@strongee said in [Signing Suggestions & Rumours](/post/1483373) said:
We were leading that game I believe , until he came on with chee kam . That 20 min stint literally lost us the game . Turbo went through his corridor repeatedly , so the other edge tightened , and they went through there instead . I’m not in the business of blaming sole players for losses , but he should not have been playing that game . Whether it was bad management from our medical team or him not being honest with himself about where his body was at , I don’t know , but that was not ok .
Speaking of which , so much was made of Gray and his supposed game changing performance team , but I gotta say , we were better u der the previous high performance team .
He sent us backwards if anything . We looked better for the calendar , but that’s about it .
To be honest I know little about the Tigers performance team past or present however I def felt many games we looked completely gassed at times. Whether it was the 15mins before halftime or the final 15mins of the game we just looked completely underdone fitness wise. Hard to believe when Madge is such a task master with his teams being super fit.
A lot comes down to their mental state too though and mental toughness. With a large number of the team very young they possibly haven't developed the mental toughness to play for 80mins every week. I personally find it tiresome and boring as hell to run drills and laps or go for distance runs however come game day I can easily pump out 80mins without a sub even at 39 so I doubt it's a physical fitness issue.
I feel the team might be better off looking at a sports psychologist of sorts to mentally prepare the players better, to start faster instead of lumbering into matches and only switching on when down by 24. Help the players recognize and distinguish the difference/triggers of mental fatigue over physical fatigue and help them find ways to push through it even under pressure.
I was talking years ago to some Canterbury players
When Des was coach and they had that run when they keep losing and they told me that Des was flogging them at training and the more they lost the more they got flog at training and they said on game day they had nothing in the tank
Keep hearing how much of a dinosaur and old school thinker Des is. Then I watch Manly storm into the finals.
Des completely lost the plot at the Dogs. It’s not that he lost it, he just needed to go away and lay on a beach with a cocktail and get his head back. He must have done it, cos he got it back when he returned to Manly.
2 Things- 1-Des lost it a Dogs cause he back ended contracts & took off before it came back to bite him(as he did to Manly before he left them & left poor old Tooves to pick up the mess))
2-Des did jack at Manly this year... It was no coincidence that Tom Trov returned & they started winning. They should change their name to the Manly Toms cause without him they lose.
Ive found it weird my manly mates always excuse Des for the period he left them in a mess and welcomed him back like he’s the messiah.