Worst Ever Performance in a Preliminary Final?

[Ronnie Dobbs]

This is a quality thread. Saints first 40 in 05 was so bad it was laughable.

I think there's one thing tha makes last nights the worst in my book - its fresh in the mind. It was so bad, like a bad episode of The Shire or the Kardashians.

 

[firechild]

Is the C word gonna get a run this campaign? The C word being "Choke", of course. Did they?

Don't think so. The writing was on the wall after the week 1 final against the dogs. Manly have been battered and bruised for a while and they were always pushing sh*t uphill to go back to back.

It was certainly the worst performance in a prelim I've seen. It wasn't so much the missed tackles, their defense wasn't all that bad considering they had to do so much within their own 30 or 40m. The fact that they pretty much dropped the ball by the 3rd tackle on every set they had was what killed their chances. If Snake wasn't at fullback, the scoreline would have ended up at 60+.

 

[hillbillyjazzer1954]

That was the worst performance that I have seen from Manly for a lot of years, after the first five minutes we were gone, taking nothing away from Melbourne as they blew us off the Park.......but at work on Monday i can`t even say that I was not overly upset that we lost, because we went down fighting.......we were pathetic......oh well there is always 2013

Good Luck to the three teams that are left

 

[Desert Qlder]

Their spoiling tactics that are the foundation of their gameplan really became quite stale at the business end of the season. When it came time to lift it up a notch the club was found wanting.

If anything it proves winning back to back premierships is a near impossible thing to do.

For mine Manly have relied too long on bullying teams into submission. That may prove a successful plan against some of the weaker sides but against other top four teams it isn't so, as they are meeting players who have the mental fortitude to deal with it. You simply can't bully a club like Melbourne, who have numerous Origin reps and don't mind using spoiling tactics of their own. Canterbury too, with the multiple options they have in attack, always had their measure.

Toovey has been shown as out of his league when using the talent at his disposal. Coming into the finals he was having an absolute dream run with injuries, better than any other club, yet failed to capitalise. All we were seeing was a very one-dimensional approach from his side, all the while he was concerning himself with attempted mind games with match officials. From a first year coach we were shown great inexperience and weak-mindedness.

Getting to the top four next year will be a great challenge for Manly.

 

[firechild]

Coming into the finals he was having an absolute dream run with injuries, better than any other club

One of your best. A fair number of Manly players have been playing injured (Watmough, Ballin, King, Galuvao most notably) while Lyon was injured in the opening stages against the Dogs. We lost David Williams a few weeks out from the finals. Most players had suffered some sort of injury through the season and didn't have the match fitness of a lot of players (Tony Williams spent plenty of time out suspended and with hamstring/back injuries). Not sure how any of that comes close to being a dream run.

 

[Desert Qlder]

When you've got a near full strength side on the park, which Manly have had for some weeks, then that is a dream run. NQ weren't too bad in this regard at all either for what it's worth.

Not sure what suspension has to do with injuries. :?

 

[LeagueNut]

Roosters '98? They had some stiff competition for worst finals performance that year though.

 

[PARRA_FAN]

^ I was just gonna say in terms of the scoreline the Roosters really got hammered that afternoon. A great effort to get there in the first place, but I remember they just fell apart in the second half.

Our performance in 2005 was just terrible, we were never in the game.

Last night was terrible from Manly, so many errors.

 

[Patorick]

Does Under 20's count?

 

[firechild]

When you've got a near full strength side on the park, which Manly have had for some weeks, then that is a dream run. NQ weren't too bad in this regard at all either for what it's worth.

Not sure what suspension has to do with injuries. :?

When your near full strength team consists of about 50% playing injured it's anything but a dream run.

I only mentioned the suspension because that combined with the 2 subsequent injuries meant that there's no way Williams was match fit.

 

[Big Pete]

Only 50 percent?

Damn, Broncos would have taken that.

 

[Amozzie]

Parra 85.

Totally agree.

Considering Parra's side that afternoon & considering that 26-0 actually flattered them, that would have to be the worst performance I have witnessed for a grand final qualifier by a powerhouse team & club.

That was also the worst big match performance I ever saw Ray Price offer up. Parra were crap from kick-off til f*ck-off.

 

[Burwood]

Manly made 607m running the ball. Jamie Lyon made the most ground with 68m. Don't think I have ever seen stats like that after a match.

 

[firechild]

Only 50 percent?

Damn, Broncos would have taken that.

I'm not suggesting we were the worst off but to suggest it was a dream run is just laughable.

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

Roosters '98? They had some stiff competition for worst finals performance that year though.

Absolute f**king rort we had to play a home final in f**king Brisbane after winning away in Melbourne & Newcastle.

 

[OneEyedEagle]

It would have to be the worst performance. It was like they put money on Melbourne to win. If it was a boxing match the ref would have had to stop the fight due to one bloke continuously punching himself in the head.

 

[2010Dragons]

If was like watching Comedy hour, hilarious to watch.
Manly found new ways to make mistakes and lose the game.
I was expecting Storm to win comfortable but Manly gave the game to them on a platter.
The worst I've seen for a while since 2005 Dragons vs Tigers. What a nightmare.

 

[miănfèinàn]

Totally agree.

Considering Parra's side that afternoon & considering that 26-0 actually flattered them, that would have to be the worst performance I have witnessed for a grand final qualifier by a powerhouse team & club.

That was also the worst big match performance I ever saw Ray Price offer up. Parra were (expletive) from kick-off til (expletive)-off.

I would have to dispute that ? Canterbury?s defence was just a totally solid brick wall that did not let Parramatta look like scoring. They left absolutely no opportunity for one of the bets sets of backs to make a single convincing move, and made no error to put the Eels in with a chance all game.

Parramatta certainly did not play so badly as St. George in the 1975 Grand Final, nor so badly as the Bulldogs themselves nine seasons subsequently against Canberra. There were many fewer of the ridiculous mistakes that are by far the most striking memory of watching those two games on DVD. I calculated St. George missed no fewer than seventy tackles in 1975, and how woeful Canterbury?s fullback play was in 1994 (and the Sydney Morning Herald had noted two seasons before that how fullback weakness was widespread across the competition) is a topic in itself.

I would have to rate the Bulldogs? performance as the best I have seen by a team in any game (I must confess my collection is very limited). As Canterbury played in that 1985 Preliminary, I?m not sure any team ? not even the record-setting Raiders of 1994 ? would have scored a point against them, and it?s too critical to be over-savage on an Eel team meeting so watertight a defence.

 

[ellskimore]

Interesting bump.

 

[Twatface Magee]

Never seen somuch formatting and colour variety in one post.