jirskyr
Well-known member
@izotope said in [MBYE](/post/1013316) said:
Totally agree. My first reaction was to blame Mbye, I yelled at the telly "pass it mate". I immediately went back and watched it again in slo-mo on Kayo, and Vunivalu gets his frame right between Mbye and the outside backs.
So if he had thrown the pass, he would have had to throw it under Vunivalu's hands, because any chest or lob pass probably would have been cut off.
Vunivalu ends up in no-man's land and Mbye carries Seve and Paps into the in-goal. I don't honestly expect Mbye to score over the top of 2 defenders, though he went reasonably close.
As previously noted, Brooks did the same - held the pass, and was lucky that only Vunivalu picked him up, and lucky that he has a good strong carry to plant the ball down by the smallest of margins.
And in the last 10 mins, Mbye DOES give the pass and Marsters gets held up, this time by Vunivalu with Seve making the original contact.
Melbourne are a great defensive unit and Vunivalu is a very difficult prospect to attack against - big, strong, tall, fast, good at holding his feet, good at staying upright, good at making contact. The Melbourne inside defence is also good and the winger can back his judgement and trust his inside men.
However, ultimately we had Melbourne in big trouble on their left edge all match - all 3 tries from set plays (Marsters, Brooks, Aloiai) and crossing the line a few more times more than that. In total we must have been tackled 1m short of the line or better about 10 times on that LH corner. Melbourne have not conceded 22 points to anyone this season, so in terms of point-scoring it was better than any other team has managed against the comp's best defensive unit.
And then other crap like missed tackles. Yeah Mbye should have tackled Chambers, but Fonua should have tackled Bromwich and the other backs should not have tripped over their own feet when Chambers cut inside. Farah, Brooks and McQueen should have tackled Paps. I would point the finger at 10+ players with costly tackle misses. Mbye slipped trying to get across, and players were slipping all night - that's what happens in Melbourne at night time.
Mbye made two legitimately top-class try saving tackles last week, but how quickly they are forgotten because he didn't clean up 100% of other people's mistakes last night.
Can't criticise Mbye specifically either for the Kaufusi try. The fullback cannot be making covering tackles out wide, then be expected to be back in position to catch bombs that fall 5m out from the line. Luke Brooks stuffed that one clear and simple, blocking when he should have been contesting.
Mbye was heavily involved in the attack last night, made 126m, 29 handles, 5 TBs. Our attack was not the problem. Yes Mbye fluffed one kick but it was a hard one and he basically batted it into touch when it curled away to the corner. Melbourne didn't even score off that set?
Just ridiculous that you lose a close game, then you pick one specific incident to point the finger at one specific bloke. Tigers were good last night, if they play that way every week we make the Top 8 no dramas. Mbye played pretty well IMO; it's like some people got so used to watching Tedesco that they think most NRL fullbacks go around breaking tackles and slicing through gaps all night.
Also in terms of speed, interesting if you read these comments from Shirvo from April 2018:
https://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/news/matt-shirvington-lists-the-nrl-players-who-could-b/3378584/
He rates Mbye as deceptively quick off the mark. We aren't really seeing that speed right now, so he must still be somewhat hampered by injury. It's a reasonable point to argue for his demotion until he is 100% match fit, but then you are replacing him w Corey then Nofo, and Nofo is no speed merchant.
