Mark Riddell you PLONKER!!!!!!

[strider]

All our attack lacks is f'n players moving without the bloody ball .... too much stand and pass and hte only guy moving is the guy who f'n gets the ball

the try Zeb acored was a prime example of what happens when more than one player runs - Cannings and Zeb both ran and PJ passed to the second man who basically just fell through the defensive line untouched .... all because the defense had to make a decision about who to tackle and picked the wrong guy .... it REALLY is that simple .... I'm not sure if zeb's try was good work or 2 guys just accidently ran at teh same time :lol: - cos we don't do it often enough to make me think it was planned

I don't think in current rugby league there is alot of fancy moves setting up trys .... its all about maintaining possession and having a few bodies in motion to catch the defense out .... when we do it it makes us look good - but we just don't do it very often

 

[PJ Marshal]

We dominated the first half and should have led by atleast 12pts.

When the forwards take the ball up 4 tackles straight one off the ruck it becomes very predictable, and to compliment that, our halves didn't really have a great 5th tackle play. The only thing you can achieve with that is good field position which was exactly what we did. The impression I had was the players were too scared to throw it around just in case it led to errors.

The second half was just crap!

yeah should have but didnt...because theres no control from either half or 5/8 at least 85% of the time when we are attacking the line

mark riddell's sh*thouse field goal attempt exemplified that....finch or smith shud of been taking control here!

defensively i dont see any real problems manly's tries came because we were so f**ked...but there were some players who effort in chasing kicks are questionable especially grothe!

most people will say we can take positives out of that first half....well how long can you take positives out of something we allready know yes we can start well but we cant execute and fade off in the latter stages of the game...its the same old every week

if we had of been playing manly last week...whos to say they wudnt of cut down a 22-0 half time lead...the roosters were sh*t manly imo are the most complete football team in the comp...i reckon they wud of came back and hammerd us!

 

[Suitman]

All our attack lacks is f'n players moving without the bloody ball .... too much stand and pass and hte only guy moving is the guy who f'n gets the ball

the try Zeb acored was a prime example of what happens when more than one player runs - Cannings and Zeb both ran and PJ passed to the second man who basically just fell through the defensive line untouched .... all because the defense had to make a decision about who to tackle and picked the wrong guy .... it REALLY is that simple .... I'm not sure if zeb's try was good work or 2 guys just accidently ran at teh same time :lol: - cos we don't do it often enough to make me think it was planned

I don't think in current rugby league there is alot of fancy moves setting up trys .... its all about maintaining possession and having a few bodies in motion to catch the defense out .... when we do it it makes us look good - but we just don't do it very often

I wasn't saying trying to be too fancy Strides, just a couple of basic and simple worked moves.
Look at Manly's two disallowed first half tries - both beautifully executed except for that final pass. That's all it takes. A simple run around and dummy runner.
FFS, it ain't hard, and most teams in the comp seem to be able to pull it off.

We are really so one dimensional - and that certainly is stemming from the lack of creativity in the halves.

Suity

 

[COACH STERLING]

Our attack definitely lacks imagination - seriously.

Where are all the cut out passes, dummy runners, run arounds etc..... on the third 4th or 5th tackles when we are attacking the opponents line.

TBH, we were very lucky to get the two tries we got last night, which is totally unacceptable considering the mount of ball we had on their line.

Another thing, I just don't think Finch is defendable any longer.
To do two or three supposedly good things a game (the sorts of things any player should do) just isn't cutting it for me any longer.
He's had 6 or 7 games. Time to give him some PL to find his game again.

Suity

Suity

A poor attack can also lead to having to defend more. That showed towards the backend of the first half when posession started to even out.

I really think Finch's confidence is shot to bits. He actually refused to do anything on tackles 4 & 5 last night as his first few attemps were that bad it wasn't funny. At stages of the game Burty had to come in and give Timmy a hand with the kicks. And what are we paying this guy big $$$ for?

