Cap disaster: Eels have no room to rebuild

[Ike E Bear]

I want to introduce a radical concept into this discussion on our team's player talent pool.

Belief.

The great Jack Gibson said, "A player can have strength, courage and toughness, but the question I ask myself is, can I win with him?"

I believe there is only a few percent different in the talent of most first graders. But it is at the margin that is all important. Our current crop of players can become a very good TEAM. DA somehow needs to help the players uncover the 'champion within'.

I believe....I believe......say it with me brothers and sisters.....I believe.......can you feel it?............I believe.................

I can get behind this line of thinking.

We've been saying for awhile that it'd be better to have a champion team than a team of champions.

We have some very talented players, but we also have some seasoned players that have proven again and again that their hearts are in this club (Hindmarsh first and foremost).

I'm a bit afraid to hope, but there is no reason that the Eels can't be a force with the cattle they currently have ... even if we're short a few strong frontrowers and experienced halves.

I look forward to seeing how the boys go this weekend.

 

[Eelementary]

That is interesting as our scouts have a talent for not finding any talent.Last known location they where seen krispy kreen eating dougnuts

:lol:

I never found out if it was true or not. I just went out there and played harder than I ever did before (and I prided myself in playing hard) and I got knocked the hell out by someone's knee.

:crazy:

 

[bradeel]

Not saying that i am happy about the state we are in, because its a mess and its bad that a new coach comes to the club and has to wait 2 seasons before he can bring in a bunch of new players of his own selection BUT....

I think about a team like the Roosters that literally hand picked lots of star recruits from other clubs - the sort of recruitment drive and clean out that we all think that Parra currently needs. The Roosters needed big boppas so they brought in Willie Mason, Nate Myles, and Mark O'Meley. They needed an heir to Fittler's throne as a playmaker at 5/8 or lock so they bring in Anasta. A fast and skillful outside back in Joel Monagahan (who they then got rid of).

My point is that the Roosters are worse or equal to us and they went on a buying spree. I reckon we could do a lot worse than work with what we currently have. A good coach gets the best out of the available talent and get the team playing to its strengths and gelling as a unit. We didn't look to bad against the Cowboys and i refuse to believe that if the attitude is right, we can't turn that on against every team every week. Problem still comes down to attitude and culture and no highly paid interlopers from other clubs are going to fix that.

 

[bradeel]

I want to introduce a radical concept into this discussion on our team's player talent pool.

Belief.

The great Jack Gibson said, "A player can have strength, courage and toughness, but the question I ask myself is, can I win with him?"

I believe there is only a few percent different in the talent of most first graders. But it is at the margin that is all important. Our current crop of players can become a very good TEAM. DA somehow needs to help the players uncover the 'champion within'.

I believe....I believe......say it with me brothers and sisters.....I believe.......can you feel it?............I believe.................

I agree with you 100%. Hadn't seen this post when i started crapping on about the Roosters and not needing interlopers in my last post... Sums things up brilliantly. You don't make 1st grade without having a certain amount of talent - not much divides these guys. Its up to the coach to get the best out of them.

 

[Eelementary]

So I'm guessing it's a no to the "Eele for First Grade" poll? :lol:

I agree with both you guys, btw.

 

[murraymob]

if your after good quality budget priced players you can not go past a kid at our club looking for a chance Shane Blackett played front row in our u20 last year has switched to lock currently playing for windsor our feeder club not contracted to penrith

 

[parra-matters]

There is certainly some talent there, I'm just not sure there is enough in key positions to go all the way.

I'm not saying we can win the premiership in the next 2 year but i think we can make the 8. I was impressed against the Cowboys and Hindy wasn't even on deck and Guru is come back as well as Paulo. There is no reason we can't make the 8.
If/when we beat Manly on sunday we will be very close to in the 8 and it's only round 10.

 

[Eelementary]

if your after good quality budget priced players you can not go past a kid at our club looking for a chance Shane Blackett played front row in our u20 last year has switched to lock currently playing for windsor our feeder club not contracted to penrith

Interesting.

