Again!!

This was evident most of last season but most on here simply ignored it because we won the GF again

No only room for one n0b with that name in here

strange game, compelling and top notch in parts,

we didnt play well all game, too many missed passes, to many errors early in the count, and not enough composure at times

didnt like the ref, didnt like how he reffed the game, i dont think it benefitted either side or affected the result a whole lot but his judgement at the ptb seemed completely random,

i though smith played well, Ali too, and Ryan Hall was pretty safe imo, a few were bagging him in the alst few weeks, i thought he stood up well against a quality wing/centre partnership, in fact i would go as far as to say Senior and Hall were the better partnership over their opposite numbers,

i thought Watkins stood up well for a 17 year old lad against a top top quality centre/wing partnership, didnt do anything amazing, but wasnt completely outclassed either,

where we lost the game? well i think burrow definately hurt us when he went off, he gives us creation int he centre, and can fill in to a very high level at dummy half, JJB had to play there, and though he stood up ok, we lost speed at the ptb, and we lost his impact around the fringes

Bailey seems to have lost a lot of weight, as does Kirke, i worry we are a little light if Eastwood doest get here

Ablett was poor, i dont know about him he is a big strong lad, decent footwork, decent speed, has an offload and can break a tackle, but too often he seems off the pace a bit to me, he seems to make horrendous errors from time to time and silly decisions he is 23 now, he needs to kick on this season, he has the ability there, but it seems a little lost at the moment, maybe the positional changes he has to do every game arent helping, i think the start of the season has shown maybe Watkins is a year away from being ready for a full time 1st team berth


overall, Manly were awesome for 10 minutes, pure top quality RL, they were the best team on the night by a fair bit, i dont think we took the WCC as seriously as last year, i think had it been a GF or semi or a big game, we would have seen burrow come back on. This game for me encapsulates why we need to give the WCC a higher proirity, sunday night was a good game, those two sides, full strength, in full flow, going all out for it? it would be the stuff of legend

im a little worried, 4th game of the season, 4th poor-average performance we are nowhere near where we were this time last year in terms of quality and performance, then again 3 wins, top of the league,

i think we are down a quality centre, and 2nd row/prop at the moment, and we must have a fair amount of cap space available, i dont think we are desperate for anyone, but i think we are a couple of players away from a great great side

agree smokey







i would like to see gibson get a game on sunday. a specialist centre he is steady and good defensively.
ablett gets caught in the centres against speed and better footwork, as most 2nd rowers would. he would benefit from a move into the pack permenantly.
we do lack size, i worry a lot of the team have slimmed down too much. donald, for me, is far,far better on the left and i think he is wasted on the right.
manly were supurb, a joy to watch.big and aggresive yet most of them had great footwork and boy did they have some pace. we did supurbly to stay so close and in have nothing but praise for all 17 players in white

What were my thoughts? I thought Manly were very good. They defended with real strength and attacked with great speed and accuracy. We looked slow and ponderous by comparison but in reality our performance would still have won most SL games this year, and therein lies a problem.

There are some fundamentals which need to be addressed within our game to enable us to compete at the same level as the likes of Manly, who for me were the first Aussie team to take this match seriously for years.

We need to allow a longer wrestle at the ptb to stop dummy half running. This would mean that halfbacks would have to learn how to unlock defences once they were set, rather than just use individual pace to turn a defence around. We also need to find a way to curb the amount of average overseas players in our league and have the balls to promote youth, which was a major part of the franchise idea.

We should force each club to employ two specialist coaches, who are solely employed to teach the local amateur coaches how to teach the kids properly. This could be a pre-requisite for a franchise, and would mean that when a player comes into a professional environment he doesn't need to be taught the basics. We should also find a way to get the amateur game played in summer when the weather is better not only for matches but also for training.

We should stop flogging our players by playing so many games each season and give them more time to recover (mentally and physically) between seasons. If the season lasted from the first weekend in March to the first weekend in September, this would be more than enough and would allow the "lesser" clubs to spend more time preparing their players for a more intense season.

