Flanno's New Signings

[SnowDragon]

Don't forget many posters in this place were well and truly all on board with Lawrie being signed up long term and touted him as our future 1st grade and club captain.

Any push back that he was a plank was met with plenty of vitriol.

I was on board. He trained hard and had a great attitude.

and 2023 he was greatif he had played that well in 24 he would still be in our starting side. It’s just that as others improved he went backwards, and a long way. I can only think of 2 players Laurie and Rav that went backwards in fact.

im totally unsure if the reason he has reverted. Hoping it can be fixed else he unfortunately moves on. I trust Flanno to do right.

still, I’m sick of the attacks on him on the forum. I’m not defending his 2024 play, nor am I saying id be upset if he plays reserves, or moves on. But no need for this constant school yard bullying. What has he done to deserve that? Save it for people like hunt who to use the media to attack the club and other players.

 

[Parko1310]

I was on board. He trained hard and had a great attitude.

and 2023 he was greatif he had played that well in 24 he would still be in our starting side. It’s just that as others improved he went backwards, and a long way. I can only think of 2 players Laurie and Rav that went backwards in fact.

im totally unsure if the reason he has reverted. Hoping it can be fixed else he unfortunately moves on. I trust Flanno to do right.

still, I’m sick of the attacks on him on the forum. I’m not defending his 2024 play, nor am I saying id be upset if he plays reserves, or moves on. But no need for this constant school yard bullying. What has he done to deserve that? Save it for people like hunt who to use the media to attack the club and other players.

Lawrie never went backwards, he just got rightly found out. I couldn't believe it when we re-signed him on a 3 year deal. Incredible. He was one of the best at the club in terms of effort in 2023, but that didn't change the fact he was still one of the worst performers on the field. Him trying hard blinded people to the facts. He's never, ever, been good

 

[SAP58]

I was on board. He trained hard and had a great attitude.

and 2023 he was greatif he had played that well in 24 he would still be in our starting side. It’s just that as others improved he went backwards, and a long way. I can only think of 2 players Laurie and Rav that went backwards in fact.

im totally unsure if the reason he has reverted. Hoping it can be fixed else he unfortunately moves on. I trust Flanno to do right.

still, I’m sick of the attacks on him on the forum. I’m not defending his 2024 play, nor am I saying id be upset if he plays reserves, or moves on. But no need for this constant school yard bullying. What has he done to deserve that? Save it for people like hunt who to use the media to attack the club and other players.

Agree with your comments he had a great year in 2023 but went backwards in 2024. Why ? He is very close to Lomax & he may have been influenced by him. I have not heard if he had any issues with Flanno but the way ahead is to train extra hard in the off season & get back to his 2023 form in 2025. I think everyone in this forum would be happy to eat some humble pie if he does BUT it is up to him. Hopefully if Lomax was a distraction this year he will come out firing with that distraction gone. I believe he is a better player than he showed in 2024 so pride should mean he will have a cracker in 2025 !

 

[possm]

I'd say, go shopping for ESL players and offer swaps for Lawrie and Ravalawa. Both would go reasonably well at ESL lovel.

 

[SAP58]

I'd say, go shopping for ESL players and offer swaps for Lawrie and Ravalawa. Both would go reasonably well at ESL lovel.

Not sure the money is available in ESL like it was.

 

[possm]

To summarise our recruitment & retention issues at the moment.

1. Front row stocks still need to be boosted (from outside the club - rep quality or at least solid regular first grade standard, leader, big minutes, platform setting, metre eating type)

2. Moving on Blake Lawrie (the majority of us are of the notion that he is a passenger and time is up)

3. Sloan (it's split down the middle as to whether we all think he's going to make it as our long term full back or not - and if not where do we go in terms of a long term full back option)

4. Hunt (does he go this off season - is Gutho the viable halves replacement partnering K Flanno if this does happen at least short term... are we a chance of enticing T Wishart back home at some point)

5. Who can we expect to see step up another level from the juniors in the next 12-24 months (i.e. Buchanan, LokoJnr, Pasifika-Tonga, Egan, etc - this is going to be important especially if we continue to have trouble attracting outside talent to Wollongong).

