R7: 405pm EELS v Bulldogs GAME DAY THREAD @ Commbank Stadium 16/4/23

[Noise]

I would love to see a stat for PCM against Mahoney. We were making a bee line for him every run through the middle and he was getting dragged.

 

[DaveMc]

I would love to see a stat for PCM against Mahoney. We were making a bee line for him every run through the middle and he was getting dragged.

No coincidence, either. It was pretty ruthless exploitation of his defensive weakness, and no doubt was sowed from our own experience with him in our side. Dare I say it, yesterday looked like a very well coached win. Still need to respect possession more, though.

 

[Cloeel]

Saw that this morning certainly interesting.

While i don't blame him for not getting on with the Penrith boys and Freddy is a tosspot for not picking him there in origin.

There must be something about Reg which rubs people off the wrong way behind the scenes perhaps.

Reg comes across as the kind of bloke who is not afraid to speak his mind and tell you exactly how it is or how he sees a situation.

It is not a coincidence when Reg is playing well, Parra is playing well.

 

[King-Gutho94]

We need to improve our completion rate and hit & stick.

The Broncos are a good side, but the Tits missed 40 tackles last week. Even in our most dogshit weeks this year we have only missed high 20's.

Good on the Broncos, they are on a roll and deserve success and had good wins vs Pennys and Dolphins. They also had wins agains some shitty teams like scrappy Cows, Dragons, Tigers and Tits. They dropped a game vs Raiders two weeks ago. Form side of the comp ? Are they ?

Nope Penrith are.

Even though they beat them in round 1 - Penrith were underdone from a short pre-season i feel. Got them at right time for an ambush on the road in round 1.

Broncos have been lucky they haven't had to travel since round 1 - they had 5 straight games at Suncorp then a trip down the freeway to the GC.

Looking at the other teams they have beat nothing all bottom 8 teams from last year.

 

[King-Gutho94]

No coincidence, either. It was pretty ruthless exploitation of his defensive weakness, and no doubt was sowed from our own experience with him in our side. Dare I say it, yesterday looked like a very well coached win. Still need to respect possession more, though.

Well thankfully that was the case.

I would have been concerned if we didn't.

Reed played over 100 games for us we should have known his weakness in defence by now and kept hammering him with the big guys.

I thought we were very controlled despite some errors. Russell stuffed up 2 drop outs which didnt help build more pressure. But we didnt look flustered or look like panicking the whole game.

 

[DaveMc]

Well thankfully that was the case.

I would have been concerned if we didn't.

Reed played over 100 games for us we should have known his weakness in defence by now and kept hammering him with the big guys.

I thought we were very controlled despite some errors. Russell stuffed up 2 drop outs which didnt help build more pressure. But we didnt look flustered or look like panicking the whole game.

Yep agreed. Was probably our most comfortable win for some time, it never really felt doubtful, even with only a couple of scores in it into the last quarter.

 

[hineyrulz]

Saw that this morning certainly interesting.

While i don't blame him for not getting on with the Penrith boys and Freddy is a tosspot for not picking him there in origin.

There must be something about Reg which rubs people off the wrong way behind the scenes perhaps.

It was more interesting from the Mahoney point of view, I think there was no love lost there between him and a few players. Might be another reason we were happy to not pay overs.

 

[Cloeel]

It was more interesting from the Mahoney point of view, I think there was no love lost there between him and a few players. Might be another reason we were happy to not pay overs.

Our leaders seem to "like" Mahoney but don't necessarily "respect" him.

Mahoney is a good hard working player. However is he a player you would want in the trenches with you; when a game is going down to the wire?

 

[King-Gutho94]

It was more interesting from the Mahoney point of view, I think there was no love lost there between him and a few players. Might be another reason we were happy to not pay overs.

Well i would imagine he is typical cheeky dummy half who doesn't mind giving lip.

He even got Cameron Smith rattled in a semi final when Melbourne were in front by 20.

 

[Gazzamatta]

I would love to see a stat for PCM against Mahoney. We were making a bee line for him every run through the middle and he was getting dragged.

After the game and in the presser he came across as a bit of a sook. I left right on fulltime. Did anyone notice any interaction with any of his former team mates?
I saw Andrew Davey and Perham having a chat. In fact Davey and some Eels were having a great laugh together.
Rheed is definitely carrying a chip on his shoulder. Looks like he wanted to stay but got disappointed.

