Around the Grounds

[Mr_Knightside]

Yeah I’ve rated Connor Tracey for a few years now. Only seems to get a game when needed for injury cover but always looks like a first grader when he’s on the field for the Sharks. I believe his preferred position is half 5/8 right? But he usually ends up being played out of position at centre/wing and always looks good there too.

 

[aqua_duck]

Changing coaches without fixing our management structure is shuffling deck chairs.

Gardner might be a great businessman, and a great bloke, I don't know.

But no one person makes good decisions in a vacuum. He has centralised decision making and is a micromanager.

We need a Phil Gould type (not sure there are any except Gould out there though) to come in and run the club for the next 5 years and just start again.

The fact we are fixated on recruitment instead of development says it all.

We will only be successful when we are a "club of choice" development club. But that takes a lot of time and a hell of a lot of money - think high performance hubs from Gosford to Coffs and out to the north west.

We need to ring-fence from the central coast to the QLD border as our territory and get all the kids with any promise in the area linked with the club. Need probably 1,000 15yo kids to get a first grader.

I would even look to link up with Mounties and use them as a Sydney catchment. Take them on at their own game.

Penrith have shown that unless you are the Roosters or Storm it is the way, lucky for them they have half a million footy mad people (and lots of big boys) in their catchment. Hell, even Manly are now getting all their players from Blacktown.

We then need to keep the right ones. The hardest bit of all.

No confidence we have the commitment to spend, or the right people in place, to make it happen.

Manly are actually getting alot of players from the Fairfield/Guildford area, from what I remember John Hopoate coached a few junior teams in the area and funneled all them into the Manly system.
I think part of the problem is the old mentality of trying to build a team from our own local catchment which was still the modus operandi until a few years ago has really set us back, I understand Zammit is kind of pillaging talent from QLD which is great but the issue is teams like the storm and roosters have a 10-15 year head start on us with their scouting networks in those areas.

 

[Jono078]

It's actually nice and refreshing to see the Bulldogs players having fun and playing some actual entertaining football.

Maybe Mick Potter is worth considering. He's certainly familiar with our club and the area.

 

[The Axe of Druss]

Problem with kids playing footy in country areas is they fall away from footy quickly due to having to work and the big travel times to get to games as their comps are pretty spread out.

We need scouts that go to these comps and they need to bring the kids back to Newcastle to play. West's will need to bite the bullet and work with the local Newie clubs to filter them through the RealNRL grades

I dunno, I'm not an expert at setting up these things but whatever we were doing 5 years ago was not it given the lack of good juniors in grade right now. Flegg and Ball look to be heading in the right direction though

 

[aqua_duck]

It's actually nice and refreshing to see the Bulldogs players having fun and playing some actual entertaining football.

Maybe Mick Potter is worth considering. He's certainly familiar with our club and the area.

definitely getting the best out of the players he has which isn't something you can say about our current coach

 

[aqua_duck]

Problem with kids playing footy in country areas is they fall away from footy quickly due to having to work and the big travel times to get to games as their comps are pretty spread out.

We need scouts that go to these comps and they need to bring the kids back to Newcastle to play. West's will need to bite the bullet and work with the local Newie clubs to filter them through the RealNRL grades

I dunno, I'm not an expert at setting up these things but whatever we were doing 5 years ago was not it given the lack of good juniors in grade right now. Flegg and Ball look to be heading in the right direction though

I think it was more an issue of prioritising success at mats and Ball level as opposed to finding and developing players with untapped potential. When you have junior scouts turning away Latrell Mitchell because he was lazy it tells me the mentality is all wrong. I think the issue was (and perhaps still is) that scouts and junior coaches were obsessed with trying to win junior comps with teams filled with high floor/low ceiling players, ie kids that were well coached and disciplined instead of kids who are raw and also those kids aren't being progressed properly after they SG Ball level

 

[Jono078]

Fox Sports said Kiraz has broke 46 tackles so far this year in 10 games.

We have 3 players above 46 and they've played 14 games.

He'd be nice to have back..

 

[The Axe of Druss]

Fox Sports said Kiraz has broke 46 tackles so far this year in 10 games.

We have 3 players above 46 and they've played 14 games.

He'd be nice to have back..

And yet we kept guys like Tuala, Musgrove and a forever injured Lee

 

[Knight Tales]

Rethink the reruitment and build a side of Connor Tracey and Chad Townsend types. Will turn up every week. May or may not play rep. Will always be in the conversation and gain respect through effort.
If Will Pryce and KPP go on to be the stars we hope this recruitment strategy would turn things for us pretty quickly. They need players who can allow them to be superstars. KP's reported tears the other night bother me cos it shows the kid loves this club and feel it is his job to win for us. It is so not his responsibility alone. Andre must be sick to his guts with worry about his son. I find it quite upsetting TBH.

