Corey Norman

[Twizzle]

I wonder if they do line up this way that it maybe BA's plan to straighten up the attack instead of jamming our outside backs up against the side lines

 

[parra pete]

Corey Norman has finally emerged as "The new scapegoat"..

"Many are called, few are chosen.."

 

[Angry_eel]

The best team of the last decade is arguably the Storm, (as much as I hate to say it.) when you look at why they have been successful, you can argue cheating, wrestling, etc. but realistically it’s Leadership. The big 3 and Bellamy expect nothing but the best and they get it. I’ve heard stories about training sessions being run by Smith and Cronk, where the rest of the team are too scared to f**k anything up because they respect them and want to do anything they can to gain respect from them.
We just don’t have this. We don’t have a strong Leader let alone a Leadership group. And when you have someone like Norman as your highest paid player that likes to party/be a lad/spend time cultivating his insta-brand, how do you command respect? If he had a strong work ethic, trained the house down and was completely professional, he may get away with the “shenanigans”, but I don’t think he will ever be that guy.
Same reason why we had one of the top 5 most talented players in the game in Hayne and other than 2009, (which included leaders like B Smith, Cayless, Hindy, and Fui) we were lucky to not get the spoon.
That’s why Corey needs to go and we need to buy Leaders who the playing group respect.
End of Essay

Are you saying Cayless and Hindmarsh weren't great leaders at their peak? Storm just got lucky. Not many teams in NRL get that lucky for that long.

I thinks small steps are needed. Let's go from spoon to Top 8 first before we review Storm success.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Worked a treat for the Dogs.

They made the finals for five straight years, winning six finals matches. Twice they made the grand final. With a bit of luck they would have won a premiership, just like Manly did (twice) under Hasler. The price you pay is needing to rebuild afterwards.

 

[hineyrulz]

They made the finals for five straight years, winning six finals matches. Twice they made the grand final. With a bit of luck they would have won a premiership, just like Manly did (twice) under Hasler. The price you pay is needing to rebuild afterwards.

And we are also rebuilding yet again.


It’s very exciting.

 

[hineyrulz]

Are you saying Cayless and Hindmarsh weren't great leaders at their peak? Storm just got lucky. Not many teams in NRL get that lucky for that long.

I thinks small steps are needed. Let's go from spoon to Top 8 first before we review Storm success.

I’d argue they were poor leaders, how many times did we lose the unlosable???

Let go a big lead or just not show up???

Great players and club legends but hardly great leaders IMO.

 

[Bazal]

If we lost it clearly wasn't unloseable.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

And we are also rebuilding yet again.


It’s very exciting.

The price we pay for winning 29 games in two years. Luckily most of our squad is off contract next year. Only these merkins are contracted for 2020:

Brown
Evans
Paulo
Salmon
Smith

 

[hineyrulz]

The price we pay for winning 29 games in two years. Luckily most of our squad is off contract next year. Only these merkins are contracted for 2020:

Brown
Evans
Paulo
Salmon
Smith

As I said it’s very exciting.

I’m looking forward to which juniors can come in the next few years and stake a claim.

I can see BA quite a few in our top 30 the next few years.

 

[Wally21]

You mean like Watmough, Scott and Foran? Geez I wish BA had of thought of buying some leaders for our team in the past.

Oh and not having a go at you - I agree wholeheartedly, I also believe BA knows/knew this and it one of the reasons he purchased the aforementioned 3 players and why he has promoted our best trainer to Captain.

Not saying BA hasn’t tried to buy Leaders and the 3 you mentioned were all worth a try. No one could have predicted Foran’s meltdown and Choc and Scott were unfortunately at the end of their careers. My point is more about the fact that without the Leadership culture, (other than Gutho who is still a boy) we will continue to struggle.
EDIT - Brown has the potential to be a great Leader as well. Brown and Gutho could set the tone for the culture of the club. Certainly rather them than Corey.
I don’t see a lot of other prospects across our top tier unfortunately

 

[Wally21]

Are you saying Cayless and Hindmarsh weren't great leaders at their peak? Storm just got lucky. Not many teams in NRL get that lucky for that long.

