Quade Cooper will join the Parramatta Eels after Rugby World Cup

[parra pete]

Cooper was a standout tonight at the Bledisloe . This boy has Rugby League Player written all over him.

AND a few other things too.
Why do these blokes get so many tattoos? Wonder what they'll look like when they are in their 70s....:lol:

 

[cv8z]

[/B]


AND a few other things too.
Why do these blokes get so many tattoos? Wonder what they'll look like when they are in their 70s....:lol:

like all the others in their 70's

 

[mrpwnd]

[/B]


AND a few other things too.
Why do these blokes get so many tattoos? Wonder what they'll look like when they are in their 70s....:lol:

Can't be too bad, the tattoos will look like crumpled bedsheets with pretty patterns from all the wrinkling. Imagine Carney in his 70s, that'd be amusing.

 

[Wise Old Eel]

$850 k for cooper . ouch! really hoping , murray and humble come through for us next year.
here is a list of off contract nrl halves for 2011.

James Maloney
Robert Lui
Benji Marshall
Braith Anasta
Chris Sandow
Luke Walsh
Kurt Gidley
Jarrod Mullen
Ben Roberts

out of the list the only players i could see coming to parra or giving us any value are

Luke Walsh and James Maloney. but even then i would not be overly excited at the prospect of having them two in our halves.

Paying such a ridiculous amount of money for an untried player is just stupid. Anderson is right to want no part of it. In this era of the salary cap, having 2 players in your squad that take up a large proportion of it is short sighted and just asking for trouble. It would mean the depth in your squad would be non existant and should a serious injury (or two) happen, you would be paying top dollar for players who are sitting on the sideline. For that amount of money, I would want guarantees that he would be a sensation - but we all know there are no such things as guarantees.

The Dragons look set to win the comp this year & I bet none of their squad is paid anywhere near the amounts rumoured for Cooper or Hayne.

Out of this list, I would make a serious play for Mullen at 6 & Maloney at 7. Both are skillful, durable, reliable players. You would then have depth with Humble, Robson and Murray.

WOE

 

[parra pete]

like all the others in their 70's

Only with silly drawings all over their bodies, necks, backs :lol:.....

 

[TeHEel]

The Dragons look set to win the comp this year & I bet none of their squad is paid anywhere near the amounts rumoured for Cooper or Hayne.

WOE

I would argue they do not have a player as good as Hayne or QC, they do however have the advantage of having a coach that some players are willing to take a cut to play with. As such their squad across the board is strong and Bennett is able to get the best out of them.

 

[mrpwnd]

I would argue they do not have a player as good as Hayne or QC, they do however have the advantage of having a coach that some players are willing to take a cut to play with. As such their squad across the board is strong and Bennett is able to get the best out of them.

IMO, Dragons are the most balanced squad in the comp.
Hard running props, backrowers that run holes and edges, a decent(albeit a dickhead that I hate)fullback who can link with the outside players and the most consistent/reliable halves combination in the comp.
Other than boring footy, there aren't too many flaws in the dragons side, choke aside they're the most likely chance of a premiership by a fairly big margin.

 

[TeHEel]

I agree my point is that they do not have any "superstars" which attract the top dollar. It will be interesting to see how the club goes post Wayne, bet you see a fair number of their players move on...

 

[CrazyEel]

IMO, Dragons are the most balanced squad in the comp.
Hard running props, backrowers that run holes and edges, a decent(albeit a dickhead that I hate)fullback who can link with the outside players and the most consistent/reliable halves combination in the comp.
Other than boring footy, there aren't too many flaws in the dragons side, choke aside they're the most likely chance of a premiership by a fairly big margin.

Yes they look that way now but certainly didn't prior to Bennetts arrival and IMO they will fall apart when he moves on. With Dragons it is more a case of the coach his structure and tactics more so than the quality of the individual players. They play a team game rather than rely on stars.

