Ricky Stuart

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

I hope this is like the Commie five year plans.

The ones which took three.

We just need to rename them 'Glorious Five Year Plans' then . Probably where we went wrong.

 

[I bleed blue & gold]

So if we get some money back from Willie being out could we use that to front load contracts too??

 

[byrner]

One positive is that he knows our roster isnt up to scratch. There has to be a good hooker and a couple of tough front rowers out there who are willing to come to our team...

 

[Chipmunk]

Yes I think they upped the cap. We were maxed out though.

You would think that Hayne's deal has been massively frontloaded to this year then. Another reason why a two year option was good for him.

 

[Chipmunk]

I'd be surprised if Stuart is here beyond his 3 year contract. If we don't make the 8 during his tenure you can almost guarantee he won't be.

I think given the expected clean out of a large portion of the squad and our ability to replace them with new players that if we dont have immediate results in 2014 then Stuart will be shown the door then.

Having said that I expect them to put together a strong side and be super competitive for next year. You cannot write off a season after 4 weeks and then not produce something massive the following year and expect to keep your job in the NRL.

Some of those players may retire or be asked to look elsewhere. For instance Ben Smith and Moimoi may retire whilst Paulo and Ryan may be given permission to look elsewhere.

If you were Fui and Ben Smith, why would you retire with one year remaining on your contract? You might as well take the money for one last year. I think they will probably both retire at the end of 2014

As for Paulo and Ryan Im guessing they are on a deal that they are not going to get anywhere else, given their current form. Im also thinking Ryan wouldnt be on too much. Paulo I can see being a handy bench type player next year, so I think he will be kept around. I think Sticky has to spend this entire year to work out the best way to play Paulo.

Ken Edwards is also only on a one year deal. Terepo's contract is also ending this year. Could be the case with Nathan Smith aswell.

Im thinking if Ken Edwards, Terepo and Harrison for that matter as well cannot crack this team sometime over the next month then they are not really part of Sticky's plans. Bit hard to say on what his plans are for Nathan Smith as he has been injurered so far this year

Well if they're better than what's available then why not? And as the article states, at least they're not using up the whole salary cap on long contracts.

I was surprised Fui and Ben Smith got longer than a year though. But then, it's hard to get any player to sign a one year contract.

Here are the guys contracted beyond this year:

Harrison
Hayne
Hopoate
Kelly
Lussick
Ma'afu
Maitua
Mannah
Moimoi
Norman
Paulo
Ryan
Sandow
Sio
Smith, B
Tanginoa

Plus those four or five kids in NYC.

Ordinarily you don't want the majority of your squad off contract at the same time because they're all distracted about their futures, but the plus side is plenty of room to move under the cap.

The guys in bold above, along with Loko, will form the base of a pretty good side if we can recruit some handy forwards.

Of the others - I think Kelly is worth keeping on to become a potential 14 off the bench, but more importantly as an insurance policy for any injury to Sandow. Fui I think can probably offer something as the 4th front row off the bench next year. As for the rest...

 

[spiderdan]

Ha ha. I rate Ben Creagh. I reckon he's quality.

so does ricky stuart.

a cleanout sounds all well and good in theory but realistically there's no point letting go of players if there aren't better options on the market to replace them with that we can also fit under the cap.

 

[parra-matters]

Listening to Ricky one could have expected four losses. I get that he is trying to get the fans to face the reality that we don't have a roster as strong as most other clubs on paper but I for one think it's a coaches job to get his team to believe in themselves and achieve more than they thought possible.
Basically what Stuart is telling our players is that most of them are too shit individually to expect to win many games rather than telling them that as a team united they can be successful.
Do we have a weak roster? Yes we probably do but we also have a very young and inexperienced roster that is capable of much more if they reach their potential. I can't see them reaching that potential if our coach is saying that they simply are not good enough.
Sure you need a talented roster that works hard to win games but you also need a roster that believes in themselves and each other. If the coach doesn't believe in them and he is also telling the fans not to then how the hell does he expect his players to?

