Premiership redline for sure top eight maybe, dont forget how easy it is to make the 8 , 50% win record will do it .
They are a classic example of how the cap combined with poor management can **** a team for years though , they backended contracts and decided to rebuild around Foran and Evans which didn't eventuate, in the mean time they let others go and now have aging stars, no halves and not a lot coming through.
Absolute shambles. It's a great feeling seeing manly stink the joint up like this.
Boy some heads should roll over what's happened to this club.
I wonder how preplanned this was from Des, push the cap to its limits with back ended deals than jump ship before it starts to go under. Kind of a genius career move really.
Any team with Brett Stewart, DCE, Foran, Matai, Mason, Lyon, Ballin is not something to groan and some of their up and coming blokes look like good prospects but morale there would be at an all time low. If they can't sort things out and create a positive team environment Manly could possibly miss the finals for the first time since 2004.
We will one see how great of a team Manly really is and that if Geoff Toovey is as good of a coach as his record shows.
Manly start has been riduclous. There’s got to be an investigation into it. Someone has to be accountable for it. I don’t understand. Is someone accountable for it?
The bye next week will inflate their position before they face off against...
Wests Tigers (H)
South Sydney (A)
Cronulla (H)
Gold Coast (A)
North Queensland (H)
Warriors (A)
Brisbane (H)
South Sydney (H)
Canberra (A)
Parramatta (H)
Sydney (H)
Cronulla (A)
They have to go at least 8-4 to stand any chance. It's certainly achievable but it looks unlikely based on their performances.
A lot of their players are capable of more but they're not playing with any confidence. Kieran Foran in particularly looks like he's got his mind set on Parramatta. Which reminds me, how nervous would you be as a Parramatta supporter right now? They have practically invested the same amount of coin into Foran over a smaller time-frame. He doesn't exactly fit into their structures as is, so you would have to hope he pulls a Maloney and regains form at his new club.
I was surprised with their performance against the Broncos. I thought their forwards actually did a reasonable job in the middle. However, their backs made a number of coach-killing mistakes that let them down on numerous occasions. This may sound harsh, but Lyon's injury maybe a blessing if it allows Trbojevic to reclaim his spot on the wing. Outside of getting injured against Penrith, he hasn't put a foot wrong in first grade and has shown more than the likes of Taufua and Hiku.
As far as I'm concerned, the backs represent the key for Manly. If they can produce the type of form they're capable of they could carry the Sea Eagles to an unlikely finals berth.