6. Who is off contract and can go to market come this time next year (who do we lock in and re-sign before the deadline and who is free to start looking at options, etc)

I'm tipping our two run-on props, which will be Lodge and Fifita. I really believe that Fifita will step up this offseason and Flanno will get the most out of Lodge.

 

[since77]

I was on board. He trained hard and had a great attitude.

and 2023 he was greatif he had played that well in 24 he would still be in our starting side. It’s just that as others improved he went backwards, and a long way. I can only think of 2 players Laurie and Rav that went backwards in fact.

im totally unsure if the reason he has reverted. Hoping it can be fixed else he unfortunately moves on. I trust Flanno to do right.

still, I’m sick of the attacks on him on the forum. I’m not defending his 2024 play, nor am I saying id be upset if he plays reserves, or moves on. But no need for this constant school yard bullying. What has he done to deserve that? Save it for people like hunt who to use the media to attack the club and other players.

Oh please. No one is bullying him. Hopefully Blake is made of sterner stuff than you seem to be. What you are disingenuously claiming is "bullying" is years of collective pent up frustration that a player like Blake keeps getting a run in first grade and frankly making us an easier team to beat. He is rightfully being identified by most of us as being no way near NRL standard. And he never has been.
Mystifyingly you and a few other Blake fans saw something good in him prior to '24. Most good judges saw a player who was never anything better than a depth player - and IMO preferably depth for another club.

 

[possm]

Sloan: I view him as a good attacking weapon but unreliable in our last line of defense. He is also hot and cold in games when we are under pressure.
Lawrie: is an unfit, slow, and undisciplined prop forward. He needs to go and the person who signed him long-term should be sacked.
Ravalaawa; has over a very short period lost the ability to compete at first grade standard. He needs to go.

 

[Mother Nature's Son]

Oh please. No one is bullying him. Hopefully Blake is made of sterner stuff than you seem to be. What you are disingenuously claiming is "bullying" is years of collective pent up frustration that a player like Blake keeps getting a run in first grade and frankly making us an easier team to beat. He is rightfully being identified by most of us as being no way near NRL standard. And he never has been.
Mystifyingly you and a few other Blake fans saw something good in him prior to '24. Most good judges saw a player who was never anything better than a depth player - and IMO preferably depth for another club.

Bit in all fairness, wasn`t he voted players player of the year a couple of times, surely that wasn`t just because he was a good bloke.

 

[blacksafake]

Bit in all fairness, wasn`t he voted players player of the year a couple of times, surely that wasn`t just because he was a good bloke.

Tells you how bad the others were

 

[since77]

Bit in all fairness, wasn`t he voted players player of the year a couple of times, surely that wasn`t just because he was a good bloke.

This argument is just as meaningless as the Hunt try assist stat nonsense. Who cares he was "player's player" in the worst St.George Illawarra team ever to stain a football field? It's more a vivid demonstration of how truly bad that team was.
How many NRL teams were lining up to sign Blake last time contract time rolled around? Just one. Geez we're dumb.

 

[SnowDragon]

Oh please. No one is bullying him. Hopefully Blake is made of sterner stuff than you seem to be. What you are disingenuously claiming is "bullying" is years of collective pent up frustration that a player like Blake keeps getting a run in first grade and frankly making us an easier team to beat. He is rightfully being identified by most of us as being no way near NRL standard. And he never has been.
Mystifyingly you and a few other Blake fans saw something good in him prior to '24. Most good judges saw a player who was never anything better than a depth player - and IMO preferably depth for another club.

mate, you make some good comments at times, and I’ll try to not reply again after this one as I know where it goes.

please note I was just pointing out an opinion that I knew flew in the face of current forum opinion, but I just like to stand behind what I believe, to own my opinion and personally I hate the group dynamics that have people trashing players and the. Feeding on each others thoughts to get personal. I was also trying to contrast his situation to Hunt.

all that said, your first line seems to be personally targeting me for an opinion because it differs from yours… kind of familiar approach of a bullying attitude, but maybe im reading too much into your comments so I leave it there, other than to apologise if im wrong in my interpretation.

I could go on, but you have either got he point and moved on, or you‘ll magnify your comments back on me and people can judge as they want and I’ll just press the ignore button.

Have a great day since 77 and go the dragons!

