What a start to the season!
For anyone who wanted to still bask in the warmth of the magnificence that is the Sharks, or for anyone who somehow missed it (I hope the aliens returned you in good condition), I thought I’d offer my take on that great first up win for the Sharks. Please feel free to agree or disagree (like you need my permission…) so we can discuss the game and continue to feel good about being sharks fans.
The opening was harrowing, particularly after Ross was KOd. We were struggling with possession anyway, and with Ross off I thought we’d run out of puff. But we showed much greater resilience when defending out wide than I’ve seen since the days of ET.
Last year, our defence was so good because we kept the other sides away from our try line. Last night, Manly were camped in our half for the first 20 minutes and we countered nearly every threat. After about 10 minutes, with a glut of possession and maybe a slightly shocked team from the intensity and the Ross injury, Manly put together about the only two or three quick play the balls of the game and Balin made a break and offloaded to the always backing up Watmough to score the first try. Watmough was easily Manly’s most dangerous looking player, and possibly the only backrower in the comp who I’d add to the Sharks squad with our current backrow.
After that, there were a few penalties for each side for marginal high tackles. The media reports seem to be saying Manly were hard done by with some of the penalties, but I think the ref was equally over zealous for both sides. Manly had a fair bit of luck with the ball on the ground but not managing to knock it on (looking like their attack from the mid 90’s when they just used to pass the ball no matter what- totally unstructured; and rely on defense to win the game).
The Sharks were defending well but Manly did look better, and I was worried that with Ross out we’d be exhausted before full time. After the first 20 minutes though, a number of small momentum changes put the Sharks on top and we stayed there all game, thoroughly deserving the win.
One of those changes was the entry of Bird to the game- as soon as he was on we were bending the Manly line just a little more and getting a few more offloads. With 40 m gains from a set being good from either side, a few Bird half breaks and offloads that enabled quicker play the balls were crucial for getting the Sharks in to the Manly half of the field.
De Gois sent runners back behind the ruck a lot, but was doing that from slightly wider to negate the good Manly marker defense after the first 20 minutes or so. I don’t know if he got a call via a trainer from Ricky or worked it out himself, but it was a good sign that the Sharks could adapt their attack to Manly’s brutal defense, and still maintain there own ferocious tackling.
The other on field evolution was Kimmorley’s use of inside passes- again this was an adaptation to the game situation. Noddy’s kick chase was fantastic all night (as was all the chasing on the kicks, and Noddy “outkicking” Orford was one of the key components of the win), but he has not shown too many signs of adapting his passing to the needs of the game in recent seasons. That he was able to start a season directing forwards to the slightly softer parts of the Manly line (the parts made of granite rather than diamond) bodes well for the season.
Anyways, because of these few changes, the Sharks slowly overcame their early lack of possession and got to the other end of the field. One of the controversial head high penalties on Kimmorley when he dropped the ball on a break gave us our first points. (Covell again looked fantastic when kicking hard goals, and average when kicking easy goals…).
Then Bird’s offloads to Kearney and Pomeroy, and some very strong runs from Williams and Gallen had the Sharks looking a fair bit stronger in the last part of the first half. As often happens when one team is looking good, the other team makes errors, and Manly dropped the ball a few times (in a game that had been relatively error free), including a shocker from Menzies from the back of a scrum. The Menzies error gave us good field position, and a few strong runs (and set plays) to the left had spread the Manly defence. The Sharks were using set plays and a fair few off the ball runners, Melbourne Storm style, but still had to use a hit and spin offload and a string of wide catch and pass movements to finally send Goodwin (in a strong match from a relative newcomer) over in the right hand corner. Another great conversion from Covell followed.
The Sharks continued to look strong for the last few minutes of the half but took only an 8-6 lead to half time.
At half time, the possession and penalties had favoured Manly, and the commentators were still on the Manly bandwagon. The internet reports also suggest that Manly were stronger to start, I think based on the possession. Maybe I’m wearing my black, white and blue glasses, but I thought the Sharks were the better side, and really could have been two tries up with some luck (including a real 50-50 call when Simmonds ended a strong run with a pass to Kearney over the line that was ruled forward- Simmonds didn’t do a heap, but he looked big and fast and more than capable of being a centre this year).
In the second half, both teams continued to belt each other, and despite the smooth looking attack of some other teams this round (Roosters and Titans looked good in attack), I think many teams will be hoping they don’t have to grind too many games against the Sharks or Manly, based on the ferocity of the tackling.
Kimmorley really stepped up his kick chasing in the second half, and Orford wasted a fair few kicks, so the territory was slowly going to the Sharks. The penalty count was swinging back to the Sharks as well, and we “earned” the second penalty goal rugby union style through better momentum and territory that forced Manly to employ some negative defensive tactics.
