NRLW

[perverse]

I think what hurts is we know she's just going to end up playing for the Broncos and the NRLW will go back to them winning every year. Yuck.

3 year deal at the Broncos. Oh well, at least we're the good guys I guess?

 

[Apey]

3 year deal at the Broncos. Oh well, at least we're the good guys I guess?

It was a foregone conclusion the moment it was made public she wanted to go home to Queensland.

At least I have a good reason to hate the Broncos again. I was cheering for them in 2023, because f**k the Panthers. They've been shit for so long the hate really wore off for me. This should do the trick nicely. f**k the Broncos.

 

[Knight Tales]

We just have to go out and find another gun: it’s what it is. Can’t replace her. For someone missing her people her sense of Geography is way off. I call BS.

 

[Haffa]

No cap in NRLW either apparently

 

[Haffa]

We just have to go out and find another gun: it’s what it is. Can’t replace her. For someone missing her people her sense of Geography is way off. I call BS.

Influence of a few key people during Roos camp.

 

[mozza91]

NRL might get that Roosters/Broncos GF they’ve been begging for the last few years.

 

[perverse]

We just have to go out and find another gun: it’s what it is. Can’t replace her. For someone missing her people her sense of Geography is way off. I call BS.

Yep, hardly much closer to home in practical terms. What a load of bullshit, we got taken for a ride.

There's a stink of discontent around our team anyway. We turfed our immensely popular, premiership winning coach that the team loved in favour of... well, i'm not impressed with the results so far.

I'd say our NRLW golden era is over at this stage. I expect a slow descent to where the mens team are at from here. Mismanaged rubbish.

 

[Haffa]

Yep, hardly much closer to home in practical terms. What a load of bullshit, we got taken for a ride.

There's a stink of discontent around our team anyway. We turfed our immensely popular, premiership winning coach that the team loved in favour of... well, i'm not impressed with the results so far.

I'd say our NRLW golden era is over at this stage. I expect a slow descent to where the mens team are at from here. Mismanaged rubbish.

Like the mens team it's going to come down to development and some smart recruitment. We have some of the best juniors coming through and our Gale team is always thereabouts. We have Lilly-Ann White, Evah McEwan and Evie Jones coming through from the NSW U/19s.

It's going to be interested to see what they do with the marquee spot now free.

Dogs, Dragons, Wahs, Roosters and Broncos are looking very good on paper.

 

[Apey]

I do not understand what happened with Ronald Griffiths. From the outside looking in, it looked like we moved him to NSW cup coach because he had such success with the NRLW and presumably we hoped that could translate to preparing our NSW Cup players for the NRL. It never seemed like his idea to swap roles based on interviews, and what followed was probably confirmation of that - out the door and is coaching another NRLW team in 2025.

I haven't really formed an opinion about our current coach yet, there were some mitigating circumstances with losing Johnston for the year and we still had a decent year I thought. That being said, Griffiths clearly knew what he was doing with the girls and it was a mistake settling for less.

 

[Nuke]

I f**ken hate the f**ken Broncos so much.
I'm frequently, also, pissed off at my beloved Knights for seemingly constantly buggering up any good thing we have going. Always the mens team, now, seemingly, the womens too.

I said it a few weeks ago, possibly right here in this thread, but it just feels like we, as Knights fans, just can't have nice things.

 

[perverse]

I do not understand what happened with Ronald Griffiths. From the outside looking in, it looked like we moved him to NSW cup coach because he had such success with the NRLW and presumably we hoped that could translate to preparing our NSW Cup players for the NRL. It never seemed like his idea to swap roles based on interviews, and what followed was probably confirmation of that - out the door and is coaching another NRLW team in 2025.

I haven't really formed an opinion about our current coach yet, there were some mitigating circumstances with losing Johnston for the year and we still had a decent year I thought. That being said, Griffiths clearly knew what he was doing with the girls and it was a mistake settling for less.

Legitimate mismanagement on full display. Such an easy layup, too. You're peeling off premierships with a fantastic coach that your gun squad loves to play for... and you just rip it apart for no good reason.

From the outside looking in, it's absolute insanity.

