Finals Week 3 - Sea Eagles vs Broncos - Build Up Thread

[Porthoz]

Coxy, Hopate will face Yow Yeh and Copley will face Robertson. This actually gives us a bit of an edge IMO...

 

[Manlyfan]

Coxy, Hopate will face Yow Yeh and Copley will face Robertson. This actually gives us a bit of an edge IMO...

No, your wrong it is the other way around, Copley plays on the left wing and Hoppa defends on the right. So Hoppa matches up against Copley and Yow Yeh with Robertson. Both Robbo and Hoppa are extremely strong in the air, Hoppa is the best player at our club at catching bombs.

 

[Coxy]

No, your wrong it is the other way around, Copley plays on the left wing and Hoppa defends on the right. So Hoppa matches up against Copley and Yow Yeh with Robertson. Both Robbo and Hoppa are extremely strong in the air, Hoppa is the best player at our club at catching bombs.

Yeah that's what I thought. I remember against the Cowboys Hopoate was outside Lyon.

 

[Porthoz]

Fair enough, I remember Hoppa playing on the left side against us in Rd 12 though...

 

[Coxy]

Fair enough, I remember Hoppa playing on the left side against us in Rd 12 though...

Yeah, he's played both sides at various stages.

 

[Coxy]

Now that I think about it,

So the benchmark is it takes you 4 days after something happens to think about it.

I'll keep that in mind for future discussions.

 

[Bucking Beads]

Lol I can't hold it in. Now that I think about it.. Needs a thread.

 

[Dexter]

Personally I don't think we are more than about a 30 -40 % chance, but I agree our best chance is to dominate in the forwards. I'm not sure where our points will come from, I have no faith in Wallace to produce much. Gillett at 5/8 is the only way to go at least to start and use Hunt as a back up option.

Stewart and Foran have only played 1 game in a month so maybe that could affect their games a bit. DCE has had a great year but he still needs to produce in a pressure game. Against the Cows he was good but I don't expect our forwards to get owned like NQ were so definitely a chance to test him.

The first 30 mins will be massive for us if we get some good field position we will need to convert far better than last week.

 

[mrslong]

Now that I think about it, there's less pressure on our guys to win. If Lockyer had played, Lockyer would be under pressure to perform and the rest of the team would be under the same amount of pressure. Now that Lockyer isn't playing, we're out to $3.00, no one reckon we have a hope and the Manly side are expected to win. Could play in our hands.

Seriously, if you compare both teams "on paper" our pack destroys theirs. They have us from 1-7 though but we all know that's not where games are won.

Galuvao Vs McGuire - McGuire wins. No brainer this one. Best prop in the game at the moment.
Ballin Vs McCollough - Ballin wins. But that's not to say McCollough isn't in great form though and can easily match him on his day.
Kite Vs Hannant - Hannant wins. Kite has been in good form, but so has Hannant. Hannant can also be better than he is now.
Watmough Vs Glenn - Dead heat. Watmough is a more developed player and a "key man" in their pack, but Glenn's form has been off this world, I think they are dead match at this stage
Tony Williams Vs Sam Thaiday - Thaiday. Williams has been great, but he's no Sam Thaiday.
Shane Rodney Vs Corey Parker - Corey Parker. Don't need to even begin to justify this one.


Seriously, there is no doubt that our pack is way better than theirs.

This is where we can win it and honestly, the loss of Glenn Stewart is HUGE IMO. It takes a lot away from their pack.

WE CAN DO THIS.

YEp!

& Macca completely outplayed Ballin a couple of weeks ago too.

As long as Wallace gets plenty of room to put the kicks to reed and yowie we should win. OMG. Who is nervous?

 

[Nashy]

If Wallace is on his game, he can certainly win it for us. The few games he's been alone, he hasn't exactly been terrible, and his kicking game has been getting better and better. Hopefully he proves that he can play without Locky next to him.

 

[Steve]

I've been saying for a long time that Wallace isn't one of the halves to take us forward once Lockyer retires but I'm ready to be proven wrong!

 

[Coxy]

Was interesting to listen to Gould on the weekend talking about the effect of the week off. He reckons Manly (and Melbourne) will notice it most in the first 15-20 minutes. The pace will hit them and they'll feel buggered. But they'll be able to recover better late in each half because they've had that break, while the Broncos and Warriors have played back to back finals games to this point.

So if his theory is right, the Broncos really need to get off to a flyer and put points on the board in that opening.

 

[Coxy]

Yeah. But teams with the week off don't exactly play their best.

Titans last year - Horrible and lost.
St George last year - Average, lucky to beat the Tigers

Bulldogs in 2009 - Average and lost.
Melbourne in 2009 - Great and beat us.

Then you go back to 2008 - Sharks were average, got beat.
Manly were actually great in 2008 to beat the Warriors.

Seriously, it's very rare to play well after a week off in the finals. History shows that.

Judging by that short history it's about 50-50 :P

 

[Alec]

Gillett has played 5/8th for us once before, and he was pretty bad there.

I guess it's like Rock says, we need to grind it out, and hope for some great individual performances.

 

[Coxy]

Gillett has played 5/8th for us once before, and he was pretty bad there.

I guess it's like Rock says, we need to grind it out, and hope for some great individual performances.

Errr no. We need to hope for a great team performance. This team can make things happen when they're all working together. It's when they work as individuals it's when they rely on individuals to get them out of it. They haven't done that since, oh, the Storm game?

Our winning streak hasn't been on the back of Lockyer. It's been on the back of everyone contributing, working together, playing for eachother. Do that, and the opportunities will come. Even with Gillett at 5/8.

 

[Alec]

Errr no. We need to hope for a great team performance. This team can make things happen when they're all working together. It's when they work as individuals it's when they rely on individuals to get them out of it. They haven't done that since, oh, the Storm game?

Our winning streak hasn't been on the back of Lockyer. It's been on the back of everyone contributing, working together, playing for eachother. Do that, and the opportunities will come. Even with Gillett at 5/8.

I meant great individual performances on top of a great team performance. Something like Reed beating 5 defenders to score.

 

[Coxy]

I meant great individual performances on top of a great team performance. Something like Reed beating 5 defenders to score.

Yeah but that's my point, we haven't relied on stuff like that in our winning run, and it's not just because Locky was there to tell everyone what to do. Patience in attack and then swinging back with the 2nd man play for Hoffman (and lately Beale) to beat his man one on one and setup the outside backs. Pinpoint Wallace kicks for Reed/Yow Yeh to jump for. Strong kick returns followed by quick play the balls. Powerful runs up the middle to get defence retreating and then capitalise on the momentum by spinning wide.

None of this is dependent on Lockyer.

 

[ningnangnong]

I think, now more than ever, we're going to have to rely on that defensive attitude that Hook seems to have instilled in the players.

I can't see us scoring too many points.