When Kingston came on with about 20 minutes to go, he immediately threatened the Manly line, and our play was noticeably quicker than Manly’s. The substitution from Stuart was inspired, as De Gois had a brilliant opening 50 but was understandably flagging in the intensity of the game, and Kingston’s injection came at just the right time. He broke the Manly line and was brought down by good scrambling defense just short of the line, but the damage had been done. Bird resisted being tackled for long enough to suck a defender out of position, and offloaded to Kearney (who had backed up beautifully all night). The offload was awkwardly high, but players running to the try line can’t expect offloads to always be on the chest, and Kearney roped it in and scored under the sticks. At 16-6 and with super solid defense, I was feeling pretty good, but nervous because of how often we’d lost from that sort of position last year.
Manly had a few sets in a row, and a penalty that seemed as unearned as most from the night (though somehow to me the only ones that anyone complained about were the ones we got, even though the count was 11-10 against us), had a few strong runs (Cuthbertson looked damaging off the bench at this point), and were in position to attack. A pretty poor kick from Orford went straight to Bird (actually he had to leap, which lead to both his and Manly’s troubles as he crashed to the ground after the leap) and he dropped the ball. Stewart smashed Bird in the process of buckling to the ground after the leap, and Manly got the ball and spread it quickly to the unmarked corner to score. The video ref was on our side for once, and the Stewart attempt was ruled high and illegal, and the Sharks received a penalty rather than the Sea Eagles a try.
This was a pivotal moment of the game, and Hasler in a pretty sporting and congratulatory coaches report said it should have been a try. The commentators said it was a 50-50 call (Gary Freeman kept saying it was “accidental”; like that ever means a head high shot shouldn’t be penalised), and the Sunday Footy show panel thought it was a tough call. I’m not convinced it was any harsher than the forward pass call against Simmonds, and it seemed similar to the infamous 1999 Grand Final video ref decision. Stewart was clearly trying to smash Bird to regain crucial possession at the line (a legitimate tactic), and was using a swinging arm to do so (also legitimate). He did however hit Bird in the head with the swinging arm (which is normally a penalty regardless of wether it was accidental or deliberate). Bird was falling, but that rarely negates a penalty when a player contacts the head of an opponent with a swinging arm (with a shoulder or knee it might be different), so I thought it was fair enough.
The last 10 minutes seemed to me like the referee was trying to redeem himself in the eyes of the Manly crowd (even though the “No Try: Penalty” was the video ref’s call), with several inexplicable penalties and drop ball decisions going against the Sharks. One classic was Anderson getting pinged for a knock on when the ball was knocked on by a Manly player, into Anderson’s head, bounced backwards off his head, and was knocked on again by a Manly player- Sea Eagles scrum feed and confusion all round….
Due to 10 minutes of strange calls and possession, with just long enough left to have a last shot at extra time, Manly scored in the corner. A great side line conversion would have had me even more freaked out (but goal kicking is not a Manly strong point), but with our defense holding up so well I didn’t really believe we’d lose from here. 16-10 with a minute and a kick off to go.
Thankfully the obligatory last desperate play from the kick off resulted in no damage, and the Sharks secured a hard fought, well earned victory.
Pretty much every player (even for Manly) played well, and the defense was as good as I’ve seen from an opening round game. Both sides excelled at slowing the play, keeping the opposition to 35-40m per set, and holding out on their line.
Watmough and Balin were dangerous for Manly, but they looked slightly less able to stretch the opposition defense than the Sharks, which was a nice sign. Our outside backs (plus Noddy) defended very strongly on kick chases and when Manly kicked or spread the ball on the line. Pomeroy ran very strongly and Kearney was the most dangerous runner on the field. Bird looked the best with ball in hand, and Noddy had a very strong kicking game and a good passing game. In attack, we tried some enterprising set plays, and threatened with outside backs as well as our always strong forwards. Williams ran over the top of a few defenders and always makes a few good hits, De Gois controlled the game from the 20 to 50 minute mark and Kingston was the best on the field in the last 20. Gallen and Douglas worked so hard all game and looked great.
The only concerns from the game are- possible overconfidence from winning at Brooky and winning a tight game (the proof of the pudding that we can win close games is a season of winning close games), the injury to Ross, and a few stupid penalties and dropped balls (and a bonehead kick that went dead from Seymour on the second tackle- he had a relatively quiet game but looks good as a foil for Kimmorley)- nothing drastic if we call it first game jitters, just as long as we don’t do it all season.
I’ve spent two seasons getting excited at all the wrong times (ahem…), so I don’t want to get to worked up, but it really is an exciting time of year after an effort like that!