 

[Old Timer]

No one is saying Lawrie doesn’t try hard or give it his all and those are the reasons he probably secured several awards but the honest truth is that in the end that is not good enough for a team that wants to be competitive in the NRL.

The good clubs are ruthless re recruitment & retention meanwhile we f**k around in the hope that someone might come good on the basis of a couple of good games in amongst a lot of bog ordinary games.

Lawrie has never intimidated or dominated an opposition player or pack and never will.

He joins a long list of players that we held onto for far too long.

 

[Wolfgang90]

	Player A	Player B
RM	94	92
Tackles	24	24
Post Contact M	36	32
Offloads	7	3
TB	15	21
Errors	1	8
Penalties	11	6

First 3 are avg & rest total for the season. Quite similar, who is Lawrie & who is Molo?

 

[Wolfgang90]

	Player A	Player B
RM	94	92
Tackles	24	24
Post Contact M	36	32
Offloads	7	3
TB	15	21
Errors	1	8
Penalties	11	6

First 3 are avg & rest total for the season. Quite similar, who is Lawrie & who is Molo?

Point is, Lawrie gets a ton of crap when Molo is equally as bad but doesn't get much negativity from the fans. Imo it's due to his appearance, he looks like a footy player & tries to put on big hits but is equally as poor as Lawrie.

Can fans start calling out Molo like Lawrie? I don't know but I've certainly noticed & called it out.

 

[Victoire]

Point is, Lawrie gets a ton of crap when Molo is equally as bad but doesn't get much negativity from the fans. Imo it's due to his appearance, he looks like a footy player & tries to put on big hits but is equally as poor as Lawrie.

Can fans start calling out Molo like Lawrie? I don't know but I've certainly noticed & called it out.

They probably will. Misery needs company

 

[since77]

mate, you make some good comments at times, and I’ll try to not reply again after this one as I know where it goes.

please note I was just pointing out an opinion that I knew flew in the face of current forum opinion, but I just like to stand behind what I believe, to own my opinion and personally I hate the group dynamics that have people trashing players and the. Feeding on each others thoughts to get personal. I was also trying to contrast his situation to Hunt.

all that said, your first line seems to be personally targeting me for an opinion because it differs from yours… kind of familiar approach of a bullying attitude, but maybe im reading too much into your comments so I leave it there, other than to apologise if im wrong in my interpretation.

I could go on, but you have either got he point and moved on, or you‘ll magnify your comments back on me and people can judge as they want and I’ll just press the ignore button.

Have a great day since 77 and go the dragons!

That's all fine and yes you should absolutely back yourself and your beliefs / opinions. I just didn't agree with the "bullying" comment. Criticism is not bullying, its just an opinion. At times people have been mocking Blake for his weight / body shape and that is definitely stepping over the line.
I think because Blake represents (to me and perhaps to others) a lot of what is wrong with how the club has been run over the last decade - embracing and persisting with mediocrity, lacklustre performance and poor recruitment and retention, he tends to be a bit of a lightning rod for fan's angst, particularly because his poorer performances really stand out. And yes I'll admit Blake is a bit of a trigger for me, for all of the reasons in my previous sentence.
Anyway thanks for your comments and yes - GO THE DRAGONS - hopefully that's what dominates discussion in 2025!

 

[st.phil]

Molo is not exactly a high water mark but what he does offer is aggression and line speed which won't show up on a stat sheet

 

[Mother Nature's Son]

The good clubs are ruthless re recruitment & retention meanwhile we f**k around in the hope that someone might come good on the basis of a couple of good games in amongst a lot of bog ordinary games.

Yeah look at the Dogs, as much as I hate them, they moved on Alamoti who had massive wraps and replaced him with Chrichton, meanwhile Parra persist with Penisini hoping he comes good.
Ruthless.

 

[Parko1310]

	Player A	Player B
RM	94	92
Tackles	24	24
Post Contact M	36	32
Offloads	7	3
TB	15	21
Errors	1	8
Penalties	11	6

First 3 are avg & rest total for the season. Quite similar, who is Lawrie & who is Molo?

Fails to take into account metres per run, minutes played on average, etc. Plus Molo offers more intimidation than Lawrie does which is inarguable and will not show up on stats sheets. Add in the fact that Molo played a starting role due to how bad our front row rotation is when he is not at all a starter. He is a bench impact prop.