we seemed to lose the game plan. Maybe the boys were too wired up. We have played such solid consistent footy but that didn't happen the other night. Get back guys to what we do best.
Agree with.comments here. Manly were way too overexcited against a team punching way above their weight. To be honest the Des factor and the media hype got them here. Maybe these boys just wanted to show Des they could still play. In the end they produced rubbish and the bulldogs destabilized any flow basically operating a 5 meter rule. That was horrible to watch, they were outfoxed. I hope it doesn't cost Manly the season. [hr] Agree with.comments here. Manly were way too overexcited against a team punching way above their weight. To be honest the Des factor and the media hype got them here. Maybe these boys just wanted to show Des they could still play. In the end they produced rubbish and the bulldogs destabilized any flow basically operating a 5 meter rule. That was horrible to watch, they were outfoxed. I hope it doesn't cost Manly the season.