For anyone who wanted to still bask in the warmth of the magnificence that is the Sharks, or for anyone who somehow missed it (I hope the aliens returned you in good condition), I thought I’d offer my take on that great first up win for the Sharks. Please feel free to agree or disagree (like you need my permission…) so we can discuss the game and continue to feel good about being sharks fans.
The opening was harrowing, particularly after Ross was KOd. We were struggling with possession anyway, and with Ross off I thought we’d run out of puff. But we showed much greater resilience when defending out wide than I’ve seen since the days of ET.
Last year, our defence was so good because we kept the other sides away from our try line. Last night, Manly were camped in our half for the first 20 minutes and we countered nearly every threat. After about 10 minutes, with a glut of possession and maybe a slightly shocked team from the intensity and the Ross injury, Manly put together about the only two or three quick play the balls of the game and Balin made a break and offloaded to the always backing up Watmough to score the first try. Watmough was easily Manly’s most dangerous looking player, and possibly the only backrower in the comp who I’d add to the Sharks squad with our current backrow.
After that, there were a few penalties for each side for marginal high tackles. The media reports seem to be saying Manly were hard done by with some of the penalties, but I think the ref was equally over zealous for both sides. Manly had a fair bit of luck with the ball on the ground but not managing to knock it on (looking like their attack from the mid 90’s when they just used to pass the ball no matter what- totally unstructured; and rely on defense to win the game).
The Sharks were defending well but Manly did look better, and I was worried that with Ross out we’d be exhausted before full time. After the first 20 minutes though, a number of small momentum changes put the Sharks on top and we stayed there all game, thoroughly deserving the win.
One of those changes was the entry of Bird to the game- as soon as he was on we were bending the Manly line just a little more and getting a few more offloads. With 40 m gains from a set being good from either side, a few Bird half breaks and offloads that enabled quicker play the balls were crucial for getting the Sharks in to the Manly half of the field.
De Gois sent runners back behind the ruck a lot, but was doing that from slightly wider to negate the good Manly marker defense after the first 20 minutes or so. I don’t know if he got a call via a trainer from Ricky or worked it out himself, but it was a good sign that the Sharks could adapt their attack to Manly’s brutal defense, and still maintain there own ferocious tackling.
The other on field evolution was Kimmorley’s use of inside passes- again this was an adaptation to the game situation. Noddy’s kick chase was fantastic all night (as was all the chasing on the kicks, and Noddy “outkicking” Orford was one of the key components of the win), but he has not shown too many signs of adapting his passing to the needs of the game in recent seasons. That he was able to start a season directing forwards to the slightly softer parts of the Manly line (the parts made of granite rather than diamond) bodes well for the season.
Anyways, because of these few changes, the Sharks slowly overcame their early lack of possession and got to the other end of the field. One of the controversial head high penalties on Kimmorley when he dropped the ball on a break gave us our first points. (Covell again looked fantastic when kicking hard goals, and average when kicking easy goals…).
Then Bird’s offloads to Kearney and Pomeroy, and some very strong runs from Williams and Gallen had the Sharks looking a fair bit stronger in the last part of the first half. As often happens when one team is looking good, the other team makes errors, and Manly dropped the ball a few times (in a game that had been relatively error free), including a shocker from Menzies from the back of a scrum. The Menzies error gave us good field position, and a few strong runs (and set plays) to the left had spread the Manly defence. The Sharks were using set plays and a fair few off the ball runners, Melbourne Storm style, but still had to use a hit and spin offload and a string of wide catch and pass movements to finally send Goodwin (in a strong match from a relative newcomer) over in the right hand corner. Another great conversion from Covell followed.
The Sharks continued to look strong for the last few minutes of the half but took only an 8-6 lead to half time.
At half time, the possession and penalties had favoured Manly, and the commentators were still on the Manly bandwagon. The internet reports also suggest that Manly were stronger to start, I think based on the possession. Maybe I’m wearing my black, white and blue glasses, but I thought the Sharks were the better side, and really could have been two tries up with some luck (including a real 50-50 call when Simmonds ended a strong run with a pass to Kearney over the line that was ruled forward- Simmonds didn’t do a heap, but he looked big and fast and more than capable of being a centre this year).
In the second half, both teams continued to belt each other, and despite the smooth looking attack of some other teams this round (Roosters and Titans looked good in attack), I think many teams will be hoping they don’t have to grind too many games against the Sharks or Manly, based on the ferocity of the tackling.
Kimmorley really stepped up his kick chasing in the second half, and Orford wasted a fair few kicks, so the territory was slowly going to the Sharks. The penalty count was swinging back to the Sharks as well, and we “earned” the second penalty goal rugby union style through better momentum and territory that forced Manly to employ some negative defensive tactics.
