Off Season 2024/25

[Penrose Warrior]

Now that Brad Parker has retired does he have a challenger for slowest and most unathletic back ?

Honestly, Adam Pompey is up there. Rough to say he's unathletic but he's certainly not quick. I think he should end up in the back row over time

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Ricky Stuart doesn’t miss Adam Blair here, love his assessment of his playing career

‘It was ridiculous’: Raiders coach Ricky Stuart slams Maori All Stars mentor Adam Blair for ’childish’ accusation

‘It was ridiculous’: Ricky slams Maori All Stars coach’s ’childish’ accusation

www.foxsports.com.au

Wow, who thought my opinion of Sticky could turn on a dime!!

The idea of the Maori guys playing in the lead-up to the Vegas fixture is unrealistic. Our guys played, because I imagine Fish made it a non-negotiable. But Nico/Trindall didn't play from Cronulla, Canberra's guys not there etc.

I will say that I think Sticky went way overboard with emotion and giving Blair stick, obviously has an axe to grind there. It wasn't as big a comment as the Rick made it out to be. Typical Ricky to get way too fired up. Adam Blair is a dummie but he didn't say anything majorly controversial.

And I completely disagree with him that the game is the wrong time of year. If you play it at the end of the year, everyone is spent with league. Guys will pull out injured. It's a perfect season starter (if you're not an NRL coach) - look at the passion and intensity those guys played with.

 

[Wheeled Warrior]

Ricky is a meathead. I’m not a fan of Blair either, but there are a few things Ricky overlooked:

1. The timing of this game has always been suited to the start of the year, coinciding with the trials. As previously mentioned, scheduling it at the end of the NRL season would result in many players being unavailable due to injuries or simply being worn out from a long season.
2. The Raiders players knew when the game was scheduled. I find it hard to believe that nobody from the Māori team reached out. Tapine was the captain last year, for crying out loud! Even if the Raiders were emailed, Ricky would have said no anyway.
3. Instead of coming out all fired up, Ricky should have just said, "Not this year due to the Vegas situation," which would have been understandable and left it at that.

Blair isn’t easy to defend—we all know what he’s like. But hearing Ricky claim that Blair’s selfishness as a player carries over into his coaching and mentoring is laughable. Ricky wouldn’t of held his players back if they had the opportunity to play Origin, and that shit is 3 games per year.

 

[Big Marn]

Does this carry back to the Storm v Raiders battles when Blair was there?