The Melbourne Storm beat the Manly Sea Eagles at Brookvale Oval last night but Manly can take heart.
If it wasn’t for the terrible, shambolic play of their halfback, Matt Orford, Manly would have won the game.
Orford started his game off with a forward pass that dribbled across the ground just a couple of minutes into the match and it didn’t get much better from there. Terrible last tackle options and a kicking game that put zero pressure of the Storm were just typical of what Orford has come up with in big games throughout his career.
It got to a point where Glenn Stewart, a back rower, ended up playing at five-eight to give the Sea Eagles something in attack. In fact the best attacking kick for the Sea Eagles all game came from Stewarts boot….after the regather of another terrible Orford mistake.
Its a crying shame for Manly because everything else works great.
Des Hasler is a top class coach that gets so much effort out of his players. The culture at Manly in one of the best in the competition and you can see the team works hard to improve its game through the course of the season.
The Sea Eagles tried to sign Todd Carney for next season but missed out. You would have to suggest the Sea Eagles would be telling Carney to see out 2009 somewhere easy and they will sign him to a long term deal when his NRL ban is over.
They know they can not win with Orford, everyone knows that.
As for the Storm, they only played at about 60% and they still managed a tough win away from home. Thats what a champion side is all about.
