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Round 8 - Rabbitohs vs Sea Eagles: Friday 29th April 7:55pm @Central Coast Stadium

Botany Rabbit

Juniors
Messages
44
Here are some thoughts on the game. Anyone thinking that was a great performance is out of their mind. The forwards did ok, but some drop ball and penalties again put us under pressure.

Mansour- How long are we going to entertain this option, now we have Paulo Knockers but he is faster than Josh , he also did well in the finals last year , he is taller and his form in reserve grade has been good.Not a center but is much better option than stuck in the mud , out of position Mansour.

Tass- First game, dropped a bit of ball, worth another go.

Murray and Graham- what superstars we have here both turn up every week and put in! Dont have enough superlatives for these two Along with Koolamatangi they are our future.

Tass- Another poor game , I want him to succeed but not damaging enough and an awful defensive lap on cherry evans Kick. Getting smashed to much on his carry’s.

Illias- Good and bad but still learning , I really like when he takes on the line.

Arrow - Good AS was cook and Tav.

Mitchell- well it seemed like he was on and off in a blink of an eye.

Tom- Outstanding and easily the best bigman and Savili did great.

Davy Moale- lacklustre the first stint, but did run harder his next. Gave up a stupid penalty late in tackle count.

Cook - good again

Cody- He is still not clicking with the new players was better .

I see Karapani is playing reserves today . Is gagai form ok at fullback lately?
Just my thoughts and we need to beat the Broncos next week and really lift!
I know Mansour is trying, but!
He should have scored a run away try. Had a 30m head start and got rounded up on manlys 30.
caught out in defence way too many times. Surely Paulo is better than him?
 

Rabbits20

Immortal
Messages
41,606
I know Mansour is trying, but!
He should have scored a run away try. Had a 30m head start and got rounded up on manlys 30.
caught out in defence way too many times. Surely Paulo is better than him?
I will say Keaon and Lachy do need to slide better, we just keep getting short down that side and Mansour isn’t solely to blame.
 

Rabbits20

Immortal
Messages
41,606
On our last tackle options they’re awful let’s be honest last night Cody was kicking too much on the last when we were attacking, that is when we need Lachy kicking and dribbling it in so we can get a repeat set. Lachy was doing a good job at this a few weeks ago but I haven’t seen it the last couple of weeks, he needs to get back to it.
 

callmack1

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
11,609
After watching the replay, here's my full report,

Taaffe: He was solid without being exceptional. Positional play was good and he was very safe under the high ball as he took a few tough catches under pressure. He did return the ball with confidence but got bashed pretty much every time he ran last night. Chimed into the backline pretty well but I still want to see him inject himself more. Bombed a try in the first half by not passing. However, he made up for that by scoring that try on fulltime, that was good support play from Taaffey. His defence wasn't too bad as a whole, a good effort when Foran 'scored' (I still think he was held up but then put on a pretty poor effort on Tuipulotu when he scored. On another note, his goal kicking was very good again.

Johnston: Great night for AJ, he put in a pretty awesome effort. While he ran for 76 meters which isn't huge, the touches he did have were quality. Some of his kick returns were very good and he did get through a decent amount of working coming out of our own end. Obviously, that move he put on for his try was amazing! Still had a lot of work to do but beat Saab with pure footwork and acceleration for a great finish! Could have had another couple of tries but passes to him didn't find the mark. AJ was good defensively with the only negative of his night being not competing for the ball when Saab scored. I expect better there.

Tass: A mixed night for the kid in only his second game. He made 3 errors throughout the 80 minutes, one of which lead to Manly scoring and another which turned momentum in their favor later on in the game. He also gave away a penalty which later lead to Manly scoring too. So those were some real negatives to his game. However, I did also see some really big positives! His running game was strong as he ran for 111 meters and he looked very dangerous attacking the line with a bit of space. when he scored, he summed up the situation perfectly, showed a bit of speed and just cut straight through which was brilliant! Also did really well to get the ball out the back for Cody's try. On another note, he was solid defensively too, did his job. I've seen enough to be willing to keep giving him the shot at that left center spot. I'm not going to say "we've found our left center" just yet but he's worth a go and potentially we have found it. He looks more likely than anyone else who has played there this year.