 

[Seage]

I'd much rather win NRLW Premierships than NSW Cup Premierships too. NSW Cup just needs a pathways coach that can handle coaching 50 different faces every week.
We now get to watch Ron work his magic at the Warriors, while we've lost our best player after a season in which we played some dreadful football at times - stuff that didn't happen under Ron.

 

[mattw5]

Botille Vette Welsh has signed for 3 years as replacement heard this through a reliable source.

 

[Haffa]

Botille Vette Welsh has signed for 3 years as replacement heard this through a reliable source.

Handy player who looked decent in a dreadful tigers side. Also captained them this season. Not Upton but it’s the best available given we were left with looking at the market late.

 

[mattw5]

Handy player who looked decent in a dreadful tigers side. Also captained them this season. Not Upton but it’s the best available given we were left with looking at the market late.

This came from one of her good friends btw

 

[aqua_duck]

Botille Vette Welsh has signed for 3 years as replacement heard this through a reliable source.

It’s as good a replacement as we can hope for under the circumstances, same age, same position and a top quality player who’s unfortunately hasn’t had many quality players around her in recent years.

What confuses me about the Tamika Upton affair is that she cites the death of her grandfather and not being able to be around her family during the grieving process as the catalyst for her requesting a release but the timing doesn’t make sense, her grandfather passed away in March, at that time she was l literally at home playing for the Capras in the BMD premiership who are based in Rockhampton, that competition ran till the end of May at which time she was called into Qld origin camp again based in Qld, the first NRL trial was till July. She literally only spent 3 months of the year in Newcastle.
Not to downplay anyone’s grief or need to be around family and friends but as someone who was her biggest fan I’ve lost quite abit of respect for her.

 

[PhilGould]

Her and the Southwells were travelling up from Newcastle to play the BMD premiership games. NRLW season is 5 months including preseason but she had a full time off-field job with the Knights so was a permanent resident in Newcastle.

 

[Nuke]

It’s as good a replacement as we can hope for under the circumstances, same age, same position and a top quality player who’s unfortunately hasn’t had many quality players around her in recent years.

What confuses me about the Tamika Upton affair is that she cites the death of her grandfather and not being able to be around her family during the grieving process as the catalyst for her requesting a release but the timing doesn’t make sense, her grandfather passed away in March, at that time she was l literally at home playing for the Capras in the BMD premiership who are based in Rockhampton, that competition ran till the end of May at which time she was called into Qld origin camp again based in Qld, the first NRL trial was till July. She literally only spent 3 months of the year in Newcastle.
Not to downplay anyone’s grief or need to be around family and friends but as someone who was her biggest fan I’ve lost quite abit of respect for her.

Likewise. I'm certainly not one to downplay the importance of family and the effect grief can have on someone who wasn't there at the end of the life of a loved one, but this 'defecting to Broncos' thing smacks of a cop-out to me, and I'm not buying it or respecting it.

I feel the Broncos players got in her ear while she was in the Qld Origin camp, putting little thoughts in her head, then drove it home while they were in the Australian camp a couple of months ago.

I hope she gets all the family time she needs from this point on ... and that it severely affects the Broncos in a negative way. F**k them.

 

[Apey]

Botille Vette Welsh has signed for 3 years as replacement heard this through a reliable source.

Confirmed a few days ago and we've also extended Evah McEwen until the end of 2027.

 

[Haffa]

Likewise. I'm certainly not one to downplay the importance of family and the effect grief can have on someone who wasn't there at the end of the life of a loved one, but this 'defecting to Broncos' thing smacks of a cop-out to me, and I'm not buying it or respecting it.

I feel the Broncos players got in her ear while she was in the Qld Origin camp, putting little thoughts in her head, then drove it home while they were in the Australian camp a couple of months ago.

I hope she gets all the family time she needs from this point on ... and that it severely affects the Broncos in a negative way. F**k them.

I'm very excited to return home to my family and in particular the club where I started, with all the girls
that I started with - it's really gone full circle. I've watched all the games closely and I've had some of my really good friends still playing for the Broncos so l've even gone to Sydney to watch their games live when I've been able to, I've loved
still supporting them while I've been away.