Match Discussion: Round 12 vs Manly @ McDonald Jones Stadium

[Knight Tales]

Refs are actually giving advantage to disciplined sides and we are near the top for that under the new rules. Our line looked really settled today.

 

[PhilGould]

Did Des complain about his kick chaser that clotheslined a player without the ball not getting binned?

 

[mozza91]

Not saying I got unnatural levels of satisfaction out of that game but if the boner police call I’ll be needing a lawyer.

 

[Loose Cannon]

Well, it’s been mentioned, but looking less disjointed in attack, (even allowing for a 7 that doesn’t run) clearly shows which cylinder isn’t firing.

I wonder if the coach has now seen what has been obvious to this forum since time began.

 

[slotmachine]

but looking less disjointed in attack,

Our attack was garbage, two tries from dummy half passes and one from a shift against 12 that hoy almost stuffed up.

We won because our forwards killed theirs

 

[Loose Cannon]

Our attack was garbage, two tries from dummy half passes and one from a shift against 12 that hoy almost stuffed up.

We won because our forwards killed theirs

True, it is still crap out wide, but Watson’s involvement was far more influential than anything we have served up this year. He has actually added skills to his game, and is playing eyes up, unlike everybody else.

The 2 dummy half tries had two guys in motion. When has that happened before? Little steps.

 

[Yosh]

A few thoughts:

- A win against Manly always feels good
- Won a game on the back of some great defense. A real rare case for us.
- We have been very disciplined the whole year and we are finally reaping the benefits. Sure we got the rub of the green but we deserved it.
- Our spine won us the game as well. Watson from fullback made an awesome half break to get us out of trouble. Crossland with the repeat set. Brailey to set up the try.
- Captain to Captain to win us the game. Leadership for the win.
- We tried to get the ball to Best early. Wasn't pretty but at least we are trying. If Crossland chooses to run more it'll open up space for Best.
- Musgrove isn't classy but he is gutsy as hell. Took on Saab the whole night and bested him a couple of times in the air.
- Tuala didn't play badly. Always a plus.
- Barney and Jones in the middle as ball play locks is doing wonders for the team. If we can get Watson to sniff around the middle more often, we gonna find some joy.


I don't want to bag anyone of our players. What I'm about to say next isn't an attack of Mann but more an attack on the coach's decision to constantly pick him in a position and role that doesn't suit him. We looked a lot more fluid in attack because Mann didn't die with the ball every single time. We were stronger down the right defensively and it let Crossland take control of our fifth kick options, which was the best I've seen it the whole year.

Crossland's kicking game was spot on today. The bombs were high enough for our chasers to get there and weren't too long to end up in goal. Won us a couple of repeat sets and put their back three under pressure all game. He did kick to Saab a lot but Musgrove is also our best under the high ball. I have no problems with it.

Very happy with the win. Seibold needs to be acknowledged for his defensive coaching. We shut down Tommy like no other side has the whole season. Everyone deserves a pat on the back but we need to build on this going forward.

 

[Jono078]

Well said on each point Yosh.

IF Mann comes back into the team, for me it can only be for Tuala now. I think Mann would make a solid centre, defensively at least should be a solid upgrade.

 

[aqua_duck]

It does, but this is also where you think a Pearce, Ponga and now Clifford could make a HUGE impact.

We like to get down in the dumps when they offer shit, now is a good time to enjoy today's achievements and be optimistic that each week that goes by we should be getting closer to being the team we should be by virtue of returning/new players.

Those guys will help but it's this absolute flat out refusal to shift the ball in our own half that will see us being tactically left behind

 

[The Axe of Druss]

Gotta give Hoy a shout out here. He wasn't awful and made some very safe takes, even chiming in for a nice pass in Toa's try

He, much like Watson, need to stop over thinking their plays and just go with what they see. He's getting better, slowly

 

[Apey]

Can't believe we won.

Attack was terrible but they hung in there and defended pretty well today.

 

[Old dog]

Haven’t over thought it, had a few drinks, am over the moon with result, most played as well as can but special mention to Hoy, Musgrove and Toa, ain’t going to get many points but played as well as we hoped or better. It was the middle that did it

 

[GidleyTwinz]

Had to watch on replay, so just finished. Will go through the other comments, so apologies if I'm repeating consensus.

• Massive win for the course of our season, against a team playing top 4 footy coming into it. Mostly nullified Turbo, which was a massive effort.
• Our edge defence was actually good(?) outside of the one early try where Watson was slow to move and Barnett got stood up trying to be aggressive. If this is the impact of two weeks of Seibold taking over the defence, please keep him there.
• Best game of the year for our pack as a whole. I'm pretty critical in general of fans who bag off player effort (my base case is that the losing team is usually just less talented, and effort is an easy point to criticise), but the way our forwards played today... if it's not effort, I dont know where it's been. So maybe this is one of the exceptions.
• To repeat, I couldn't watch live, so I don't know why Mann didnt play. But I can't help but think it was a good thing because it let Crossland be the dominant, organising half. He wasn't great, but he's showed a lot more over the past few weeks than I thought he had in him. The coaching staff have really limited his opportunities the last two years, so I assumed they'd seen him train and didn't trust/rate him - that might be true, but for the first time, I'm hoping we sign him for next year.
• We just beat a side playing real quality football. Dominated them. Without Ponga, Pearce, and Clifford we lacked the class to generate points from all the field position we had. With them, we probably put on 40. I've massively upgraded my outlook for the season.

Also, literally couldn't sit down for the last 20 minutes. What a win!

 

[Burwood]

Not sure if mentioned earlier, but the team won with Barnett playing his 100th game milestone!

I think that’s two milestone games in a row the club has won?? That in itself is a milestone.

 

[Alex28]

Next week:

1. Watson
2. Toa
3. Mann
4. Best
5. Hunt
6. Clifford
7. Crossland

Toa’s defence worries me, but if Mann has a go they will be ok. Watson should be at 6, but we need a fullback for the next few weeks and we were much better when he concussed himself. Even better, Tuala (and Shibisaki) can look for another club early so we can fit Gagai in next year.

 

[NoSchitSherlock]

Next week:

1. Watson
2. Toa
3. Mann
4. Best
5. Hunt
6. Clifford
7. Crossland

Toa’s defence worries me, but if Mann has a go they will be ok. Watson should be at 6, but we need a fullback for the next few weeks and we were much better when he concussed himself. Even better, Tuala (and Shibisaki) can look for another club early so we can fit Gagai in next year.

I'd be OK with that. Watson at FB for sure.

 

[Allstar Knights]

To'a was good today. He had a real crack.

I know sometimes he can look abysmal and not NRL standard with his defence, but I really feel that there's a good player in him.

 

[GidleyTwinz]

Well, it’s been mentioned, but looking less disjointed in attack, (even allowing for a 7 that doesn’t run) clearly shows which cylinder isn’t firing.

I wonder if the coach has now seen what has been obvious to this forum since time began.

Less disjointed in attack? We had 57% possession, 55% territory, 9-1 penalties, and 41 tackles in the opposition 20. And we scored 3 tries, only 1 through a backline move.

Our attack was awful. Penrith would have put on 60. We missed Ponga and we missed Pearce (and although we haven't had him, we also missed Clifford)

 

[Old dog]

To'a was good today. He had a real crack.

I know sometimes he can look abysmal and not NRL standard with his defence, but I really feel that there's a good player in him.

Think playing inside Tuala a predominately left side player hurts, if he had an actual right side centre to obtain experience he might end up a very good player

 

[Yosh]

I think To'a will play NRL for a long time. He has shown improvement on a weekly basis and is scoring every second game. It doesn't help he never really played on the wing and is playing mostly when we are the losing side. Seems to have a lot of ability he hasn't shown quite yet.