The pre-season thread - 2022

Heaven help us.
If Pearce leaves, gets injured or whatever and is not available then Crosslands at7 and Clifford 6 is a better option than Mann at 6, even unseen Clune is a better option surely.
 
We also have 19 year old Krystian Mapapalangi, who led Manly to a minor premiership in SG Ball - I can't remember if they won the GF. Holy Cross College say he is the best player they have ever produced, and Zammit raved over him when we signed him, saying he could play firstgrade as early as next year. We used him as a 5/8 in reserve grade in a few games and he went OK.
I assume he will be on a development contract, but who knows.
He is a big, running 5/8 with good skills who also plays centre and wing.
I'm pretty sure he did a firstgrade pre season with Manly last year.
 
Frank McWilliams said:
Interesting figures for Pearce in our MSKOTW he totalled 136 for season admittedly missing a good few games, Round 24, Titans he scored 74 with rest of season 62.
He kicked the field goal to put us in the final which was probably the reason for his high score.
The last 5 games he scored, 4, 4, 74, 0, 0, that’s 82 less his 74 is 8 for 4 games.
Not a good return for a player of his stature and his last game was probably the worst game I have seen him play.
Makes you wonder what he will be like next season, a year older
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Pearce did have a good game in general vs the Titans to be fair ... kicked a 40-20 and had a few try assists/set restarts, I think.

But I would never expect much out of him in a big game, he's consistently gone missing (or had a plain shocker) in them throughout his entire career.
 
Joel said:
So you expect them to put Ponga in the halves and put Hodgson at fullback with 4 reggies games on his back? We have him on at 500k, there's no risk if we keep him.
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No, realistically we are stuck with Pearce next year. As much as I think this is risking losing Pearce and Ponga together as doesn't Ponga only have a player option in his favor for 2023 and 2024?

Who knows, maybe Ponga does not want to play in the halves and likes the cruisy ride he has a fullback. We might lose him moving him to 5/8.

But, if he were willing to play at 5/8, I'd play him there with Cliff at 7, move Pearce on and use Pearce money to recruit a genuine fullback.
 
daniels said:
Ponga used to be as well.. I dont know what happened to him, I can remember him making a few fantastic try savers in his first year with us, since he picked up a few injuries, he doesn't have a serious crack anymore.
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Ponga stopped those tries by cannon-balling in head first. I think they quickly coached him out of that once they knew how valuable he was. Won't have many years in the NRL with that technique haha
 
kurtsux said:
Ponga stopped those tries by cannon-balling in head first. I think they quickly coached him out of that once they knew how valuable he was. Won't have many years in the NRL with that technique haha
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Yeah, good point
 
Toohey has mentioned the hunt for a new assistant coach in Toohey's news for the last 2 weeks and it sounds like this is the big decision that will shape our off season - whether we go for an attacking assistant or a defensive orientated guy.

I feel that Seibold has don the job with our defence and Eric Smith, who assisted him a lot apparently, can take it from there.

We need to sign a guy who can whip our attack into shape IMO. Frankly, Joey Johns or Mathew Johns would be handy. He does that for many clubs and for NSW from time to time.
A few weeks ago they said Blake Green was going to work with all the halves in the different grades next year, and that's basically where the attack comes from - so he'll be part of it.
 
Billy said:
Toohey has mentioned the hunt for a new assistant coach in Toohey's news for the last 2 weeks and it sounds like this is the big decision that will shape our off season - whether we go for an attacking assistant or a defensive orientated guy.

I feel that Seibold has don the job with our defence and Eric Smith, who assisted him a lot apparently, can take it from there.

We need to sign a guy who can whip our attack into shape IMO. Frankly, Joey Johns or Mathew Johns would be handy. He does that for many clubs and for NSW from time to time.
A few weeks ago they said Blake Green was going to work with all the halves in the different grades next year, and that's basically where the attack comes from - so he'll be part of it.
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I feel like Blake green was a really reliable solid half but played a fairly conservative brand of football, i don't think he is the guy to improve our attack. It would be great to get one of the johns brothers.
 
nunnsy said:
I feel like Blake green was a really reliable solid half but played a fairly conservative brand of football, i don't think he is the guy to improve our attack. It would be great to get one of the johns brothers.
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I don't think we'll know if Green is a good coach till he's done it for a bit.
He spent years playing in the halves under some good coaches and with good partners, so he must know a lot.
Justin Holbrook seems a good coach and the highest level he reached was understudy for Joey in a handful of games.
 
Not that fussed on the Johns brothers to be honest. Joey doesn’t have a particularly good track record coaching halves and Matty did a good job at Melbourne years ago but hasn’t coached anywhere recently.
 
AOB was the attack coach who revolutionised Melbourne's attack in 2018. I don't think he envisaged it taking this long to nail down some basics with our squad.
 
Rule changes which drastically effect the way the game is played will play a part too.
 
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