Letting go of Mateo. Thoughts?

[andrew057]

That right there is the problem. How many seasons has he had in First Grade now? If we include his stint in First Grade Super League footy, it'd be what - 4 or 5 seasons' worth of experience by now?

He's brilliant one week, crap the next. He has a f**kload of talent, yes. But he's got a poor attitude.

I am willing to say we won't miss him. It sucks to see an Eels junior go, but IMO Brian Smith had it right....

Disagree. Mateo is definitely a problem child on the field at times, but when it the right situation he can flourish.

Simple question, would you rather have Mateo in your team OR have 700k of unused cap space?

Because the latter is what the Eels are face with next year.

And then you consider Tahu have at least 300k for both those seasons and Mortimer has 200+ for both.

f**k ME I feel miserable right now.

 

[Eelementary]

Disagree. Mateo is definitely a problem child on the field at times, but when it the right situation he can flourish.

Simple question, would you rather have Mateo in your team OR have 700k of unused cap space?

Because the latter is what the Eels are face with next year.

And then you consider Tahu have at least 300k for both those seasons and Mortimer has 200+ for both.

f**k ME I feel miserable right now.

I love the bloke, but why is he pulling his finger out now, when our season is done and gone and he's already signed, sealed and delivered to another club? That's my main point.

He's a pleasure to watch play the game, but he is inconsistent and IMO I'm not sure he has the mentality of a First Grade footballer...

Having said that, I honestly bear no ill will towards him and wish him the best.

As for the Mateo V 700K question...It's a tough issue, but it would depend on what we need. For example, if all we needed was a world class halfback and we had good players everywhere else (hypothetically), I'd take the 700K and throw it all at Thurston or Prince or whoever.

If we had depth, then yeah - give me Mateo.

On the whole, though, I don't think we'll be too badly off. Pat O'Hanlon is a star of the future; that young Tongan kid we signed has massive raps on him; Lasalo is a damaging ball runner; Karlos Filiga (if he comes back) reportedly has silky-smooth ball-playing skills...We'll be OK. I promise!

 

[andrew057]

Lets just hope someone can retain the talent and cut fat, because its seems the oppostie has been occuring for the past 2 years.

Anyways the amber ale has gotten the ebst of me.

Peace Eels fans.

 

[lucablight]

That right there is the problem. How many seasons has he had in First Grade now? If we include his stint in First Grade Super League footy, it'd be what - 4 or 5 seasons' worth of experience by now?

He's brilliant one week, crap the next. He has a f**kload of talent, yes. But he's got a poor attitude.

I am willing to say we won't miss him. It sucks to see an Eels junior go, but IMO Brian Smith had it right....

I think the notion of Mateo being inconsistent is very overstated. His first two years he was one our best players. He missed alot of 2009 through injury and came back very strong. This season is probably the only season where he has been quiet and yet people seem to think he has been like this since he started. I would say he has played more good games than not for the Eels.

Disagree. Mateo is definitely a problem child on the field at times, but when it the right situation he can flourish.

Simple question, would you rather have Mateo in your team OR have 700k of unused cap space?

Because the latter is what the Eels are face with next year.

And then you consider Tahu have at least 300k for both those seasons and Mortimer has 200+ for both.

f**k ME I feel miserable right now.

I completely agree with the bolded part. What is the point of letting someone go if you aren't going to replace them with someone of equal or better ability?

Why wasn't Mateo made a priority re-signing after the grand final before the Warriors even got a chance to make an offer?

 

[mrpwnd]

If by inconsistent you mean he doesn't do some Joey Johns/Wally Lewis magic every game, then sure i'd give you your 5 cents and we'd walk away from all this happy knowing Mateo is inconsistent. But his contributions on the field don't fluctuate quite as badly as you would think. I don't see one time where he's been single-handedly the man responsible for losing a game, whereas he's always been one of the main reasons we look so dangerous. Just on the point Andrew brought up, we have 700k on nothing to spend, every halfback is just about as good as signed and no i'm not holding my breath on Cooper Cronk or Quade Cooper, I think everyone knows we won't be signing a good half. With all that free cap space and the fact that we've got most positions well-covered in terms of depth it would only be the world's most logical thing(behind 1+1) to keep Mateo. He's lazy, but talented and skilled, I don't care how lazy or inconsistent players are so long as we're winning/in the finals/winning a GF.