Graham: Brilliant. Just brilliant yet again from Stretch. He's become a real professional and ever-so consistent. That was no different last night as he had another top notch game. Once again, one of our best. A massive 190 meters which topped that category for us. Just goes to show you the sort of work he got through in 80 minutes and that was both tough runs to get us out of our end and jinking, dangerous runs attacking the line. There was a number of times there where he almost broke through and he had 4 tackle breaks for the game. An amazing effort in the final play of the game to break those tackles from nothing, slip though and then get the ball away to Taaffe to score, that was seriously freakish!! An equally amazing effort in defence too. He made one error as he fell for Foran's dummy when he scored but aside from that, he was brilliant. Our right edge was under assault all game but he shut it down and saved our asses so often!

Mansour: Another mixed night for Sauce. yes, he's slow so couldn't take advantage of his opportunities, including that early break, but I thought he actually went okay with the ball. He had a real dig. Some really strong runs to make a total of 176 meters which is huge. I admit, his defence again was all over the shop as he constantly got caught out in no-mans-land again and that comes from his poor ability to read the play. He is then not quick enough anymore to cover his mistakes, Tuipulotu 's try is a good example of that. However, I do have to admit he did save a few tries by knocking the ball down so credit goes to him for that. Still think Paulo is the better option.

Walker: An improvement, certainly showing signs of getting back to his best. He was one of our better players last night and certainly lead the way. Some really classy touches at various times! Obviously put AJ into space for his try, had a good hand in the try to Tass, again threw a good ball to Tass and was there to pick up the crumbs for his own try which was awesome to watch! Then there were a number of other times where he did create a few chances, we just couldn't ice it. So the signs really are there for Cody. However, he still wasn't perfect, still not fully there. I think his timing does still look a bit off and we did bomb a couple of opportunities because the pass from Cody didn't find the mark. I also wasn't a big fan of his kicking game, a lot of his kicks to Saab didn't pose a threat at all. No issues with him defensively, did a good job there. Good to see Cody step up and improve on a very special night for him!! Hopefully he continues to rise again.

Ilias: I was worried about how last week would effect him heading into this one but to his credit, he seemed to shake it off and bounced back in a very encouraging way last night as he turned in another good performance. Thought he controlled things pretty nicely and his ball playing was good, back to near its best despite not picking up any try assists. Loved when he combined with Cody. I also loved to see him take the line on A LOT! This makes him more unpredictable and we saw it last night that he almost broke through off a dummy and run a couple times. The only negative for him though was his kicking game as I don't think it was too flash and he also didn't do enough of it. I believe he is a better general play kicker than Cody so that needs to be mainly his job and it's his kicking which is the big work on for him. Still a pretty good night yet again from the young bloke.
 

callmack1

Moderator
Staff member
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11,609
Tatola: Didn't do anything special and wasn't as good as last week but still a decent, solid night for him. went about his work largely unnoticed but still made 119 meters over all which is fantastic! Really helped with our roll on did Junior.

Cook: Another pretty good performance from Cookie as he bounced back from a quiet game last week. Good service out of dummy half, brought the forwards on well and as always he put in another good defensive performance with 35 tackles. Great to see him run and I thought he picked those moments pretty well despite them not really coming to anything, but it did still ask plenty of questions. Got a beautiful try assist with that pass to Murray, that was great vision. He did drop a ball early in the game when we looked hot on attack and I was disappointed in his effort to stop the Cherry-Evans try (he could have dived on the ball before it reached the in-goal area) but aside from that, really can't knock his performance.

Burgess: Wow, wow, wow what a game from big Tommy!! Take a bow! That was one of the best games I've seen him play and he was our best player on the night I believe. Played big minutes for him and handled it incredibly well. Every run he had seemed to be a good one and even if he had a good shot put on him, he still kept marching forward post-contact through pure strength and determination. Made a huge 186 meters all up with 76 of these coming post-contact. That's one hell of an effort! His try was amazing, looked like he was going to be stopped an contained easily but he just wouldn't take no for an answer as he kept barging forward to get it down! A seriously amazing effort. Great knock Tommy!! well done!

Koloamatangi: Speaking of good knocks from our forwards, Keaon was really, really good once again. Tough, aggressive carries all night and he made 96 meters. Scored another great try running an awesome line off Havili which was well deserved, he's getting really good at running that line. Did make an error at one time though and I still thought some of his efforts in defence were lazy, particularly sliding which has been documented, that's a big work on for him.

