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Wow Manly have capitulated big time this year m. Foz has got his work cut out now :
Fatigue starting to set in this time of year :
54 points in one half between the fins and the Brocs .
 
We got a lot of stuff right against the Chooks in particular, Galvin was very good.

Some other players a bit down on recent form, still plenty to plsy for.

I rarely cheer for the Eels, but I am tonight.
 
Bloody Eels ars hopeless.

Teams often get players back or find form before we play them.
 
Almost the greatest comeback ...
Another big game for us next week .. Souffs are there for the taking .
Play like we did against the chooks minus few errors at Accor I think we can it win it well .
 
If we are going to do anything in the semis we should win all of our remaing games with a possible narrow loss to Penrith.

Take out luck, a few ref calls and some bad kick diffusal against the Chooks we were the better side in attack and defence.

All we need is better execution and communication and better catching of high balls.

I don't think we need team changes, we just need the team playing 3% better.
 
If we do lose to Souths it will be disappointing, I think we are better than them.

If we get Sutton as the ref, well we managed to beat him against a pretty good Storm team.
 
I think we need to win every game for and against is not good as it should be. I think we stuffed that Canberra game .
Knights definitely in the semis now and Raiders are finished .
We are the only side out of the 8 with a chance .
 
Dragons beating Sharks was enjoyable, will be a tougher game for us,

Sharks getting bounced out of the semis with 4 straight losses would be excellent.
 
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I saw a bit of reserve grade.

They lost, and their overall record is 9 wins, 8 losses, 1 draw.

O'Suliivan, Dykes and Spinks are the most consistent players.

The only quality players we haven't seen in NRL are Dykes, Spinks and Broden Konz.

There certainly isn't a young half or fullback who is pressing strongly for NRL.

No star player who consistently looks too good for reserve grade.

Mostly the players are young players striving to get consistently good enough for NRL.
 
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Team changes are not going get us the wins we need, we need to perform close to our best in attack and defence every game.

I can see why Gus and Cirro are striving to perform our depth.

We need more guys with NRL experience playing reserve grade, 2-3 experienced leaders will make a difference.

The only gamble I would make is shifting Kiraz to fullback and Tracey to wing sometimes in games.

The fullback qe have recruited for next year was played a few NRL games and U18 SOO.
 
Dragons will definitely give us a hard game. Happens a lot this time of year when these teams that have no hope of making the finals just go out there with nothing to lose and just throw the ball around.
 
If we make the semis we will earn the spot, hard games are good practice.

Other fans have pointed out that when we get ahead or a close behind we try too hard to score and often gift the opposition opportunities.

In big game complete, kick, chase, tackle, works. That should give us the field position tp score trys off kicks.

Giving Burto a few of the deeper kicks in general play was good.

I think Burto should also occasionally take some of the deeper / wider goal kicks. Best if Critter and Burto discuss it and whoever is confodent takes the kick.

Critter might be trying to do too much

We were not far off another 1-2 trys against the Chooks, getting a but to frantic and rushing some plays cost us.

When Kiraz chip kicked and threw the long pass to Burto, it would have gone better if Burto simply kicked the ball.

If Kiraz doesn't slip, he definately picks up the poor Roosters pass.

If the team is more confident we don't rush plays and force plays. Putting a score on a couple of teams will help the confidence levels.
 
Good thing we did push the Roosters till end but they were missing Teddy . He may had created more tries for them . They are the team to beat at the moment.
 
Teddy missing was possibly cancelled by Stiliti only lasting 5 minutes.

Take away the result, I was happy with how we played.

What went wrong was a bit of composure and execution, a few individual errors and a bit of luck including a few ball bounces.

We are too deep in the season to consider majpr changes, essentially it is up to the team from now on, I am sure they know what they should be doing.
 
The only unforced changes I would make are

1. Start Turpin at hooker with Hayward off the bench.

2. Play Sitili or Hughes off the bench if they are available.

To do 1. & 2. I would leave out Kurt Mann.

It is very hard for anyone to play 80 mins at hooker in a semi final.

It is Hayward's first full season of NRL at hooker, defending saps a lot of his energy.

Hayward actally does very well when he plays 80, far better than a young guy with his level of experience should.

Over the next few seasons Hayward's defence and tenchique will improve. He will achieve better results wuth less effort.

We need to be preparing for semis and using a bench rotation that we would use in semis.

Turpin being out injured as flown under the radar. He isn't super talented, but IMO he improves the team balance.
 
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If Sitii and Hughes were avalable, I would have.

9. Turpin,
14. Hayward
15. Hughes
16. Sitili
17. Hayes

19. Sua/Xerri
20. Readon/Curran

Games aee generally won in the forwards, with the exception of FB our outside backs are very good.

Our spine is adequate and it is too late to tinker with it.
 
Inspite of signing Lussick and promoting Gordon, I will not be surpised if we extend Turpin on a cheap "train and trial" contact at least for the first 10 weeks.

Hookers can play lock or second row, Hayward can fill in in the halves.

Depth at hooker, wing and fullback was what cost us this year.

We had more than enough middle forwards.
 
Depth is more important at the start of the season.

A run of injuries early, and depth can beat the weaker teams, or win the 50/50 games.

Late in the season, depth can't usually win against in form strong teams.

During SOO depth can win.

2-3 less props, one more hooker, winger and fullback was all we needed. Solid NRL players, not elite players.

Baker and DSF ended up leaving, Curran and Xerri are going, Montoya has retired. We will need to make calls on a few more players.
 
My take on the Souths game.
If is easy to get a read on our form, hard to read their form.
Parra made them look much better than they were in the first half.
The ref handed Parra momentum at the start of the second half and Souths had no ball.
Bennett didn't complain because the game was a good work out / lesson for them and they won.
At no time did the defensive intensity of their game match the intensity of our game v the Chooks. In our game a lot of the errors by both sides were forced by the defensive intensity and a lack of patience. In their game a lot of points were scored against soft defence.
All we can say is when they needed to defend, Souths looked ordinary.
They still have some good players and Wayne is a master motivator.
 
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