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Round 4 vs Eels

T

Twenty10

Juniors
Messages
1,616
Maddragon99 said:
Well the master coach had to do something but it’s got the smell of desperation about it.

Our issues of concern are discipline & defence not sure dropping the kids fixes either.

The key out this week is Su’a he’s been pretty disappointing thus far.
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What? Sua disappointing? Are you watching
blindfolded? He’s literally been our strongest forward. Wow.,
 
mickeylane

mickeylane

Bench
Messages
4,930
thebigredv said:
Very poor from Griffin.

How about persisting with youth rather than relying on the non existent x-factor of a journeyman.

I don't understand what is to be gained from this. We have very little strike as it is.
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No youth has let us down You can’t persist we need points .. even though we need a miracle to beat eels Sloan and Amone were way out of their depth both in defence (Sloan) and attack ( Amone)
 
thebigredv

thebigredv

First Grade
Messages
5,407
mickeylane said:
No youth has let us down You can’t persist we need points .. even though we need a miracle to beat eels Sloan and Amone were way out of their depth both in defence (Sloan) and attack ( Amone)
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Firstly, if you are looking for Mbye at fullback and Bird in the halves to provide loads of points good luck to you. May stiffen up defence but will completely nullify any potential spark we might have. All you need is McCulloch back at 9 and we'll have a ready made sedative, trust me.

Sloan and Amone were identified as our future, rightly or wrongly, they were the reason we most likely didn't pursue the likes of Hynes and some of the talented backs that swapped teams this year any further. Any player going to Reggie's now is on a hiding to nothing, won't be developing getting flogged each week. Have to show the faith or it will be another lost cause of a season. So sick of this embarrassment of a club. I'm hoping against hope dropping these guys now is a lie.

If Dufty and Norman, Sloan and Amone were not the answer where was the foresight in signing up someone who could make us competitive?? Just seems wrong to me.
 
Number of the Beath

Number of the Beath

Juniors
Messages
1,562
This sounds like a wind-up to me. SMH is now a chip-wrapper, owned by Nine Entertainment, So the author is a stablemate of rugby league guru, Phil Gould ( A man who talks like he invented the air that goes in the ball and hates Hook.)
Either way, neither Sloane or Amone have set the world on fire in the last couple of weeks and it is a coaches prerogative to drop players who underperform. (Though if Hook did that we'd only have two guys playing).
 
baggygreen man

baggygreen man

Bench
Messages
3,811
So Griffin wants to exacerbate our halves dilemma by playing Bird at 5/8. This bloke could not organise a booze up in a brewery. Whereas Mybe would brew and pour the amber liquid. Hello you dills we need creativity in centrefield. So Mybe goes to the back to make way for the return of the human statue while the naturally talented Sloan joins his fellow amigo back in ressies. One shining lite is the return of Woods.
 
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Draginzaaar

Draginzaaar

Bench
Messages
3,397
Dragon David said:
The positions in the halves calls for guys who can do tactical kicking really well and set up the back line in my opinion. Most teams have them - the Roosters for instance have Keary and Walker and you can throw in Hutchison as well. Parramatta have Moses and Brown. We have Hunt and who else?
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I don't understand why someone wants to be a 5/8 without a kicking game. Amone kicking is not good.
 
Dragon David

Dragon David

First Grade
Messages
7,740
thebigredv said:
Firstly, if you are looking for Mbye at fullback and Bird in the halves to provide loads of points good luck to you. May stiffen up defence but will completely nullify any potential spark we might have. All you need is McCulloch back at 9 and we'll have a ready made sedative, trust me.

Sloan and Amone were identified as our future, rightly or wrongly, they were the reason we most likely didn't pursue the likes of Hynes and some of the talented backs that swapped teams this year any further. Any player going to Reggie's now is on a hiding to nothing, won't be developing getting flogged each week. Have to show the faith or it will be another lost cause of a season. So sick of this embarrassment of a club. I'm hoping against hope dropping these guys now is a lie.

