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Kiwis Train on squad

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Penrose Warrior

First Grade
Messages
9,481
doogiehowser_md said:
I dont mind Tony Kemp at least hes got a bit of fight and does his best to secure players. Sometimes his tactics aren't the best but at least he tries and dosen't let the ARL walk all over him unlike others in the past, who would've laid out the welcome mats for Mal & Ricky at Taumolos, Kasianos, Papailiis, Tuivasa Shecks houses as they did at Hunt, Carroll, Kaufusi & Thorns.
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Don't let 'fight' be confused with nous. Kemp has none of the latter and all the fight in the world doesn't make his role successful. Funny how his threat to Kasiano about the rules changing next year worked in that instance, but whatever he said to Papalii didn't mean squat.

Now I have an issue with Origin when it threatens to make the World Cup a farce.
 
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Penrose Warrior

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9,481
Fast Eddie said:
Rueben Wiki is the one who has been talking to Papalii.
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But it's Kemp's job. Wiki was just sent to him presumably because he's a Raiders legend.

All this jobs for the boys stuff doesn't seem to be playing out too well. Kemp is f*cking hopeless. Wiki oversaw a defensive wall this year that had more leaks than a Welsh garden.
 
Fast Eddie

Fast Eddie

First Grade
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8,085
Penrose Warrior said:
But it's Kemp's job. Wiki was just sent to him presumably because he's a Raiders legend.

All this jobs for the boys stuff doesn't seem to be playing out too well. Kemp is f*cking hopeless. Wiki oversaw a defensive wall this year that had more leaks than a Welsh garden.
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Kemp brought in a NZ and a Raiders legend to talk to a young kiwi and Raiders player who has drawn comparisons to Wiki, seems like a good move by Kemp to me and for the most part it worked. Till money won out.
 
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Penrose Warrior

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9,481
I appreciate what you're saying but to me, for the most part it didn't work - because it didn't get the sole objective which was to make sure Josh played for us. So for no part, did it work.

What have these guys achieved in terms of securing players, anything at all? Kasiano looks set to stay based on a new rule, so they can't claim that (although I'm sure they will). I appreciate they're up against it with the money and allure of SOO but Kemp was giving it the big un on radio last week and for mine he's achieved zero.
 
Fast Eddie

Fast Eddie

First Grade
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8,085
Penrose Warrior said:
I appreciate what you're saying but to me, for the most part it didn't work - because it didn't get the sole objective which was to make sure Josh played for us. So for no part, did it work.

What have these guys achieved in terms of securing players, anything at all? Kasiano looks set to stay based on a new rule, so they can't claim that (although I'm sure they will). I appreciate they're up against it with the money and allure of SOO but Kemp was giving it the big un on radio last week and for mine he's achieved zero.
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So wait you can write of his work with Kasiano despite him getting to commit to the kiwis earlier in the season because there was some newspaper reports saying he was 50/50 later on in the season? How do you know Kasiano was going to defintely switch to qld even if this rule wasn't being contemplated?

Oh and for what it is worth they got Jason Taulomolo who imo will be the best of the three long term. And RTS. And Josh Hoffman. Kyle Stanley as well. Just off the top of my head.
 
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Penrose Warrior

First Grade
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9,481
Fast Eddie said:
So wait you can write of his work with Kasiano despite him getting to commit to the kiwis earlier in the season because there was some newspaper reports saying he was 50/50 later on in the season? How do you know Kasiano was going to defintely switch to qld even if this rule wasn't being contemplated?

Oh and for what it is worth they got Jason Taulomolo who imo will be the best of the three long term. And RTS. And Josh Hoffman. Kyle Stanley as well. Just off the top of my head.
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Yeah I suppose I can...because if Kasiano wasn't seriously considering switching, and was sticking to that bit of paper which has absolutely no worth, we'd know that by now. He would be able to come out and say nope, I'm a Kiwi. But he hasn't. He's hedging his bets and now the law's changing, he'll have to stick to it. Not because a letter of intent means jack.

I'm not having a go at you but the very fact you're saying 'they got' Taumalolo makes a joke of the whole thing. He played for the Junior Kiwis and spent more than half his life over here - he should be an automatic. And apparently now he will be.

I've got a lot of time for Hoffman based on what he did. The cynic in me says he did it because the likes of Slater, Barba etc would have blocked him from the Maroons but good on him.
 
Fast Eddie

Fast Eddie

First Grade
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8,085
Penrose Warrior said:
Yeah I suppose I can...because if Kasiano wasn't seriously considering switching, and was sticking to that bit of paper which has absolutely no worth, we'd know that by now. He would be able to come out and say nope, I'm a Kiwi. But he hasn't. He's hedging his bets and now the law's changing, he'll have to stick to it. Not because a letter of intent means jack.

I'm not having a go at you but the very fact you're saying 'they got' Taumalolo makes a joke of the whole thing. He played for the Junior Kiwis and spent more than half his life over here - he should be an automatic. And apparently now he will be.

I've got a lot of time for Hoffman based on what he did. The cynic in me says he did it because the likes of Slater, Barba etc would have blocked him from the Maroons but good on him.
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The Taulomolo situation was exactly the same as the Kasiano and Papalii situation, junior kiwis, said they wanted to play for the kiwis and then mal got in all their ears so in no way you can dismiss and give kemp shit for not getting Papalii and not acknowledge Taulomolo or the other names I listed. I'm not Kemps biggest fan at all but like someone said earlier at least we have someone out there recruiting because thats going to be pretty important in the future, he just needs to make sure he uses guys like Wiki, Kearney, Benji, Jones to help him out.
 
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Penrose Warrior

First Grade
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9,481
Not so for Papalii, based on that 100% Queenslander quote in that paper.

Look I absolutely agree that a role like Kemp's is vital. Hugely so. But the wrong guy is doing it. He seems to think that bleeding black is the only thing needed for that job. It's not. We've got to be a lot smarter about rocking up to players when they're established, or near so, in the NRL and waving a non-legal piece of paper under their nose in the hope it'll stand up.

I don't know what it is otherwise I'd have the job - although probably not because I'm not one of the boys. But it's got to start younger than that..getting them in regular contact with the Wikis, the Jones', the Benjis etc when they're teens and identifying that these guys are our futures. Give them mentors, give them camps/gear/accolades etc so by the time they're 18-19-20-21 and making their name, they'll be so in tight with our set-up, our people, our systems etc it'll be nigh-on impossible to back out or at least morally a lot harder.

Obviously this half of your life residency rule, which the ARLC is meant to be dishing out, will sort some of it out. But it wouldn't in Papalii's case and it won't ensure we can just sit back and wait for everyone to pull on black in future.
 
Fast Eddie

Fast Eddie

First Grade
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8,085
1. It seems you are writing Kemp and what he does off based on a couple media quotes about letters on intent, which every player is required to sign. I dont know how you can say the guy is doing a bad job or isn't right for the job based on a few media quotes.

2. They already are doing quite a bit of what you are suggesting with the camps etc. They really need to start selecting 3-4 of the young promising players each year for the anzac test, i wouldn't even mind if they were under 20's tbh eg from this season Papalii, jt and Kasiano should have been in the anzac test squad. This will lock guys in. In fact they should be playing a test at the end of the year/mid season against some minnow and selecting a test team of the best young players.
 
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