So it's taken me a few days to work up the motivation to write about last weeks game. It did not even feel like I was watching Manly play, they were way off their game, there was no spark, no excitement and certainly not a whole lot to cheer about.
I felt utterly disappointed with the performance that I saw. All I could think was 'this is not the Manly side I know', I'm fairly certain that was the worst game I have watched all season. I have been thinking all week about how to write about a game that I wanted to forget about and I am still at a loss. I feel like I have writers block.
I turned off the TV after the game had finished and forced myself not to go straight to bed or straight for the Vodka bottle. Instead I decided to cheer myself up with a movie. Except the movie didn't have a happy ending either so I felt even worse. The next morning I couldn't get up, I was not ready to face the world, face those Manly-haters. So I stayed in bed. A bit melodramatic I know, but I have moved on - almost.
So this weeks game, well tonights game now. Sea Eagles vs Bulldogs. Geoff Toovey vs Des Hasler. I'm excited. I'm excited because this is the chance to let the NRL world know that we are still a great team, and a team that will make into the finals this year. I'm excited because it certainly cannot get any worse than last Saturday night. Finally, I'm excited because it's game day and it's a home game. I love getting back to Brookie!
News is that Brett Stewart is out and Glenn Stewart will most likely play. Keep updated by following me on twitter @MaroonWhiteBlog and..
Happy Footballing!
Friday, 20 July 2012
Wednesday, 11 July 2012
Rivalry Round - Manly vs Newcastle
Welcome to Round 19 - the Rivalry Round
After two fantastic games and a bye week we head up to Newcastle's Hunter Stadium to hopefully keep up the winning streak in the run to finals. If we remember back to last years game up at Newcastle, the Sea Eagles scored a try in the opening set. If last weeks game is anything to go off I'm sure we're set for another ripper opening few sets that hopefully bag us a few tries as well!
With Newcastle not travelling so well we are expected to grab the two points in this game. In saying that, it is not the time for complacency and the team should be looking to score as many tries as possible and end up with a large points differential. We need to cement a spot in the top four and scoring as many tries against, the lower-ranking teams is one way to climb the ladder.
We have just heard that we signed Richie Fa'aoso for two years from 2013 which is an enormous boost and with Matt Ballin also recently secured until 2015 the lead up to the finals seems almost trouble-free. Our team looks ready and the most fired up I think they have been all year.
While last weeks game against Parramatta was a great win, we copped another blow in the form of injury to our fullback Brett Stewart. Manly seem fairly certain it's just a small injury, and he should be back for our game against the Bulldogs in round 20. Let's not forget the last time they down-played an injury for Kieran Foran, he was out for six weeks. There is hope that Glenn Stewart will be back, but Daniel Harrison has been named on an extended bench to move into lock if needed. Dean Whare will play fullback going up against Darius Boyd, who while his time at Newcastle hasn't been the greatest of his career, is still an unreal fullback who cannot be underestimated.
Good Luck to the boys and Happy Footballing!
After two fantastic games and a bye week we head up to Newcastle's Hunter Stadium to hopefully keep up the winning streak in the run to finals. If we remember back to last years game up at Newcastle, the Sea Eagles scored a try in the opening set. If last weeks game is anything to go off I'm sure we're set for another ripper opening few sets that hopefully bag us a few tries as well!
With Newcastle not travelling so well we are expected to grab the two points in this game. In saying that, it is not the time for complacency and the team should be looking to score as many tries as possible and end up with a large points differential. We need to cement a spot in the top four and scoring as many tries against, the lower-ranking teams is one way to climb the ladder.
We have just heard that we signed Richie Fa'aoso for two years from 2013 which is an enormous boost and with Matt Ballin also recently secured until 2015 the lead up to the finals seems almost trouble-free. Our team looks ready and the most fired up I think they have been all year.
