Rumours (signings, sackings & other NRL stuff)

[macnaz]

I played against Mick Neil when he was the halfback & captain of Beralla bears.I know he went to school at st Benedict’s coz I also played against him in a mid yr school knock out tournament.
I think Terry Matterson the uncle of Ryan also played for beralla bears.

Lucky you didnt play against his crazy brothers Allan and Graig .. good players but they were very happy to go overboard.

 

[Tiger Ted]

Lucky you didnt play against his crazy brothers Allan and Graig .. good players but they were very happy to go overboard.

I remember the older brothers & ur right about them going overboard.The 3 brothers were good footballers.In the juniors ud have thought Mick was the most unlikely to play grade.He certainly wasn’t the best player in his Berala teams.

The dirtiest team in our age group was Granville Diggers.They must have attained dodgy ID coz half their team looked a heck of a lot older than the rest of us.

 

[The Rosco]

Lucky you didnt play against his crazy brothers Allan and Graig .. good players but they were very happy to go overboard.

Craig was in my class at Benno's. Nice bloke, but yeah, lunatics on field . . . I think they had a bit of a reputation to upkeep.
Tiger Ted . . yeah, diggers were always a bit dodgy . .. but good players and it was always a good game between Benedicts and Diggers. Ahhh . . . those were the days . . .
What club were you with, Ted ?

 

[macnaz]

I remember the older brothers & ur right about them going overboard.The 3 brothers were good footballers.In the juniors ud have thought Mick was the most unlikely to play grade.He certainly wasn’t the best player in his Berala teams.

The dirtiest team in our age group was Granville Diggers.They must have attained dodgy ID coz half their team looked a heck of a lot older than the rest of us.

Lol the Ghosn family comes to mind when I think of Granville and dirty players .. but once again they played good footy.
And you are right about Mick Neill .. maybe he was a bit more settled to commit to rigors of what was involved to go all the way in rugby league.

 

[Tiger Ted]

Craig was in my class at Benno's. Nice bloke, but yeah, lunatics on field . . . I think they had a bit of a reputation to upkeep.
Tiger Ted . . yeah, diggers were always a bit dodgy . .. but good players and it was always a good game between Benedicts and Diggers. Ahhh . . . those were the days . . .
What club were you with, Ted ?

I was with Burwood United in the age group between the sublime Scott Gale & his brother Brett.

Lol the Ghosn family comes to mind when I think of Granville and dirty players .. but once again they played good footy.
And you are right about Mick Neill .. maybe he was a bit more settled to commit to rigors of what was involved to go all the way in rugby league.

I certainly remember George Ghosn.After Id play Id ball boy for the older teams at Goddard Park & George Ghosn’s diggers team had a gun Concord United team in their age group.They were about 5 yrs older than me & the games they’d play were top draw.George is the younger brother of Steve the ex boxer who was coach of Wests U23’s when I was in yr 12 coz a classmate was in that team while we were at school.

 

[macnaz]

Does Kevin Long ring a bell ?

 

[Tiger Ted]

Does Kevin Long ring a bell ?

Herd of him Don’t know him but his old man had a car yard at parra Rd Concord.

 

[The Rosco]

I was with Burwood United in the age group between the sublime Scott Gale & his brother Brett.

I certainly remember George Ghosn.After Id play Id ball boy for the older teams at Goddard Park & George Ghosn’s diggers team had a gun Concord United team in their age group.They were about 5 yrs older than me & the games they’d play were top draw.George is the younger brother of Steve the ex boxer who was coach of Wests U23’s when I was in yr 12 coz a classmate was in that team while we were at school.

Yeah the Goshn's were Diggers through and through.
Speaking of dodgy, I vaguely remember a new player ( V Good ) all of a sudden "living" at the coaches house. So he could be registered in the area.
That stuff happened when a father wanted a great team for his son to play in. Sick of his average local team, they'd go scouting for the closest gun team to enrol his son into. Happened 40 years ago in footy, and I saw it 10 years ago coaching my son's soccer team.

 

[macnaz]

Herd of him Don’t know him but his old man had a car yard at parra Rd Concord.

He was a very quick talented young player for Burwood United probably a couple of years below you.

Anyway I guess we shouldnt turn this into a nostalgia thread .. but if anyone wants to start up something along the lines of junior footy memories or something it would be more than welcome

 

[Tiger Ted]

He was a very quick talented young player for Burwood United probably a couple of years below you.

Anyway I guess we shouldnt turn this into a nostalgia thread .. but if anyone wants to start up something along the lines of junior footy memories or something it would be more than welcome

Yep ur right he was a few yrs below me & Id heard he was one of those dominant players until he reached his teens unlike Gale who was a freak & dominated every age group.Scott would play rugby for st pats early sat morning then go play league for Burwood in his age group & then our coach would sometimes have him on bench for our games coz he was so good.