 

[aqua_duck]

Rethink the reruitment and build a side of Connor Tracey and Chad Townsend types. Will turn up every week. May or may not play rep. Will always be in the conversation and gain respect through effort.
If Will Pryce and KPP go on to be the stars we hope this recruitment strategy would turn things for us pretty quickly. They need players who can allow them to be superstars. KP's reported tears the other night bother me cos it shows the kid loves this club and feel it is his job to win for us. It is so not his responsibility alone. Andre must be sick to his guts with worry about his son. I find it quite upsetting TBH.

Every team needs players like Tracey and Townsend but you need strike players (and some sort of attacking structures) as well to score points.

 

[Yosh]

Changing coaches without fixing our management structure is shuffling deck chairs.

Gardner might be a great businessman, and a great bloke, I don't know.

But no one person makes good decisions in a vacuum. He has centralised decision making and is a micromanager.

We need a Phil Gould type (not sure there are any except Gould out there though) to come in and run the club for the next 5 years and just start again.

The fact we are fixated on recruitment instead of development says it all.

We will only be successful when we are a "club of choice" development club. But that takes a lot of time and a hell of a lot of money - think high performance hubs from Gosford to Coffs and out to the north west.

We need to ring-fence from the central coast to the QLD border as our territory and get all the kids with any promise in the area linked with the club. Need probably 1,000 15yo kids to get a first grader.

I would even look to link up with Mounties and use them as a Sydney catchment. Take them on at their own game.

Penrith have shown that unless you are the Roosters or Storm it is the way, lucky for them they have half a million footy mad people (and lots of big boys) in their catchment. Hell, even Manly are now getting all their players from Blacktown.

We then need to keep the right ones. The hardest bit of all.

No confidence we have the commitment to spend, or the right people in place, to make it happen.

Been saying this but people here seem to write it off.

 

[TooheysNew]

Been saying this but people here seem to write it off.

Lol what? All you've said is sack AOB.

 

[Yosh]

Lol what? All you've said is sack AOB.

You'll find it somewhere.

 

[Yosh]

What you guys think about the Manly Pride jsersy issue. Wonder what would happen if the Knights tried the same thing.

 

[perverse]

What you guys think about the Manly Pride jsersy issue. Wonder what would happen if the Knights tried the same thing.

I think it's childish and the players need to grow up and get with the times. They don't seem to have a problem with their gambling sponsors, or playing out of a stadium sponsored by an alcohol company. Religious and cultural grounds my ass - they're bigoted towards LGBTQ people. I'd be even more ashamed of our players for doing what Manly are doing than I am for how badly they lose every week.

It's pretty scary when even Kyle Sandilands has the right take on this one.

My 2c.

 

[TooheysNew]

I think it's childish and the players need to grow up and get with the times. They don't seem to have a problem with their gambling sponsors, or playing out of a stadium sponsored by an alcohol company. Religious and cultural grounds my ass - they're bigoted towards LGBTQ people. I'd be even more ashamed of our players for doing what Manly are doing than I am for how badly they lose every week.

It's pretty scary when even Kyle Sandilands has the right take on this one.

My 2c.

Agreed 100%

 

[The Axe of Druss]

It's interesting how the bible also speaks out against tattoos yet it's a huge part of Polynesian culture

Amazing what they cherry pick to believe out of the 2000 year old fairy tale book

 

[PhilGould]

Being a walking billboard for alcohol and gambling - no problem
Getting covered in tattoos - no problem
Regularly playing professional sport on the Sabbath - no problem
Training and playing alongside Dylan Walker, Manase Fainu - no problem
Wearing a jersey with a rainbow on it - can't do it, it's against my religion

Manly have made themselves the test subject so the spotlight is on them currently, but rest assured this exact thing would happen with groups of players at every club. Very interested to see how the NRL reacts to it moving forward. Wouldn't be surprised if they start writing these sorts of things into contracts pretty soon. e.g. what happened with Will Hopoate not playing on Sundays.

 

[Apey]

Agree with perverse. Only thing I'd add is Manly should have handled it better. Sounds like the board didnt even know? Lol.

Every club would have this problem if the tried to implement a similar jersey.

Hope NRL go ahead with a Pride round next year.

 

[Knight Tales]

The hypocrisy is the most galling part. The elitist attitudes. I bet they love reading their names being put into print. I feel utter empathy and fear for any Polynesian men or women who have to hide their homosexuality for fear of the consequences. It is sickening. That said I have no doubt there are many Polynesians who are supportive of the pride movement. I hope they make their voice heard.