How many "big bastards" are coming this year? We have Sandow and Willie Tonga. That's it.
For starters I didn't say "big bastards" (which implies 110kg+ front rowers), I said "big fast bastards" which implies edge forwards and outside backs of about 100kg.
Besides Joseph Paulo who arrived this year, we have a bunch of big fast bastards (I like to call them 'fastards') coming next year:
Willie Tonga
Esi Tonga
Taulima Tautai
Daniel Penese
Willie Mataka
How many players have we let go before that without adequate replacements? Cayless, Tahu, Grothe, Mateo, Inu, Reddy over the last two seasons who would have been on above average money. Not to mention countless fringe first graders. If it's true we went into a season under the cap wouldn't it have been better to spend that money on retaining one of our good players?
Like who? Cayless and Grothe retired, Mateo and Inu wanted more than they're worth, Tahu thought he was too good for pre-season training, and Reddy is neither big nor fast.
In hindsight I don't think we should have kept any of them. Even at the time I trusted the management to be looking after their own best interests by looking after the team.
To those who are saying we couldn't match the reported $400k offered by the Warriors let me ask you this. Why did we even let it get to that stage? Why were we getting into a bidding war for Mortimer and let the Warriors have a chance? I know Mortimer was s star player at the time but to prioritise Mortimer over Mateo was a mistake.
How do you know Mateo and his manager didn't want to test his value on the open market? For that matter, why should he stay at the Eels if he can get silly money somewhere else?
Finally, how do you know whether Mateo even fits into what we're trying to do here?
For all his talent, I don't think he's a good enough all-round player to fit into the kind of team Kearney's building. There's only room for one poor defender in your defensive line and for us that will be Sandow.
Alot of people keep bringing up the fact that Mateo was lazy. Sure he had a relatively quiet 2010 but who didn't? Remember Hayne in 2008? He was one of our best performers before that. Despite having a quiet year he was still statistically our best forward. How do you explain that?
Statistically he was only ever our best forward if you ignored his defence; an area of his game in which he is below average. This is why he's never played Origin.
It's strange, because blokes with his size and footwork are usually excellent defenders. I think he lacks aggression and probably more than that, he always looks like he's saving his energy for when he gets the ball.
