Last week I headed a blog implying/saying, we made mistake's lets move on.....I was a pessimist to an extent, but not suicidal. Just very critical of Pezet and the knock on effect in losing balance.
Yesterdays game against Penrith has a lot of physcological aspects to it/us.
I need to ask some questions, last year (second half) we had a defence that was testing every side including Penrith.
Interestingly the beginning of last year was not disimilar to this year, the question is what is the difference?
The common denominators were that Dyllan Brown was not really there in any dominant form at the end of the year, he was injured and being eased out.....so lets discount that.
Hopgood after moving to prop had a great year after a shaky start.....this is a factor defensively....he is the most tenancious and error free forward we have....This is a significant loss, that is not appreciated by the unwashed on here.
Now add on that Junior is by the standards he can play to, is not in that form, although not as bad as some make out. Finally this last one will upset some, but losing Lomax in the way we did had a detrimental effect on the confidence of this team. He did things in a competitive way that inspired, both players and supporters. A big error in letting him go the way we did (spilt milk now) but pertinent IMO.
Pezet has been well recorded by me and I don't want to sound like a broken record. I really didn't notice him much yesterday so I am loathe to be critical but you cannot mention last year without bringing him into the picture, that said I am interested to see everyone has him in next week's team as the experts on here rearrange the deck chairs. Kelly was OK yesterday and if you think about it, most Penrith tries came from within the 25 and it is was through our forwards. The rediculous tries came about from the super confidence that their forwards had created in that first 15/20 minutes.
That dominance was enhanced by our poor handling, which in turn came from us going into a catch up mode before we needed to! That's where we failed! Our tackling technique was not in sync and had a real desperation rather than a hunting pack. This come's back to balance, we cannot afford Kelma (lateral defence wise) in this pack as he is a common to the holes our opponents make. Williams needs to come onto that edge to provide lateral defence. We also have to look at the technical approach our full backs have/utilise in catching up and unders, they are skilful and there is no fullback in the comp that is foolproof, we just need to get it better.
The commentators on Fox before the game yesterday made the point that Moses needed to stop nurse maiding Pezet and play his own game....he was better yesterday but is also rushing most things he is doing. There is no sign of Moses thinking 2/3 plays ahead.... some people do not realise, that this lack of vision is the real reason that Moses is not a great player, just a good one! Overated by many on this site.....could you imagine Cleary leading us around the park and losing his cool.....well put him in this Parra side and you just might. BUT realise he would at the end of the game going to the coach and working out the faults. NB In criticising Moses, I am being beligerent as I have always regarded him as one of my favourite players, but I have to be honest with what I see.
In business terms I used to hate it in corporate planning sessions when people talked about "we are no worse than anyone else", "yes we are" and we need to be better than others, Full Stop" that analogy comes over as I am writing this as a title for the blog, because our goals have to be higher and better, unless we persue excellence we can never improve....this brings me back to what I am saying about the coaches role in the undermentioned.
I could finish this blog now and leave it with that....but I have created an idealogy, not a solution.
Well what is the solution? firstly there is no magic formula....the reality is we have 17/19 players that have the same physical features as the opposition on any given day. I believe and think that the coach and his staff have to sit down with the first and second grade players and anyone else contemplated as a selection possibility in the near future and go back to "last year" and analyse the difference.
We showed yesterday we could be as effective in attack as any side and these opportunities actually came from our maligned backs.....what has happened to our running forwards?
Interimly we need to find out who is "out there" player wise and start hunting now before 30th June comes about....sooner the better.
PS The criticism of the coach, his staff, the front office, the GM Football and R&R all have relevance....it doesn't work sacking people unless you have better replacements, every decent Manager knows this, how you address it requires leadership.....who is going to provide it ......please answer without the rhetoric?
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Ah! Bobby they don't make em like us anymore (some people would say...thank god! ).
The more I think about why we don't attract playersis because we are too honest.
The whole world is made up these days with deals.....I just think we are naive!
Pops, love your blog. I'll throw this out there.
Junior Paulo not playing like a near $1000000m player as per his contract
Ryan Matterson is certainly not giving us his $700k value to the team
Will Penisni is certainly no where near giving us his $650K in value to the team
We have now lost Iongi, Hopgood, Doorey and Samrani to go with the other 2.
This brings me to my next point, with the amount of misses at the recruitment table and the need to pivot to 2nd/3rd or even 4th choice available talent, the real question for me is, when do we break the shackles and actually sign the players Ryles and his team have identified in the first instance. There is just no way you can dress up a 4th choice Pig as a Sunday Roast Lamb, no matter how great the cook or in our case the coaches.
Its not who we have that is the real problem, I suspect its more like, whom we have missed on and why that is the real problem and then our inevitable pivot to having to sign lesser talented players or the left overs. We dress those players up with grand signing announcements to get fans invested in them, meanwhile our coaches have to get the best out of St George's leftovers, The Titans Leftovers, and then sign a player with a handful of games experience and expect him to play out of position at 5/8. Throw in that we are about to lose Russell "who we couldn't re sign even though coach's wanted him " to the Bears and we resigned Simonsson who only just recently wanted out of the club but couldn't find any taker having to come back with his tail between his legs, dissing the coach in a public way, you have to ask how desperate are we to sign a player of decent ability. Any other player that has done that Ryles has gotten rid of instantly.
Honestly, I'm surprised we are playing this good, with what we have to work with. When you delve deeper into it, our recruitment and retention guys have some real real big problems that need to be sorted and improved on very quickly.