I thinks small steps are needed. Let's go from spoon to Top 8 first before we review Storm success.

The point was that they were Leaders and it wasn’t just down to Haynes 15 games of brilliance.
Whether it be sport or business, without a strong set of Leaders, (besides the coach) talent will not set you up for long term success. Blokes like Norman need someone in the team to tell them they are a goose and stop believing their own hype.
I also wasn’t saying we should compare ourselves to the storm, I was merely saying that they have been more successful than most for a number of reasons, (cheating, tactics outside the spirit of the game etc) but predominantly - sustained, long term, strong Leadership. Luck has nothing to do with it in my opinion

 

[Poupou Escobar]

The point was that they were Leaders and it wasn’t just down to Haynes 15 games of brilliance.
Whether it be sport or business, without a strong set of Leaders, (besides the coach) talent will not set you up for long term success. Blokes like Norman need someone in the team to tell them they are a goose and stop believing their own hype.
I also wasn’t saying we should compare ourselves to the storm, I was merely saying that they have been more successful than most for a number of reasons, but predominantly - sustained, long term, strong Leadership

And here's a problem with our current setup - Norman and Edwards were both very influential in our squad. Plenty of the other players looked to them as leaders.

 

[emjaycee]

Not saying BA hasn’t tried to buy Leaders and the 3 you mentioned were all worth a try. No one could have predicted Foran’s meltdown and Choc and Scott were unfortunately at the end of their careers. My point is more about the fact that without the Leadership culture, (other than Gutho who is still a boy) we will continue to struggle.
EDIT - Brown has the potential to be a great Leader as well. Brown and Gutho could set the tone for the culture of the club. Certainly rather them than Corey.
I don’t see a lot of other prospects across our top tier unfortunately

Not long term but in the immediate term I would suggest Mennings, Gower and Mannah are all suitable as leadership material.

 

[Wally21]

And here's a problem with our current setup - Norman and Edwards were both very influential in our squad. Plenty of the other players looked to them as leaders.

Spot on Pou

 

[Eelogical]

Spot on Pou

 

[Wally21]

Not long term but in the immediate term I would suggest Mennings, Gower and Mannah are all suitable as leadership material.

I agree with you on Mennings and Gower, (Gower is that style of bloke who tries his guts out and leads by his actions). I’m not sure Mennings would see himself as a natural leader, but that is mere speculation from afar. Mannah is just too nice a bloke emjay. He’s not going to pull a bloke into line or be prepared to have a “tough conversation”.
Hate to agree but I think we might need to go into a rebuilding phase again. Build a culture around Gutho, Brown, (Gower and possibly Mennings for the time being) and bring in Leaders such as Campbell-Gillard or the like if we can get them. Blokes like Tepai, Polar, Ma’u, Avaua, possibly even Kaysa potentially take their game to another level on the back of that.
Moses also could become a good leader in time, but still goes missing a bit when the team need someone to stand up.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Alvaro seems like a potential good leader, cleanskin, works hard (on and off the field) and always puts in 100%.

 

[IFR33K]

The price we pay for winning 29 games in two years. Luckily most of our squad is off contract next year. Only these merkins are contracted for 2020:

Brown
Evans
Paulo
Salmon
Smith

Normally teams rebuild after success eg grand final victory.

We rebuild because we suck

 

[Wally21]

Alvaro seems like a potential good leader, cleanskin, works hard (on and off the field) and always puts in 100%.

Agree Josh, based on those attributes. Not sure, (or I simply have no idea) if he can be a bloke who will tear someone like an Edwards or Norman a new one if they need it. But geez I hope he’s around for years to come.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Normally teams rebuild after success eg grand final victory.

We rebuild because we suck

A grand final victory is just the result of having a good team and some luck. Any of the recent premiership winners could have missed out with less luck, as did the Broncos, Raiders and Panthers - along with us, all teams to have finished top four in the past five years without a premiership.