There are so many things that we need to consider changing to be able to reach the consistent level of performance that Manly produced yesterday, I just hope that we have the courage to recognise it rather than bury our heads in "the best season of Super League ever"....

id dispute that,

i think the points you have made should be addressed individually rather than together

i think the 'wrestle' and slowing down the ptb are spoiling tactics, it isnt good defence to spoil the ptb area and allowing more spoiling in that area will leave the ruck a mess, and stop start games like last night (where incidentally, as i have said elsewhere, i dont think the ptb was well policed, it seemed random)

i think a better way would be to change the 10m to 5 at all levels below first team and maybe reserve grade football,

i think this would organically draw out some of the dummy half running (good dummy half runners have less space to work with, so shine a bit less so pure dummy half runners arent picked up, the game at youth and academy level doesnt need/want masses of dummy half running so it is practised less at that level, good quality half play unlocking tight defences becomes what is needed to players good at that are pushed more and practise those skills more, i also think it will improve the forward play at youth level, as big lads dominating because of their size will always have to work a bit harder and add a bit more to their game) whilst also not leaving us with a mess at the ptb

As trolls go you, my deluded little friend, are poor.

In fact you’re not really trying are you?

No though, no considered response, just knee-jerk contradiction.

Please put some effort in.

Spot on. We couldnt live with the constant amount of pressure on our line from Manly refusing to take 2 points. Their power in the tackle and footwork made us look pedestrian. After watching it again on the old sky+ Clarkey highlighted the amount of points they score in the first 20 of a second half. Manly proved his point in style.

No consolation to you guys I suppose but as a neutral I thought it was a brilliant match.

Manly seemed to cut through Leeds with real precision, but the Rhinos just wouldn't give up and got close at the end.

Hell, even the fisticuffs added to the occasion.

As someone moving over from the round ball game bit by bit, it was another positive for RL.

Has anyone found Ryan Baileys ars[size=100e[/sizehole yet? I believe he dropped it somewhere last night, and hasn't seen it since...

Morley might want it on his mantlepiece

Pity he's just playing in a team of has beens and never will be's.
If he does go looking for it this sunday it may liven the game up i can't wait to see if bailey puts him on his throne again!

now you have jinxed Sunday

Keep the faith


I'm looking forward to this match both teams have a point to prove and morley will go looking for bailey no-doubt!

all im saying is.....








6th Minute..dummy spit

Another thing that the game reinforced for me is how much better some of the English players could be if they were to spend a year in Aus at a young age learning their trade. The structure that NRL sides use in attack is something you simply don't get in SL, and that same degree of structure is apparent in reserve grade here as well.

That combined with (unfortunately) a better class of athlete explains a lot about the gap between the two competitions.

All fair points but as already pointed out by longun the funding the nrl and it's clubs get for coaching etc is light years ahead of anything we get over here so it's no surprise really.

Last night proved that the best team in the Australian competiton last year was 8 (dodgy) points bettter than the best team in the European competition last year.

That's it, the bottom line.

funny how in the lat five years nobody has been pointing out how far behing super league the NRL is.
thats a tongue in cheek comment, we know it's better however the over reaction by some is amazing.manly have been the best club team i have seen in a long time and it was a pleasure to watch them.

Any other club in Super League other than Leeds or St.Helens, would have been beaten by a margin of at least 50 points, no doubt about that. Leeds were outclassed on the night but what a great advert for the game. My favourite part of the game, - Ali scooping the ball up one handed and setting the try up - genius. Stevo compared him to a Sea Eagle? Weren't we playing them? Oh clever Stevo!!!

Problem is he seems to be !!!??!! I thought we had seen the last of the capable back rower playing in the centre last season...but again we seem to be playing him there by default.
Maybe Watkins is still a little young to command a regular place...but what is wrong with Gibson ??? And please let's have Scotty back on left with Senior.

Lost his pace and made of biscuits. Not going to cut it at a top SL side, time to let him go find his level. Leaves you with a choice of Ablett or Watkins until Webb is fit again and Smith can move into the centres.

Watkins is still too green to play regularly at the top level, he's developing physically, mentally and tactically but needs time and space to do it in.

So he doesn't deserve a chance to regain his full fitness then???????
Regards Jjb.

Very Dodgy....



The ref keeps up with play and calls one forward pass.



Ablett gathers the ball on the floor after two freak bounces.




and its a whole different ball game.

I think he should be given this season to prove himslef. I think he would have been out by now if that wasn't the case. If he hasn't had significant game time by the end of the year then we should look at other options.

Some players need time to bed into the rigours of SL. McGuire, JJB and Ablett have had periods of injury and come back strong. I wouldn't want to lose the talent that Gibson is by making a decision too early. We as a club have lost too many good players like that