P.S - One night after the fans at Manly Stadium were chanting Sack Seibold , the board moved on him and sacked him. Food for thought right there if something dosnt improve re signings.
Save the best to last Bluey.....how many times have i said "love you like a brother" and how many times have you given me the benefit of the doubt.....remember me saying how JDB was such a sensible buy because he brings us time to bring the young blokes through.....I see he was in court last week suing the detective for perjury in his rape trial...... I hope he gets that out of his system because I suspect he wasn't focused on that first game and he hasn't been sighted since.
Back to your post, my initial reaction is "you cannot control the uncontrollable" when you bring up Junior and Matto. Junior was always going to be overpaid when it comes to the last year/s of a contract. Matto is an enigma and we were a victim/s of the times with Dolphin's coming in and offering big money, whereas Mahoney left (no problems there) and Papillii is basically a mercenary (good luck to him). Injury's fall into the uncontrollable bin.
So we go back to our recruitment problems....quiet simply I don't know the answer but I did say we have 10 or say board members with business connections..... why they are not out there in the community the size of Parra and raking in private sponsors (TPA's)....ok its illegal for them to be seen but there are ways using intermediaries for these things to happen, shit the amount of seemingly low level corruption in the game is nothing but if we say to a player you have a private beneficiary that can provide some real incentives, then we need to do it (that's done by an intermediary) and their are other ways, mature players like Mitch Barnett has got kids, why haven't we got a conduit with the Kings School with reciprocal scholarships being sponsered by our Leagues Club, we have property developers like the ALAND group, get them off the jersey's, no one's going to apply because of an add on a jersey to buy a property.....instead get ALAND divorced from club sponsorship and get them to throw away a million dollars a year in TPA's. Tell the Perth Bears (with the concurrence with Russell) that he has travel issues, his mother is sick and get a private sponsor to set him up on a 4 year deal to stay with Parra....if I was on the board, I would be bashing the table with a lawyer up my sleeve, explaining what we can and cant do.......YES Bluey we cannot sign anyone because we are to bloody stingy and honest......Shane Richardson would walk out when you show him the handcuffs the board will put on him.
Do you think these blokes do it honestly? Bullshit they do!
Now my wife just told me the football has started, so I will come back in due course after you roast me for being a "bad brother" Lol
Doesnt matter who they get in. Manly doesnt have any decent cattle these days. DCE gone and the Cro bros are busted.
Koula and Ola'kuatu and that's it. When Brandan Wakeham is playing for you, you're definately shit. He has a 24% win rate playing for team that where at their worst (Dogs, Tigers and now Manly).
Manly are on the edge of a rebuild, it is a matter of if the board and new coach know it.
Great blog Pops! I want to dive into the players second...that needs more thought and research, let me come back later on that.
But I'm going to tackle your last question first - who will replace the GM of Football?
We should be targeting Peter O'Sullivan who by some reports is year-to-year contracted from the end of this year with the Bulldogs and has shown the goods at the Dolphins and the Bulldogs.
Shane Richardson has runs on the board and is proven - sure he couldn't fix the Tigers but remember the Tigers are in the same position that the Eels were when we had a dysfunctional board. You can't win the game when the game is rigged by a toxic board.
Andrew McFadden has done solid things with pathways at the Warriors and could be lured back to Aus I'd say.
Three options that are superior to MON in results. Let them do what they need to do in terms of contracts, pathways and cleanouts. I'd give them the keys and hold them responsible for roster management outcomes - if they don't perform, they go. I really hope some of these conversations are already happening on the down low.
I am seen as the great defender of MON.... i do so circumstantially, because I have always though he was titled wrong GM Football..... that title puts you in charge..... I think MON is far from that and its just a beaucrat thing I know but it gets taken literally...... who once says "where does the buck stop" certainly not with MON at my guess.
Cappy you said you would come back on players which I intimated you would in my reply to Snottie.....look forward to your input, you have an incisive view of things and your views are important.
You could be right on the hierarchy thing. If we've given MON an inflated title and incorrectly assumed his responsibilities then absolutely fair call.
If that's the case we need someone else to fill the traditional GM or Head of Football role and be on the hook for football operations as a whole including pathways, R&R, and ultimately performance on the field.
That's who the head of pathways, head of R&R and head coach should report to. Without continuity from junior pathways to R&R to top tier team performance I don't know how the structure works. The Head Coach should solely be in charge of on field performance. He will obviously have a say in pathways and R&R, but not ultimate accountability.
The GM (by convention) should have overall accountability of all 3 and is on the hook for them working in synergy with one another. That's what I'm holding MON accountable for. If that's not his job then I owe him an apology and equally have a question as to what his job is. 😂
But I don't believe Ryles can succeed if our R&R and pathways aren't firing on all cylinders.
The coach is the fall guy I bet you anything that he'll be scapegoated before anyone else and I believe JRs ultimately on the football side is in charge of recruitment all the rest are subordinates.
Our structure dictates that the HC is thee guy because none of our board will be fired MoN has been here for how long he feels untouchable so that leaves me to believe it's all on the HC as being the head honcho on the football side with everyone else used as conduits in there given roles.That's how I think we are setup.
I don't think we want to run a dictator type approach to it hence why we have a R and R committee which for me if we are setup like we are feels like a waste of time.I mean if I'm JR and I have a hit list of players I know what I'm looking for I don't or shouldn't need to go through 4 other people getting there opinions maybe a trusted seconder and the guy that does the contracts and let's go.
Well explained Coryn.
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