 

[hineyrulz]

Our leaders seem to "like" Mahoney but don't necessarily "respect" him.

Mahoney is a good hard working player. However is he a player you would want in the trenches with you; when a game is going down to the wire?

Well I’d prefer him there than the pensioner, but yeah his size is a massive weakness, much more easily exploitable in a weaker pack like the Dogs.

 

[Gazzamatta]

Well i would imagine he is typical cheeky dummy half who doesn't mind giving lip.

He even got Cameron Smith rattled in a semi final when Melbourne were in front by 20.

He will cop plenty more after our Eels showed how to expose him yesterday.

 

[Gazzamatta]

Well thankfully that was the case.

I would have been concerned if we didn't.

Reed played over 100 games for us we should have known his weakness in defence by now and kept hammering him with the big guys.

I thought we were very controlled despite some errors. Russell stuffed up 2 drop outs which didnt help build more pressure. But we didnt look flustered or look like panicking the whole game.

I was critical of Russell on that first drop out but his intentions were excellent. Trying to catch the ball low otherwise hes pushed into touch. Execution was poor though.
After that we had nfi from any restart kick.

 

[Gronk]

Well I’d prefer him there than the pensioner, but yeah his size is a massive weakness, much more easily exploitable in a weaker pack like the Dogs.

The Pensioner has a job to do and he will bring through Hands and hopefully another hooker this year and next. There is no ego around Hodgo and if Hands ends up playing the most minutes or even all the minutes, then that's fine. I have noticed that all the senior players really listen to Hodgo when he talks, it's clear that they respect him and great that they can understand WTF he is saying cos I can't half the time

.

 

[The Predictor]

I don't recall a rookie going from NSW cup to pre-season to NRL as well as he as. So well done to him. Will Penisini maybe but has a forward just transitioned straight away ? Agree, he needs to slow down, but f**k me he's already better than 60% of NRL middles out there.

Absolutely, he is very good, just needs to pace himself

 

[yy_cheng]

I think Matto on that edge was outstanding. It's a shame that we don't have a 80 min hooker, but it is what it is. So next week we go back to a hooker on the bench and Doorey drops off.

Carty was great. The rest did their job, but could be anybody really. After Rnd 10 we might get some rotation there I think.

There was some defense from carty that seemed iffy

 

[TheRam]

RCG was huge. Matterson also.
Hopgood made bad errors at times we could of blown the game open.
Our attack is clunky. But we won easily. Simmonson will come into he side next week. Russel stays in. I'd almost rather stick with Hands then bring Hodgson back. But atleast now we know he is more then capable.
If we have any cash to spend id like to see another forward. And perhaps another wong option.

Lane was much better this week. Grieg also I felt had his best game.

In the first half Tevita Pangai Junior was tearing us a new one almost every time he touched the ball. If the Dogs weren't so injury ravaged and their little Judas captain wasn't having such a shocker, then things could have gone a lot differently.

I would love to see us approach him and try to get him here for this season. He is perfect for our needs. Two 20 min stints in each half. Sometimes starting sometimes from the bench. Our 2 starting boppers and the rest of the team would love it and thrive.

I understand that the Dogs were trying to offload him late last season but due to his high price tag $950K this season and $750K next understandably there were no takers. But for our purposes if we were to sign him in the last week of June, the cut of time allowed, he would only be entitled to a maximum of 4 months of this years contract. That is roughly $320K, which by all accounts we have around 500-600K available still for this season to play with. If this is true, then I would offer him 400K for this season as a carrot(not to mention the possible end of season finals and maybe a GF if we are still in contention by then) and then whatever else money wise we have lets say we had $500K to play with initially add that to this years contract and then deduct the extra $100K off next seasons salary.

Does that make sense. In other words he is on our books this year for $500K and for 2024 he is on our books for $650K instead of the full $750K that he was meant to be on. If we have $600K to play with then it would be even better for next year, he would be on our books for $550K which in my opinion is the sweet spot for a player like him.

I think we could get away with this with the NRL rules because we are renegotiating the total amount of his existing contract by offering TPJ that extra $80K as part of the inducement to sign with us.

He apparently has been focused like never before, training the house down for him anyway, preparing for a boxing gig and even told the Dogs that if he goes over the weight of 110kg they can sack him.

