Official Match Day Thread: Roosters v Manly

[rented tracksuit]

The whole thing was horrible, from start to finish...except for some good play at the end.
The refereeing, our failed experiments with new players and changed positions....and simple mistakes.

It was a trial.

[Vasco]

Bloody hell.
I know its only a trial but I tell ya Manly are on fire.

The players will turn on the coach soon enough.

[Vasco]

It was a trial.

He wasn't wrong though.

[milanja]

Oh f#ck putty also fills a gap - is soft and malleable , is slow to set and doesn't move once it does- can be made into a large blob as well - maybe we should call Hutch Putty?

[eddie]

I didn't see the game, so was using this thread to work out what happened. Now I'm really confused.
Hope we are closer to full strength against the dolphins.
Did S Smith play half all game?

[elo]

The big positive I can take is we look much fitter and physically ready than we did this time last season, still way too much dumb, frantic sideways football which Manly ate up defensively. Radley is way too obsessed with thinking he's a half-back, we must pummel the ruck before spreading wide....there were very good signs late last season we were finally learning this, let's not go back to square one. Defensively, Manly made our edge look foolish, with the mishmash backline we fielded it's not the end of the world but the communication in defense should have been better - Robbo would not have been impressed.

I will say I found it interesting we went from a Sunday afternoon in Geelong to a Friday night on the Central Coast - very short turnaround for trials in summer, not sure if intentional or poor scheduling on our part - could be a Robbo ploy of some sort with his overhaul of an approach to a season.

Onto to Round 1.

[NorfolkStreetKid]

We get caught up in the idea of "fast games" and try to play razzle dazzle footy...to our detriment.
We need to slow games down, and make no errors...then unleash our attack.

I think they are working on your theory.... surely they can't go much slower. It always seems to me we look much slower than most other teams, and we do a lot more one out runing on tackles 1 to 4. Seriously with the big names we have, and a 10 year coach , we should have more fitness and structure, sometimes it seems they have no plan and have never played together before.

[NorfolkStreetKid]

If seemingly-biased refereeing of our games occurs in the comp proper, our club should sue the NRL.

Hutch was a try, and if it wasn't then neither was the manly winger. Paulo bombed a sitter, and so did Toops.... should have got that ball down. Some of the penalties against us were laughable, and the bunker looking at ten replays is a disgrace..... the game was not designed to be played in super slow motion, and the interpretation of the rules should allow for that.

[NorfolkStreetKid]

Get on the Dolphins for round 1.... no pressure on them, all on us, no Manu and an injured JWH, Skeletor will have the Dolphins ready. I can hear the commentary already, last night I had to mute it, I think that will be the case all year. If we don't win by 20 plus it will be classed as a failure, and I can't see us doing it. I think we lack the physicality of other top teams, I'd rather give a penalty away for hurting someone than be as passive as we are.

[Kentucky_Fried_Rooster]

This place never changes, last week it was all positive and how great a win was heading into the season.
Now we lose a game and it doesn't matter as its only a trial, same people would be saying if we won how great it is winning the pre season comp heading into the season.
We didn't have a full strength team so it means nothing. Manly played a lot of reserve graders too, I didn't know half their team and isn't Blacktown there reserve grade side who win 2 or 3 games a season.

Ref are against us too always comes up after we don't win, I don't think they were too bad.
We were just outplayed, I don't know why as I was expecting a big win last night, at stages we looked very unfit and disorganised.

It's only early days and last season we started horrible before finishing strong.
I would love to be strong all season but am happy to start slow and finish strong.

[bondi.boy]

This place never changes, last week it was all positive and how great a win was heading into the season.
Now we lose a game and it doesn't matter as its only a trial, same people would be saying if we won how great it is winning the pre season comp heading into the season.
We didn't have a full strength team so it means nothing. Manly played a lot of reserve graders too, I didn't know half their team and isn't Blacktown there reserve grade side who win 2 or 3 games a season.

Ref are against us too always comes up after we don't win, I don't think they were too bad.
We were just outplayed, I don't know why as I was expecting a big win last night, at stages we looked very unfit and disorganised.

It's only early days and last season we started horrible before finishing strong.
I would love to be strong all season but am happy to start slow and finish strong.

Having to win 8 games in a row to make the 8 and possibly the top 4 is dare I say a ridiculous thing to have to do.
We were a rabble in attack and defence last night...like we were in the first comp game last season.
It's nearly March.
Suaalii must be put back on the right wing where he starred last season.
He could tackle Garrick.
If Manu can't play, then Momirovski must take his place.
Hope Trent doesn't have any plans to sell off Momirovski.

[Recky62]

that was odd alright, but it was a trial and i guess Robbo wanted to experiment or some such ...as for the peninsula knobs , sorry, sea eagles, i said to the missus , they seem to be playing like the sharks when they won the comp , so i reckon Flanagan has more say than usual for an assistant , cause i doubt Anthony Ribald could get any playing group to do that on a regular basis

[Inflictor]

Only thing I got out of the game is Radley failed Anger Management class during the off season.

Bring on the Dolphins.

Let's do this.

[ism22]

that was odd alright, but it was a trial and i guess Robbo wanted to experiment or some such ...as for the peninsula knobs , sorry, sea eagles, i said to the missus , they seem to be playing like the sharks when they won the comp , so i reckon Flanagan has more say than usual for an assistant , cause i doubt Anthony Ribald could get any playing group to do that on a regular basis

Let's just see IMO...

- Manly Scored only the one in the second half and let in 3 tries within 6 minutes when we got our act together.

- It was a single try difference and Hutcho's try was incorrectly called a double movement.

- They only really scored because Garrick was barnstorming through kids who were being given their first taste of senior footy. This tightened up in the second half.

- NRL.com don't give stats on minutes played but based on the raw stats, our extended bench did a lot more work than their extended bench.

Meh. They won the $100k, good on 'em. I doubt this means that Garrick's gonna be Dally M and a Flanno/Seibold coached Manly is headed for a premiership though. VERY early days!

[Jacks Fur Coat]

Only highlight was the second good trial showing from Pauga. He would be a good back up centre for us, definitely ahead of the ex Souths fellas. But he is contracted to the Bears this year I think....how does that work in terms of his availability (King?) Think young Sandon Smith is going ok too, played behind a beaten pack last night.

Other take out is Sea Eagles could trouble teams this season. Outclassed us last night all over the park with DCE and Tturbo to add. Flanagan is one of the best footy brains in the coaching ranks and if he can work in concert well with Seibold they can make some noise.

You play how you train and last night our squad looked like strangers to each other. Slight concern given Robbos priority to start much better this season and not put ourselves in a position playing too much catch-up later. Some personnel to return obviously though.