Did you see him come in completely unnecessarily on
Taylor, stand there looking at him while
Taylor offloads to an unmarked Everingham?
And are you talking about the aimless batback which went back 20 metres into the arms of a Souffs player, leading to massive downfield bust?
What's your definition of "liability", because it's obviously that word you are taking offence at. And IMO there's no other way to describe Manu's D.
And no, i dont know anything about Slaimankhel. I just said that maybe it's a conversation that needs to be had. I dont see why Manu's position should be non-negotiable.
I don't think coming in to assist in a tackle on Dave
Taylor is a bad call.. The guy scores some pretty impossible tries.. Turns out he can also throw impossible offloads. It was the wrong call as it turns out, but i don't think it was a bad call. The ball looked well wrapped up and i think everyone was surprised to see him get that pass away.
The bat-back i'm talking about was the one that was re-gathered by the warriors (quite messily) and eventually led to Ben Henrys try. The one you're talking was gathered by Souths. In that instance I'm more inclined to ask why noone is behind Manu waiting for the ball.. It's a pretty common play of Manu's. If a bomb goes up and it's not closed to the line, 9 times out of 10 he opts for the bat back. On that occassion noone was there ready and expecting him to do it.. Who's fault is that? Certainly not all Manu's.. Regardless, the bat-back is more often than not an aimless play. I personally think he goes for that play too frequently and would sometimes be better off trying to catch it, but hey.. It's worked for us in the past and it worked for us again yesterday.
The thing i take issue with is that your failure to see the Manu situation for what it is - an issue of form/confidence..
I know you're on to a good troll here and you wanna run with it, but in the spirit of the new forum, why don't you try to bring a bit more thought to the discussion rather than just saying "complete shit", "spent force", "complete liability", "simply woeful" etc..
See, i think Manu has been defensively quite poor this year, he's made a few poor reads and a god awful missed tackle on Berrigan in what was probably his worst defensive effort so far this season. However, i also saw Maloney fall off two tackles which directly led to tries, as well as the other 40+ missed tackles there were in that game. I also consider that his opposite wing Bill Tupou is no better (good yesterday though).. he's also prone to terrible reads and he's defending on the easier side. I also consider what it must be like defending outside Jerome Ropati and
Shaun Johnson, and how that would affect your confidence in decision making. If you were Manu, would you have complete confidence that J-Ro and
Shaun Johnson have got it covered? Have you asked yourself why he wasn't so exposed at the back end of last year when we were playing well? Did his defense suddenly get way shitter in the off-season? Or is it more of an indication of where we are at as a team, defensively, so far this year? We've conceded more tries this year than any other club bar the Eels.. that ain't all Manu's shitty reads.
His hands are the other big part of the picture and have also been disappointing. But again, the team as a whole has been disappointing in that department.. I don't know where we sit after yesterdays game, but before it we made more errors per game than any other club. Manu isn't making all the errors.. why single out one player? Sure he might be making the most errors, but we're used to that aren't we? What's changed here? He might be making a few more errors than normal, but the whole team is making more errors than normal so once again, why make him out to be the only one that's dropping the ball?
I guess the point i'm trying to make, is that he is in the same player he was last year. His form and confidence has sunk just as the Warriors as a team have sunk. If you ask me the real issue here is how poorly he's been utilised this year. His greatest strength has always been his ability to score through defenders at close range.. I haven't seen him one on one with his opposite winger once this year... In 2010 it was one of our only plays - Give Manu the ball close to the line and watch him score. Why aren't we, or why can't we seem to get him one on one with his opposite number? This should still be a go-to play.. I also think this could also be a contributing factor to his error-making. He's not getting as many try-scoring opportunities, i think he's getting frustrated at that and over-playing his hand/trying too hard when he carts the ball up.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts.. see i can be disappointed with the way he's playing, but i can also put that in perspective with how the team as a whole is going, what we know about Manu as a player, what we know he can bring to the team if/when he is properly utilised, and what he is already bringing to this team - (2nd most metres by a long way)
Obviously you are entitled to you opinion, as everyone else is.. But saying he's complete shit/liability/spent force is a cop-out at best, and a troll at worst.