While last weeks game against Parramatta was a great win, we copped another blow in the form of injury to our fullback Brett Stewart. Manly seem fairly certain it's just a small injury, and he should be back for our game against the Bulldogs in round 20. Let's not forget the last time they down-played an injury for Kieran Foran, he was out for six weeks. There is hope that Glenn Stewart will be back, but Daniel Harrison has been named on an extended bench to move into lock if needed. Dean Whare will play fullback going up against Darius Boyd, who while his time at Newcastle hasn't been the greatest of his career, is still an unreal fullback who cannot be underestimated.
Good Luck to the boys and Happy Footballing!
Monday, 9 July 2012
Round 18 - Sea Eagles vs Eels
What a game, no let me rephrase that, what a first half!!
So we came into the round only one week away from having a complete team back, only to end the round with two players injured and to what extent we are unsure yet. We were lucky enough to have David 'Wolfman' Williams back on the team following a hamstring injury and besides a few niggles from our Origin boys we were ready and fired up to make sure those slippery eels wouldn't have a taste of victory at our expense.
It was an exciting game, a match that had almost everyone at Brookvale smiling. The third minute saw a try to the returning Wolfman and everyone was on their feet cheering, smiling and clapping! Little did we know that Wolfman was on the prowl. I think the fans thought we had this one in the bag but we didn't realise how easy a game it really was going to be. Jamie Lyon converted the try and the score was 6-0. It wasn't long until a small biff broke out involving none other than the fiery Steve Matai and Eels captain Nathan Hindmarsh. This gave a penalty to Parramatta which Steve Matai was desperately unhappy about. Fortunately for us they came up with an error only a few plays into the set.
The crowd was a bit riled up as well. I'm pretty sure Section WF almost got into a biff themselves. You see, we had about 5 Parramatta supporters behind us, not to mention some of the U20's families there as well, and as in any football game there was a bit of heckling which the Eels supporters took personally as if we were attacking them. Fortunately it all worked out in the end and I'm pretty sure we left on good terms.
It seemed to be all over for the Parramatta Eels from that point. 10 minutes later and Wolfman adds another four points to Manly from a beautiful right side play that seems to be a trademark of ours. This took the score to 10-0 and the try remained unconverted.
Less than 10 minutes later Jorge Taufua broke through the Eels defence -like it was hard- and a timely pass saw Brett Stewart cross the line. I think Manly fans were stunned at this point. We know we have it in us, but it's been a long time since we've seen the boys play like this at Brookvale. Only a few minutes later Brett Stewart broke through the defence and the Wolfman put his hand up to collect another try bagging himself a hat-trick before half time.
A brilliant break by Steve Matai and then a pass to Taufua, who just tore the defence right open, decided it was time to help another brother over the line, this time the lucky team mate was Daly Cherry-Evans. The Eels had a hard time catching up to him, but when he had attracted a few he offloaded to DCE and sent him over the line with a massive cheshire-style grin on his face.
Gobsmacked. I'm not sure who was more in shock, the Manly supporters or the Eels players. The cheering and whistling and hi-fiveing could be seen across the park with almost all of the 17000 that showed up cheering and jumping around like excited five-year olds at their birthday party. At this point Jamie Lyon had only missed one conversion and Parramatta were yet to be seen anywhere near their own try line, so the score was 28-0 with less than 10 minutes on the clock in the first half.
Just when we were getting ready to cheer our boys off at half time the Wolfman becomes greedy and bags himself another try. Yes, that is four tries for the Wolfman in forty minutes, making David Williams the first in sixty years to score four tries in the first half. The score at half time was a whopping 34-0 and the boys walked into the sheds with massive smiles on their faces like we had already won the game. We thought that we were headed for another awesome second half full of tries.
The second half was a bit less fantastic. We lost players to injury and with them went our spark and enthusiasm. Brett Stewart suffered a hamstring injury and Jorge Taufua had a problem with his hip and they both walked off into the dressing rooms shortly after the second half was underway. Not sure about the severity of the injuries yet.
Jorge Taufua left the field first and Jamie Buhrer took his place on the wing, for a player who spends the majority of his time in the centre of the field being on the left wing would have been an interesting challenge. Then Brett Stewart left the field not long after half time, fortunately for us he was kind enough to put in one last run through the massive gap that had opened in the Eels defence and grabbed a try before walking off.
