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Least Favourite Warrior of All Time

Scorpio30

Scorpio30

Bench
Messages
4,334
Maybe this will be controversial....but I always thought Vinnie Anderson was plodder who probably woke up each morning and thought..."I cant believe Im playing first grade rugby league"
 
Fufu Andronez

Fufu Andronez

First Grade
Messages
8,464
Manu Vatuvei said:
I have a couple of questions about other players who people are singling out.

Sione Faumuina- it's no secret I was a huge Faumuina fan back in the day. People who didn't like him, when you refer to his attitude is it off-field or on-field? Because for me, he always had a pretty good attitude on-field. Always went 100% and tried to make things happen.

Cooper Vuna- I have it in my head that he turned out to be a bit of a dick but what did he actually do when he was here? From my recollection he debuted at age 17 and left the club when he was still a kid and hadn't really had a chance to make much impact?
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regarding Sione, his issues from memory always stemmed from trying too hard or trying to create something out of nothing. Don't think he could be called out for a bad on field attitude. maybe for bad execution
 
Manu Vatuvei

Manu Vatuvei

Coach
Messages
17,221
Man I can't believe I could potentially get into another argument about the merits of Clinton Toopi...it's like old times
 
ZEROMISSTACKLES

ZEROMISSTACKLES

First Grade
Messages
8,700
Toopi wasnt too bad but I thought some accolades given to him were over the top and may have got to his head. He played good against the Roos as well at times. With all the off field dramas, did he underachieve or looking at his career and his abilities in its entirety did he overachieve? I think he overachieved, he wasnt that great but he did well to be considered at one stage, a world beater.
 
Manu Vatuvei

Manu Vatuvei

Coach
Messages
17,221
ZEROMISSTACKLES said:
Toopi wasnt too bad but I thought some accolades given to him were over the top and may have got to his head. He played good against the Roos as well at times. With all the off field dramas, did he underachieve or looking at his career and his abilities in its entirety did he overachieve? I think he overachieved, he wasnt that great but he did well to be considered at one stage, a world beater.
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I think he overachieved on moderate talent and will always be perceived as better than he was because things ran his way in a couple of high profile games.

Because he turned out to be a bit of a loose unit off field too it created a convenient narrative of "all the talent in the world but couldn't fulfil it" which is garbage imo
 
vvvrulz

vvvrulz

Coach
Messages
13,625
Manu Vatuvei said:
Every once in a while a complete imposter somehow makes it somewhere they have no business being and I honestly think that was Toopi. Just a flat out bad player. Average size, chicken legs, not a great deal of strength, slow, a generally ungainly athlete, lacked basic skills (could hardly even pass the ball properly), terrible defender, he was just a terrible player and average athlete who LOOKED like a terrible player and average athlete and yet somehow everyone was seeing things I wasn't.
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Even in 2002/2003?

You're right about a few things, was missing some basic skills and went missing at times particularly on defence. Like I said also no staying power, ran off to ESL and came back a joke. Lost the plot under Kemp but seriously everyone did.

But 02/03 on attack he was insane, smashing through tackles, sniffing offloads, had a handy offload himself connecting often with Meli. Quick too, often once he was through that's all she wrote, scored a bucket load of tries.

I wasn't around LU during your old Toopi arguments so figured why not.
 
Manu Vatuvei

Manu Vatuvei

Coach
Messages
17,221
Scorpio30 said:
Maybe this will be controversial....but I always thought Vinnie Anderson was plodder who probably woke up each morning and thought..."I cant believe Im playing first grade rugby league"
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I can definitely see this although I didn't mind Anderson as a player. He had a very moderate skill level and athleticism. That's partly why he was a late bloomer and didn't play first grade until his mid-20s. I think he was a pretty smart guy and managed his career pretty well, basically as soon as he built a little bit of a reputation he was off to England to cash in and this allowed him to play for another decade at a somewhat lower level.
 