When Kingston came on with about 20 minutes to go, he immediately threatened the Manly line, and our play was noticeably quicker than Manly’s. The substitution from Stuart was inspired, as De Gois had a brilliant opening 50 but was understandably flagging in the intensity of the game, and Kingston’s injection came at just the right time. He broke the Manly line and was brought down by good scrambling defense just short of the line, but the damage had been done. Bird resisted being tackled for long enough to suck a defender out of position, and offloaded to Kearney (who had backed up beautifully all night). The offload was awkwardly high, but players running to the try line can’t expect offloads to always be on the chest, and Kearney roped it in and scored under the sticks. At 16-6 and with super solid defense, I was feeling pretty good, but nervous because of how often we’d lost from that sort of position last year.
Manly had a few sets in a row, and a penalty that seemed as unearned as most from the night (though somehow to me the only ones that anyone complained about were the ones we got, even though the count was 11-10 against us), had a few strong runs (Cuthbertson looked damaging off the bench at this point), and were in position to attack. A pretty poor kick from Orford went straight to Bird (actually he had to leap, which lead to both his and Manly’s troubles as he crashed to the ground after the leap) and he dropped the ball. Stewart smashed Bird in the process of buckling to the ground after the leap, and Manly got the ball and spread it quickly to the unmarked corner to score. The video ref was on our side for once, and the Stewart attempt was ruled high and illegal, and the Sharks received a penalty rather than the Sea Eagles a try.
This was a pivotal moment of the game, and Hasler in a pretty sporting and congratulatory coaches report said it should have been a try. The commentators said it was a 50-50 call (Gary Freeman kept saying it was “accidental”; like that ever means a head high shot shouldn’t be penalised), and the Sunday Footy show panel thought it was a tough call. I’m not convinced it was any harsher than the forward pass call against Simmonds, and it seemed similar to the infamous 1999 Grand Final video ref decision. Stewart was clearly trying to smash Bird to regain crucial possession at the line (a legitimate tactic), and was using a swinging arm to do so (also legitimate). He did however hit Bird in the head with the swinging arm (which is normally a penalty regardless of wether it was accidental or deliberate). Bird was falling, but that rarely negates a penalty when a player contacts the head of an opponent with a swinging arm (with a shoulder or knee it might be different), so I thought it was fair enough.
The last 10 minutes seemed to me like the referee was trying to redeem himself in the eyes of the Manly crowd (even though the “No Try: Penalty” was the video ref’s call), with several inexplicable penalties and drop ball decisions going against the Sharks. One classic was Anderson getting pinged for a knock on when the ball was knocked on by a Manly player, into Anderson’s head, bounced backwards off his head, and was knocked on again by a Manly player- Sea Eagles scrum feed and confusion all round….
Due to 10 minutes of strange calls and possession, with just long enough left to have a last shot at extra time, Manly scored in the corner. A great side line conversion would have had me even more freaked out (but goal kicking is not a Manly strong point), but with our defense holding up so well I didn’t really believe we’d lose from here. 16-10 with a minute and a kick off to go.
Thankfully the obligatory last desperate play from the kick off resulted in no damage, and the Sharks secured a hard fought, well earned victory.
Pretty much every player (even for Manly) played well, and the defense was as good as I’ve seen from an opening round game. Both sides excelled at slowing the play, keeping the opposition to 35-40m per set, and holding out on their line.
Watmough and Balin were dangerous for Manly, but they looked slightly less able to stretch the opposition defense than the Sharks, which was a nice sign. Our outside backs (plus Noddy) defended very strongly on kick chases and when Manly kicked or spread the ball on the line. Pomeroy ran very strongly and Kearney was the most dangerous runner on the field. Bird looked the best with ball in hand, and Noddy had a very strong kicking game and a good passing game. In attack, we tried some enterprising set plays, and threatened with outside backs as well as our always strong forwards. Williams ran over the top of a few defenders and always makes a few good hits, De Gois controlled the game from the 20 to 50 minute mark and Kingston was the best on the field in the last 20. Gallen and Douglas worked so hard all game and looked great.
The only concerns from the game are- possible overconfidence from winning at Brooky and winning a tight game (the proof of the pudding that we can win close games is a season of winning close games), the injury to Ross, and a few stupid penalties and dropped balls (and a bonehead kick that went dead from Seymour on the second tackle- he had a relatively quiet game but looks good as a foil for Kimmorley)- nothing drastic if we call it first game jitters, just as long as we don’t do it all season.
I’ve spent two seasons getting excited at all the wrong times (ahem…), so I don’t want to get to worked up, but it really is an exciting time of year after an effort like that!