Finch's last tackle option plays led to:

- Kicking the ball over the deadball line on a full from a bomb.

-A Cross field kick which went directly into the opponents bread busket.

Other than that, I cant remember him doing much exept for throwing a pass to Benny who almost went out of the field of play.

His defence was only average, and the highlight of his game was scambling back to clean up 2 kicks.

Out of 10, he gets a rating of 4.5 and thats being generous.

 

[Eelementary]

Even before last night's result, Manly were ranked second overall for defense - it was always going to be a tough ask to post points against their strong defense at the fortress on a dewey surface.

To keep them scoreless (or at the very least tryless) for 40 minutes when they should have scored at least one try took a great effort.

 

[The Colonel]

We are really so one dimensional - and that certainly is stemming from the lack of creativity in the halves.

There isn't a lack of creativity in the halves at all, but we certainly are one dimensional. There is only Tim doing any creating and that unfortunately is easy to shut down by rushing up on him and limiting his time.

 

[Delboy]

As I mentioned previously, Brett Finch is having an influence on the way we play, and currently it isn't good.

We played a much more open and attacking style with Green at 5/8, as he can kick and pass and gives Tim room, that was when we defeated Canberra so we have played with this formation

Hagan can't continue to play favourites as it was his decision to sign Finch, we need to do more when in possession,a=nd at the moment that means being Finchless, it's unfortunately true that he is not working out for us at this time. We need to move on and see if the alternative is better, and Hagan has to do the job required and make what he thinks are the hard decisions, although they appear easy from the outside.

 

[Pazza]

maybe bring mateo to lock add something abit more

 

[ParraManiac]

I think everyone is getting a little carried away. Dont get me wrong I am as pissed off as the rest of you. I dont think we played that bad, but the problem that has been haunting us for as long as I can remember is our ability to take the right option when the pressure is on. These mistakes arent coming from the young players either, they are coming from the more experienced heads in our side...... maybe a correlation there???

The biggest turning point for me was early in the second half, just before Manly scored. We had them under the pump, attacking the line, last tackle when you guessed it Brett Finch steps up. With all our players screaming out wide for the bomb to be put up Finch puts through some piss poor, half arsed grubber kick to noone that doesnt even go into the in goal! MOMENTUM GONE! Manly score off next set.

How long has Finch been in first grade, close to 10 years I imagine, do we really need another player in this squad so prone to brain snaps or quite simply with no idea?

How long has Burt been in first grade, almost 10 years? Grothe gets crucified by the commentators for scooping the ball up to him, yet it is Burt who inexplicably heads towards the sideline. Does he think he is 8foot tall and weighs 150kg or some thing? It hurts me to say that because Burt has been in the best form of his career, but this is what he does in big games we saw it last year, and many other years for that matter.

How long has Grothe been in first grade, long enough to not be doing the stupid things he does? He is simply too slow or lazy, take your pick, to be in the backs.

The list goes on PJ and Riddell were just as bad, whilst PJ had a better game there service from dummy half is atrocious and often leads to poor last tackle plays from the halves.

I think our forwards worked hard, but we really need another enforcer in there, I dont know how much longer we can wait to get Faaosso in there. Wagon worked hard last night but really had little impact other than to plug a gap in the middle of the park!

 

[ParraManiac]

I think from here on in Green, Inu and possibly Tautai until Tahu gets back need to be fixtures in our backline. It is also time to give Matt Keating a try, Riddells days as a hooker are over!

 

[ParraManiac]

Our lack of common sense is killing us, we were in that game up to our eyeballs it was there for the taking, just like the dogs game. We have showed we have nothing to fear from anyone in this competition, but there are a couple of key changes to be made right now or we can kiss it goodbye!

 

[PJ Marshal]

There isn't a lack of creativity in the halves at all, but we certainly are one dimensional. There is only Tim doing any creating and that unfortunately is easy to shut down by rushing up on him and limiting his time.

one dimensional = no creativity dood

add a dimension to the game you have more creative options

 

[yy_cheng]

....finch or smith shud of been taking control here!

