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Letting go of Mateo. Thoughts?

spiderdan

Bench
Messages
3,743
Best player? Mannah is better, and with a better attitude to boot.

Failing to use him properly? All the coach did was try to add another string to his bow. If he's so good, why did he fail at doing that? Attitude, perhaps?

You honestly think he's worth MORE than what the Warriors paid for him? Really?
mate, not every string fits on every bow. It's like trying to develop poore into a prop that can pass before the line like cayless. It isn't something you want to try fabricate because it just isn't in poore's game. It's the same thing with what many have said about Mortimer. He just doesn't have it in him to play the way wanted of him.
The parra offer to keep him was bullsh*t

Full of third party deals and promises of sponsor cars.

Not much hard cash.

Ozzie is a snake and mateo could tell.

Ozzie was hard for morts. Showd no respect for mateo whilst warriors were throwing everything at him. What else would he do?

Plus DA has wasted him all year. He wants to get out.
yup. I'll make the call now that cleary will tell Mateo to play what he sees and he will be in the top three for offloads, try assists and line break assists next year playing from lock.

It's disappointing. We saw the benefit to the team when hayne made his plea to play in his preferred spot. The instructions Anderson gave him are surprising given his comments about identifying players strengths and devising a game plan around them. He seems to have missed the point when it came to Mateo.
 

mrpwnd

Bench
Messages
2,640
We have a major problem filling Mateo's gap next year now. For the past 2 years now our attack has generally been centered on offloading and creating 2nd phase play on a consistent basis, with Caylo and Mateo being the prime catalysts for this attacking ploy. Next year we lose both, so goodbye to high offloading rate. We also haven't signed any proper halves, so we can wave goodbye to structured play as well. I hate to be pessimistic at such a time, but it looks like Hayne and Hindy are going to have to step up x500 and carry our team even more than they have this year if we are to even dodge a wooden spoon next year.
 

The Engineers Room

First Grade
Messages
8,945
KK has had one decent game from his last 5. The forwards stepped up again which they haven't in recent weeks and we have much more lateral passing and attacked the edges better. I think Mortimer would have done just as well.
 

Krakow

Juniors
Messages
114
You know one day he's going to hurt us, just carve us up but at the money offered from the Warriors he was mad not to go.

We all know he's talented but he's also very lazy.

While I'd happily keep him, I can understand why we let him go.
 

Eelementary

Post Whore
Messages
56,222
i think you may mean 09 for Melbourne or maybe 07. But either way they had a very damaging Adam Blair. Manly have one of the best attacking 2nd rowers going round in Watmough. Yeah we have a very explosive backline that can do wonders but while we have 2nd rate halves and a very good chance of not getting anyone better in, we have to revolve our gameplan around forwards 2nd phase play. With Caylo retiring and Meteo going, how many genuine offloaders do we have left in the forwards

Lasalo and Horo are both damaging runners of the ball. Ben Smith has pleasantly surprised me in this aspect, too. Then we can add Shane Shackleton who runs as hard as anyone I've seen.

My point is neither Melbourne nor Manly had that player with that 'X-factor' in their pack (would you count Cuthbertson from Manly? Hmm...Maybe) but they won titles.

Mateo will be a loss, don't get me wrong. But we will adequately cover for him IMO.
 

Eelementary

Post Whore
Messages
56,222
mate, not every string fits on every bow. It's like trying to develop poore into a prop that can pass before the line like cayless. It isn't something you want to try fabricate because it just isn't in poore's game. It's the same thing with what many have said about Mortimer. He just doesn't have it in him to play the way wanted of him.
yup. I'll make the call now that cleary will tell Mateo to play what he sees and he will be in the top three for offloads, try assists and line break assists next year playing from lock.

It's disappointing. We saw the benefit to the team when hayne made his plea to play in his preferred spot. The instructions Anderson gave him are surprising given his comments about identifying players strengths and devising a game plan around them. He seems to have missed the point when it came to Mateo.

I disagree. Unlike many, I think Mateo's greatest strength is his running game (I think most would say his ball-playing is is greatest asset). His offloading skills are great, but tbh I've seen better (David Solomona, for one, put some of the most insane offloads I have ever seen on).

But his running game...He easily makes 10 metres per run. All he had to do was adjust his game slightly to tuck it under and run harder and more central - not an easy task, but he's not a small bloke.

