Round 5 v NQ

[kinghippo]

Lots of calls could be made but I doubt we will see many changes.
I would make a few
Laurie can do the job, he proved that last year , he obviously has been bad but he should be there.

I thought Garner would be starting this season and think Sorro works best off the bench.

Leota is trying to hard, he has done this a few times over the years when pushing to be a leader. I think he is close to being the best in the game but he plays better when his role is simplified. I would bench him.

papili may as well just play prop for the first 15 / 20 until his fitness picks up. Leota and Henry deserve to be in front of him but their impact could make a big difference off the bench.

I would give Blaize a go with Cleary back, he just seems to have a little more spark than Cole. Blaize will be a target in defence and will have to improve quickly.

Smith Kenny Pap
Garner Martin
Yeo
Cleary
Blaize
To’o / Jenkins
McClean ( the kid is talented, needs a decent go)
Tago
Alamoti
Edwards/ Laurie

Toelau / Cole
Leota
Henry
Sorro

 

[maple_69]

I think Martin and Kenny have suffered a bit from being the only senior players in the side outside Yeo and Leota and feeling the need to push the play and they’re not really the best suited to doing that. They’ll be fine with Edwards and Cleary back. Laurie just had an off night and was probably hampered, he’s been largely good for us.

Agree with the contingent advocating for stability in the face of no stability all year.

Edwards/Laurie, Jenkins, McLean, Tago, Alamoti, Cole, Cleary, Leota, Kenny, Smith, Garner, Martin, Yeo, Toelau/Laurie, Henry,

 

[Old and Disgruntled]

I think Martin and Kenny have suffered a bit from being the only senior players in the side outside Yeo and Leota and feeling the need to push the play and they’re not really the best suited to doing that. They’ll be fine with Edwards and Cleary back. Laurie just had an off night and was probably hampered, he’s been largely good for us.

Agree with the contingent advocating for stability in the face of no stability all year.

Edwards/Laurie, Jenkins, McLean, Tago, Alamoti, Cole, Cleary, Leota, Kenny, Smith, Garner, Martin, Yeo, Toelau/Laurie, Henry,

Laurie is having too many off nights.
Is he trying to be too flamboyant?

 

[Chins]

Laurie is having too many off nights.
Is he trying to be too flamboyant?

He can't even catch

 

[Panfa]

Tago should be the 1st player dropped but he won't because of our injury toll.Laurie is too soft for 1st grade I'm sorry but he cringes in the tackles and has too many lose carries for mine.Kenny is lucky we don't have any better hookers coming through,Summerton goes ok but I believe the player we let go Riley smith was the guy we should have kept long term.We have to play blaize this week or we will be 1 from 5

 

[WestyLife]

Tago should be the 1st player dropped but he won't because of our injury toll.Laurie is too soft for 1st grade I'm sorry but he cringes in the tackles and has too many lose carries for mine.Kenny is lucky we don't have any better hookers coming through,Summerton goes ok but I believe the player we let go Riley smith was the guy we should have kept long term.We have to play blaize this week or we will be 1 from 5

There's no way dropping Cole for Talagi turns the game into a win and keeping Cole means a loss. That's crazy talk. Talagi had multiple errors including being stripped twice on the weekend.

 

[Aliceinwonderland]

I think Martin and Kenny have suffered a bit from being the only senior players in the side outside Yeo and Leota and feeling the need to push the play and they’re not really the best suited to doing that. They’ll be fine with Edwards and Cleary back. Laurie just had an off night and was probably hampered, he’s been largely good for us.

Agree with the contingent advocating for stability in the face of no stability all year.

Edwards/Laurie, Jenkins, McLean, Tago, Alamoti, Cole, Cleary, Leota, Kenny, Smith, Garner, Martin, Yeo, Toelau/Laurie, Henry,

I think you're right. As long as there is improvement. We all knew it would take some time.

Hopefully having Clez and maybe Pickles back will make a huge difference and steady the ship especially with defense. Cause if we stop the soft tries and clean up discipline the attack is quite OK.

Compared to the last few years where the attack looked like your grandma trying to play....(early in the year).

 

[martielang]

Laurie had an off night. It happens, especially in those conditions. Every other time he’s played that role he’s been safe and relatively dangerous with the ball.

A lot of recency bias in this thread.

 

[Old and Disgruntled]

Laurie had an off night. It happens, especially in those conditions. Every other time he’s played that role he’s been safe and relatively dangerous with the ball.

A lot of recency bias in this thread.

The conditions were the same for both teams.
In all the doom and gloom, Panthers have scored 102 points to be in top 4 of points scored only winning 1 game.
Edwards,McLean,Laurie are costing us points.

 

[hindy111]

I have an idea. We give you Dylan for the rest of the year in exchange for Jesse Mclean. This is a win win for both clubs. Gives you a 5/8 untill Blaize is ready in 2026 a d gives us a winger which we desperately need.

