Round 1 Teamlist

[TheRev]

I'm not necessarily with Price on Witt vs Williams, but to see people still bagging him for selecting Ah Mau is staggering. Clearly they either didn't watch the CS, or watched with anti Leeson blinkers on. He was just about the player of the game, let alone our best.

As for Price not building for the future, well I thought it would be clear to all that unless he wins some games early he doesn't have one. A coach's first priority is to win, now. The rest builds on that. Bennett is a prime example of this.

He is hardly going to be altruistic about it all and think to himself "Bugger it, I'll just blood a few younguns and put some future structures in place so that the bloke who comes in after we experience some losses has it set up for him"". He's fighting for his livelihood. Of course he wants wins. Rightly or wrongly, this is how he thinks he's going to do it. Ffs, be sensible people.

Yar there are lots of supporter points of view (many valid, many not), but the level of reaction/outrage is out of sync with the situation we found ourselves in, and there isnt a single right solution.. not this early in the season without 1st Grade & Cutters form to pick from.

The forum will go one of 2 ways on Sunday night:
1) We Win: Hope is restored, praise flows onto Widdop and Quinlan and Witt and whoever else enabled the win
2) We Lose: It’s all blamed on Price’s coaching selections, irrespective of the fact that we still have a fairly average roster, and the bigger forces at play, such as the performance and leadership of Widdop, Creagh, Rein, Quinlan are far more critical imo

 

[possm]

Witt or Williams is a 50/50 however, Witt has probably been selected for his veratility, experience and goal kicking.

I am more concerned with the selection of the fowards and the position they are selected in. Surely there will be some changes pror to kick off.

 

[possm]

Price said he now has the team he wants. So by the looks of it, he is happy with the forward pack he had last year.

8. Jack de Belin - size at this stage in his career is more suited to the lock position.
9. Mitch Rein - the club will need to recruit a backup NRL standard hooker.
10. Dan Hunt - not ready for NRL. Is Stockwell injured?
11. Leeson Ah Mau - should be on the bench.
12. Ben Creagh (c) - should have made the move to prop.
13. Trent Merrin - should be playing at prop with De Belin at lock.

14. Bronson Harrison - bad selection. Should be a big young prop instead.
15. Kyle Stanley Bad selection. Should be playing 6/7 in the cutters.
16. Joel Thompson - should be in the run on side
17. Tyson Frizell - should be in the run on side

 

[Dezziedc]

Yar there are lots of supporter points of view (many valid, many not), but the level of reaction/outrage is out of sync with the situation we found ourselves in, and there isnt a single right solution.. not this early in the season without 1st Grade & Cutters form to pick from.

The forum will go one of 2 ways on Sunday night:
1) We Win: Hope is restored, praise flows onto Widdop and Quinlan and Witt and whoever else enabled the win
2) We Lose: It?s all blamed on Price?s coaching selections, irrespective of the fact that we still have a fairly average roster, and the bigger forces at play, such as the performance and leadership of Widdop, Creagh, Rein, Quinlan are far more critical imo

There is only 1 way it will go

Win or Lose: Not good enough. There are still issues with the selections, with players, with the coaches, with the club etc. Nothing will reduce the hysteria on these forums until there is a complete overhaul of the entire club and team. Then when that doesn't work or the selections aren't to their liking, the cycle starts over. Sensibility and common sense is not something that applies to the posts in here.

 

[Cagey Mac]

Yar there are lots of supporter points of view (many valid, many not), but the level of reaction/outrage is out of sync with the situation we found ourselves in, and there isnt a single right solution.. not this early in the season without 1st Grade & Cutters form to pick from.

The forum will go one of 2 ways on Sunday night:
1) We Win: Hope is restored, praise flows onto Widdop and Quinlan and Witt and whoever else enabled the win
2) We Lose: It?s all blamed on Price?s coaching selections, irrespective of the fact that we still have a fairly average roster, and the bigger forces at play, such as the performance and leadership of Widdop, Creagh, Rein, Quinlan are far more critical imo

3) We look at how we play the game generally, structures in defence, cohesiveness in attack and along with the score, consider our verdict on Price and the team holistically. Overlay that with empirical knowledge of past performances and react accordingly.

We may react like prepubescent boys with IQ's of 70 but most actually consider the facts before losing the plot

 

[Mr Red]

we lack a lot of size from the bench - putting A LOT of pressure on guys like Merrin and Hunt to make a dent in the tigers early on to allow the smaller forwards to get a roll on.
if they dont achieve this there is not much size on the bench to generate solid go forward and second phase play.

 

[Cagey Mac]

What I can't understand is how we have selected the same starting pack that was regularly steamrolled with paper thin defence last season and expect them suddenly with the same coach in charge to turn in to mongrel forwards this season....

 

[kit66]

What's all this bullsh*t about Hunt on here - " not ready for NRL " and such. Hunt has nothing to prove and has been an automatic selection for us, when fit, for years and hasn't let us down yet. I'm really happy to see him back in the team. Some of you blokes have no idea and worse no respect.

 

[giboz71]

Not true, they were building up to this. They took a chance on elite young players, spending big before they became rep players. While everyone will look to SBW, Jennings and Maloney it was just as much about players like Friend, Pearce, Waerea-Hargreaves, Tuivasa-Sheck, Cordner, Nuuasala and others who were there for longer, all lead by Minichiello. Then when it comes to contract time the player will either stay due to loyalty or leave for another paycheck, in which case the Roosters will promote another junior they spent big on.