Arrow: Mr consistent was at his usual consistent yet again. Another very solid game from Jai as he lead the pack all game. Forced to play 80 minutes which has been unusual for him this year but he handled it with ease and ended up being one of our better forwards. Strong carry after strong carry and he constantly poked his nose through the line, posing a threat and looking for a quick play-the-ball. Comfortably cracked the 100m mark and made 27 tackles so it was a great effort all round from him.

Murray: I didn't think the skipper was at his best last night but Cam Murray below his best is still better than a lot of forwards in the NRL and I'd still say he had a pretty good game for us. Not sure what it was, maybe that lawton tackle effected him a bit, who knows but despite having some good hit ups and making a big 117 meters, he seemed to get hit hard a lot last night which is unusual. Still handled it well. His ball playing was top notch as always, love him at first receiver and his try was magnificent, great deception because the Manly defence thought we was going to ball play and slid off, Cam identified this, played some eyes up Footy and slid straight over. Another 36 tackles to add to his tally for the night too.

Havili: Siliva has had a few good games for us but last night was his best to date by far! Came on, played decent minutes and made a huge impact to help keep up that fury in the middle. Had some really big runs and just refused to go down at times. 123 meters which is fantastic! Also had a try assist by providing that peach of a ball to put Keaon over. Love seeing passing between the forwards!!

Moale: Not sure why he ended up playing so little minutes as JD said during the week he was gonna get more minutes but this obviously didn't happen which I was a little disappointed with. It was a bit of an underwhelming game for Davvy to be fair. His first stint wasn't flash but looked better in his second.

Paulo: Didn't even get on the field so no comment.

Mitchell: Awesome to see him debut!! Very strange to see him only play 11 minutes though, felt like he was only out there for a split second! Still, he looked good, 3 very solid runs.

All in all, it wasn't the perfect performance so I'm not entirely happy. I think if Manly hadn't conceded the 22 points and the score had been something like 40-10 or 40-6, we'd all be happy but to concede 22 points against any team, let alone a team playing with 12 men for 70 minutes is a poor defensive effort. It shouldn't happen so defence is what I'm most disappointed in this week.

No issues with our attack, it wasn't perfect but you can't expect it to be at this time of year, we still put on 40 points and scored some nice tries. Good to see us complete at 80% too!! That was the most pleasing thing to come out of last night.

I guess looking back, Manly are a good side, a top six side, so a performance like that against them is to be commended, I just feel like we still could have done better.

Still lots to work on but great to get a win!!!
 

handyman2190

Bench
Messages
3,386
On our last tackle options they’re awful let’s be honest last night Cody was kicking too much on the last when we were attacking, that is when we need Lachy kicking and dribbling it in so we can get a repeat set. Lachy was doing a good job at this a few weeks ago but I haven’t seen it the last couple of weeks, he needs to get back to it.
100% agree were are the grubbers into the ingoal?
Manly were understrength, alot of injurys, if they were at full strength they would of beaten us with 12, we are not very resilient, if things dont go our way we buckle,there is no grit.
 
Last edited:

Steenson123

Juniors
Messages
486
A few people need to be dropped.
How many more games is Mansewer gonna get before the coach gets rid of him?
I said it last year, this year, and this game is proof - Taafe is NOT a solution at fullback. He's been smashed and driven backwards on every kick return, and he is too small to defend the line as the last man. The last Manly try was pathetic defense by him and Mansewer
Agreed. Taaffe is smaller than Murray! Taaffe's long run future is most likely as a #7. He has balls skills, pace and acclereration and a kicking game.
 

Botany Rabbit

Juniors
Messages
44
I will say Keaon and Lachy do need to slide better, we just keep getting short down that side and Mansour isn’t solely to blame.
It’s just when they jam in. He is always in no man’s land. Doesn’t take anyone. Just watches the ball float past to the winger. Gotta jam the centre and give him no time.
 

truthslayer

Juniors
Messages
331
Agreed. Taaffe is smaller than Murray! Taaffe's long run future is most likely as a #7. He has balls skills, pace and acclereration and a kicking game.
Not sure if anyone noticed a couple of times Taafe could of passed the ball but chose not to, hope he’s not developing into a ball Hogg.
 

callmack1

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
11,609

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