 

[Ron Jeremy]

I'm lead to believe that Guru is on 180K...

u have a link for that? sorry you are subjecting, and at the time he was an soo international, unless u can back it up put up or shut up;-)

 

[Ron Jeremy]

and stagger, i'm being sarcastic so dont get your tits in a tnagle

 

[Stagger eel]

u have a link for that? sorry you are subjecting, and at the time he was an soo international, unless u can back it up put up or shut up;-)

yeah no worries..lol

 

[jk13]

screw it, lets be like other clubs and go over the salary cap for once, then just pay the fine. we can start raising funds to pay the fine now. for example:

- mateo can charge people for dance lessons
- hayne can conduct courses on ego control
- while fuiy can teach lessons on pain

 

[Agent Mulder]

Hagan was fooled by our late 2007 season form and obviously retained players that he should not have. By his own admission his lack of drive in 2008 transferred onto the players and most of them have battled for consistency since.

When this happens a chainsaw is the only solution. Ben Smith, Luke Burt and Cayless need to be shopped around. Even if we have to pay a part of their contracts. Oake, Cordoba and Lowrie should not be resigned. Grothe's injury prognosis is up in the air.

We need to build our team around The Keating brothers, Moimoi, Tim Mannah, Hindmarsh, Hayne, Reddy and Mateo. I couldn't care less what happenns to the rest.

Some tough decisions need to be made.

I totally agree with you mate, Those players you mentioned is a strong unit of players, Hacks like Cayless must be shopped around this year and even if we only sign Justin Poore that would be a huge plus.

 

[spiderdan]

scratch dave taylor off the hit list:
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,25480547-23214,00.html

unless they have a sh*tload of third party money i don't know how they can be under the cap.

 

[Eels Dude]

scratch dave taylor off the hit list:
http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,25480547-23214,00.html

unless they have a sh*tload of third party money i don't know how they can be under the cap.

Craig Wing is on third party money, a lot of which has fallen through. I think they just have a lot better business sense than we do. They did release Hegarty before the season, and had Luke Lewis back out on a deal so would have had a bit of room to sign Crocker and now Taylor since Fa'alago has been released.

 

[1 Eyed TEZZA]

Has Fa'Alogo found another club already because theres a big ball of meat to go in the 12 jersey.

 

[spiderdan]

Craig Wing is on third party money, a lot of which has fallen through. I think they just have a lot better business sense than we do. They did release Hegarty before the season, and had Luke Lewis back out on a deal so would have had a bit of room to sign Crocker and now Taylor since Fa'alago has been released.

from what i recall it was reported crocker signed for $200k plus the same third party agreement that allegedly shafted wing.

still asotasi was reported to have signed for $500k, plus the likes of luke, sutton, wing, crocker, wesser, kidwell, best, merrit and no doubt an upgraded sandow plus taylor, it's a pretty expensive team.

and before any souths supporters read this and start pissing and bitching i am not suggesting there are any illegalities just that there is a lot of 3rd party money used to sign players which i hope we can start doing better and smarter when we start getting a bit of money from the sponsors our new board members told us were waiting in the wings post-denis.

 

[Eels Dude]

from what i recall it was reported crocker signed for $200k plus the same third party agreement that allegedly shafted wing.

still asotasi was reported to have signed for $500k, plus the likes of luke, sutton, wing, crocker, wesser, kidwell, best, merrit and no doubt an upgraded sandow plus taylor, it's a pretty expensive team.

and before any souths supporters read this and start pissing and bitching i am not suggesting there are any illegalities just that there is a lot of 3rd party money used to sign players which i hope we can start doing better and smarter when we start getting a bit of money from the sponsors our new board members told us were waiting in the wings post-denis.

Well more than likely Crocker would simply be on an incentive based contract for this year, or a backloaded contract. Kidwell is off contract at the end of season, and looks like Fa'alago is gone too. Frees up a bit of cash.

But you're right, it's clear we're paying overs and stuff, and not working our contracts out better. Hopefully under new management these things may change.

 

[Ike E Bear]

Has Fa'Alogo found another club already because theres a big ball of meat to go in the 12 jersey.

I'm a Fa'alogo fan, but he really hasn't seen much decent form since smacking Anasta in the mouth.

He'd have to come with some kind of price tag due to being an international and at this stage I don't think it'd be a good investment.

He's obviously looking for a retirement package in ESL.

 

[The P Eel]

Only makes it more important to expose the likes of Marty Lewis, Tim Robinson, Jeremy Latimore, James Grehan, Jono Wright and Greg Nuchols to first grade over the coming months. Provided we even have the cash to keep any of them.

Im pretty sure that G Nicholls walked away last week.