 

[The EELiminator]

is anyone else a little concerned that quade hasnt even joined parra yet and they are already bending over backwards for him? if any other potential signing said "i'll join your team not now but in 12 months time" they would tell them to go to hell wouldnt they? no instead we are going to leave $$$$$$ that could go towards someone else right now sitting around gathering dust until he signs up

 

[Gronk]

is anyone else a little concerned that quade hasnt even joined parra yet and they are already bending over backwards for him? if any other potential signing said "i'll join your team not now but in 12 months time" they would tell them to go to hell wouldnt they? no instead we are going to leave $$$$$$ that could go towards someone else right now sitting around gathering dust until he signs up

I think it's a good thing that we havn't signed him. That way if Cronk gets a release we can use the $$$ to sign him.

 

[forward pass]

Poor Quade is doing it tough isn't he?

Currently in Bali shagging Stephanie Rice. hmmmm - someone has to do it.

 

[Eelementary]

Paying such a ridiculous amount of money for an untried player is just stupid. Anderson is right to want no part of it. In this era of the salary cap, having 2 players in your squad that take up a large proportion of it is short sighted and just asking for trouble. It would mean the depth in your squad would be non existant and should a serious injury (or two) happen, you would be paying top dollar for players who are sitting on the sideline. For that amount of money, I would want guarantees that he would be a sensation - but we all know there are no such things as guarantees.

The Dragons look set to win the comp this year & I bet none of their squad is paid anywhere near the amounts rumoured for Cooper or Hayne.

Out of this list, I would make a serious play for Mullen at 6 & Maloney at 7. Both are skillful, durable, reliable players. You would then have depth with Humble, Robson and Murray.

WOE

And we nearly won the title last year with a nearly identical squad to this year's. Certainly the starting spine didn't change, and the gains we got in the forwards made up for the losses.

Quade Cooper is a GUN. I don't think he'll ever play for the Eels. But I dream of it. If he joined Parramatta, playing behind our good forward pack and feeding blokes like Sio, Tahu, Loko, Grothe, Burt, Reddy and Hayne quality ball...

Quade Cooper is a GUN.

 

[mrpwnd]

And we nearly won the title last year with a nearly identical squad to this year's. Certainly the starting spine didn't change, and the gains we got in the forwards made up for the losses.

Quade Cooper is a GUN. I don't think he'll ever play for the Eels. But I dream of it. If he joined Parramatta, playing behind our good forward pack and feeding blokes like Sio, Tahu, Loko, Grothe, Burt, Reddy and Hayne quality ball...

Quade Cooper is a GUN.

Last year we had Inu actually playing properly, Morts away from the 7 jumper, Galuvao, Lowrie, Grothe and Kingston.
TBH our halves contributed very little to that run last year, it was crazy metres from our pack and Hayne making linebreaks everywhere.

 

[cgee221]

Last year we had Inu actually playing properly, Morts away from the 7 jumper, Galuvao, Lowrie, Grothe and Kingston.
TBH our halves contributed very little to that run last year, it was crazy metres from our pack and Hayne making linebreaks everywhere.

Our pack was amazing last year....offloading, quick play the balls....playing against tiring and retreating defensive lines...no wonder we dominated!

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Other than boring footy, there aren't too many flaws in the dragons side, choke aside they're the most likely chance of a premiership by a fairly big margin.

If they lose this weekend or in the grand final it won't be because they choked; it'll be because they found themselves behind on the scoreboard (it happens) and lack the players to create something magical. There's Gasnier, who was awesome in his prime, and young enough to get back to that form, and there's Jamie Soward, whose confidence leaves him when he makes a couple of mistakes.

I'm not convinced that going the road of more depth, less stars is the right way to win a premiership. Too often it's the team with poor depth and a couple of match-winners who wins all their finals matches.

Of course this kind of team is susceptible to sucking arse big-time when their superstars miss games, but that's the risk you take.

Unfortunately it looks like a team of champions does better in finals footy than a champion team.

