The good thing about this match for Manly is the fact that they aren’t travelling to the Bermuda Triangle where the Saints are Manly’s kryptonite in Wollongong. Gutho ,Suli , Saab and Garrick against their old clubs. Ex Manly attack coach Flanno as well.
DCE did end up taking his dinner suit to Perth last week. He appears to have checked out(or rather “chequed “out). His few blindside raids were easily read by the Sharks. Brooks with the keys last week had the Ferrari “kangaroo hopping “ all over the park. He’ll surely hand them back to Daly this week.
St George must be counting their lucky stars having signed Gutho. He must have been involved in over 90% of their try scoring moves. Chiming into the backline he seems to invariably take the right option. Definitely in the top 3 heads up players with Cleary and Hughes. Good defender too. Positional play at fullback outstanding too. His pace may have gone but easily Saints’ most important player.
In fact there’s not much to Saints’s attack apart from Gutho. Holmes coming back inside at an angle or a bit of Sloan brilliance. They just shovel the ball from side to side waiting for Gutherson to ball play. Unfortunately they have the most ineffective halves in the NRL .
They also have the most passive defence in the NRL. Their line just takes a couple of steps then holds. Makes it easy for their opponents to make big metres by just running from dummy half. The left defensive line has a tendency to switch off when the ball is going to the opposite side of the field. I’m not to sure that Manly has a game plan week to week , but 1 or 2 passes to the left before a quick switch to the right may present them with a staggered defensive line.
Saints will try to bang down the front door that Hazelton went through last week. Without Paseka , Manly look a bit vulnerable up front . Bullemore and Brown on the pine at 4 pines is their only plus.
I suspect DCE will awake from his slumber . Looking forward to Brown from the back fence and the Gutherina. Manly by 8 .