Manu Vatuvei

Manu Vatuvei

Coach
Messages
17,221
vvvrulz said:
But 02/03 on attack he was insane, smashing through tackles, sniffing offloads, had a handy offload himself connecting often with Meli. Quick too, often once he was through that's all she wrote, scored a bucket load of tries.
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I don't think there's much of a constructive argument to be had here tbh. I just don't think any of that is true or that he had any of those attributes. He wasn't very athletically gifted with size or speed.

Probably the only thing I will give him is that he had a knack of scoring tries. Some players just seem to be able to find the line and he was one of them and I can acknowledge now that there must've been something in that. He would pop up in the right place at the right time.
 
JJ

JJ

Immortal
Messages
32,636
I thought the one thing Toopi was (at least around 02/03) was pretty quick...

Villasanti was another I never cared for much
 
Scott

Scott

Bench
Messages
3,796
JJ said:
I thought the one thing Toopi was (at least around 02/03) was pretty quick...

Villasanti was another I never cared for much
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Didn't mind Villa as a player in 2001 -2003.

Was he the Kangaroo thief on that 2003 tour? From memory Trent Waterhouse had his test jersey stolen, & a few others had quite a few thousand quid stolen (including Lockyer, the captain)
Pretty rank thing to do.
 
JJ

JJ

Immortal
Messages
32,636
ZEROMISSTACKLES

ZEROMISSTACKLES

First Grade
Messages
8,700
Daniel Andersons Warriors came out of nowhere. I mean in a bit of 2001 and a lot 2002, they were just a team for Warrior fans to be proud of all of a sudden, and I say all of a sudden because in 2001 I just thought of our team as Stacey Jones and some nobodies! Because who was Monty Betham, Faafili, Meli? (Toopi and Koopu I heard of through rep footy) these guys just came on and were winning games under the only coach Ive seen wear sharkies. 02 and 03 were probably our best ever seasons in the history of the Warriors.
 
SpaceMonkey

SpaceMonkey

Immortal
Messages
40,536
On Toopi- he definitely had talent. He wasn't a freakish athlete but he was a superbly balanced attacking centre - good pace, strong, good all round skills and a nose for the tryline. In 2002 he was legit close to the best in the comp. But he had off field and attitude issues and I think these started affecting him on the paddock, he became petulant and error prone in his last couple of seasons with us.

On Faumuina- his problems were almost exclusively off field- he was a fantastic player at his peak, tons of skill, strong and mobile and an absolute maniac who played with no regard for his own body. But he seriously went off the rails as he himself admits.

On Vinnie Anderson- not a mega talented player but certainly no plodder either. But he was perhaps the first of a long line of players to be epically stuffed around positionally, he was really a workhorse/holerunning back rower but got played in the centres constantly. A better player than his brother IMO who was an average talent but an aggro penalty magnet.
 
SpaceMonkey

SpaceMonkey

Immortal
Messages
40,536
Villa was an average prop offensively and had ordinary hands but he wa an absolute monster on defence. Loved to put a shot on and had perfect technique. But he was also another guy whose off-field issues got the better of him.
 
Last edited:
Blair

Blair

Coach
Messages
11,204
Meth said:
Great...someone opened the door for players from other clubs that we hate.

Greg Bird.
Tamou.
Papali'i
Ryan James.

Those are my top 4
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I'm very cold on most of the Roosters squad. It's the eastern suburbs you see, Bondi (and therefore 'Sydney' in many people's eyes) glam and all that. I think those guys like Ricketson, Anasta, Williams, Guerra, et al, end up believing it all.

Even Jakey Friend pops up in the 'society pages'! Can you believe that? 'Roosters' skipper Jake Friend spotted brunching at Zeus on Campbell Parade Wednesday morning...'

I'm from the west, and I'm bitter.

We don't 'brunch' for starters.

On another player, for all his mentally-challenged moments, I never stopped liking Hoppa on the field. What a character. As a friend of my dad's would say, 'he's my favourite player...he really sticks it up 'em'. This was well before he moved to the Tigers.
 
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