These figures are only valid if the Dogs want to offload him at full freight. If they are still keen to offload him so they can sign someone else like the Penrith fullback or five/eighth then they maybe are willing to keep a little of that freight on their books to do so. Then signing him really ends up looking attractive. But either way I believe it is a great deal for us and could change our fortunes in a massive way.

Like I said he is the perfect wrecking ball with probably the best offload in the game. What he did in that first half for his first game back for the season was unbelievable. His second stint was nowhere near as good, but that is understandable considering how ordinary the Dogs were overall after the first 20 minutes or so. Imagine how destructively good a focused TPJ would be in a team like ours that plays a power game. He would flourish and with a possible title on the line for extra motivation he could really be our x-factor of a different sort.

Alternately we could ask the Dogs to loan him out when their season is done and dusted. That maybe an appealing scenario for them salary cap relief wise as well as suiting our purposes for this season.

But boy would it be a coup if our club, A. actually thought of it and B. pulled it off.

But I ain't holding my breath for any major new signings for this year at all. We just aren't that smart a club. MON moves at the speed of a million year old glacier. I mean just take a look at his recruitment and signings for the NRLW squad. What an action man and thinker of the game he is.

 

[the phantom menace]

Too pricey imo.

We're developing Greig into a similar role (albeit only one 20min impact stint at the moment) quite nicely and much more cheaply.

We need an outside back badly (to fill Opacic/Waqa's place).

 

[Soren Lorenson]

MON moves at the speed of a million year old glacier. I mean just take a look at his recruitment and signings for the NRLW squad. What an action man and thinker of the game he is.

MON does not deal with the signings for the NRLW squad.

 

[Gronk]

In the first half Tevita Pangai Junior was tearing us a new one almost every time he touched the ball. If the Dogs weren't so injury ravaged and their little Judas captain wasn't having such a shocker, then things could have gone a lot differently.

I would love to see us approach him and try to get him here for this season. He is perfect for our needs. Two 20 min stints in each half. Sometimes starting sometimes from the bench. Our 2 starting boppers and the rest of the team would love it and thrive.

I understand that the Dogs were trying to offload him late last season but due to his high price tag $950K this season and $750K next understandably there were no takers. But for our purposes if we were to sign him in the last week of June, the cut of time allowed, he would only be entitled to a maximum of 4 months of this years contract. That is roughly $320K, which by all accounts we have around 500-600K available still for this season to play with. If this is true, then I would offer him 400K for this season as a carrot(not to mention the possible end of season finals and maybe a GF if we are still in contention by then) and then whatever else money wise we have lets say we had $500K to play with initially add that to this years contract and then deduct the extra $100K off next seasons salary.

Does that make sense. In other words he is on our books this year for $500K and for 2024 he is on our books for $650K instead of the full $750K that he was meant to be on. If we have $600K to play with then it would be even better for next year, he would be on our books for $550K which in my opinion is the sweet spot for a player like him.

I think we could get away with this with the NRL rules because we are renegotiating the total amount of his existing contract by offering TPJ that extra $80K as part of the inducement to sign with us.

He apparently has been focused like never before, training the house down for him anyway, preparing for a boxing gig and even told the Dogs that if he goes over the weight of 110kg they can sack him.

These figures are only valid if the Dogs want to offload him at full freight. If they are still keen to offload him so they can sign someone else like the Penrith fullback or five/eighth then they maybe are willing to keep a little of that freight on their books to do so. Then signing him really ends up looking attractive. But either way I believe it is a great deal for us and could change our fortunes in a massive way.

Like I said he is the perfect wrecking ball with probably the best offload in the game. What he did in that first half for his first game back for the season was unbelievable. His second stint was nowhere near as good, but that is understandable considering how ordinary the Dogs were overall after the first 20 minutes or so. Imagine how destructively good a focused TPJ would be in a team like ours that plays a power game. He would flourish and with a possible title on the line for extra motivation he could really be our x-factor of a different sort.

Alternately we could ask the Dogs to loan him out when their season is done and dusted. That maybe an appealing scenario for them salary cap relief wise as well as suiting our purposes for this season.

But boy would it be a coup if our club, A. actually thought of it and B. pulled it off.

But I ain't holding my breath for any major new signings for this year at all. We just aren't that smart a club. MON moves at the speed of a million year old glacier. I mean just take a look at his recruitment and signings for the NRLW squad. What an action man and thinker of the game he is.

We'd be far better off with Matt King. Half the price and twice the worker.