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?

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

Small man syndrome strikes again for Sticky. His players seem to love him but fk me he's an angry little man sometimes.

 

[Beavers Headgear]

There is talk around that the All Stars game will depart the calendar next year anyway. Personally I don’t mind that as I have absolutely no interest in it at all

 

[Scott]

There is talk around that the All Stars game will depart the calendar next year anyway. Personally I don’t mind that as I have absolutely no interest in it at all

Likewise. I understand the cultural element to it, but it's not a game i watch.

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

I don’t mind it, but yea cant say I'd miss it massively either.

One thing’s clear though – if it gets moved to an afterthought at the end of the season, or even axed altogether, the players will only have themselves to blame.

I get players opting out if they're recovering from injury, that's entirely fair.

But it must've been a little galling for supporters of both teams seeing so many Indigenous and Maori players fronting for the Sharks and Canberra 2 nights beforehand. Especially Hynes who somehow kept a straight face when saying how much the Indigenous game meant to him.. after he'd made himself unavailable.

I get clubs will put the pressure on, but Fish and CNK showed if players care enough, they can make it happen. Those boys not only fronted for their people, they did it off a shortened preseason after Kiwis duty. Meanwhile not a single Vegas-bound player showed up for the Indigenous team.

 

[Wheeled Warrior]

There is talk around that the All Stars game will depart the calendar next year anyway. Personally I don’t mind that as I have absolutely no interest in it at all

Trials are less appealing for me. The players association will probably step in as I know many of the Māori and Indigenous players could revolt and put pressure on those talking kaka about stopping this great spectacle. This year's game was superb compared to those trials.

 

[Meth]

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

"He’s obviously coaching the way he used to play, very selfishly"

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Cam Murray has done his Achilles, massive blow for Souths. Latrell some early hammy issues as well

 

[JJ]

Quite the burn from Sticky, Adam Blair is out of his league there on every count

 

[JJ]

Cam Murray has done his Achilles, massive blow for Souths. Latrell some early hammy issues as well

That's terrible, Murray is such a quality player - sounds like the Schuster gamble might not pay dividends either

 

[RHYTHM AND STEALTH]

f**k Adam Blair

Good work Sticky

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

That's terrible, Murray is such a quality player - sounds like the Schuster gamble might not pay dividends either

What are the reports on Schuster? I haven’t seen anything and had forgotten he was even there

 

[Beavers Headgear]

What are the reports on Schuster? I haven’t seen anything and had forgotten he was even there

An hour after I predicted big things for him, reports have come out that things haven’t quite worked out as planned, and reportedly internally he doesn’t have the drive or love to play footy at the moment, and sounds like a few personal family issues have his mind elsewhere too. Souths have said they haven’t given up on him though

I was hoping a change might be just what he needed to get going again but it seems not and he may be headed for the if only pile. I won’t bag him though, his best mate was Keith Tittmus who died in the gym at Manly, mentally that may have done his career in and can’t have been easy going into Manly every day with the reminders of it, was a pretty heavy inquest last year that he was involved in as well

 

[SpaceMonkey]

An hour after I predicted big things for him, reports have come out that things haven’t quite worked out as planned, and reportedly internally he doesn’t have the drive or love to play footy at the moment, and sounds like a few personal family issues have his mind elsewhere too. Souths have said they haven’t given up on him though

I was hoping a change might be just what he needed to get going again but it seems not and he may be headed for the if only pile. I won’t bag him though, his best mate was Keith Tittmus who died in the gym at Manly, mentally that may have done his career in and can’t have been easy going into Manly every day with the reminders of it, was a pretty heavy inquest last year that he was involved in as well

That’s brutal and I’d totally understand if it had pretty much killed football for him. And it happened while back so it’s probably been something he’s been struggling to get past and not succeeding with. It’s really sad when mental issues get the best of players but at the end of the day welfare is more important than footy.
Speaking of which - has anyone heard what David Fusitua is up to these days? Last I heard he’d moved back to Auckland, hope he’s doing alright.

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Sounds like Klemmer will be at the Dragons before round 1

 

[Beavers Headgear]

Latrell Mitchell out for 8 weeks, hammy

Sione Katoa out for 5 months, shoulder

 

[RHYTHM AND STEALTH]

I love Latrell playing footy, so polarising but ive seen him around the fans, he is so good with them.

But between him and Turbo, they must be the most injury prone superstars ever!