You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear Tony. (parrapete will love that one)
Basically all this positive thinking and telling players how good they are got us into this situation in the first place. You can't just sign some junior who goes alright in SG Ball and tell him he'll go good and then just expect it to all happen.
I'm glad Ricky is being "Realistic" no point sitting there are a 50 pt loss and saying "we are close to where we want to be" like Hagan did for the last year of his contract. Also no point and just signing players just for the sake it. They are targeting players to fill certain rolls. Problem so far with the salary cap rise is that most players will stay where they are on a slighty better contract instead of up and moving to get a much bigger contract. I think we really are only about 3-4 big good forwards away from a being a good team. Kelepi is one of those who's playing first grade now to get some experiance and will be all the better for it.
I'm Glad that Ricky is after a quick fix, but i can see benefits in signing a older prop and backrower coming towards the end of thier playing career's to help the junior ones coming through. Like Dean Pay, Jason Smith and Jim Dymock did for us in the late 90's.
But lets face it the club has been a shambles since Brian Smith left and it won't take 5mins to fix it.
Still can't believe some of the players we re-signed the last few years and the ones Ando let go. But thats the past, we can't change the past just learn from it.

 

[mickdo]

Surely we'd keep Paulo

 

[strider]

so does ricky stuart.

a cleanout sounds all well and good in theory but realistically there's no point letting go of players if there aren't better options on the market to replace them with that we can also fit under the cap.

mmmm - but even nuffies (or their managers) know that they can squeeze an extra year or something out of us cos we are struggling to get anyone else .... so then you end up committed to someone you don't really want/need for multiple years, sure on a low-mid salary but still it eats up some cap

 

[oldmancraigy]

Didnt they up the cap after we missed out on Izzy? So there would be a fair bit of room.

I am trying to think why/when/how our talent scouting/development went so wrong. Was it when Crusher left or Brian Smith?

It was when Crusher left.

Coincidentally Manly started finding quality juniors after they got him...

 

[Morkel]

Ricky Stuart is a joke as a coach. Always has been & always will be. NSW were competitive despite having him as coach, and the fact that he's moved on means that if NSW do win a series, at least we don't have to see him perched on top of some smug tower of self-satisfaction.

He is a hypocrite, best example was not picking Hayne at fullback because 'his position is really 5/8 and doesn't want to pick players out of position', yet pretty much next game selects him in the centres. He has no idea what he is doing and will constantly blame others, or external factors, for his own failures.

The Eels were stupid to sign him. Granted, he had one ace up his sleeve - the fact that he was NSW coach. The theory being that he would have a rapport with the incumbents and therefore be able to lure them to Parra. Or better yet, aspiring NSW players would sign with the Eels in order to get under Stuart's nose. Anyway, he was supposed to be a drawcard. Giving up the State gig just took away any positives for him as a club coach and the Eels are seeing that now.

This latest rant just once again shows that he is not able to accept responsibility. Sure, their roster isn't the best. But there's a decent crop of youngsters that, with the aid of a decent coach, should be starting to step up about now. But they don't have a decent coach. And their recruitment is busted because they've become the desperate ugly sister in the NRL - willing to do anything so sign any crappy talent, and still catching nothing except for Norman, albeit at 3 times his real value.

 

[mickdo]

Ricky Stuart is a joke as a coach. Always has been & always will be. NSW were competitive despite having him as coach

Yeah, NSW had a miles better side than Qld every year :sarcasm:

 

[Craig Johnston]

Ricky Stuart is a joke as a coach. Always has been & always will be. NSW were competitive despite having him as coach, and the fact that he's moved on means that if NSW do win a series, at least we don't have to see him perched on top of some smug tower of self-satisfaction.

He is a hypocrite, best example was not picking Hayne at fullback because 'his position is really 5/8 and doesn't want to pick players out of position', yet pretty much next game selects him in the centres. He has no idea what he is doing and will constantly blame others, or external factors, for his own failures.

