Rd12: 8pm Parra v Manly GAME DAY THREAD at Commbank 23/5/25

[Poupou Escobar]

What a way to start the weekend. How good is it? The sun is shining and Parra had a good win over the Sea Eagles.

I was most pleased with our defence. In previous years we would have conceded more tries when Manly tried going to their edges. We only conceded two because we had a debutant playing out of position.

As others have mentioned, we seem to be getting better at being resilient. I left the ground last night very happy as I think we are building the foundations for a very competitive style of play. I hope we buy very well for the next season or two.

I am loving the numbers in the tackle. All these smaller, mobile middle forwards picking up the slack for Paulo.

 

[senior]

Offloads

Manly 15-6

Parraball is dead

First time since 2018 we haven't led in offloads

 

[lingard]

utility for now, same as last night till he works his way into a spot, he has very good pace off the mark and he defended OK last night, I reckon he'll become an NRL player

But can we afford both him and Walker on the bench?

 

[Gronk]

But can we afford both him and Walker on the bench?

No

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Yep because I haven't watched a million games of footy

Well if you watched Hawkins last time he played first grade, we missed 45 tackles and Footy Dean missed 7 of them. Another outlier, just like last night’s game.

 

[Sensei Cobra]

But can we afford both him and Walker on the bench?

And that was why I asked the original question

 

[Eelogical]

utility for now, same as last night till he works his way into a spot, he has very good pace off the mark and he defended OK last night, I reckon he'll become an NRL player

He also looked quite confident in himself.

 

[the phantom menace]

Well if you watched Hawkins last time he played first grade, we missed 45 tackles and Footy Dean missed 7 of them. Another outlier, just like last night’s game.

Ffs, all games are outliers... so it's not even worth (you) posting anything!

 

[JokerEel]

Well if you watched Hawkins last time he played first grade, we missed 45 tackles and Footy Dean missed 7 of them. Another outlier, just like last night’s game.

Yeah I watch the games not just look at the stats that's why my opinion > Your opinion

 

[T-Boon]

One thing that sort of shits me is you see Ryley Smith put "pressure" on the kicker at the end of most sets BUT the kicker gets to pretty much ignore the pressure because of the stupid rule that a charge down restarts the tackle count if the FAILED kicking team recovers the ball (so Ryley kind of looks lame because he doesn't ever even make a play at the ball).
It is one of the great effort plays in the game that the fans love in defense and it gets slapped in the gonads by the rules.

 

[Suitman]

Last night was a very "Melbourne like" performance. We choked Manly to death.
We kept our errors to a minimum and we completed our sets.
We also played some Parraball when it suited. We were very disciplined.

That is exactly what I was hoping that Ryles would bring to us. God knows, we have had former Bellamy apprentices here before (Kearney and Arthur) and they bought none of this.
Yes, it's early days under the Ryles regime for sure. There's a long way to go. Yet, the improvement in our football in all aspects over such a short period of time has been impressive. And yes, exciting.

I really have to give a massive shout out to Riley Smith though, who seems to fly under the radar of most commentary here. He has been enormous for us this season, despite his stature. An absolute energizer bunny.
His service out of dummy half is mostly clinical and speedy. Kick chase he is always there. Pressure on the opposition kicker is 100%, without doing stupid stuff and giving penalties away. Even when he is 1st or 2nd receiver, his service is crisp and quick. He is almost always there in defence.
He deserves far more credit than the discussion here pays to him.
If we haven't already, we need to lock him in long term.

 

[Timana]

One thing that sort of shits me is you see Ryley Smith put "pressure" on the kicker at the end of most sets BUT the kicker gets to pretty much ignore the pressure because of the stupid rule that a charge down restarts the tackle count if the FAILED kicking team recovers the ball (so Ryley kind of looks lame because he doesn't ever even make a play at the ball).
It is one of the great effort plays in the game that the fans love in defense and it gets slapped in the gonads by the rules.

Nah he made someone in a prev game kick out on the full and he madenarthur kick the ball almosy backwards.

 

[hineyrulz]

First time since 2018 we haven't led in offloads

*Relied.

 

[ColdWetPanther]

Parra looked good last night (in all ways except the jersey/uniform; the fluro is atrocious).

Ryles building something promising.

 

[Pazza]

*Relied.

Don't need to throw as many when you have a plan

 

[crocodile]

settle down mate..

he had a career high performance last night but he’s also a career back up half and he’s 26.

It's not like we have a plethora of applicants for No 6 next year. Could do a lot worse.

 

[crocodile]

First time since 2018 we haven't led in offloads

Looked like most of those Moanly offloads happened in one set towards the end of the game.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

True, but he could be sitting in reserve grade or coming off the bench. The fact he is starting in first grade at fullback now is impressive. I just hope he can get a bit stronger. If he does he will become an expensive and valuable player.

I think he could become the best fullback in the game. He is already very strong for his size, and the lack of size helps his agility.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

what does that mean?
He seemed like a none factor to me. Did some okay runs/passes.

He passed a lot more than he usually does because we targeted Waddell and Brooks in the defensive line.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Ffs, all games are outliers... so it's not even worth (you) posting anything!

Exactly, that's why a single game is entertainment, not data.