3-2-1 vs Bunnies

[Izz]

Mannering played well.

Ran some great lines (he runs much better decoys than Mateo). Bent the defense, threw some nice passes. Nearly put Locke away for a try, threw a great short ball to send Hurrell screaming 50 metres down field. Did his usual hard yakka defensively. Unlucky not to get a penalty called for a strip instead of the knock-on.

 

[Izz]

Also, i think Dave Tyrell is deadset one of the worst forwards going round. How he keeps his spot in FG when Souffs have such forward depth is beyond me.

 

[vvvrulz]

Yeah drop the guy who was trying to carry our dead weight last year. Genius stuff noob.

I like the idea of a leadership group involving Mannering, Friend & Lowrie but to drop the one guy who plays his heart out week in week out, I think not.

Who said anything about dropping him? He'd be an automatic selection every week, but mistakes are definitely creeping into his game. That's why I say lighten his load so we can get the best out of him as a player. It could even be temporary.

 

[Fast Eddie]

Who said it? You said it.

Hate to say it, Mannering needs some Vulcans

 

[vvvrulz]

Who said it? You said it.

lol, forgot about that. Well done hawk-eye.

That was a bit of emotion running high after that 'kick' and all those knock ons in previous weeks. No I wouldn't drop him but he definitely isn't quite right, those mistakes are very uncharacteristic and it could be because he's trying to do too much at once, too much clutter in the head space.

Easing the captaincy is my answer for letting him focus on his game.

 

[Fast Eddie]

Or piss Mannering off and make him disillusioned with the coach and club. Either or.

A couple of poor games by his standards and he needs to lose the captaincy? Madness. Good sample size to make a big call like that huh.

 

[vvvrulz]

Or piss Mannering off and make him disillusioned with the coach and club. Either or.

A couple of poor games by his standards and he needs to lose the captaincy? Madness. Good sample size to make a big call like that huh.

I was never 100% on him as captain in the first place. Very good player yes, but he doesn't really have the leadership aura and experience to pull us out of really tough ones. He is more of a lead by example rather than directly pushing and inspiring the boys. I don't see us dropping games the way we did last year under someone like Steve Price.

We got by with guys like Michael Luck the year before picking up a lot of that, and that's the sort of role Friend and Lowrie could offer now. That's why I'm thinking along the lines of giving it to one of them or considering co-captaincy.

 

[Meth]

All of this talk is pretty redundant given that Mannering played bloody awesome on the weekend. Sure, he made an error and the kick was comical (not sure why he was getting the ball at that stage of the tackle count anyway), but everything else that he did was exceptional. He must be the new Manu Vatuvei.

 

[Fast Eddie]

I was never 100% on him as captain in the first place. Very good player yes, but he doesn't really have the leadership aura and experience to pull us out of really tough ones. He is more of a lead by example rather than directly pushing and inspiring the boys. I don't see us dropping games the way we did last year under someone like Steve Price.

We got by with guys like Michael Luck the year before picking up a lot of that, and that's the sort of role Friend and Lowrie could offer now. That's why I'm thinking along the lines of giving it to one of them or considering co-captaincy.

2009 and Steve Price say what up.

Doesn't have the experience? 180 NRL games isn't it? 30 Kiwis Tests or something. World Cup final, Four Nations Final, NRL grand final, back to back playoffs as a captain, and now Kiwis captain.

Do you think Friend and Lowrie don't speak up and say their part already? We need to strip the current club and Kiwis captain of his job 5 weeks into the season causing more disharmony in the team, something for the media to play up big time and risk pissing off Mannering just so those two guys can have 'co-captain' next to their name :lol:

Leadership aura? Making judgements on a guys leadership ability from in front of your TV when all you have to go by is the occasional shot of him in a huddle with the team, no idea what he is like during the week at training, before games, at halftime etc. Those who would have actually have some sort of idea his leadership abilities ie coaches, players seem to think he is a pretty damned good captain, and also don't think he should be playing for the Vulcans :lol:

 

[Iafeta]

Frankly I'm impressed Simon's going forward agin. Too many times he's hung out on the edges and stifled the attack, and relied on his defence to build his reputation. Yesterday he topped our hit up count and metre count at 17 hit ups and 163m. He had one error in the ruck. The kick was more just comic value, frankly. Anytimes a forward kicks it there's bound to be laughs. It would have been great to get it through, but frankly the team should never rely on a second rower to be our last tackle go to guy, and should never be pasted if that person who's not used to filing that role has a Minties moment.

Interesting to see Micheal Luck brought into the discussion. No doubt Luck was a bloke who'd bite through brick walls if it meant his team would win. Absolute champion. However from memory he had an abysmal captaincy record. There's lot of intangible that go into leadership. Good communication, confidence, intelligence, too many people think its about blasting the blokes behind the sticks and giving it to the refs, and thats utter nonsense. The best captains in the comp seldom do it. So why there is this expectation that Mannering should is beyond me.

 

[ozbash]

3 - Laumape
2 - Johnson
1 - Rapira

 

[royce10]

Mannering is always coming up with errors at crucial parts of the game. Not just this year but the past couple of years. The captain is supposed to boost the morel of the team, not deflate it. He's a myth!

 

[hitman82]

Mannering's overall game is great but those crucial errors are not a natural part of his game, and he needs to f**king fix them. It doesn't help that his body language is utterly sulky after he f**ks up - certainly not a team lifter. He seems to be great with the general grind but when he needs to come up with a, dare I say it, Captain's Play, he crumbles.

 

[Meth]

I'll do this later, but its pretty clear...

Laumape
Hurrell

By the looks of it Rapira is 3rd.

 

[Meth]

Laumape 59
Hurrell 35
Rapira 12.5
Mannering 9.5
Matulino 7
Leuluai 5
Johnson 4
Locke 4
Packer 3
Mateo 2
Vatuvei 2
Godinet 1

24 voted

 

[Rich102]

Interesting. 12 players voted for. Shows they were all putting in.

 

[Meth]

Surprised Rapira finished third, but happy to see him up there. Really miss the days when he was rated as the best young prop in the competition.

Mateo and Vatuvei probably deserved more points for their efforts.