Firman trialing with Panthers

[mxlegend99]

How can you hand the sport to someone who missed most of the year due to injury? Between you and me, i'm not sure that i'd be confident of a player coming back to form straight away.

I'd say Firman should have first dibs on 5/8 for us atm. Other players should have to take it from him by showing great form. I'm not suggesting that he is a better 5/8 then Wallace is capable of... but spending a season out injured only to come back and play first grade? Might be asking a lot from him.

Either way... the fact we have so many options is great. Hopefully it forces players to put in more effort... and if Gower gets injured, we have a reliable first grade halfback to go to. Personally i expect Firman to nail down a first grade spot with some brilliant performances. Panthers seem to do well with turning players into champs when they're on 1 year deals. Then we lose them to another club.

 

[110kgpantherpower]

Can anyone confirm when wallace was injured was he out injured during the period that gower was???

If not can anyone come up with reasons as to why he didnt come into the squad when gowie was out.

Instead of us having the makeshift line up we had.

 

[Caged Panther]

I'm pretty certain he suffered a season ending knee injury the same week Gower went down with a bruised lung, it was either that or he suffered it the following week when first grade was in Adelaide playing the storm. A game in which gower did play but never should have.

 

[choc_soldier]

How can you hand the sport to someone who missed most of the year due to injury? Between you and me, i'm not sure that i'd be confident of a player coming back to form straight away.

I see your point, and it's a valid one.

That's what the trials will be for. They'll probably have Gower, Firman, and Wallace all trailled at half and five eighth.

I see Firman more as a halfback, which is why I said Wallace. But if Firman gets the nod, I won't complain.

 

[110kgpantherpower]

Thanks for that caged.

MX seems to have the same train of thought as me though i fail to see why firman shouldnt be given first shot, and along with that thinking you would wonder if wallace was going to be given the number 6 and we have several others who can play there, why is Firman with us.

There is no chance firman will get 7.

I've spoken to a few people and read what a few people have to say about it on different sites, and alot of people if you ask me look like there going to be 1 of 2 kinds of supporters.

1) If firman gets 6 and doesnt do well will say i told you so.
2) If firman gets 6 they will say see i told you he would do well, despite the fact that all preseason they were against him.

In my opinion it would be absolutely pointless hiring him if we aint going to play him.

Why fork out whatever amount of $$$$$ for a guy if he is just going to sit in pl.

 

[Caged Panther]

personally I would prefer to see a penrith junior get a go, but It really is up in the air and as long as the player who gets first crack is accountable for their performances, whether they be good or bad then I've no problem - whoever gets it.

 

[murraymob]

As long as we pick the form player each week and dont stay with one player waiting on him to hit form i will be happy.Firman .Wallace. Trindall its good for elliott to have choices and players fighting for postions. Elliott for mayor .Stand beside me Q we have a new cause

 

[domdom]

i think he's a good pick up for your team guys.

he has the right coach to bring the best out of him and if elliot cant get him back to playing his best footy, no one can. elliot is a class coach at working with material like firman.

signing him on a contract like this will make him work hard beacuse if he doesn't do it with the pennies, he'll be earning his dough pulling beers at the blue cattle dog in st marys.

all in all, smart move.

 

[mxlegend99]

i think he's a good pick up for your team guys.

he has the right coach to bring the best out of him and if elliot cant get him back to playing his best footy, no one can. elliot is a class coach at working with material like firman.

signing him on a contract like this will make him work hard beacuse if he doesn't do it with the pennies, he'll be earning his dough pulling beers at the blue cattle dog in st marys.

all in all, smart move.

Agreed 100%.
We have a few fellas that have slacked off since 2004 and i think Elliot is exactly what we need to either get them back to form, or find suitable replacements.

 

[domdom]

Agreed 100%.
We have a few fellas that have slacked off since 2004 and i think Elliot is exactly what we need to either get them back to form, or find suitable replacements.

yeah, i really rate elliot as a coach and i think he was an astute acquisition for the club. it would have been sad for you guys to lose lang, but i think elliot is better suited to the squad of players you have now.

The patchy form you guys had last season shows, and i think this will turn around.

 

[110kgpantherpower]

Well it appears we may be onto something mx me and you seem to agree we now have a rival teams supporter agreeing with us, if only we can convince our fellow panther supporters.

Caged i agree with you whole heartedly mate in the sense that they should be held accountable to a degree, if for instance we start with firman give him say 3 games if he is a success keep him if he fails us fine drop him for the younger bloke and try him out.

