Round 24 v Manly Lineups *spoilers*

[Bullets]

will struggle to win any of our next 2 games?

we have the Roosters next week, who are playing for nothing and are having to travel to the graveyard, it will be a good for/against boost for us and may even be one of those get bcak in form games. 

[bula]

I was happy with the effort, just unlucky I thought. I was really happy with the forwards, Lima stood up, White continues his good form and Anderson is slowly starting to change my opinion of him if he keeps it up.
Hoffy tried really hard and played well, can't find a bad player in our side today.
If cronk put the ball down or slater gets the ball wide we win!
Manly aren't that impressive and hopefully that's our final loss.

[pauliedude]

will struggle to win any of our next 2 games?

we have the Roosters next week, who are playing for nothing and are having to travel to the graveyard, it will be a good for/against boost for us and may even be one of those get bcak in form games. 

Just like when we played the Raiders and Newcastle. 2 teams we should hav thrashed.

[I love Cooper]

Damn so many chances were blown. I was really impressed with Dane Neilson, was solid. I think Chambers would better off as a winger. Steve is useless playing outside him because he simply won't pass.

In other news the u20's won 31-0. Stats say they made 16 errors - wow!!

[Bullets]

will struggle to win any of our next 2 games?

we have the Roosters next week, who are playing for nothing and are having to travel to the graveyard, it will be a good for/against boost for us and may even be one of those get bcak in form games. 

Just like when we played the Raiders and Newcastle. 2 teams we should hav thrashed.

No way were we ever expected to trash Newcastle.

Roosters back at home, we have so much more to play for then them.

I think we should be very confident we will take that game, the Warriors game on the other hand worries me.

 

[Bullets]

Damn so many chances were blown. I was really impressed with Dane Neilson, was solid. I think Chambers would better off as a winger. Steve is useless playing outside him because he simply won't pass.

In other news the u20's won 31-0. Stats say they made 16 errors - wow!!

Yeh Dane was pretty good, the best game we have had from him. Still want Inglis back on the field as soon as possible though.

We need more of that from Anderson though, see what happens when he just runs hard, he also has the ability to offload probably better then both White and Lima.

[Surandy]

The way we are playing...the Roosters game is 50/50.

If the last two games in particular are anything to go by then I think you're being rather generous there mate. More like 30/70.

[nacho]

this wouldnt of happend with greg in the team...

[CooperCronk]

Oh, and no offence to those that went to the game today, but where the hell was the atmosphere?  Such a big game and it just seemed so lifeless... the crowd seemed as interested as our defense at times...

Might have been due to the fact the crowd half expected us to lose and us not making the most of field possession in the 1st half.
Where I was sitting the crowd was screaming their lungs off, me included.
I also think that night games seem to attract more atmosphere as well...might sound stupid I know, but its really hard trying to shield the sun from your eyes and barely seeing the play.

I really think we should have won today...we were definitely the better side on the day.
The refs were crap as well.  The bounce of the ball went Manly's way and we blew our chances when it counted.

Pretty happy with the effort today by the guys, but just wish we weren't so structured with our play........more offloads would have worked wonders.

Just need GI back in the team  next week...no matter the outcome of the court case unless he's given a jail sentence, which shouldn't happen.  His presence on the ground will lift the rest of the team.

Had a different perspective, on the Greg Inglis case, from a guy who came to the game with us today and has only started following rugby league the last couple of years.  He stated that Greg's case is a domestic issue and not an on field matter and being dealt with by police and the courts and it should not affect his chances of playing rugby league.  Innocent until proven guilty.

I explained to him that he was suspended until further notice because of all the dramas in league to this year and his thoughts were that each case should be dealt with according to the different circumstances that arise.

Just thought I would bring this up, if others wanted to debate it.

[Hailstorm]

I came away from yesterdays game flat and very disappointed. That's yet another game we should've well and truly won.

Like the past few weeks (if not most of this year) I feel as though the effort is there from the boys however as todays articles
read, our attack is just terrible. In fact we have nothing in attack and that I feel is the fault of our playmakers, namely Cronk,
Finch and Smith. Don't get me wrong, they are giving 100% but their decisions on so many occassions are just woeful, particularly
for the class players that they are. Anyone who thinks getting Inglis back in the side will fix this is dillusional. The same problems
in attack were there long before he was suspended. I'd be interested to know if this is our worst ever year for attack (points for).
We've seen some glimpses of brilliance (like the 3 tries in succession against  Newcastle last week) but where is that when they're
not in panic mode trying to chase what is often already a too larger points difference?

We're told time and time again our defence is good and it is but when our team attacks time and time again without getting any
results the tide usually turns and before we know it we're down a couple of tries with little hope of getting in front because our
attack is non existant. If we could only capitalise on those chances we're letting slip due to bad decisions we've got an
entirely different ball game. I have no idea what CB is doing with our attack during training but surely its obvious by now its not
working!!

I don't expect us to be as good as we have been the past few seasons given the experience we've lost and the young guys that
are now playing, they're expected to make mistakes but in all honesty I can see us being in a much better position if those making
the decisions start making the right ones. To name just a couple from yesterday, kicking high and long WITH the wind was just
plain stupid from the moment we saw Orford do it in the first half and yet how many times did we put it up in the 2nd half and the
ball ran long every time. All the Manly defence needed to do was let it bounce and it would run long. No, we didn't learn and kept
doing it. Does Cam Smith only pass to his left? Time and time again he (and Cronk) would play to the left, quite often the short
side with it quite open on the right. Yeah we scored a few times out that side but how many did we not? How many could've been
scored if they'd only looked up and taken the right side choice? Oh, and I still think we stand too flat in attack too. Oh FFS just
give me the coaching job (kidding). OK so I don't pressume to know all the answers but surely they realise whatever they're doing
IS-NOT-WORKING!!!