 

[WestyLife]

Laurie had an off night. It happens, especially in those conditions. Every other time he’s played that role he’s been safe and relatively dangerous with the ball.

A lot of recency bias in this thread.

He was clearly injured. Shouldn't have been picked. His leg was heavily strapped and was exactly moving freely all the time. That's on Ivan.

 

[WestyLife]

I have an idea. We give you Dylan for the rest of the year in exchange for Jesse Mclean. This is a win win for both clubs. Gives you a 5/8 untill Blaize is ready in 2026 a d gives us a winger which we desperately need.

Counter offer: no.

 

[hindy111]

Counter offer: no.

Honestly this would be beneficial for you guys. Jesse isn't needed this year. To be any shot you need a 5/8. Dylan whilst down on form is still a very good player. Maybe not a 1.3mill player but certainly worth around the 750k mark. He improves your defense and attack.
I propose a straight swap but we keep Mclean long term.

 

[WestyLife]

Honestly this would be beneficial for you guys. Jesse isn't needed this year. To be any shot you need a 5/8. Dylan whilst down on form is still a very good player. Maybe not a 1.3mill player but certainly worth around the 750k mark. He improves your defense and attack.
I propose a straight swap but we keep Mclean long term.

I wouldn't take him he's trash somehow getting big deals. He's not an improvement on what we have in Cole, Talagi, Schneider. There's been many chances to show leadership and at least attempt to do the job of a half when the Eels have needed it this year and he refuses to stand up and even have a go. At least our guys will go down swinging.

You're trying to appeal to our self interest but it's surface level at best. You need a good outside back is what this is.

 

[age.s]

Dylbro is a flawed player and allowing him to take up a huge portion of your salary cap for a decade is a lolworthy move, but he'd be comfortably the best 6 at the club this year. There's more to running a quality organisation than just what happens on the field ofc, but if you're talking purely what he could do on the field for the remainder of 2025 it would be a good move.

He's a classic case of overhype in the media transitioning into underhype in certain sections of the fanbase. He's definitely not a trash player.

 

[WestyLife]

Dylbro is a flawed player and allowing him to take up a huge portion of your salary cap for a decade is a lolworthy move, but he'd be comfortably the best 6 at the club this year. There's more to running a quality organisation than just what happens on the field ofc, but if you're talking purely what he could do on the field for the remainder of 2025 it would be a good move.

He's a classic case of overhype in the media transitioning into underhype in certain sections of the fanbase. He's definitely not a trash player.

I'll push back on this he's not a very good 5/8 at all. At best it's a sideways move from what we have quality wise and At least cole/talagi have time to develop.

 

[Fangs]

Dbags is very good. He is just not worth anywhere near the amount he has been paid.

With that said he is completely disinterested right now. His team is going to get the spoon. No doubt Newcastle are working on a potential release behind the scenes but they'll need to make plenty of cap space to make it a reality in 2025.

 

[WestyLife]

Dbags is very good. He is just not worth anywhere near the amount he has been paid.

With that said he is completely disinterested right now. His team is going to get the spoon. No doubt Newcastle are working on a potential release behind the scenes but they'll need to make plenty of cap space to make it a reality in 2025.

Every time the eels have needed him even prior to this year he's let them down. Moses has been carrying him so hard he should be collecting royalties on that knights deal.

 

[Fangs]

Every time the eels have needed him even prior to this year he's let them down. Moses has been carrying him so hard he should be collecting royalties on that knights deal.

Can't say I agree. Has been consistently good for a while. Runs the ball, forces drop outs and gets assists. Good defender. He is a 6 and a great foil for Moses.

It's a pretty similar dynamic to Luai/Cleary.

 

[maple_69]

Recency bias on his is just atrocious.

Laurie had a bad game in R4. Didn't play R3. Came on with 20 minutes to go against the Roosters, made no errors and ignited our attack to come back into the game. Round 1 he came onto the wing 3 mins in and made 1 error during the game. He averaged 247 metres per game from fullback last year and just over 1 error per game. He's not a sturdy ball runner like Edwards or To'o but he uses his speed well to get between players and over the advantage line. He's a great back up that came in undercooked and had a crap game.

Cole is a problem as well but throw Blaize in to solve both those problems on the weight of his underwhelming performances in Cup and 2 spritely runs against Melbourne? Save me. I have no doubt that Cole is in the side to force Blaize to earn it but he certainly hasn't done that yet. Throw Toelau in, he's the second best half at the club. Oh wait no he played 40 crap minutes in his NRL halves debut, he's trash. Schneider is the answer now because he came into a game after we'd been pulverising the Rabbits up front for half an hour and found a hole, all his games completely hand-braking our ball movement are forgotten.