The Eels were stupid to sign him. Granted, he had one ace up his sleeve - the fact that he was NSW coach. The theory being that he would have a rapport with the incumbents and therefore be able to lure them to Parra. Or better yet, aspiring NSW players would sign with the Eels in order to get under Stuart's nose. Anyway, he was supposed to be a drawcard. Giving up the State gig just took away any positives for him as a club coach and the Eels are seeing that now.

This latest rant just once again shows that he is not able to accept responsibility. Sure, their roster isn't the best. But there's a decent crop of youngsters that, with the aid of a decent coach, should be starting to step up about now. But they don't have a decent coach. And their recruitment is busted because they've become the desperate ugly sister in the NRL - willing to do anything so sign any crappy talent, and still catching nothing except for Norman, albeit at 3 times his real value.

you're a butthurt donkey supporter no doubt :lol:

 

[The Engineers Room]

Can someone please explain why this squad is considered so despicably bad? There is a lot of talent in this squad, I don't doubt that with the right gameplan they could not only be competitive but a contender. It just seems that no one can get the best out of them and every coach seems to stick with the boring game plan that we have had most of 2009 (until the run) then 2010 since?

 

[84 Baby]

Surely we'd keep Paulo

He is either stifling the attack because he runs around aimlessly so his teammates can't run good lines off him or his teammates don't run good lines off him so it looks like he's running around aimlessly. Even though I'd be inclined to think it's the latter (and I reckon they even practice at training how to run for him and then bugger it in games), he is pretty ineffectual ATM

 

[Avenger]

Surely we'd keep Paulo

Can't see why people rate Paulo.

 

[mickdo]

Can't see why people rate Paulo.

I don't have him as a superstar or anything, but don't you think he's worth keeping?

 

[oldmancraigy]

Can someone please explain why this squad is considered so despicably bad? There is a lot of talent in this squad, I don't doubt that with the right gameplan they could not only be competitive but a contender. It just seems that no one can get the best out of them and every coach seems to stick with the boring game plan that we have had most of 2009 (until the run) then 2010 since?

We have like 5 blokes who are first grade standard. Hayne and Sandow in the backline, and Mannah, Moi Moi and Lussick up front. Our backrowers are dreadful, our centers are defensively inept. This means that if we're not being attacked up the middle (which MK does a good job of shutting down) then there's a very very good chance that the opposition will score a try.
To cap it all off, MK has the worst passing game from dummy half that I've ever seen. So in attack there's a very good chance that by the time Sandow receives it, he has no time to do anything.

While Loko and Tanginoa have 'talent', what they really need is some 'veteranship' in the forward pack to provide more of a foundation for them to show it.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Can someone please explain why this squad is considered so despicably bad? There is a lot of talent in this squad, I don't doubt that with the right gameplan they could not only be competitive but a contender. It just seems that no one can get the best out of them and every coach seems to stick with the boring game plan that we have had most of 2009 (until the run) then 2010 since?

I don't think the squad is that bad either, I think we are almost there it doesn't take much to go from has been to contender - look at the roosters add three players and they look like a top four side.

I think our backs are fine especially with Norman and hoppa coming , yeah some of our backs may not be superstars but you can't always field a side of rep players. Also our backs are quite young and will improve.

As mentioned many times our forward are the problem, I think front row is ok yeah it could be improved but they are doing their job. Our biggest problem is back row and hooker. Get a quality hooker and two good back rowers snd a lock and the side is will be massively improved. Apart from our props and occasionally Reni (and kelepi)I never see any of back rowers make any bustling runs carry players with them - they are soft and to slow. Our props make a good run but our hooker or back rowers never take advantage of it - look on Monday how slow we were around ruck when running the ball compared to the roosters.

 

[Morkel]

you're a butthurt donkey supporter no doubt :lol:

I'd preferred to have kept Norman, for sure. But I would have kept him in the Q-Cup, partnered with Hunt, to work on their combination. I was of the view that those two were the Broncos' future, but not yet ready, and needed to serve their apprenticeship. So I guess if we're struggling in the halves in, say, 2015, and I'm sooking then, you have every right to call me butthurt.