GF excuses

[stormsally]

While we may all reflect on the legitimate reasons the blow out result - I'm sure there are a lot of superstition and speculation about outside influences.
Here's mine:

2006 Shane Webke final game for Broncos - what a fuss they made of him before the game, during the game commenary etc - crowd goes mad
winner - Broncos

2007 - no "marque" players retiring - Storm win

2008 - Beaver final game for Manly - huge fuss made before the game - during the game announcements/screen shots etc - crowd goes mad
winner Manly

Now I'm not saying anything against these two retiring players - I'd have to list Beaver as one of my favorite players - but all the emotional build up - not just at club level - but the whole vibe of the game at the ground was a lot different in 2006 and 2008 compared to 2007.

[nacho]

whats with the title, we dont have any excuses, we came up and got beaten by a better team.

sure u could look at it that way how when big names are retiering the other team gets up but 2006 was unlucky and shocking ref decisions, 2007 manly was fresh to the GF experience and we had the upper hand, this year manly just plain tore us a new one

[Insomniac]

oh, so Manly had an excuse for last year, but we don't have any for this year?  ooooo k...

[mrpc]

If we wanted an excuse of our own, it could be that Manly was stampeding after dosing themselves up on calves blood once too often.

Mooooooooooooooooooo!

[Bullets]

It was funny though when they were killing us in the second half and Gould goes "imagine if Menzies got over the line now".......about two plays later, Manly spread it out wide again to Robinson charging down the sideline who flicks of very questionable ball back on the inside to Menzies who falls over the line....i was just sitting there going are you serious? is this just a nightmare im having on the eve of the grand final?   

[mb09]

whats with the title, we dont have any excuses, we came up and got beaten by a better team.

Agree

[Insomniac]

Are you guys serious??  We have PLENTY of excuses!!  Manly were certainly the better team on the day and deserved the win, but we have plenty of reasons/excuses as to why that was the case... You cannot say that there were two evenly matched teams playing in that GF and one just played better than the other on the day - this was one of the most mismatched GFs I have witnessed, and I knew that going into the game.  I was just hoping we'd be able to stay close to Manly, and was shocked at the scoreline more than anything else.

Pffft... no excuse!?!

[nacho]

Are you guys serious??  We have PLENTY of excuses!!  Manly were certainly the better team on the day and deserved the win, but we have plenty of reasons/excuses as to why that was the case... You cannot say that there were two evenly matched teams playing in that GF and one just played better than the other on the day - this was one of the most mismatched GFs I have witnessed, and I knew that going into the game.  I was just hoping we'd be able to stay close to Manly, and was shocked at the scoreline more than anything else.

Pffft... no excuse!?!

how were the teams unevenly matched? what , we were missing cameron smith? its not like we dont have any other highly skilled  national and state representatives.

[CaptainKlutz]

Are you guys serious??  We have PLENTY of excuses!!  Manly were certainly the better team on the day and deserved the win, but we have plenty of reasons/excuses as to why that was the case... You cannot say that there were two evenly matched teams playing in that GF and one just played better than the other on the day - this was one of the most mismatched GFs I have witnessed, and I knew that going into the game.  I was just hoping we'd be able to stay close to Manly, and was shocked at the scoreline more than anything else.

Pffft... no excuse!?!

While I agree with you what are We / the Storm gonna do about it.

Offer a feeble apology (for correctly questioning the NRL's inability to treat all team evenly) and get on with next year probably.

Manly probably would of won the comp anyways but the continuing hounding of the club and the outside pressures on it astounds me.



Then again if they didn't complain about 2006 then why start now

[Play the ball]

yeah I agree, no excuses,

We probably in the end became victims of our own success, not an excuse , just a realistic viewpoint IMO.

Origin hurt us , teams hunt you down more when you are the bench mark side,

We peaked earlier in the year and limped into the finals, and in hindsight we probably did well to make the GF.

Not our year, shit happens.

[Super Cronk]

Well i wore exactly what i wore vs sharks in hope that that would work...it didnt.

As for excuses? well there was no outside influence that caused us to lose that game, in the end it comes down to the players and the coaching staff. The players were off their game and manly were just waaay to good.

Re: Cam, i honestly dont think cam would have made that much of a difference. In attack sure he would have given us more direction and experince but ultimately we were poor all over the field in defence and in attack lacked the spark we usually have. Aitken was terrible from DH. so we in that sense sure we were unevenly matched because he isnt a first grader. other then that...no excuses we had a strong side and played like shit.

[Bourbon Rat]

No excuses - No witch hunt - Wouldn't want to sink to the level of those up north now would we 

[Bullets]

yeah I agree, no excuses,

We probably in the end became victims of our own success, not an excuse , just a realistic viewpoint IMO.

Origin hurt us , teams hunt you down more when you are the bench mark side,

We peaked earlier in the year and limped into the finals, and in hindsight we probably did well to make the GF.

Not our year, shit happens.

When did we actually peak? i don't remember us really playing outstanding at any stage. Most games we were not great but just did our usual play average and win.

[Insomniac]

how were the teams unevenly matched? what , we were missing cameron smith? its not like we dont have any other highly skilled national and state representatives.

Yeah, we were just missing Cameron Smith...

We had other players missing and/or playing through injuries, and as you stated, others that are "highly skilled national and state representatives"... that have played more games this season than any of the Manly players.

Manly were mostly fit, healthy, rested, and both physically and mentally prepared for the GF - they were largely uneffected by the representative period during the year, and they didn't have to travel out of their home state for over 13 weeks leading up to the GF!!  ... and no real on-field or off-field dramas to worry about.

Our season included travel to the UK for the WCC (or "waste of time cup"), a huge representative effort during the Anzac Test and SOO period, a huge effort to come back and win the MP, travel from Melbourne to Sydney, back to Melbourne, then to New Zealand, Melbourne, Sydney, Melbourne, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Melbourne and back to Sydney again, all in the same 13 weeks that Manly didn't travel, and then there were huge hurdles to overcome with all the off-field crap that went on.

Yeah, I'd say those two sides were pretty evenly matched!

I'm not complaining about it - that's footy and that's just the way the ball bounced for us this year - it was simply Manly's year and they deserve it, but we certainly have reasons/excuses for not being up to the same standard of football that Manly produced in the GF.

My only argument is with those that are saying that we had no excuses - some of which will then give the excuses, but claim they aren't excuses...

[KimmorleyKiller]

It's tough to post to be honest, that game robbed me of my soul.