You can't take control when the dummy half doesn't pass it to you!

 

[yy_cheng]

As I mentioned previously, Brett Finch is having an influence on the way we play, and currently it isn't good.

We played a much more open and attacking style with Green at 5/8, as he can kick and pass and gives Tim room, that was when we defeated Canberra so we have played with this formation

Hagan can't continue to play favourites as it was his decision to sign Finch, we need to do more when in possession,a=nd at the moment that means being Finchless, it's unfortunately true that he is not working out for us at this time. We need to move on and see if the alternative is better, and Hagan has to do the job required and make what he thinks are the hard decisions, although they appear easy from the outside.

Funny thing about the Manly match, WAGON passed the ball more times than Finch did.

TBH, I want to join that FOF group !!! I would rather Wagon be 6 and let Mateo be 13.

 

[yy_cheng]

Lastly, our defense has never been the same since Sharpie left

 

[bartman]

It was interesting for me to see what Huddersfield were up to in person last weekend - they have five possible playmakers on the field at once now, and while it took them a while this season after eight wins in a row this combination seems to flow and result in unpredictable creativity, and they don't get in each other's way.

Last week they had at:
1. Chris Thorman - chiming in from fullback to get the ball in his hands and direct play
6. Kevin Brown - a non-nonsense player and distributer, centre come five-eight kind of with a Wags style in attack
7. Brad Drew - started year at hooker but playing a first receiver role
9. Ryan Hudson - started year as bench hooker but starting at dummy half
14. Robbie Paul - came on when any of the above four guys needed a breather, but there were several periods through the game all five of them were on at once, I'm guessing they subbed a lock off the field for the extra playmaker.

It's amazing what a bit of creativity in coaching can (eventually) achieve, even though these players are not individually strong defenders themselves. It frustrates me greatly seeing our any three of Finch/Smith/Riddell/Marsh/Green combination still not effectively controlling the attack and fifth tackles after nine games, when this pommie coach can have all five equivalents on the field at once and really put the opposition defence in two (or five) minds.

 

[Pazza]

brad drew was awesome for us

 

[sooperdooper]

that riddell attempt was so silly.... why? from there they got a penalty goal and it changed the game

 

[Sean7]

If Riddell had hit that field goal I don't think we would've thought it was such a bad idea.

Grothe dropping the ball after Ben Smith's charge down was the turning point of the game for sure. However, I don't think it was his fault and should've been a penalty for lifting. If they didn't lift him like they did I don't think he would've dropped it. It was a good strong hit-up.

I actually think Grothe is copping a bit of a raw deal. He's actually our hardest running forward, he's playing extremely hard in my opinion. If the rest of our forwards ran like him, we'd be doing pretty well. There was nothing wrong with his flick back to Burt. And yes he looks to offload all the time, but thank gad for that, we'd have absolutely nothing in attack otherwise. I sometimes feel like he, Mateo and Tim Smith are the only guys who want to attack and the others don't want to have a bar of it. I think others in the team make them look worse than they are because they get no support.

Our forwards are a joke at times. Our entire starting backrow was a complete non-event for the entire game and it's been like that for too long, not just this year, bar a few games here and there. Is it too much much to ask to run hard and make tackles? Even if you don't do anything special, just run hard. We have too many guys that stop our attack dead.

Even when we win, I don't think we build for the win, we just score some tries out of nothing. We don't really have anything in particular that I look at and think 'That's where or how we can win.' I look at other teams and see a certain thing that they have that seperates them from other teams, be they good or bad teams. I don't even know if we're a good or bad team because there's nothing specific that I can latch onto.

I'm not having a crack at the team, it's just an observation.

 

[PJ Marshal]

You can't take control when the dummy half doesn't pass it to you!

yeah but lack of communication on their behalf to riddell...was the cause