Worst thing to happen to us this season

[wombatgc]

 

[Fibro Eagle]

I went for other as it covers all the above
It's been a culmination of a lot of reasons ,To win a comp you need everything to go as planned you can get away with a few but not too many disruptions the extent Manly has indured
Fainu loss was huge after letting Api go
Tommy was the same the teams best attacking option ,
Injuries ,walker Taupau AFB Sirro Thompson for various times
DCE has had a few poor options in his kicking game all season the lack of a good 5/8 playing week in week out hasn't helped
Des with his selections have puzzled me sometimes , not using youth , if he used funa at fullback from the time tommy got injured we may been different
And Covid has had an effect some players can adapt and some can't with the restrictions

 

[40 years an eagle]

We were fine with our top 17 on the paddock and then spinal injuries pulled our pants down to our knees, and then the 6 again rule pulled them down to our ankles. We never had a hope after that.

In previous seasons we would have been capable of soldiering on with the spinal injuries and tough out maybe more wins than losses, but the 6 again rule on top of that exposed our lack of agility, speed and depth.

The squad we have is strong under the previous rules of dominating the ruck and creating space on the edges but is absolutely unsuited to the "new" rules.

I feel for our staff, they never would have dreamed that the squad they put together and fostered would be absolutely helpless under the rule change.
Another huge killer is that we were always going to come out with the smelly end of the stick when the new rules were implemented...it's a Manly thing. Absolutely certain!

There is no option but to restructure our squad to suit the "new game" and cop the refereeing inequities on the chin... as we always have.

Our single biggest player loss is probably Api considering we had junk after Fainu was lost, and even having Tom could not have negated that.

 

[mave]

Our heads dropped with the Parra forward pass debacle, and imo we never truly recovered from that, which is dissapointing, given Dessies usual siege mentality.
The rest of the issues then piled up.

 

[Dion Johnson]

Turbo being out for sure, what a player he is!!

Without Turbo we have been shown up despite the amount of representative players we have, the proof is in the pudding and without Turbo we have looked cellar dwellers.

Turbo should be the highest paid player in our squad.

 

[The '47ers]

Depth - we have absolutely nothing under the surface

 

[40 years an eagle]

Depth - we have absolutely nothing under the surface

Absolutely correct under the "new" rules. We would have fared a lot better under the old rules suffering the loss of Tom and Fainu but it is what it is.

Under the new rules we don't even have much "on the surface". We have the wrong squad for this new form of the game. How many props(including Jake) do we have in our 30? 8? How many little, agile, fast guys? Docker Clay and Metcalfe... and neither have played..

 

[Bring back the.... Biff?]

This season should be called the “spinal injury”.

with Tommy, fainu and Dylan out there I think we would have been very competitive.

manly was beating top 4 teams with most of that spine

Its a damn shame this season started so well and alot of teams are weaker this year the trophy was ripe for the plucking.... looks like roosters or storm for mine. Id be stoked if raiders won

 

[Brisbane Tragic]

is the spine - all about the spine - without a spine and with three of the spine missing - Walker, Turbo, Fainu and selling Api because Fainu was our man there is no way we have the creativity or stability to cope. If you miss one of those pieces you might be able to plug the hole, you miss two and for an extended period you are in big trouble - you miss three and for extended periods - no club can survive that.

 

[HoldenV8]

Lack of qaulity depth .

What this season has shown is that we do have decent depth, even in the backs. But ... not when just about all are called into action at the same time. One or two every now and then to cover for injury or suspension or (in a normal year) Origin then yeah, that's fine. But our backline has been gradually more and more full of backup players for the better part of 3 months, and its shown. And the worst part about it is that two of the MIA have been arguably our two main strike players in Turbo and Walks. And now you can add Suli and Garrick to the list.

Of those who were considered our first choice 1-7 at the start of the year (Turbo, Jorge, Parker, Suli, Reubs, Walks, DCE)... only DCE, Parker and Taufua are still standing. We've got 2 rookies (Funa and Hopoate) and two who might as well be with the amount of first grade they've played (Cust and Miski).

Add to the fact that we went into the season with a reserve grade hooker and backup due to unforeseen circumstances, is it any wonder we're struggling? Thankfully Tom was in such good form from the start of the season until his injury that we managed to win a few games off of that, otherwise we'd be down with the Dogs and Drongos.

 

[Mals]

Des has to wear a chunk of the blame for the wheels falling off post Covid. His refusal to sack underperforming players and lack of adjustment to our jamming defence which doesn’t work under the 6 again rules has meant our defence has been torn apart way too easily the last couple of months.