Exactly right. And all the players you mentioned above were given shots in FG probably at the expense of established veterans as they were anointed the future of the club. And it eventually yielded a premiership. Heck we did the same thing to win ours... Cooper, Gasnier, Hornby, Young, Morris, Creagh, Nightingale... Most debuted in their teens and we're ultimately instrumental in our premiership.

It's why short term fixes never work. Price is in his 3rd year now and we're still nowhere as he doesn't coach with vision or courage.

 

[Paki]

Too many whiteboys

 

[Mr Red]

Exactly right. And all the players you mentioned above were given shots in FG probably at the expense of established veterans as they were anointed the future of the club. And it eventually yielded a premiership. Heck we did the same thing to win ours... Cooper, Gasnier, Hornby, Young, Morris, Creagh, Nightingale... Most debuted in their teens and we're ultimately instrumental in our premiership.

It's why short term fixes never work. Price is in his 3rd year now and we're still nowhere as he doesn't coach with vision or courage.

yeah lets give that young gun Jackson Hastings a shot this season... oh wait a minute...

 

[TheRev]

it is very interesting that nobody here agrees on who is the right selection!

imo its because we have new faces & its only the pre-season, we need ~2 weeks of Dragons & Cutters performances to start seeing trends in player performance/form... then we can assess more accurately.. im not ready to throw out any players based on the CS/Mudgee/9's trial games...

Kyle is probably my only annoyance. more from a longterm perspective though (after waiting so long to have him fit), but maybe Price will surprise us and he will get some minutes in the halves anyway.

 

[Cagey Mac]

What's all this bullsh*t about Hunt on here - " not ready for NRL " and such. Hunt has nothing to prove and has been an automatic selection for us, when fit, for years and hasn't let us down yet. I'm really happy to see him back in the team. Some of you blokes have no idea and worse no respect.

I think that Hunt is an honest toiler and overall, a quality bench player
He's lacks both the size or impact of a front line prop and the mobility of an edge backrower
He is also not gifted with consistently competent offload
His propensity to give away silly penalties late in the tackle count by not getting off tackled players fast enough may have been corrected but still lingers in my mind as a potential danger.
Not bad IMO but far from outstanding

 

[coast_dragons]

Injuries have halted his progression some what then losing the likes of Weyman and co made it look even worse as he had alot of younger inexperienced players around him.

Imagine if the Bull was still around guiding him how much a difference that would make the club again has let players down by not looking at needs they covered a few but keeping some one like Harrison and off loading some one like Prior absolute joke.

 

[BennyV]

Lol. Yes it is, for Price.
Again no wins = no future for him.
What is it about that that you don't get?
I'm not saying that this is an optimal outcome for the team or the club, I'm not supporting the decision per se. Do you get that part at least?
What I'm saying is that this is the position he finds himself in. It's a poor outcome, but it's the reality of the situation.
Yes a coach should build for the future, blah, blah. But they don't all do that.
BENNETT DIDN"T!
Under pressure and at the risk of losing their job, which Price is, he will look to survival first, tenure second, development third. It's part of the human condition.

Dude, I get what you're trying to say, needs to win games now before worrying about the future, bla bla bla...

But the glaring hole in your argument is that Williams is a better player NOW than Witt. He is quicker, smarter, better passing game and better running game, Witt only pips him in goalkicking. Whether Price is coaching for now or future, Williams is the better choice.

 

[gonz]

Injuries have halted his progression some what then losing the likes of Weyman and co made it look even worse as he had alot of younger inexperienced players around him.

Imagine if the Bull was still around guiding him how much a difference that would make the club again has let players down by not looking at needs they covered a few but keeping some one like Harrison and off loading some one like Prior absolute joke.

Y weyman was let go is beyond me. 20 min of weyman
were better than a full game of all out forwards bat merrin

 

[Mr Red]

I think that Hunt is an honest toiler and overall, a quality bench player
He's lacks both the size or impact of a front line prop and the mobility of an edge backrower
He is also not gifted with consistently competent offload
His propensity to give away silly penalties late in the tackle count by not getting off tackled players fast enough may have been corrected but still lingers in my mind as a potential danger.
Not bad IMO but far from outstanding

agree with most of this except the reference to lacking size - he's big enough for sure, however simply doesnt use his size effectively compared to other forwards the same size...

a good rotation forward for sure, but relying on him as our "marquee" player for go forward is simply putting him out of his depth

 

[Cagey Mac]

agree with most of this except the reference to lacking size - he's big enough for sure, however simply doesnt use his size effectively compared to other forwards the same size...

a good rotation forward for sure, but relying on him as our "marquee" player for go forward is simply putting him out of his depth

From memory he's about 105 but IMO strong in the wrong places
Lacks the leg drive to bend the line
Stick another 5 kg on his lower body and he'd be a better package

 

[pinkmoon]

Lol. Yes it is, for Price.
Again no wins = no future for him.
What is it about that that you don't get?
I'm not saying that this is an optimal outcome for the team or the club, I'm not supporting the decision per se. Do you get that part at least?
What I'm saying is that this is the position he finds himself in. It's a poor outcome, but it's the reality of the situation.
Yes a coach should build for the future, blah, blah. But they don't all do that.
BENNETT DIDN"T!
Under pressure and at the risk of losing their job, which Price is, he will look to survival first, tenure second, development third. It's part of the human condition.

you don't like it when people don't agree with you, do you?

I am all for a healthy debate, but let's just discuss, rather than try to convert me to your higher plane of consciousness.

 

[pinkmoon]

But the glaring hole in your argument is that Williams is a better player NOW than Witt. He is quicker, smarter, better passing game and better running game, Witt only pips him in goalkicking. Whether Price is coaching for now or future, Williams is the better choice.

that's my line of thinking!