Round 24
Sea Eagles 38 d. Rabbitohs 16

2006 NRL Telstra Premiership Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: Aus_NZ > National > First Grade Competition: NRL Telstra Premiership

ABC Coaches Interview Manly vs Souths
Mon August 21, 2006
ABC: With Manly coach Des Hasler, it was a great second 40 minutes minutes, what did you say at halftime?.

Hasler: It was more, not what I said, it was more what the players said, they knew the areas that we were falling down and it was just a matter of self correction and consequently we came up with a better second 40. We needed too.

ABC: Were you worried at halftime, when you had plenty of scoring opportunities but your execution wasn't quite there in that first 40?

Hasler: It was always going to be a tough game coming off the back of last week, and getting back up and having a healthy respect for our opposition, but at the end it was the two points and the for and against wasn't too bad, there were a few tries that they shouldn't have been in the field position to score, but we can correct that.

ABC: I know we always talk about being complacent against the side that is running last it is always difficult getting your side to lift when you're playing a side that has won only one or two games?

Hasler: Yeah, that's always the case, but a wins a win.

ABC: in that first half Matt Orford made a break and he had four or five options and then kicked it, what did you think when he did that?

Hasler: Yeah, I don't know, there was probably, they were probably covered, the option outside was covered and he knew he had Stuey on the inside, and a kick over the top was probably the option, Stuey just couldn't get the ball.

ABC: I'm with Souths coach Shaun McRae, what happened at half time mate?

McRae: I dunno, I think we might have said something wrong. I'm not sure what happened. 88% completion rate for the first half and I don't think we were terroritorial better than what Manly were, but probably just shaded them and deserved to lead 12-10, thats a fair indication of how the first half went.

Second half, too many mistakes. We only had 12 sets with the ball which is probably 8-9 sets too few, and we only completed 5 of them, so we only had a 45% completion rate and there were too many times in the second half where we were starved of possession by Manly who I'm not sure played any different or any better, I think they just played pretty much the same.

They completed 80% which is pretty high and unfortunately we just lacked some experience in certain things we did and our execution was just not good enough when we had the ball and I thought defensively we fell off a few tackles and probably allowed them to play the ball just a bit too quick today and that all compounded to the loss.

ABC: There was a lot to like about the first 40 minutes, Manly had a lot of the ball, and you sustained a lot of pressure, they only got one try in that first 15 or 20 minutes and then it seemed to be all you guys for the next 20.

McRae: Yeah, look we always knew they would come out and start well , it's very important for them to try and get some dominance over us, I mean, they're running in the top four in the table and you'd be confident coming out and playing us here at Brookvale, and that's how they started.

It was important for us to try to silence the crowd today and the way we came back and scored a few tries was particularly good and we were getting a lot more confidence with the football, and that was largely mucked around too as Joe Williams had to come off after 7-8 minutes and have an injection put into the thumb injury, and Trent Young who I thought was outstanding for us had to go into 7 for us for a little while , so we were a bit disjointed.

So maybe the first half was better than I thought in terms of what could have happened, but unfortunately the second half we were just not competitive in the areas we needed to be and we just didn't really give ourselves a chance in the second half. That's the disappointing thing out of our last three games you could say we played 5 halves (of football) that were really good and only one half where we've let ourselves down and that was the second half in today's match.

ABC: You know I like you Shaun, so I'll only concentrate on the first 40. I thought Trent Young and your two backrowers Manofuoka and Faalogo were outstanding.

McRae: Yeah I thought Dave Faalogo in particular was outstanding for the 80 minutes and he played a little bit of backrow, a little bit of lock, played in the centres there towards the end, big Nelson, big Manuokafoa, yeah he can play backrow and he handled it alright, he is probably better suited up front, he's a big man, he's 118 kilos and he is probably better suited in a little tighter.

And Trent Young who's quick out of dummy half, I thought he really inspired us, he made a big difference when he came on and I give those guys a lot of credit and as I said unfortunately we probably just had too many guys come off the field at the end there and there were players playing all over the place at the end and that didn't help anyone.

Audio courtesy of ABC Rugby League: www.abc.net.au/rugbyleague
Transcript by World of Rugby League.

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