Rumoured Targets 3

[The Axe of Druss]

So we should of covered up one of our players testing positive to performance enhancing drugs?

Real winning attitude that is.

Yeah that's not what I said at all bud

I just hate the "waaa the big clubs get away with stuff, that's why we can't win etc etc" attitude.

 

[Knight Tales]

What did we make of O’Briens interview with Barry?
He seemed to be honest in that he got the pre season terribly wrong. I wonder how much of that was due to COVID and how much was due to tension between the players and Knowles early on. Cos surely a coach relies on others to get that part right. Substandard gym efforts do not help.
I often wonder when listening to Adam if he is in fact too good to his players. He comes from a very structured system where repetition equals perfection. Within that system you have the players talented enough to know when to play what is in front of them such as Munster etc. we have not got that. As a result the repetition has led to blandness and lack of punch. It explains why we were after Munster in a big way. Obi needs that off the cuff game breaker. It makes the pursuit of Brooks even more perplexing.

 

[PhilGould]

There was a few things that I can somewhat agree with him on. The only one that I can remember specifically was his reasoning for holding back Mapapalangi & Sasagi once the season was already gone. His reasoning for that was fair enough if you ignore the fact he was still giving playing time to people who weren't 'earning their jersey' in first grade.

But by and large I'm just not convinced that even he believes most of the things he says, much less has a tangible plan to achieve those things. Seems like he's acutely aware of all the criticisms he gets and spends all his time trying to push back on those rather than offering anything insightful.

 

[mozza91]

Yeah that's not what I said at all bud

I just hate the "waaa the big clubs get away with stuff, that's why we can't win etc etc" attitude.

What would’ve you done in the Hudson Young situation big fella?

 

[macavity]

Yeah that's not what I said at all bud

I just hate the "waaa the big clubs get away with stuff, that's why we can't win etc etc" attitude.

some pigs are more equal than others.

has always been that way with the NRL.

just look at the shiny new stadium the roosters just got to replace their perfectly fine stadium, and compare it to the 15 year battle we had to fight to get a partly finished stadium.

the connected clubs get their way. Always have.

 

[Yosh]

We got pre season wrong so we passed one out and had the worst defense and attack in the league? How is that logical at all?

He is a crap head coach. He has no answers because he lacks the tactical knowledge to take on the best coaches. His man management skills are also terrible.

He focuses heavily on players who train well. That's one aspect of being a professional, not everything. Training well should be a prerequisite not a determining factor of selection.

We have some good recruits coming in starting next year. We still have the worst spine in the NRL and we use tactics from the early 2000s. Please I hope this nightmare ends.

 

[Jono078]

We didn't look too bad in the opening 3 rounds for what was a crappy pre-season.

We faltered from there onwards. Meaning the coach was unable to galvanise the team and have them believe in what we were working towards.

The same criticisms from year one to now exist for AOB.

We play a bland style of footy.
Players don't appear to know their roles.
Which players has he gotten the best out of? I mean origin this year gave us a glimpse of what JSaf is capable of.
Highly questionable recruitment and retention.

These are not "poor pre-season" issues, not when they're the same issues 3-years in.

Anyway feel like a broken record. He'll go on to win his March premiership next year and buy himself an extra 6 weeks, but I think he'll be gone by May.

 

[PhilGould]

Buzz Rothfield article in the Telegraph talking about Joseph Tapine becoming a free agent on November 1, and his agent says half a dozen clubs have already reached out. No names given but I’d be surprised if we aren’t one. Ultimately I doubt he leaves Canberra and doubt he even makes it to November 1 without re-signing, but he’s a Knights junior and his wife is from Newcastle so a good offer probably at least gets us into consideration if it does come to that.

The article pulls a $1m price tag out of its ass because that’s what the media does with every great player, but he’s probably looking at the ~$800k range by now. I said on here 12-18 months ago that he’d be a much better deal on $600k than Klemmer on $800k and was very much in the minority. How’s that looking now?

 

[Mr_Knightside]

My take on the AOB interview is that he has identified what went wrong but time will tell as to whether he has the ability to fix it.

He clearly cares about his players and the club. He was talking about worrying that the fathers in the group wouldn’t spend Xmas with their kids because of the covid wave that swept through the club.

I can sort of get his logic for letting Pearce go but I still think it was the wrong decision tbh.

He sort of seems to be stuck in between trying to be a hard ass and being mates with all the players but he hasn’t quite got the balance right. He needs to be a hard ass in the pre season to set standards and whip the team into shape then he can be mates with them once he’s earned their respect and he knows that they’re playing for him and understand that he’s the boss. I feel like he’s sort of got it the wrong way around.

Anyway it doesn’t matter what I think. There aren’t a great deal of good coaches out there that we could replace him with right now anyway so I’m ok for him to get the first half of 2023 to show that he’s learned from his mistakes.

