When they were ready to play RL. If the NRL is this competition of ubermensch where games as intense as fridays nights are played every week as some people pretend then two weeks before the season starts Manly would be ready to play and beat whatever lowly SL opposition is put in front of them.

Im interested to know what you actually think Manly will do over the next 2 weeks which is going to raise their performance levels so much that would have been damaging to have done 2 weeks ago, especially when we remember that whatever level of performance Manly hit they will apparently be able to perform to for the next 7 months uninterrupted.

Any team, however good they are, needs game time to be ready for competition. The NRL is more important to any Aussie team, so their preparations will be focused on that rather than the WCC. It's really not difficult.

So the NRL team chooses to enter the WCC unprepared and then, when they lose, their apologists moan that they were unprepared while adding the caveat that if they'd been prepared they would've won easily.

FFS!

You’re of the opinion that quite a few SL teams, four or five you say, could compete in the NRL whereas I don’t think any of those would make the top eight in the NRL.

I suppose it all depends on what you mean by competing, Cronulla compete, but, they’ll never win jack.

So they are going to play one game between now and the start of the NRL and that will be the magical cure all, the silver bullet which takes Manly from the team which was beaten by Leeds to the ubermensch of NRL champions.

Is there a reason they couldnt have played a game last week? Or would being 'ready' now mean they would struggle for the next 7 months?

I think all 4 would be close and we would probably see at least two of those make the 8. Do you really think Newcastle last year were comfortably better than Wire and Wigan were in the regular season?

Hardly a 'magic cure all', but a second pre-season game that will get them nearer to being ready for competition.

There could be any number of reasons why they didn't/couldn't play a game before the WCC.

What they'll do over the next two weeks is arrive back in Australia spending 2 weeks to acclimatise, get over jetlag and prepare a lot better for their opening Round 1 NRL fixture. Such preparation will be more conducive to the raising of their level of performance. This would be not dissimilar to them spending 2 weeks to acclimatise, get over jetlag and preparing a lot better for their WCC fixture against Leeds back in 2009. Such preparation was more conducive to the raising of their level of performance on that occasion. What they won't do is arrive back in Australia from the UK only 6 days prior to their opening NRL Round 1 fixture because that kind of preparation would not be conducive to raising their level of performance to the standard required.

Preparing properly is essential to a champion sides.

But they were in control of that. There wasnt an external reason they couldnt play a game before the WCC. They did choose not to. Thats a failing on their part.

Couldn't agree more. That's why the WCC should always be played in the UK during the NRL off season. It's the ideal preparation and conditions for champion SL sides to win. Well, most of the time.

Im not sure the date came as a surprise to Manly. I see no reason they couldnt have prepared properly.

It’s impossible to compare Newcastle’s performances to the top clubs in SL, the two competitions are a parody of the Premiership & the Championship in Football, so either way, Leeds R.L & Leeds Utd are inexorably linked

.

It may have done when it was switched from it's original Sat 18th Feb slot to Fri 17th Feb.


Perhaps the WCC is not always as important to NRL clubs? Turning up in the UK only 6 days before the game certainly indicates this to be so.

im sure that day made all the difference.
Motivation is an important facet to champion sides. If Manly lack motivation then that is a failing of manly.

So maybe the Ausies need to stop bitching, whining, moaning & making excuses then!

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVyyyGxWYD8Dinah Washington thinks so[/url.


Motivation corresponds to the level of importance attached to any competition. For NRL clubs, the WCC is a pre-season warm-up game. For SL clubs, it's their champions league, their only achievable holy grail.

And to be fair, she was on the cutting edge of RL preparation techniques.

As i said, that is a weakness for Manly. I would have thought they were professional enough to have some kind of pride in their club, and not step on to the field and go halfd. It seems Manly dont posses that level of professionalism.

Anyone win Magic Weekend tickets from the Heinz stall?

My mate won some today

Agree completely.

If they want to prove they are better, they have to beat them in competition. Going into the game with a lack of motivation is their own problem.

The difference in this situation and a situation involving say a SL club resting players for an important CC game (not mentioning any particular clubs here =#FFFFFF*cough*St Helens*cough*) is that in the first scenario they only get one crack at each other and in the second they can put it right at a later point in the season (the play-offs, possibly the league again, the league table itself they could use as an argument).

"We play in the NRL, you play in the SL, therefore it means nothing to us so we don't care if we lose" isn't an argument. You have to win the contest.

I reckon that at least 3 of Wire, Wigan, Saints and Leeds would all make the NRL playoffs its the bottom half our league that makes our league look poor in comparison to the NRL. They are all easily capable of winning more than they lose.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have heard on these boards that the Manly side lacked motivation, didn’t care about the game etc etc

Last night I decided to watch the game again and I cannot see any of Manly players not committing to the tackle or running in hard or trying to scramble in defence

Were Manly underprepared? Well, I suppose it was before their first NRL game so I can buy into that argument somewhat – but I’m pretty sure that Manly would be close to being fully prepared two weeks before their league season started. What I cannot buy into is the concept that they weren’t motivated or weren’t trying, that’s just a lazy argument that does a disservice to a proud rugby league club

The fact that it was their first "hit out" tells you that they could not possibly be fully prepared, the rest is just par for the course.
All professional rugby players will run hard, tackle hard, scramble in defence. Equally they will be rusty for the first 3 or 4 games of the season.

and it was Leeds 3rd game of the season so both sides were rusty?

It didn't stop St George beating Wigan.