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Opinion Is Ricky Stuart the most overrated coach ever?

some11

Referee
Messages
23,368
Those re signings have the hallmarks of the cowboys downfall. Staying loyal to blokes like Granville and then within the space of a season they age about 3 years.

Croker at 34 in the centres will be a sight to behold.
Broncos - Milford, Boyd, Oates, Ofahengaue

Gotta be ruthless like the roosters and just get rid of players once you know they've peaked and will only decline year on year.
 

Pete Cash

Post Whore
Messages
61,930
Sticks gonna have to make some tough calls on the backline because id rather go in with rookies like Timoko and hss over the experienced slow pokes we currently have

Cotric is the only one id keep and he's going lol

Next year teams are just gonna go around us like the storm did if we are that slow
 

mongoose

Coach
Messages
11,342
Its crazy how well the Storm play at Suncorp, I think we would have had a better chance if it was played in Melbourne. Everything just went their way in that first half. Have to say f**k they bend the rules, it was like at least 1 or 2 of their players are offside every set.

Agree Re: our backs, I love the guy but it also doesn't help that CNK is the slowest fullback in the comp.
 

Tweed Titan

Bench
Messages
3,209
The selection of Rapana in the centers was clearly wrong. He doesn't have the decision making ability or skill to pass to his winger and know when to do it.

Starling on the bench for the first 60 odd minutes of the game was also clearly the wrong decision. Havili offers very little in attack.
 

BadnMean

Juniors
Messages
1,126
Its crazy how well the Storm play at Suncorp, I think we would have had a better chance if it was played in Melbourne. Everything just went their way in that first half. Have to say f**k they bend the rules, it was like at least 1 or 2 of their players are offside every set.

Agree Re: our backs, I love the guy but it also doesn't help that CNK is the slowest fullback in the comp.

It goes back to Pete's point. CNK has enough good points to be our FB, no worries, BUT you need to have edge personel around him to make up for that. E.g at least 2 quick players among the rest of the back 5. We actually don't have ANY quick players in our back 5. They are basically all average /slow.
 

BadnMean

Juniors
Messages
1,126
The selection of Rapana in the centers was clearly wrong. He doesn't have the decision making ability or skill to pass to his winger and know when to do it.

Starling on the bench for the first 60 odd minutes of the game was also clearly the wrong decision. Havili offers very little in attack.

Well, obviously the plan was to hold them early, then unleash Starling. I think you see the flaw there now...
 

Pete Cash

Post Whore
Messages
61,930
I'm not going to go too hard on stick because I think he did a pretty good job but it's a miracle we lasted as long as we did with the outside backs so flawed

Anyone can watch Semi and see a dude absolutely blessed with power in his running but also a guy who is extremely green with his positioning.

It just seemed like a no brainer to move the more imo developed Timoko or HSS into centre where they have experience and keep rapana on the wing.

Of course the elephant in the room is Croker. I'm not a Croker hater. I consider myself pretty neutral on what is a point that inspires a fair bit of arguing in the fanbase ie is Croker good. Right now I'm leaning more towards him being bad. He was never the most physical player but I was very, very disappointed in his efforts to tackle vunivalu last night

Cotric made a few mistakes but is a good winger and will add something to the dogs. He's not super fast himself but he was the least of our issues. Fantastic power game. He will be missed

Please stick you gotta do something there. Beej cost us the odd game but jesus at least he was a threat..
 

AlwaysGreen

Immortal
Messages
47,954
The problem with Croker is that his position isn't under threat, he's an automatic selection if not injured. And he's not the first player at Canberra who gets picked week in week out for no other reason than loyalty.

BnM mentioned Campese. I throw in Dane Tilse. Blake Austin too.

Croker peaked about 3-4 years ago, and that peak was a country origin player when the NSW centres weren't considered. He's a solid player against solid players but a liability against anyone better than him which there are plenty.

It's not just his defence - he's basically a specialist escort when the kick goes up but he's terrible at it, he spends most of his time flapping his arms around at the ref rather than concentrating on the game.

He can kick goals but it's not like he's kicking super numbers, he's at 80% career.

But he'll keep getting picked because he's loyal blah blah blah while better players look for greener pastures.
 

myrrh ken

First Grade
Messages
9,817
The selection of Rapana in the centers was clearly wrong. He doesn't have the decision making ability or skill to pass to his winger and know when to do it.

Starling on the bench for the first 60 odd minutes of the game was also clearly the wrong decision. Havili offers very little in attack.

He set up a good try but he's a bit of a novice in that position esp defensively . His also slow now. As is cotric and croker.

They miss a bit of firepower in bj. Scott has been absent
 

DaveMc

Juniors
Messages
982
Walks out after answering 1 question in the presser.
Good loser Stuart.
Fair go, he had to go and console some blokes who were hurtin in the sheds. And he had a few texas to respond to.

And just FYI, they would’ve won if the Qld government allowed them to chill in a hotel in Spring Hill for a couple of hours before the game. The lack of relaxing in a shitty hotel function room was the reason they conceded three tries in the first 9 minutes of the game.
 

bileduct

Coach
Messages
17,832
Croker needs to f**king go.

Now.

I remember a vignette the Raiders did on Croker a few years back where they asked players for some highlights of his captaincy. All BJ and Rapana could say was "we snuck out of weights one day to play a little one on one basketball, and he came out and told us to finish the weights session!" Get the f**k out of here.

The dude sucks. He is slow, defends like shit a lot of the time, has no step, usually gets pushed back and loses ground on hitups, crowds his winger and throws dumb flick passes that only land 50% of the time, gets penalised a lot for escorting on opposition bombs and never really gets into a position to deal with a deflection, the list goes on. Without suffering from any debilitating injury he is somehow worse than Alan Tongue minus a shoulder, or Terry Campese minus two knees.

The fact we signed this dude up for another four seasons after his form over the last four seasons is mind blowing. Ricky needs to get ruthless and give this clown a few weeks at the Goulburn Workers Bulldogs or aggressively shop him to Super League clubs. Pay 100% of his salary for a season or two to f**k him off and put some rookies in there. It can't get any worse, can it?
 

bileduct

Coach
Messages
17,832
Please stick you gotta do something there. Beej cost us the odd game but jesus at least he was a threat..
That's the most infuriating part! The BJ and Rapana combo last year was the only place the outside backs ever looked threatening, and a lot of that came from BJ. Rapana was a great finisher, but BJ created a lot of those moments out of nothing.
 

magpie_man

Juniors
Messages
1,973
That's the most infuriating part! The BJ and Rapana combo last year was the only place the outside backs ever looked threatening, and a lot of that came from BJ. Rapana was a great finisher, but BJ created a lot of those moments out of nothing.

We'd be more than happy for you to take him back.
 

shear_joy9

Coach
Messages
13,555
my biggest gripe on the Croker resigning is the dollar value. $600k per season.

He was never going to leave Canberra and no other nrl club would have been interested. You could have offered him minimum wage and the promise of a job at the club when he retires and he would have taken it.
 
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