 

[Craig Johnston]

If they lose this weekend or in the grand final it won't be because they choked; it'll be because they found themselves behind on the scoreboard (it happens) and lack the players to create something magical. There's Gasnier, who was awesome in his prime, and young enough to get back to that form, and there's Jamie Soward, whose confidence leaves him when he makes a couple of mistakes.

I'm not convinced that going the road of more depth, less stars is the right way to win a premiership. Too often it's the team with poor depth and a couple of match-winners who wins all their finals matches.

Of course this kind of team is susceptible to sucking arse big-time when their superstars miss games, but that's the risk you take.

Unfortunately it looks like a team of champions does better in finals footy than a champion team.

so where's jono thurston in all that then?

let me see, grand final "winners" and runner ups in recent years.....

storm....na
manly....na (and here we are with some of you blokes bagging orford relentlessly today :lol
broncos...na
us......that's a slap in the face to the rest of the boys

.....not quite following this point you're trying to make given the line-ups for those teams above

 

[boxhead]

so where's jono thurston in all that then?

let me see, grand final "winners" and runner ups in recent years.....

storm....na
manly....na (and here we are with some of you blokes bagging orford relentlessly today :lol
broncos...na
us......that's a slap in the face to the rest of the boys

.....not quite following this point you're trying to make given the line-ups for those teams above

Tigers 2005. Scott Prince and Benji Marshall.
Bulldogs 2004. The 'all star' team, with Thurston.
In 2005 the Thurston-led Cowboys were runners-up.

I see his point that focusing your game around a few pivotal players, like the Cowboys with Bowen, Thurston and Payne or us with Hayne (but from a Parra fan's view yes we are a champion team ) can really pay off. I.e. the Tigers without Robbie Farah or Benji Marshall (or both) are the most dis-organised team in the competition.

Funny thing is though, with the Dragons they do rely on a single player who is the pivot in their attacking structure; Darius Boyd. Take Darius Boyd out of their side at any point this year and they are hopeless at scoring tries. People might think Hornby or Soward make up for that, but unfortunately with no Boyd, Soward has to do everything.

 

[Eelementary]

Last year we had Inu actually playing properly, Morts away from the 7 jumper, Galuvao, Lowrie, Grothe and Kingston.
TBH our halves contributed very little to that run last year, it was crazy metres from our pack and Hayne making linebreaks everywhere.

Inu isn't responsible for this year's disaster. He didn't play well, but he can't be blamed.

Galuvao was replaced by Poore, and Lowrie by Horo.

Our pack this year did a magnificent job, too. We usually gained easy metres and managed to keep the ruck under control. Our lack of options in the halves killed us.

But the main point in all this was that we nearly won the title last year and we had an "unbalanced" squad with Hayne taking a huge chunk of the cap on his own. This argument of "you need a balanced squad" doesn't make sense to me. What you need is a team that can boast a few stars.

Look at the Dragons - Boyd, Soward and Morris. Three gun attacking players right there. All representative players (or on the border of becoming one, in Soward's case). All pricey and taking up a chunk of the cap.

 

[Craig Johnston]

Tigers 2005. Scott Prince and Benji Marshall.
Bulldogs 2004. The 'all star' team, with Thurston.
In 2005 the Thurston-led Cowboys were runners-up.

I see his point that focusing your game around a few pivotal players, like the Cowboys with Bowen, Thurston and Payne or us with Hayne (but from a Parra fan's view yes we are a champion team ) can really pay off. I.e. the Tigers without Robbie Farah or Benji Marshall (or both) are the most dis-organised team in the competition.

Funny thing is though, with the Dragons they do rely on a single player who is the pivot in their attacking structure; Darius Boyd. Take Darius Boyd out of their side at any point this year and they are hopeless at scoring tries. People might think Hornby or Soward make up for that, but unfortunately with no Boyd, Soward has to do everything.

sorry to burst your bubble boxhead but 2005 is not as RECENT as ALL the teams i listed.

why not go back to 1986 while you're at it?