This is where it all seemed to go downhill. Buhrer is on the wing, Steve Matai, who usually plays centre, shifts to fullback and Tony Williams moved into the centre. Our left side was very vulnerable to attack. While they did the job reasonably well, I think they forgot where they were positioned on the field and we often saw Williams and Buhrer back in the centre of the field and Kieran Foran was left to cover for the two M.I.A players.
It was a short while before Parramatta realised how vulnerable we were on the left side and their winger kept calling for the ball. They crossed twice in that corner. Perhaps it was just a lucky corner today? Ten minutes after Brett Stewart left the field, they crossed through their debuting fullback, Jake Mullany. Disorganised defence from Manly left a gap which he tore through placing the ball over the try line.
Ten minutes later and they attack again, this time in the right hand corner. Jamie Buhrer was about 10 meters in from the sideline and the winger, Ken Sio called for the ball and landed a soft try. Ten minutes later and the exact same thing happened again, Ken Sio scored in the right corner. Steve Matai was close to stopping that play but unfortunately was just too late. With less than a minute to go, the Parramatta Eels secured yet another try, this time over in the left hand corner and through Luke Burt.
With all Burt's conversions successful the full time score was 40-24. While it was a victory and we won by 16 points, I left Brookvale oval feeling defeated, and as though we had lost. We had plenty to celebrate but the majority of reasons were from the first half. Somehow without our 'Prince of Brookvale' and Taufua we lost our way, lost our spark and lost our ability to play good football.
I could spend the next paragraph justifying this feeling by saying that we did have quite a few players out of position, but I just think we were complacent, we felt we had won and we decided to settle for a good win, rather than a phenomenal win.
Perhaps next week against the Newcastle Knights we will play phenomenal football for a full 80 minutes, rather than for only 40 minutes. Cheers to the boys on the victory and
Happy Footballing!
So we came into the round only one week away from having a complete team back, only to end the round with two players injured and to what extent we are unsure yet. We were lucky enough to have David 'Wolfman' Williams back on the team following a hamstring injury and besides a few niggles from our Origin boys we were ready and fired up to make sure those slippery eels wouldn't have a taste of victory at our expense.
It was an exciting game, a match that had almost everyone at Brookvale smiling. The third minute saw a try to the returning Wolfman and everyone was on their feet cheering, smiling and clapping! Little did we know that Wolfman was on the prowl. I think the fans thought we had this one in the bag but we didn't realise how easy a game it really was going to be. Jamie Lyon converted the try and the score was 6-0. It wasn't long until a small biff broke out involving none other than the fiery Steve Matai and Eels captain Nathan Hindmarsh. This gave a penalty to Parramatta which Steve Matai was desperately unhappy about. Fortunately for us they came up with an error only a few plays into the set.
The crowd was a bit riled up as well. I'm pretty sure Section WF almost got into a biff themselves. You see, we had about 5 Parramatta supporters behind us, not to mention some of the U20's families there as well, and as in any football game there was a bit of heckling which the Eels supporters took personally as if we were attacking them. Fortunately it all worked out in the end and I'm pretty sure we left on good terms.
It seemed to be all over for the Parramatta Eels from that point. 10 minutes later and Wolfman adds another four points to Manly from a beautiful right side play that seems to be a trademark of ours. This took the score to 10-0 and the try remained unconverted.
Less than 10 minutes later Jorge Taufua broke through the Eels defence -like it was hard- and a timely pass saw Brett Stewart cross the line. I think Manly fans were stunned at this point. We know we have it in us, but it's been a long time since we've seen the boys play like this at Brookvale. Only a few minutes later Brett Stewart broke through the defence and the Wolfman put his hand up to collect another try bagging himself a hat-trick before half time.
A brilliant break by Steve Matai and then a pass to Taufua, who just tore the defence right open, decided it was time to help another brother over the line, this time the lucky team mate was Daly Cherry-Evans. The Eels had a hard time catching up to him, but when he had attracted a few he offloaded to DCE and sent him over the line with a massive cheshire-style grin on his face.