However on the same note where do you draw the line in holding them accountable.

You for instance cant say right Mr firman you havent been playing all that flash and we have lost 2 out of 3 games so your dropped, but the rest of the team is staying the same.

Wouldnt that just be punihing the one man for perhaps anothers mistakes.

Though in theory i agree with you.

 

[Caged Panther]

I see where your coming from however I think one of the problems we had over the last few years is no one was accountable under Lang. Some players played like complete crap for the entire season and never lookd like getting dropped.

Now I'm sure you could argue that dropping a player could further erode their confidence and just worsen the problems, so it's certainly a fine line. But for mine there are some players who have been apathetic assuming they'd always have their first grade spot as long as they were fit. At least by dropping a player or two you put other on notice about what might happen to them

 

[110kgpantherpower]

While i agreee with you mate in the sense that there have been a few players over the last couple of yrs who i thought should have been dropped on bad form but werent.

Its just that in what were talking bout there is as you said a fine line before you start punushing others for certain peoples mistakes.

For instance it could be said lang was fired for the players wrong doings.

After all its the players running around for 80 mins making the errors not the coach.

So while i agree with you in theory its also a rather risky tactic to follow through with.

But my thoughts on the 5/8th are still the same put firman in if he plays well keep him if he doesnt well try out a junior then you can either stick with him and well if he struggles you either retry firman or look elsewhere.

After all i think we all know 07 will be nothing more then an experemental yr.

 

[Caged Panther]

I think with lang though as coach it's his responsiblity to fix up the weaknesses in the team but IMO if you look at season 2004 and compare to season 2005 alot of the problems are the same.

Now fair having some money to spend on some players might have fixed some of these but others it wouldn't have.

 

[110kgpantherpower]

Yea but in saying that the coach isnt the one that loses the games its the players so it should be the players punished not the coach.

But at the same time i guess its up to the coaching staff to fix up areas were mistakes are made.

Alot of the mistakes made in 05 are the same as 04 but werent as noticeable in 04 because we made the finals.

Money can buy you things yes but it cant change things.

If we play the way we did last yr we will finish worse then what we did in the season just gone.

But if we can go a time without major injuries to the likes of gower lewis priddis and firman we have a strong platform to lead us to the top 8, i think thats the point that dave was trying to make it the other thread.

Because if by some chance they are all out at roughly the same time we will struggle.

But i agree with what your saying and im glad that you unlike others seem to understand.

Either way with firman or wallace or whatever matty elliott has to make big changes to our game style if we are going to be a success this season.

 

[Panthagrey]

Sometimes with coaches it takes em such a long time to give that other person a go take Michael Gordon for instance everday the local paper came out and he had terrific write ups about him and not once would he get a go on the field until one day through injury he gets his chance and boom he impresses so much that he gets a permanent spot in the side....sometimes coaches get complacent dont get me wrong i understand its not the coaches job to score tries and run the ball up but the coach plays a major factor in squad selection that when a young bloke is playing his @ss off week in and week out and the coach goes with a player down on confidence for several weeks you cant ignore the talent below him otherwise that talent will look elsewhere for the future take steve turner for instance but what im saying is when a coach gets to comfortable in what they chose it can be a horror in disguise and i liked lang he was a top coach but he became to soft and good on the Panthers for recognising this and letting him go and bringing on new talent....this might get me into trouble but oh well....

 

[110kgpantherpower]

Lol i agree with ya grey as usual lol look im a big gordon fan i was begging for him to get astart for sometime before he did.

And i agree the coach does help with the squad selections etc etc and langy did become shall we say soft towards a few players who were clearly not in form.

However my thoughts simply were if firman gets a start in no6 well he deserves more then one game to prove himself and i fear that panther fans wont give him that.

Many people wether it on here or in public seem to dislike firman getting the nod ahead of wallace and i feel that if he has a bad game everyone will turn on him and crucify him.

 

[murraymob]

110 the reverse is the same. You can bet if wallace gets the nod and plays bad he will get hammered by the same lame arse fans that will bag firman. All i am saying is all players should be reviewed every 5 weeks. Near the end of last year it was clear there was a problem. But each week the same team was selected with the same result .

 

[Big Mick]

I'm sick of rewading mediocrity...pick the best players available and don't take any stock of reputation and i'll be happy as larry

 

[TITAN1]

That was proven the year we got our asses handed to us by parra in the first round (cant remember the year)because management insisted on playing girdler and gower even though both were coming back from injury..parras try came from a bust through,you guessed it,girdler!
Both players were passengers that day..:crazy: