Match Discussion: Round 14 vs Sea Eagles @ McDonald Jones Stadium

[Frederick]

Also we need an Enari Tuala appreciation thread. This kid can't seem to be able to do any wrong.

Been a brilliant pickup

 

[Mr_Knightside]

HUGE!

 

[Tom155]

Great play from Star

 

[Alex28]

Well done boys. Way to grind their way out of the depths.

 

[Burns]

That was so awful

But I am very very happy

 

[perverse]

Well, Manly played better than their team sheet suggested, particularly in their goal line defence. We weren't good enough but again get out of jail. We're just not quite there yet.

 

[aqua_duck]

Very, very lucky definitely got out of gaol. Tuala was massive today, great pick up

 

[Mr_Knightside]

We probably got away with a win today. Manly made that game very tough but we probably won that on a couple of quality touches from Ponga. That last conversion was clutch!

 

[Mr_Knightside]

Very, very lucky definitely got out of gaol. Tuala was massive today, great pick up

Tuala has been just about the buy of the year imo. Has he had a bad game since arriving at the club? Just looks so at home in first grade.

 

[Jono078]

Anyone else feel upset like we lost?

I don't care how hard Manly tried, we should've been good enough to win by 3 tries today.

I think at the end with the Pearce intercept sums our team up well. We get the intercept and then a team like the Storm or Roosters will be looking to put you to the sword, instead our mentality is slow it down so we don't make a mistake.

We don't have a killer instinct or something (I don't want to say desire) to be an elite team.

 

[slotmachine]

Is there a reason Ponga is playing one off the ruck after the obvious positive change in last weeks structure?

Have to go back to structure we used against tigers

 

[perverse]

Have to go back to structure we used against tigers

Yeah, I dunno what happened to our depth, but it disappeared this week and the execution predictably suffered as a result. We suck at playing flat, and it doesn't match the skillsets we have in the team.

If it's coaching, it's bad coaching.

 

[Knight Vision]

Can the rest of our team play like Tuala?

he's a deadset gem that bloke.

 

[Zoidberg]

Anyone else feel upset like we lost?.

Nah. Felt like that in the South’s game, not this one though. We definitely made it harder than it should’ve been though. Bad start, and didn’t recover from their 3rd try and let in a 4th shortly after.
Manly’s defence was good though. I think we did well to score 5 tries.
i think we’d be more forgiving of the tries we let in in the 2nd half if we didn’t start off slow and let in 2 in the 1st 10mins.
Again it all comes down to right frame of mind to begin the game.

 

[perverse]

Anyone else feel upset like we lost?

I don't care how hard Manly tried, we should've been good enough to win by 3 tries today.

I think at the end with the Pearce intercept sums our team up well. We get the intercept and then a team like the Storm or Roosters will be looking to put you to the sword, instead our mentality is slow it down so we don't make a mistake.

We don't have a killer instinct or something (I don't want to say desire) to be an elite team.

Agreed for the most part, most of it is an attitude problem. However, having seen how good we can play with limited preperation against the Tigers, I'm really starting to run a rule over our tactics and training in attack (to be honest I've mentioned this was a bit on the nose ealier in the year too). I don't like a lot of what we do with the ball, and I don't think it's fair or accurate to blame it all on Pearce all of the time. We don't send good shape at teams... we often look way too flat and compressed trying to move the ball in very limited space. It looks clunky and forces us into errors too often for my liking.

 

[General Knight]

Happy with the win but geez we are no where near being top side yet. On paper we are a top 8 side, probably a 4-6 side, closer to 4 on a good day. But mentally we are a 10-12 side.

 

[Knight Vision]

Full credit to Manly's goal line defence. They are playing like their season is on the line. We're playing like we woke up in the middle of a stampede and have nfi how we got there.

that sums up the game for mine. Perfect

 

[Knight Vision]

My day at work tomorrow is being seriously impacted by the beers required to cope with this.

I couldnt watch the last 15 min for fear of having a stroke

 

[Loose Cannon]

We are a very good 50minute outfit.

 

[Mr_Knightside]

It probably wasn’t the way that most people would have wanted us to win but I can’t remember the last time we came back and won from that sort of scoreline early on. It was all Manly for the first 15 mins but once we got our act together we ground our way back into the game.

It was sort of weird that throughout the game we swung back and forth between clunky/flat attacking football and then slick/free-flowing football as well. Pretty patchy throughout the game but at least we had the mental strength this time to pull through.