 

[slotmachine]

some pigs are more equal than others.

has always been that way with the NRL.

How equal are the Raiders?

They have bigger inherent challenges than the Knights (no beach, shit weather, further from Sydney) and seem to go OK, having played in the GF two years ago and just knocked off the Storm in Melbourne.

Maybe the Knights being a complete joke of an organisation has more to do with their current situation than any biases or favouritism in the NRL.

 

[macavity]

How equal are the Raiders?

They have bigger inherent challenges than the Knights (no beach, shit weather, further from Sydney) and seem to go OK, having played in the GF two years ago and just knocked off the Storm in Melbourne.

Maybe the Knights being a complete joke of an organisation has more to do with their current situation than any biases or favouritism in the NRL.

Oh we are our own worst enemy, for sure.

The Raiders are hot right now but looked garbage 3 months ago. They have built their team on some great recruiting (including at our expense) and creating a very strong culture (which Ricky has been central to). We have been garbage at both for a long long time.

But the point still stands. Some clubs get leg ups.

 

[aqua_duck]

Is it luck, though? How many other clubs just sweep it under the rug unless the NRL or other governing body catches the kid?

Love it that we played the good guy and self reported though...

he got a 2 year ban however it wasn't roids, he took some over the counter supplements

 

[Knight Tales]

Oh we are our own worst enemy, for sure.

The Raiders are hot right now but looked garbage 3 months ago. They have built their team on some great recruiting (including at our expense) and creating a very strong culture (which Ricky has been central to). We have been garbage at both for a long long time.

But the point still stands. Some clubs get leg ups.

We build the club from the top down. No one checks the foundations first.

 

[Knight Tales]

Oh we are our own worst enemy, for sure.

The Raiders are hot right now but looked garbage 3 months ago. They have built their team on some great recruiting (including at our expense) and creating a very strong culture (which Ricky has been central to). We have been garbage at both for a long long time.

But the point still stands. Some clubs get leg ups.

Raiders have a long history of form slumps under Ricky. He does however find ways to get out of those slumps.

 

[The Axe of Druss]

some pigs are more equal than others.

has always been that way with the NRL.

just look at the shiny new stadium the roosters just got to replace their perfectly fine stadium, and compare it to the 15 year battle we had to fight to get a partly finished stadium.

the connected clubs get their way. Always have.

OK ill bite on this one

The new stadium isnt just for the Roosters. Its for the soccer, Rugby and the shit tonne of music events that they will hold there. Its far less about the Roosters and far more about the amount of $$ the NSW gov will make from it

It was also a 30 year old stadium that hadnt been touched since it was built. The facilities were a total embarrassment for a capital city

Youre taking the little brother mentality to new heights man

 

[The Axe of Druss]

What would’ve you done in the Hudson Young situation big fella?

I dont know enough about the situation to comment honestly mate. If he was using a banned substance it was likely out of the clubs hands i guess

 

[macavity]

OK ill bite on this one

The new stadium isnt just for the Roosters. Its for the soccer, Rugby and the shit tonne of music events that they will hold there. Its far less about the Roosters and far more about the amount of $$ the NSW gov will make from it

It was also a 30 year old stadium that hadnt been touched since it was built. The facilities were a total embarrassment for a capital city

Youre taking the little brother mentality to new heights man

Accor is a bigger embarrassment for an ostensible "national rectangular stadium"... why wasn't it fixed first?

 

[The Axe of Druss]

Accor is a bigger embarrassment for an ostensible "national rectangular stadium"... why wasn't it fixed first?

Accor is 10 years younger and in far better shape than the SFS was. Its also in a shitty location and would have a much lower ROI than the SFS upgrade

Are you being deliberately obtuse or what?

 

[macavity]

Accor is 10 years younger and in far better shape than the SFS was. Its also in a shitty location and would have a much lower ROI than the SFS upgrade

Are you being deliberately obtuse or what?

It was originally slated to be done first.

it is shit for rectangular sports and is in a great location, close to the demographic centre of Sydney.

Why was the plan changed?

 

[Bdubs]

It was originally slated to be done first.

it is shit for rectangular sports and is in a great location, close to the demographic centre of Sydney.

Why was the plan changed?

thats something you'll have to take up with the NSW government, not an NRL decision. The government decided they weren't going to rebuild Accor, so the funds were re-allocated to build a new SFS and the regional grounds would get upgrades. Grounds like Manly, Leichardt etc. Government then backflipped on that. Hence why the Grand Final nearly went to QLD this year and they are now talking about doing the NFL style Super Bowl and moving it around every year to the highest bidder. It's VLandy's trying to make the government honour their agreement

On the old SFS, it apparently had concrete cancer issues and there were other issues as well. It would have been unsafe to use in less then 10 years, so it had to be knocked down.