Gobsmacked. I'm not sure who was more in shock, the Manly supporters or the Eels players. The cheering and whistling and hi-fiveing could be seen across the park with almost all of the 17000 that showed up cheering and jumping around like excited five-year olds at their birthday party. At this point Jamie Lyon had only missed one conversion and Parramatta were yet to be seen anywhere near their own try line, so the score was 28-0 with less than 10 minutes on the clock in the first half.
Just when we were getting ready to cheer our boys off at half time the Wolfman becomes greedy and bags himself another try. Yes, that is four tries for the Wolfman in forty minutes, making David Williams the first in sixty years to score four tries in the first half. The score at half time was a whopping 34-0 and the boys walked into the sheds with massive smiles on their faces like we had already won the game. We thought that we were headed for another awesome second half full of tries.
The second half was a bit less fantastic. We lost players to injury and with them went our spark and enthusiasm. Brett Stewart suffered a hamstring injury and Jorge Taufua had a problem with his hip and they both walked off into the dressing rooms shortly after the second half was underway. Not sure about the severity of the injuries yet.
Jorge Taufua left the field first and Jamie Buhrer took his place on the wing, for a player who spends the majority of his time in the centre of the field being on the left wing would have been an interesting challenge. Then Brett Stewart left the field not long after half time, fortunately for us he was kind enough to put in one last run through the massive gap that had opened in the Eels defence and grabbed a try before walking off.
This is where it all seemed to go downhill. Buhrer is on the wing, Steve Matai, who usually plays centre, shifts to fullback and Tony Williams moved into the centre. Our left side was very vulnerable to attack. While they did the job reasonably well, I think they forgot where they were positioned on the field and we often saw Williams and Buhrer back in the centre of the field and Kieran Foran was left to cover for the two M.I.A players.
It was a short while before Parramatta realised how vulnerable we were on the left side and their winger kept calling for the ball. They crossed twice in that corner. Perhaps it was just a lucky corner today? Ten minutes after Brett Stewart left the field, they crossed through their debuting fullback, Jake Mullany. Disorganised defence from Manly left a gap which he tore through placing the ball over the try line.
Ten minutes later and they attack again, this time in the right hand corner. Jamie Buhrer was about 10 meters in from the sideline and the winger, Ken Sio called for the ball and landed a soft try. Ten minutes later and the exact same thing happened again, Ken Sio scored in the right corner. Steve Matai was close to stopping that play but unfortunately was just too late. With less than a minute to go, the Parramatta Eels secured yet another try, this time over in the left hand corner and through Luke Burt.
With all Burt's conversions successful the full time score was 40-24. While it was a victory and we won by 16 points, I left Brookvale oval feeling defeated, and as though we had lost. We had plenty to celebrate but the majority of reasons were from the first half. Somehow without our 'Prince of Brookvale' and Taufua we lost our way, lost our spark and lost our ability to play good football.
I could spend the next paragraph justifying this feeling by saying that we did have quite a few players out of position, but I just think we were complacent, we felt we had won and we decided to settle for a good win, rather than a phenomenal win.
Perhaps next week against the Newcastle Knights we will play phenomenal football for a full 80 minutes, rather than for only 40 minutes. Cheers to the boys on the victory and
Happy Footballing!
Wednesday, 4 July 2012
Origin 3
Gutted, absolutely and truly gutted. There are no other words to describe the feeling I have right now. I thought we had it, I thought this game was ours and I'm fairly certain the rest of New South Wales felt the exact same way.
I am only one fan, if I feel this way the NSW boys must feel awful. Credit to them as they played their little hearts out and put on a fantastic game for us all to watch. We all cheered them on but QLD just proved to be one point better - or better at kicking a field goal - than us.
Perhaps 2013 will prove to be our year.
I am only one fan, if I feel this way the NSW boys must feel awful. Credit to them as they played their little hearts out and put on a fantastic game for us all to watch. We all cheered them on but QLD just proved to be one point better - or better at kicking a field goal - than us.