The Long’s lived opposite the private golf course in concord..The old man wasn’t ur typical dodgy devious parra Rd car yard owner.He was an absolute gentlemen .

 

[Tiger Ted]

Great memories macnaz & rosco.Geez how I worshipped that concord united team who were 5 yrs older.They were the slickest team I’d ever seen in junior footy & I so remember their coach short & very obese.I never knew if any of that team
played grade for Wests.

May he Rest In Peace but Scott Gale was the most gifted Wests junior of that wonderful era.

 

[magpie_man]

He was a very quick talented young player for Burwood United probably a couple of years below you.

Anyway I guess we shouldnt turn this into a nostalgia thread .. but if anyone wants to start up something along the lines of junior footy memories or something it would be more than welcome

Why don't you start a new thread and move some of these junior footy/nostalgia posts to it macnaz?
I love reading this stuff.

 

[macnaz]

Why don't you start a new thread and move some of these junior footy/nostalgia posts to it macnaz?
I love reading this stuff.

Will do mate

 

[Tiger5150]

I didnt grow up in the Concord area as you guys are talking about but you bring up great memories. I was a guest at a WT Grand Final Luncheon of a client with Steve Ghosn and sat at his table. Nice guy.

Weird day. After the Luncheon we jumped up on the bus and Steve Ghosn asked the bus driver to drop us off at Balmain Leagues which he did happily. One of the Wests Ashfield directors was sitting behind me and went off his tiny little beer soaked head and punched me and wanted to box on. It wasnt a real threat because I was young at the time, this guy was old and very pissed so it wasnt really even an issue but Troy Wozniak stepped in and the guy sat down.

I spent the rest of the night at Balmain Leagues drinking with Sirro, Benny & Scotty Gale (not long before he passed).

Surreal day.

 

[BrotherJim05]

Just throwing out a scenario here. Lets say next year Robbie and Benji retire, but they are the only players to move on and we only have room to sign 1 new decent player and maybe promote a youngster to the top squad.

If there are no hookers available to sign, then we are seriously up shits creek. We would have to look at going after signing a really gun centre and reshuffling out spine:

1. Thompson
2. Fonua
3. Marsters
4. New Signing
5. Jennings
6. Mbye
7. Brooks

9. Reynolds

 

[The Charlatan]

Just throwing out a scenario here. Lets say next year Robbie and Benji retire, but they are the only players to move on and we only have room to sign 1 new decent player and maybe promote a youngster to the top squad.

If there are no hookers available to sign, then we are seriously up shits creek. We would have to look at going after signing a really gun centre and reshuffling out spine:

1. Thompson
2. Fonua
3. Marsters
4. New Signing
5. Jennings
6. Mbye
7. Brooks

9. Reynolds

Novel idea, but I'm not sure I'd be hanging my hat on either Reynolds or Liddle being fit for FG at any given time.

 

[Tiger05]

Just throwing out a scenario here. Lets say next year Robbie and Benji retire, but they are the only players to move on and we only have room to sign 1 new decent player and maybe promote a youngster to the top squad.

If there are no hookers available to sign, then we are seriously up shits creek. We would have to look at going after signing a really gun centre and reshuffling out spine:

1. Thompson
2. Fonua
3. Marsters
4. New Signing
5. Jennings
6. Mbye
7. Brooks

9. Reynolds

I like this but I don't think Reynolds could handle the 9 role. I want to see Liddle there plus some other option. I'd like to see Reynolds gone though and Mbye at 6 but I can't see us moving Reynolds on.

It's not that Reynolds is terrible when he plays. It's just that he is on big dollars and Thompson does a good job at 1 and I reckon Mbye can handle 6 pretty well.

I'm not sure if Fonua can handle it all season but Nofo could slot in there as well. I'd love to see a new signing in our outside backs who is a gun. A gun centre on each side would be awesome. If we could get Latrell we'd be pretty dangerous.

 

[gordynz]

With Reynolds being so injury prone and with Benji retiring, do we throw some money at Chanel Harris-Tavita now that Nikorima has signed for the Warriors?

 

[Magpies Forever]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Reynolds move to ESL. I'm not sure he will want to stay in Sydney after his recent loss. Memories in everything, will just want to get away. In my case wife and I couldn't face house, family, friends, suburbia, work, we moved overseas for 2 years before we felt able to be normal again and come back. He won't be back for several weeks and time will help but if I were WT management I'd give him the season off to help him figure things out. The pressure of football will not be worth it.

We have options without needing him to play.

 

[gordynz]

I wouldnt mind a Kurt Capewell or Scott Sorensen. I'd say one of the two will be on the way out with the form of Nikora and with Wade back in the mix.