We can hold our heads up!!

[parra-all-the-way]

Dont dispear everyone, i for one think we competed well with what was dished up to us today (dont get me strarted on archer). We were in it for the whole game and if we keep playing like that we will be a big threat, we will even take the doogies next friday night.

Well done boys!!!

MY CONCERN- injuries, ben smith injured his wrist and someone else was playing injured. This could be own problem.

Im just glad we didnt get flogged, They can hold their heads up, we played the number two team in the comp at full strength and were unlucky to lose imho...

Bring on the Bull scum!

 

[Eelementary]

I agree. There's no shame in narrowly losing to a top team.

 

[Jono078]

Speaking of Ben Smith, id like to give him a rap.

Last year he was spoken as a possible origin player of the future and I thought that was a joke, IMO at the time he was a one hit wonder, he was pretty average last year I thought.

This year he's been awsome.

And today I noticed the way he reacted to the good and bad things in the game, you could just see the passion running through him to play and win.

Future captain for your mob possibly.

 

[Nikki]

Future captain for your mob possibly.

Funny you say that. I was actually having a convo today wondering who would step up when Caylo retired. He could be a possible contender. I was voting for Blakey. Maybe he will be back by then...

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I thought our attack was pretty awesome today (full credit to Manly's defence to hold us to 4 tries) but our goal-line defence and second-half capitulation were truly something to worry about.

Cayless and Cordoba would've stiffened up our defence, for sure - they're probably the two most agile props going around but we've died in the seond half how many times this year?

It's either a fitness thing or a mental thing, and I don't know any of the players personally so I couldn't say which.

But for it to keep happening there's definitely something wrong, and I don't think we're genuine contenders this year.

Which is a shame because I believe we've finally got a topline attacking unit on the field - for the first time since I've been following Parra (since '91).

2001 was just a case of Brian Smith exploiting the 10m rule better than anyone else, which led to the off-season rule change that Ricky Stuart manged to exploit for a Premiership.

 

[parra-matters]

Manly's defence was pretty good, best we've played against this season considering how good our attack was today. We had enough ball to score 3-4 more tries by Manly's defence just kept turning up.
Maybe if Burty was there we may have scored a couple more tries from his support play.
Hayne doesn't seem to support when there is a break made they same way Burty does, that will come as he plays more fullback I guess.
Great effort, we got some rough calls in the 2nd half but.

 

[Suitman]

Maybe if Burty was there we may have scored a couple more tries from his support play.

That's a very good point actually.

Can someone.........anyone......, tell me why, when Mateo takes the ball up, there is rarely, if ever, someone in support?
Nearly everytime he does, the ball becomes available at one stage or another, and there is never anyone running off his hip.

Seriously, if you are a member of this board, you'd know what he does. Therefore, Jay Jay Selmes, Strider, Fishy, Belly, Nikki etc.......even TWIZ ffs, would know, that when Feliti takes the ball up, there is a chance of an off load, and you'd all be there waiting for it.

No matter how many times he went looking for support today, there was rarely someone there? WHY?

I'll bet Burty would have been.

Suity

 

[parra-matters]

Burty is our main support player, every time there is a break he is there.
But the past few weeks we have wasted a few chances due to no support, like when PJ got tackled a few out by stewart, no support or there would have been a certain try and there was one in the 1st half too.

 

[Suitman]

like when PJ got tackled a few out by stewart,

Geez that WAS A GREAT TACKLE........UNBELIEVABLE.

Suity

 

[strider]

That's a very good point actually.

Can someone.........anyone......, tell me why, when Mateo takes the ball up, there is rarely, if ever, someone in support?
Nearly everytime he does, the ball becomes available at one stage or another, and there is never anyone running off his hip.

Seriously, if you are a member of this board, you'd know what he does. Therefore, Jay Jay Selmes, Strider, Fishy, Belly, Nikki etc.......even TWIZ ffs, would know, that when Feliti takes the ball up, there is a chance of an off load, and you'd all be there waiting for it.