OK, rant over... Onwards and upwards. Hopefully we can give the Roosters an ar$e whooping next week for what could well be
our last ever game at the Graveyard (and I bet we do give 'em and ar$e whooping).

[coupy73]

Well the effort was there yesterday, just lacked composure. Manly got a couple of lucky tries (but you still got to be there to score them).
The main concern for me is that the storm bench does not worry anyone. We have Dallas already in the run on team who is Mr 110% tackles everything and runs the ball up when needed but not really a line breaker. On the bench we have Aiden Tolman who is a great defender and runs the ball up but not really a line breaker and Hinchclfife who is another 100% worker but offers little in the way of creativity. We need someone with spark and the little bit of an X-factor coming of the bench to frighten the tiring opposition with footwork and speed. Not seen a lot of the under 20's this year, some of you guys on here have banded names around.
To me Blair would also be better playing out in the second row or as a lock, He has great ball skills and footwork (don't know what is speed across the ground is) but is not really a line breaker in the mold of a traditionl prop, so give him more room to be more creative.

Cronk has not hit the hioghts he did a couple of years ago and sometimes looks a little lost.

I thought Nielson was probably best on ground for us yesterday, ran the ball well, great traditional centre play for tomanes second try, and tackled well some people on this forum seemed to have a negative image of him even before he had a decent run in the team. Give anderson another go over Tomane, finished tries well but defence (except for a great hit on Lyons) is still dodgy. If anderson is going to be with the Storm next year, even as a reserve surly it would be better to be giving him game time.

3GF and minor premierships in three years is not bad goin and we as supporters have been spoilt, and we are complaining that we are 4th and there are 12 other clubs who would swap places with us at this time

[Bullets]

I came away from yesterdays game flat and very disappointed. That's yet another game we should've well and truly won.

Like the past few weeks (if not most of this year) I feel as though the effort is there from the boys however as todays articles
read, our attack is just terrible. In fact we have nothing in attack and that I feel is the fault of our playmakers, namely Cronk,
Finch and Smith. Don't get me wrong, they are giving 100% but their decisions on so many occassions are just woeful, particularly
for the class players that they are. Anyone who thinks getting Inglis back in the side will fix this is dillusional. The same problems
in attack were there long before he was suspended. I'd be interested to know if this is our worst ever year for attack (points for).
We've seen some glimpses of brilliance (like the 3 tries in succession against  Newcastle last week) but where is that when they're
not in panic mode trying to chase what is often already a too larger points difference?

We're told time and time again our defence is good and it is but when our team attacks time and time again without getting any
results the tide usually turns and before we know it we're down a couple of tries with little hope of getting in front because our
attack is non existant. If we could only capitalise on those chances we're letting slip due to bad decisions we've got an
entirely different ball game. I have no idea what CB is doing with our attack during training but surely its obvious by now its not
working!!

I don't expect us to be as good as we have been the past few seasons given the experience we've lost and the young guys that
are now playing, they're expected to make mistakes but in all honesty I can see us being in a much better position if those making
the decisions start making the right ones. To name just a couple from yesterday, kicking high and long WITH the wind was just
plain stupid from the moment we saw Orford do it in the first half and yet how many times did we put it up in the 2nd half and the
ball ran long every time. All the Manly defence needed to do was let it bounce and it would run long. No, we didn't learn and kept
doing it. Does Cam Smith only pass to his left? Time and time again he (and Cronk) would play to the left, quite often the short
side with it quite open on the right. Yeah we scored a few times out that side but how many did we not? How many could've been
scored if they'd only looked up and taken the right side choice? Oh, and I still think we stand too flat in attack too. Oh FFS just
give me the coaching job (kidding). OK so I don't pressume to know all the answers but surely they realise whatever they're doing
IS-NOT-WORKING!!!

OK, rant over... Onwards and upwards. Hopefully we can give the Roosters an ar$e whooping next week for what could well be
our last ever game at the Graveyard (and I bet we do give 'em and ar$e whooping).

Yep the effort was there yesterday though i wouldn't say its been there most the season, forgot the Newcastle game already?

Getting Inglis back won't totally fix our attack but it will be improved, i think our attack was improved yesterday anyways. All we need now is a true superstar player our wide. Nielson and Chambers were both good yesterday and got alot of quality ball to work with but both don't have the Greg Inglis ability of creating something from nothing...now that could be just simply running over the top of defenders or getting freakish balls off to the wingers. We won't be winning the comp with just two solid centres. 

[nacho]

having an international, state of origin rep and one of the best players we will see in our lifetime (imo) would influence a game heavily.

Dane is doing a great job deputizing for greg and i hope to see him get more first grade time, but i think in those closing minutes having greg out on the left wing instead of dane would have helped our chances.

being that close to the line, greg would just have to put on one fend and we'd be with in a meter.

also, just a thought, in the last 5 mins when we were within 2 points wouldnt it have been smarter to go for the field goal, get the ball back from a kickoff then have another go at going for the win, if not... a draw

[Bullets]

when we were within 2 points wouldnt it have been smarter to go for the field goal, get the ball back from a kickoff then have another go at going for the win, if not... a draw

huh?

[nacho]

when we were within 2 points wouldnt it have been smarter to go for the field goal, get the ball back from a kickoff then have another go at going for the win, if not... a draw

huh?

ok i might try to explain a little better lol

when we were like 15-20m out from scoring, on the last tackle. i think it woulda been better going for a field goal.

because with the field goal we woulda been 1 point down, then have the benifit of getting the ball back when manly kick off to us and have another set to get a try, penalty or go for the draw with another field goal

get me?