If Dufty and Norman, Sloan and Amone were not the answer where was the foresight in signing up someone who could make us competitive?? Just seems wrong to me.
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If Hook is going to make changes to our spine or in fact in any position for reasons other than injuries/suspensions, the changes he makes have to be positive and result in winning games or make the team much better. The question is then, will Mbye at fullback and Bird at 5/8th going to win us games. I doubt it and by dropping Sloan altogether will in affect reduce his confidence. Amone has been a bench player in the past and that might be OK.

What you say in your last paragraph thebigredv is correct and the lack of foresight is due to being miserly and cap managing guys on salaries that meet the "budget". The club is avoiding paying a motza for a marquee player or two and that is where our problem is and they are banking on some sort of success with more quantity than quality. In time, Sloan, Amone, Sullivan, Ramsey will be much better but that's in time for all the pieces to fit. In the meantime, we need a couple of standouts - a strong, classy fullback and a never say die hardened forward. It will cost us but might have to be.
 
baggygreen man

baggygreen man

Bench
Messages
3,811
Draginzaaar said:
Amone kicking is not good.
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Amone needs to back his individual skills. After all that is what got him a Dragons contract. He lacks confidence and looks like a scared rabbit when he has ball in hand. He has talent.. no doubts. A stint in ressies of JF will do him good and perhaps their coach may restore that missing confidence by giving him free rein to do his thing and let their half do the organising..
 
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thebigredv

thebigredv

First Grade
Messages
5,407
Dragon David said:
If Hook is going to make changes to our spine or in fact in any position for reasons other than injuries/suspensions, the changes he makes have to be positive and result in winning games or make the team much better. The question is then, will Mbye at fullback and Bird at 5/8th going to win us games. I doubt it and by dropping Sloan altogether will in affect reduce his confidence. Amone has been a bench player in the past and that might be OK.

What you say in your last paragraph thebigredv is correct and the lack of foresight is due to being miserly and cap managing guys on salaries that meet the "budget". The club is avoiding paying a motza for a marquee player or two and that is where our problem is and they are banking on some sort of success with more quantity than quality. In time, Sloan, Amone, Sullivan, Ramsey will be much better but that's in time for all the pieces to fit. In the meantime, we need a couple of standouts - a strong, classy fullback and a never say die hardened forward. It will cost us but might have to be.
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DD, we did apparently have talks with Hynes and went after Finnucane (and Fitzgibbon for coach before all that). We keep coming up with duck eggs in that department which is its own entire problem. In reality, only got Suli on the second go as he was adamant he didn't want to play for us the first time around. Molo and Su'a were both bench/reggie players at their last teams so it was an easy choice for them to take a pay increase. I know it doesn't change the fact that they were good pick ups but never going to have the same impact as landing a marquee player who you can build a team around. I agree, we. just need to bite the bullet in this area. The lower grades don't seem to reflect the fact that we are developing a truck load of juniors a la Panthers 7 years ago. Where is this club going except for around in circles?

The media and the club itself sell us this idea that these young Sloan, Amone, Ramsey types are the future. It's frustrating feeling quite certain how good they can be and then to read that they could be dropped for some filler and made the scapegoats of what I see is a poorly coached team. Dufty and Norman were persisted with for so long last year. That right-off a year was the perfect time to give them the development in first grade they needed so we didn't face this issue now. We should have seen them much earlier in the year so that we could reap the benefits now. Feels like another coach that can't make up his mind about his team (see switching Ramsey to fb last week) and hitting panic mode. He will put it down to their inexperience but why can't our young stars take the same trajectory of the likes of Walsh, Campbell, Walker or any one of the freaks Penrith keep producing? Takes a bit of faith to begin with, and maybe some proper coaching and management. Much easier to drop them.

We should be a club on the rise by now but instead I go into the match against the Eels with zero confidence. If we can repeat the efforts of the corresponding game last year I am happy to eat my words but the Eels are licking their lips at the prospect of taking us on and that's just the cold, hard truth.
 
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