Perhaps 2013 will prove to be our year.
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
Bye Week #2
So this week we had another bye week and I took the time to relax, rejuvenate and regroup myself. I figured if the Manly boys got some time off, us fans should take some time off too! Last bye week I challenged myself to find something, or someone, excellent, intriguing or interesting about each game. I tried really hard to open my eyes and mind to the possibility that other teams out there have players and skills just as good as my boys do. It was a great eye opener and I thoroughly enjoyed watching each game.
However this bye week I decided to head off on a short trip away. I followed the sun and boy was it glorious. I spent the days wandering around the beaches up north, soaking up the sun and enjoying the views. I watched a pod of dolphins swimming only 10 metres out from the headland I was on. I saw whales jumping out of the big blue and creating splashes that could be seen miles away. It was truly magical.
This week brings with it the BIG ORIGIN DECIDER. Everyone who is anyone is talking about it, posting about it, tweeting about it, and I thought I would jump on the bandwagon too. Many football greats have been heard commenting on the feeling in NSW that we have this one in the bag. I'm hoping they're right, but will some of the glory be taken away from the win because Billy Slater is out?
I'm curious and nervous to see how tomorrow night goes. I look forward to "sticking it" to Queensland and breaking their winning streak, but I am not really sure if it is all going to work out as planned. Fortunately I am not playing for NSW and those who are really believe that this game is theirs to win.
In Manly Sea Eagles news, we have another one of our beloved heading to another club. Daniel Harrison signed with the Parramatta Eels last week sometime. So that makes two going to the Eels, one to the Bulldogs, one to the Panthers and one to the Roosters. I am curious to see how we are going to replace these players. We heard that we've signed young Warriors forward, Ligi Sao, but that is all.
This Sunday we play the Eels out at Fortress Brookvale. It should be a good game and hopefully we will grab the two points. We lost to the Eels in Round 5 of this season and will not be wanting to make the same mistake. Glenn Stewart and David Williams may be rejoining us, but I am not too hopeful of either of them returning as we tend to err on the side of caution when it comes to injuries.
I look forward to the game and cannot wait to get back out to Fortress Brookvale with my flag!
Happy Footballing and Good Luck to all NSW State of Origin players!
However this bye week I decided to head off on a short trip away. I followed the sun and boy was it glorious. I spent the days wandering around the beaches up north, soaking up the sun and enjoying the views. I watched a pod of dolphins swimming only 10 metres out from the headland I was on. I saw whales jumping out of the big blue and creating splashes that could be seen miles away. It was truly magical.
This week brings with it the BIG ORIGIN DECIDER. Everyone who is anyone is talking about it, posting about it, tweeting about it, and I thought I would jump on the bandwagon too. Many football greats have been heard commenting on the feeling in NSW that we have this one in the bag. I'm hoping they're right, but will some of the glory be taken away from the win because Billy Slater is out?
I'm curious and nervous to see how tomorrow night goes. I look forward to "sticking it" to Queensland and breaking their winning streak, but I am not really sure if it is all going to work out as planned. Fortunately I am not playing for NSW and those who are really believe that this game is theirs to win.
In Manly Sea Eagles news, we have another one of our beloved heading to another club. Daniel Harrison signed with the Parramatta Eels last week sometime. So that makes two going to the Eels, one to the Bulldogs, one to the Panthers and one to the Roosters. I am curious to see how we are going to replace these players. We heard that we've signed young Warriors forward, Ligi Sao, but that is all.
This Sunday we play the Eels out at Fortress Brookvale. It should be a good game and hopefully we will grab the two points. We lost to the Eels in Round 5 of this season and will not be wanting to make the same mistake. Glenn Stewart and David Williams may be rejoining us, but I am not too hopeful of either of them returning as we tend to err on the side of caution when it comes to injuries.
I look forward to the game and cannot wait to get back out to Fortress Brookvale with my flag!
Happy Footballing and Good Luck to all NSW State of Origin players!
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