TBH I don't agree with what Anderson tried to do (although I do think that if you can add an extra string to a key player's bow it can only benefit the side), but at the end of the day it wasn't unreasonable, and Feleti wasn't able to do that. So the coach went to find someone who could.
 

kanseki

Juniors
Messages
58
mateo has been making almost all the linebreaks the past few weeks hasn't he?
imo atm, hes like hayne for us last yr.. if he is continuing his current form and we make it into finals :D
 

Maroubra Eel

Coach
Messages
19,044
Imagine how good Mateo would be if he "wanted" to play like that every week. If he gets fit and wants to play he will be unstoppable at the warriors.
 

MaxZ/3iaGGiZ

Juniors
Messages
175
A simple question or 2....

Is it true Mateo has a get out clause if DA is no longer coach? Is it also true Stephen Kearney has signed up as coach? I believe Wayne Bennett ranks Stephen Kearney very highly.
 

HevyDevy

Coach
Messages
17,146
A simple question or 2....

Is it true Mateo has a get out clause if DA is no longer coach? Is it also true Stephen Kearney has signed up as coach? I believe Wayne Bennett ranks Stephen Kearney very highly.

By 'get out clause' do you mean the $400,000 a year contract he signed with the Warriors a few months back?
 

oldmancraigy

Coach
Messages
11,393
How did Mateo win MOM over Hindy on Friday night? The try save on Thaiday was the game breaker IMO

Mateo was carving them up almost at will

Best game of the season for him by far.

I do think Hindy was fantastic, and Horo and Poore were also massive.

It was pretty close though.
 

Parra Guru

Coach
Messages
14,645
How did Mateo win MOM over Hindy on Friday night? The try save on Thaiday was the game breaker IMO

Have to agree. Hindy had his best game of the year. Wasn't too surprised or disapopinted to see Feleti get it though, he was devastating with ball in hand.

With the $$$ I don't think Feleti is worth matching what the Warriors offered. He is too inconsistant and IMO barring the last couple of games he has been one of our worst performers.
 

mrpwnd

Bench
Messages
2,640
But his running game...He easily makes 10 metres per run. All he had to do was adjust his game slightly to tuck it under and run harder and more central - not an easy task, but he's not a small bloke.

TBH I don't agree with what Anderson tried to do (although I do think that if you can add an extra string to a key player's bow it can only benefit the side), but at the end of the day it wasn't unreasonable, and Feleti wasn't able to do that. So the coach went to find someone who could.
Well, Mateo makes those metres not because he 'runs hard', it's because he's so agile and well-balanced for such a big bloke, there are times when i wish he'd hold the ball better, but that sort of ball handling allows him to leave an arm free for an offload no matter the tackler. We just fail to exploit it as a team.

I don't think DA has found anyone this season to replace anything, save for replacements from Wenty. It's true that Horo and Lasalo are both damaging runners, but they don't quite have that spark that Mateo has as a ball-playing forward. Next year we are definately going to need an excellent organising halfback, because our offloading game/2nd phase play is going to be even more non-existent than this year.
 

Eelementary

Post Whore
Messages
56,222
Well, Mateo makes those metres not because he 'runs hard', it's because he's so agile and well-balanced for such a big bloke, there are times when i wish he'd hold the ball better, but that sort of ball handling allows him to leave an arm free for an offload no matter the tackler. We just fail to exploit it as a team.

I don't think DA has found anyone this season to replace anything, save for replacements from Wenty. It's true that Horo and Lasalo are both damaging runners, but they don't quite have that spark that Mateo has as a ball-playing forward. Next year we are definately going to need an excellent organising halfback, because our offloading game/2nd phase play is going to be even more non-existent than this year.

Look, I don't disagree per se. I am just saying I don't think we will miss him all that much.

He WILL be a loss, absolutely. But IMO we can cover for him.
 

hineyrulz

Post Whore
Messages
148,901
Look, I don't disagree per se. I am just saying I don't think we will miss him all that much.

He WILL be a loss, absolutely. But IMO we can cover for him.
I agree, his form this year has been nothing to right home about. A combo of Shack, Lasalo and Horo could cover his loss.
 

Delboy

First Grade
Messages
6,907
We saw in Fridays game what Feleti can do, but $400k for 2 to 3 games per season is massive overs. Sad to see him go, but remember last year he played off the bench, and possibly woul;d have done the same this year if Shack had not gone down early.

Great bloke, local junior but there is a price when you are 27 years old when you have to say , go for it
 

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