 

[MaxZ/3iaGGiZ]

MAN OF THE MATCH - Feleti 'The GreatOne' Mateo....

I rest my case!!!!

 

[Eels Dude]

He has been brilliant the past couple of weeks, but it's still few and far between. Most of this year he's been ordinary and I can understand why DA wouldn't make him a priority signing especially when looking at the money the Warriors were throwing at him. Sad to see him go as I love watching him play when he's at his best... but you can't pay a player over 300k if they're not going to be consistent.

 

[joseph1]

The jurys still out on Mateo. His time at the warriors will make or break him. The bug question is whether any coach/mentor/tactician can get the best out of him
or say 18-20 gamea of the year. Atm id say he turns up to play 5 or 6. Maybe Ruben Wiki and the polynesian brotherhood in auckland will charge him up and finally turn him into the superstar we know he could be. Otherwise Matt Gillett will have a monopoly over that type of player in the comp, now SBWs left.

 

[hineyrulz]

Everyone pulling Mateo's dick tonight should calm the f**k down, yes he was very good tonight but he has been outplayed all sesason by Horo a guy on his first season on the minimum. I wouldn't have Payed Mateo any more than what he was already on, which was 230k. So good luck champ at the Warriors. 400k lol.

 

[Daneel]

Everyone pulling Mateo's dick tonight should calm the f**k down, yes he was very good tonight but he has been outplayed all sesason by Horo a guy on his first season on the minimum. I wouldn't have Payed Mateo any more than what he was already on, which was 230k. So good luck champ at the Warriors. 400k lol.

Absolutley, I don't know what he was on but whatever it was i would have been offering him less. I don't want to see him leave but i don't want to be paying him 300 plus

 

[spiderdan]

Mateo has been playing on a leash most of the season. Da said earlier on he wanted Mateo to learn to play hard up the middle and tuck the ball under his arm and run. Only recently he has started playing more of his natural game and passing to support out wide. It isn't coincidence that when we looked good against titans Mateo was on the field doing his thing and taking the pressure off hayne. I am happy for him to have 1 or 2 errors a game if it means creating line breaks/tries/broken field play.

Pretty sure he would have stayed if we signed him earlier in the year before the warriors offer and the Mortimer hoopla.

 

[Stagger eel]

love Mateo to death and like every local product I'm sad to see him a go but his performance last night has been one out of a box compared to his overall form in the past few seasons, he's had as many if not more mediocre preformance than good ones with the odd great one thrown in for good measure, his performance last night doesn't surprise me as he knows this is the last few games he'll ever play for us, he's on the sort of money NOW!! that entitles him a performance like that one we saw last night to be played 7 times out of 10...fair to say that we've only really seen it on 3 or 4 occasions and when it happens half of us ask why doesn't he play like that every time he throws a jersey on while the other half of us whinge that his leaving.

he's made his bed, the club made their decision and I'm not regretting the decision not to match the offer at all.

 

[Schiltzenberger]

Mateo has been playing on a leash most of the season. Da said earlier on he wanted Mateo to learn to play hard up the middle and tuck the ball under his arm and run. Only recently he has started playing more of his natural game and passing to support out wide. It isn't coincidence that when we looked good against titans Mateo was on the field doing his thing and taking the pressure off hayne. I am happy for him to have 1 or 2 errors a game if it means creating line breaks/tries/broken field play.

Pretty sure he would have stayed if we signed him earlier in the year before the warriors offer and the Mortimer hoopla.

+1
Mateo up the middle was never working, he has always looked better playing out wide. When he's out there he carves it up. His best position IMO is 11/16, between 5/8 and centre 3/4.