 

[Wombat64]

COVID the ****ing thing has ****ed the ****en world and puts all the other issues in this survey into the who gives a **** category

 

[Brisbane Tragic]

3/4 of the spine missing + loosing 2 gun hookers. Any club would struggle.

you are spot on Cava - I am not sure why not many others can see this - without 3 of your spine - there is simply no hope of being competitive. Take three including Cleary out of Penrith, take three of the Rabbits spine, the Eels, Storm etc - it is just impossible to be creative - puts immense pressure on the outside backs to be quick and to get around teams on the edge because there is no creativity inside. Our backs are simply not built/signed to get around the edge plus defences can easily cope with teams just trying to get to an edge with slide defence. So then unless the forwards are just ripping other packs to pieces where does our attack come from - answer - we don't have any. Our forwards are great - they make metres and are quality - Levi is good but not great but we simply have no creativity and DCE is playing a lone hand. Our situation has nothing to do with Taupau or Jake or DCE (although his kicking game has been off and he struggles to lead from the front but he struggles without 3 of his spine!) or Suli or Parker being too slow. They are too slow for the team we have now but fitted perfectly into the team we should have on the field but for some bad luck. Now if instead of 3 of our spine being injured or out long term and we lost say Thompson for the year, Garrick for the year and Parker for the year - we survive no problems at all. Luck has crueled us in us losing three from the spine at the same time and for most of the year. If you cant see that, accept that then you seriously have no idea. Now do we need changes around the periphery - yep - could we do with some speed out wide - yep - can we do with better backup backrowers than Waddell and Gosh - yep, can we do better than Croker - yep, should we maybe have blooded Schuster and Hopoate - yep. Oh and Avocado certainly should be in the team instead of Waddell - some poor selections there. Dont forget we also have Sione Fainu in the wings - and from what I have seen he will be a huge addition next year as well. Our salary cap makes it hard with DCE/Jake/Turbo on big money but IF and it is a big IF we can get a fair crack next year with injuries and when we do get them they don't impact the spine then we will be a real chance again. Oh and swapping Foran for Walker - surely not!

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

We've shown again and again that we have nothing in attack without Tommy. We can win without Nase but can't win without Tommy.

I don’t fully subscribe to that theory tbh, because it is easy to say we can’t win without him, but the reality is that it isn’t just Tom out, it is Tom, plus Walker, plus numerous others such as AFB, Taupau, Sironen, Suli etc at various times throughout the campaign

 

[ManEagle]

I picked other.....Hanson doesn't get enough credit for being Parkers mum.

No, I would have picked massive injuries but I think it has more to do with key position players missing than any individual. A lot say we can't win without Turbo, I believe we can, I believe we can win while missing one, possible 2 of our key players, but not with 3 key players out at any given time like this year.
Mainese situation Fkd us from the start, but we could have survived, then the injuries came.

 

[Waz13]

I went for other as it covers all the above
It's been a culmination of a lot of reasons ,To win a comp you need everything to go as planned you can get away with a few but not too many disruptions the extent Manly has indured
Fainu loss was huge after letting Api go
Tommy was the same the teams best attacking option ,
Injuries ,walker Taupau AFB Sirro Thompson for various times
DCE has had a few poor options in his kicking game all season the lack of a good 5/8 playing week in week out hasn't helped
Des with his selections have puzzled me sometimes , not using youth , if he used funa at fullback from the time tommy got injured we may been different
And Covid has had an effect some players can adapt and some can't with the restrictions

Yep season 2020 has been the perfect storm. Nothing gone well

 

[bob dylan]

Hot beer and cold pies.

 

[SeaEagleRock8]

Yep season 2020 has been the perfect storm. Nothing gone well

Hey everything has a silver lining, Broncos and Dogs seasons have been a constant source of amusement.

 

[nightster]

From this list:-

1 - Massive injury count

2 - Lack of depth

3 - Tommy T injury

4 - Manase’s unfortunate situation

5 - Team failure to adapt to six again

6 - DCE final tackle options

7 - Des failure to adapt to changes

8 - Defence strategy

9 - Reluctance to pick youth

10 - COVID

 

[KNUCKLES]

Des has to wear a chunk of the blame for the wheels falling off post Covid. His refusal to sack underperforming players and lack of adjustment to our jamming defence which doesn’t work under the 6 again rules has meant our defence has been torn apart way too easily the last couple of months.

Melbourne jams in defense..