Gone? Turn it up

[gong_eagle]

Gone? Turn it up

02 Apr 09 @ 03:54pm by JASON AVEDISSIAN
http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/sport/story/gone-turn-it-up1/
TWO surviving members of the Rabbitohs’ 1953 premiership-winning team believe Manly can do what they did 56 years ago - win the grand final after losing their first three games.
South Sydney stalwarts Frank Threlfo and John Dougherty are believed to be the only surviving players from the Rabbitohs’ run-on team which won the 1953 grand final over St George.
Rugby league Immortal Clive Churchill was also part of that famous Rabbitohs turnaround.
Since then, no other team has recovered from three successive defeats to win the title.
The Manly Daily tracked down both Threlfo and Dougherty, now based in Newcastle.
And both are convinced the Sea Eagles can recover and make it back-to-back premierships.
“I was only listening to Des on the TV the other night, saying they can turn it around,” Threlfo, 76, said yesterday.
“It brought back memories from my days and the blokes we played with. I think he can turn that team around ... they have got the team to do it.”
Dougherty, who played five-eighth in the grand final victory, agreed with his mate.
“They have got the ability,” the 77-year-old said from his Dudley home. “My guess is they are pyschologically out of kilter. I think Stewart (fullback Brett Stewart) coming back will give them a boost.
“There’s no reason why they can’t do it.”
Threlfo said a midweek crisis meeting at Redfern ahead of their round-four match in 1953 ensured the Rabbitohs would turn their year around.
“We had a pretty good captain-coach in Jack Rayner,” the winger said. “Losing the first three games ... we were only just losing them, we weren’t getting a hiding. We just couldn’t win.
“Coming into the fourth round, we had a good team meeting with the officials and Jack laid into us and laid down the law.
“He didn’t pay out on us, he just said we’ve got the team, we are just not winning. From there, we only lost one or two games and won the premiership. It was a remarkable turnaround.”
The Sea Eagles, under their own tough coach Des Hasler, get the chance to rewrite the history books when they play the Knights in Newcastle on Sunday.

 

[gong_eagle]

Manly players have an "honesty" session
By Todd Balym
April 02, 2009
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,25280422-23214,00.html
Manly players have held an "honesty" session to spark some life into their NRL season, conceding they are one loss away from crippling their title defence and chances of a top-four finish.

The players confronted each other this week over their poor discipline and ball handling in the opening three weeks that has left them rooted to the foot of the NRL ladder without a win alongside Canberra.

Veteran prop Jason King said the players had addressed their attitudes and why they had yet to win a game despite being crowned world champions earlier last month.

“We've given ourselves a good kick up the backside,'' said King.

“Just by being brutally honest, really. A couple of hard video sessions and really pinpointing the areas we're letting ourselves down.

“We have been letting ourselves down making too many errors and giving away far too many penalties so we have to cut them out and hopefully that will help us a long way towards winning the game this weekend.

“Some of them are discipline things and some of them are just being stupid.''

King said Manly's problem was they had abandoned the tough, grinding style of play that carried them to consecutive grand finals and last year's NRL premiership.

He believes they've instead resorted to the type of flashy football they were able to employ once they had put teams away in 2008, like they did late against Melbourne in last year's decider.

“That is one of our major problems, we're going away from that grinding football that we're renowned for the last couple of seasons,'' he said.

“We have to get back to that grind-type football and try to grind teams away rather than try and play the grand final-type football.''

St George Illawarra in 2005 are the only team in 10 years of the NRL to drop their first three games and still reach the top four.

Only two teams in over 100 years of rugby league have lost three straight to start the year and win the premiership.

King said the players recognised how difficult they've already made their title defence and cannot afford to risk dropping a fourth game against Newcastle on Sunday if they want to make the top four.

“It's been a while since we've dropped three games in a row so that was very disappointing,'' he said.

“It is only early days but you don't want to give those good sides too much of a break because they've got some tremendous players.

“The top sides at the moment are cruising along pretty nicely and don't look like dropping a game so we don't want to get too far behind that is for sure.''

Coach Des Hasler admits Manly should have beaten the Warriors and Penrith in the past two weeks at home, but remains confident the team can fix the problems that have plagued them in all three losses.

“You look at the figures that came out of it (Penrith). It's not hard to fathom (why they lost). We can fix that. That's how we will overcome,'' said Hasler, pointing to Manly's high error rate and poor completions.

So intense has the week been at Manly that media-friendly skipper Matt Orford declined to talk on Thursday.

“I want to get us back on track rather than talk.''

 

[kruzin]

Let's hope its not just alot of trash talk, they have the chance to start this weekend against the knights, which SHOULD be a fairly winnable game...ill save judgement til after the game.

 

[eagles4eva]

we are in desperate need of "snakes" return and a settled back line, love Robo on the wing, but he is no fullback

 

[KiWi_BoI_15]

We need to get rolling this weekend!

 

[Daddycool]

The difference this week, to the previous three is.....They aren't expected to win. Aside from the first game where the Bulldogs were just too good, they've had two close losses where the other team has come from behind, late in the game. In both of those, they played as if they had the weight of the world on their shoulders.

Perhaps this week, playing at a tough away venue and the Knights players getting stuck into Perry and Bailey, verbally......it might just privide the right kind of motivation for a strong 80min performance.

 

[Wobbygong]

Dessie and his team of soft twigs are gooooorne :lol:

 

[Daddycool]

Dessie and his team of soft twigs are gooooorne :lol:

So says the 41 year old virgin.

 

[Medievalknight]

We need to get rolling this weekend!

Or maybe next weekend