Mental Strength

[Gary Gutful]

No - I'm likening Conrad Murray's ineptitude at performing basic medical procedures to Michael Hagan's ineptitude at basic coaching of a rugby league club.

And why the snarky tone?

I was just joking around - I knew what you meant. Sorry if you thought I was being snarky.

 

[Gary Gutful]

You people can try to belittle Poupou Escobar all you like, but he's 100% right - we have mental weakness rife in the squad and no genuine leadership.

How am I belittling him? I happen to respect his opinions as much as everyone else. I made a genuine point about there being a lack of effort from our team which I believe is the first obstacle that needs to be overcome. I happen to agree with the other points being made.

I must have done something to rub you the wrong way this morning!

 

[Gary Gutful]

I think ideally our path to success needs to follow something like this:

1. Better commitment and effort right now.

2. Assuming that everyones effort levels are exemplary, then more experience and match hardness which will hopefully result in an improved capacity to deal with difficult moments in matches. Before you can develop mental strength to deal with adversity you need to have a commitment to want to improve.

My basic argument previously is that people on here are arguing for item 2, but we still haven't addressed item 1 in my opinion. We have some passengers at our club who aren't fully committed. Ricky said as much in the last post-match press conference.

 

[Eelementary]

I was just joking around - I knew what you meant. Sorry if you thought I was being snarky.

All good. I misread what you posted. My bad.

 

[Eelementary]

How am I belittling him? I happen to respect his opinions as much as everyone else. I made a genuine point about there being a lack of effort from our team which I believe is the first obstacle that needs to be overcome. I happen to agree with the other points being made.

I must have done something to rub you the wrong way this morning!

I didn't mean anyone in particular, but it does seem people like to discard's Pou's views for the hell of it. He loves to push people's buttons, but I think he makes a lot of sense in what he says.

But it seems to be popular to try and dismiss his opinions because, "Hey - it's just Pou!" But I think he makes very good points. He's only guilty of [very successfully] ruling people up.

 

[Eelementary]

I think ideally our path to success needs to follow something like this:

1. Better commitment and effort right now.

2. Assuming that everyones effort levels are exemplary, then more experience and match hardness which will hopefully result in an improved capacity to deal with difficult moments in matches. Before you can develop mental strength to deal with adversity you need to have a commitment to want to improve.

My basic argument previously is that people on here are arguing for item 2, but we still haven't addressed item 1 in my opinion. We have some passengers at our club who aren't fully committed. Ricky said as much in the last post-match press conference.

I think you make perfect sense. But how do we go about addressing these issues?

I'd argue the weak mentality has been around for a long, long time - even though the 2001 Newcastle side was very good, we still played like busters in the first half. In 2005 we let an average Cowboys side (judging by their position on the ladder compared to us) pull our pants down.

I'm not sure why, but this club hasn't been mentally strong for a long time now.

 

[Gary Gutful]

I didn't mean anyone in particular, but it does seem people like to discard's Pou's views for the hell of it. He loves to push people's buttons, but I think he makes a lot of sense in what he says.

But it seems to be popular to try and dismiss his opinions because, "Hey - it's just Pou!" But I think he makes very good points. He's only guilty of [very successfully] ruling people up.

I think it is often a case of other people trying to wind him up in the way that he winds them up.

This forum is a wind-up-athon.

 

[spiderdan]

The team should've taken some time out of the hard pre season to learn how to bend spoons uri geller style.

 

[TheRam]

We need players that are mentally tough and disciplined. Dare I say it, more white fellas.

And before anyone should accuse me of the nasty "R' word, sorry but did anyone here see Freddy Fitler on the Sunday Footy Show, when he asked Manu Vatuvei about his and the whole teams lay back and casual approach to life, and Manu's giggling reaction to it. It said everything. We have to many casual personalities right through all our grades. That needs to be addressed, end of story.

 

[Gary Gutful]

The team should've taken some time out of the hard pre season to learn how to bend spoons uri geller style.

The footage of Uri being set up on the Johnny Carson show is some of the best TV I have ever seen.

 

[Bigfella]

We need players that are mentally tough and disciplined. Dare I say it, more white fellas.

And before anyone should accuse me of the nasty "R' word, sorry but did anyone here see Freddy Fitler on the Sunday Footy Show, when he asked Manu Vatuvei about his and the whole teams lay back and casual approach to life, and Manu's giggling reaction to it. It said everything. We have to many casual personalities right through all our grades. That needs to be addressed, end of story.

You've converted me Ram.

If anything sums up an entire race it's a thirty secon sound bite from a footy show interview.

We should all make sweeping generalisations about multiple culture and races as a result of that.

 

[TheRam]

You've converted me Ram.

If anything sums up an entire race it's a thirty secon sound bite from a footy show interview.

We should all make sweeping generalisations about multiple culture and races as a result of that.

Yeah ok you got me, I'm a racist. Thank God you called me out, or otherwise I could have manipulated the naive and susceptible young.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

We agree with Poupou. We just can't believe all these weak merkins were signed when Kearney clearly knew how weak they were.

The only ones from the current squad that were at that boot camp are:

Allgood
Hayne
Keating
Lasalo
Mannah
Moimoi
Morgan
Smith

 

[Gronk]

I doubt that Kearney has the aptitude to detect mental weakness.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

You've converted me Ram.

If anything sums up an entire race it's a thirty secon sound bite from a footy show interview.

We should all make sweeping generalisations about multiple culture and races as a result of that.

If you know anything about other cultures you'll know that one of the things that separates them is their values. And win-at-any-cost seems to be very important to some cultures (e.g. bogan* culture) and not so important to others (e.g. any culture that could be described as 'laid back').

Guus Hiddink mentioned in his book that when he worked with the Thai national team they had to overcome the lack of competitive drive in the Thai players. Because they are such laid back, gentle people they just didn't have the aggression required to compete at that level.

*I know 'bogan' is a racist term but I am one myself so it's ok if I use that word.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I doubt that Kearney has the aptitude to detect mental weakness.

More spin Gronk?

 

[Gronk]

More spin Gronk?

Yeah I'm probably wrong. No doubt Kearney is not coaching first grade cos he's not in the mood or something.

Thoughts ?

 

[EelsFan05]

If you know anything about other cultures you'll know that one of the things that separates them is their values. And win-at-any-cost seems to be very important to some cultures (e.g. bogan* culture) and not so important to others (e.g. any culture that could be described as 'laid back').

Guus Hiddink mentioned in his book that when he worked with the Thai national team they had to overcome the lack of competitive drive in the Thai players. Because they are such laid back, gentle people they just didn't have the aggression required to compete at that level.

*I know 'bogan' is a racist term but I am one myself so it's ok if I use that word.

Way to generalise. Will to succeed/win is an individual trait. What other races can you pigeon hole with one trait? They are plenty of loser bogans out there that have no drive to suceed/win at all.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Yeah I'm probably wrong. No doubt Kearney is not coaching first grade cos he's not in the mood or something.

Thoughts ?

He is coaching first grade; he's an assistant coach at the Broncos.

 

[Gronk]

He is coaching first grade; he's an assistant coach at the Broncos.

No mate. He's the first grade coach's helper.

#spindoctor