No matter how many times he went looking for support today, there was rarely someone there? WHY?

I'll bet Burty would have been.

Suity

mmmm - very true - he's always looking to offload but rarely has someone with him .... tho i can't blame hayne entirely cos feleti seems to be playing fairly wide - i think benny needs to be more aware of needing to support feleti

 

[Stagger eel]

the last few weeks the scoreboard has never really reflected how much we're missing Burt because INU's kicking well and both him and Jazz are are playing the fullback role so admirably but little things like the lack of support play like suit mentioned is really hurting us in attack.

as I said last week we're missing Luke more than what people care to imagine.

 

[Eelectrica]

Hayne still has a few lessons to learn about fullback, hopefully he learns then sooner rather than later.
Same with Inu on the wing. Later in the 2nd half, had he been standin just a little bit deeper in attack, Tahu's pass would probably not have been forward and Inu may wel have scored to give us the lead back.
We have to remember though these guys are still learning their positions. There is a lot we can take out of yesterdays game to make us a better team in the weeks ahead.

 

[eel01s]

Too be honest I thought Hayne, Inu and Paulo were outstanding today! We must keep Hayne and Inu contracted as long as possible - they are super talents.

I will say that had Ben Smith been a little luckier in the in goal we would have won yesterday!

 

[Parra2006]

Besides the TIgers game that has to be the 2nd most entertaining game we have played this yr....

 

[Gronk]

Gee we struggled getting the ball out of our half yesterday. Our go forward was poor IMHO.

Fui's stats suggest that he had to do 32 tackles and only made 9 hitups for 70m. As our main meter-eater thats pretty poor.

 

[JOB 3:14]

Our defence was very weak. To concede over 30 pts at home, and two tries, identical in nature, when the match hung in the balance, is very poor. Every time Manly ventured into our own half they scored. Very disappointing. There is no reason to hold your head high with a defensive performance like that. What the hell is the go with that stupid sliding defence when we are on our own line and we start to shuffle backwards? By the time our defenders are ready to make a tackle they are standing inside their own in goal for F*%^s sake!!
Manly supporters can hold their heads high. That was a great performance by them, even though they got the benefit of the doubt from the ref on most occasions.

 

[Stagger eel]

Gee we struggled getting the ball out of our half yesterday. Our go forward was poor IMHO.

Fui's stats suggest that he had to do 32 tackles and only made 9 hitups for 70m. As our main meter-eater thats pretty poor.

that was a real concern imo.

 

[dazeely]

Besides the TIgers game that has to be the 2nd most entertaining game we have played this yr....

I thought the same thing. A little sad that IMO. We need to start our run now.


Btw I couldn't agree more on the Burty support thing. Jarrod needs to follow. Yes he has been good but needs to go that extra level with his support play.

 

[dazeely]

The opposition teams have done their research on Fui of late. I think they watched Ben Creagh when he contained Fui a few weeks ago. He has had to make too many tackles and isn't having the same impact.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Our defence was very weak. To concede over 30 pts at home, and two tries, identical in nature, when the match hung in the balance, is very poor. Every time Manly ventured into our own half they scored. Very disappointing. There is no reason to hold your head high with a defensive performance like that. What the hell is the go with that stupid sliding defence when we are on our own line and we start to shuffle backwards? By the time our defenders are ready to make a tackle they are standing inside their own in goal for F*%^s sake!!

Whoever was defending inside Finch had a woeful defensive performance. More than once he left Finch marking two blokes in a ten metre span of line. This is after Finch screamed for blokes to come right.

I think the loss of Cayless and Cordoba (two very mobile front-rowers) forced us to compress too much in the middle which always leads to gaps at the fringes.

When the game was in the balance we had too many blokes on who were slow to get off the ground and back into position. It's always been a weakness of Kiwi teams and it killed us yesterday.

But that's far from our only problem.