He used to throw a lot of dumb passes, like no look offloads or something. His bad passes lately haven't been as bad as the old ones, he has just been trying to force a pass to a team mate that has put himself in a dodgy spot. Sure he should hold onto it but his team mates still should get in better positions.

Quite often he makes a break or has the ball dangling out waiting for support but no ones there, or if they are they have let an opposition player get between them and Mateo, he then tries the miracle ball.

If he was out wide all the time and had players running off him he'd be setting up plenty of tries. Mateo and Hayne should be running around together whenever the chance comes up, we'd be killing it.

 

[Glenn]

Again a once every now and then performance by Mateo, if he could be consistant he would be a unbackable favourite for a Dally M POTY.
The fact he hasn't gone close highlights the inconsistancy in his game.

 

[strider]

people are saying he would stay for less $$$s .... but how much less? rumour is the warriors offered him $400K .... how much less than that do you reckon he'd be able to live with?

on his day he's undoubtedly one of our best players - and I agree its disappointing DA has tried to mould him into something other than the creative attacking player he is ... i've said a million times that I think he'll be awesome for the warriors next year because they will use him how is is meant to be .... very sad to lose such talent

 

[Gronk]

We gave him a fair go. Time to move on for mine.

 

[Parra09]

I don't think we even offered him did we? .........

No, neither him nor Inu.

 

[spiderdan]

people are saying he would stay for less $$$s .... but how much less? rumour is the warriors offered him $400K .... how much less than that do you reckon he'd be able to live with?

on his day he's undoubtedly one of our best players - and I agree its disappointing DA has tried to mould him into something other than the creative attacking player he is ... i've said a million times that I think he'll be awesome for the warriors next year because they will use him how is is meant to be .... very sad to lose such talent

mate you are right to assume that but I'm pretty sure the $400k offer wasn't made or accepted until well into the season. Had the club got on the front foot early and made a decent offer to him instead of sucking the dicks of the Mortimer family Mateo would have stayed. I'm sure of it.

Funny how things turned out. Morts, after saying he didn't want to make a decision until later in the year decides to sign early (also after Ozzie claimed we wouldn't get into a bidding war over him. Good o e Ozzie, o e of your bet). And Mateo was saying h wanted to stay but the club ignore him to sign morts and now we lose Mateo. I know which one I would put in my side first every time.

 

[spiderdan]

+1
Mateo up the middle was never working, he has always looked better playing out wide. When he's out there he carves it up. His best position IMO is 11/16, between 5/8 and centre 3/4.

He used to throw a lot of dumb passes, like no look offloads or something. His bad passes lately haven't been as bad as the old ones, he has just been trying to force a pass to a team mate that has put himself in a dodgy spot. Sure he should hold onto it but his team mates still should get in better positions.

Quite often he makes a break or has the ball dangling out waiting for support but no ones there, or if they are they have let an opposition player get between them and Mateo, he then tries the miracle ball.

If he was out wide all the time and had players running off him he'd be setting up plenty of tries. Mateo and Hayne should be running around together whenever the chance comes up, we'd be killing it.

concur with you I do.

Also if Mateo were allowed to play this role earlier in the year it would have benefitted morts as his best play is suited to support and broken field running I think.

 

[strider]

mate you are right to assume that but I'm pretty sure the $400k offer wasn't made or accepted until well into the season. Had the club got on the front foot early and made a decent offer to him instead of sucking the dicks of the Mortimer family Mateo would have stayed. I'm sure of it.

Funny how things turned out. Morts, after saying he didn't want to make a decision until later in the year decides to sign early (also after Ozzie claimed we wouldn't get into a bidding war over him. Good o e Ozzie, o e of your bet). And Mateo was saying h wanted to stay but the club ignore him to sign morts and now we lose Mateo. I know which one I would put in my side first every time.

yeah i agree we may have been able to get him much for much less .... depends whether his manager had already been shopping