Rumours and Stuff

[Bazal]

Scott is fine his a leader in defence and is what we need.

Moeroa is starting to shit me he has had enough chances to prove himself, look at Taumalolo and look at Moeroa, obviously he will never be as good as Taumalolo but he has minimal impact weekly.

When is he gonna bend the line?

He'll never be as good as Taumololo and he's a totally different player. He steamrolled kids in 20s because he was so much bigger and better than them, but he's more of a hole runner. He's actually quite quick and has good footwork. I think his issue is he's trying to be a battering ram like he was in 20s when he really should be aiming at the space between defenders and trying to isolate players.

Like the Chairman does.

 

[Noise]

Yep, Tepai needs to adopt the 'spaces not faces' motto. He's obviously developed bad habits from running over the top of kids half his size

 

[Poupou Escobar]

He'll never be as good as Taumololo and he's a totally different player. He steamrolled kids in 20s because he was so much bigger and better than them, but he's more of a hole runner. He's actually quite quick and has good footwork. I think his issue is he's trying to be a battering ram like he was in 20s when he really should be aiming at the space between defenders and trying to isolate players.

Like the Chairman does.

Also, Moeroa is good enough to defend on the edges. Taumalolo is barely good enough to defend in the middle.

 

[Avenger]

My source advised me that we have an immediate plan B for an external recruit if we miss out on Bird. He wasn't told who it is. He wasn't told. Pretty obvious I suppose but it does show that we will not be banking on Gutherson as our long term 6.

 

[IFR33K]

Mannah is excellent at getting a fast play the ball and he's very good at driving forward when he hits the line.

Unfortunately we haven't got a good enough hooker to reliably create a roll on from that when it does happen.

IMO we are very lucky to have him. Like guthbus, gives 110 week in week out.

I find when mannah leaves the field we leak points or lose direction a little. Wish BA would play him more minutes.

 

[Bazal]

I reckon our pack is mediocre. Besides Mau they are all average first graders. And yep, I agree with the hooker part. I've been banging on about our 9 crisis for 12 months.

My wishlist for 2018 (actually right now) would be a good hooker and a damaging front rower

I think Brown will surprise you. In fact I'm 100% confident of it. Matagi has surprised me, he's a wrecking ball. I wouldn't say we had a mediocre pack at all, I'd say we have a very well balanced pack. We don't need a million dollar prop because we are more than capable of dominating the metres and giving Norman a platform.

We need a hooker and a six. Get them and I'm confident we are capable of winning a competition with the pack we have. Just because the last four winners (I'm scratching 2012 because second year Jesse Bromwich was no superstar) have an elite prop doesn't mean it's essential for a competition.

 

[hindy111]

The most important assets for those premiership winning sides are their 1,6,7,9. Props are incidental and the fact that they happened to have elite props is no more relevant to the win than having an elite winger. As long as the creative players have a platform to work from there's no need for an elite prop.

Melbourne won with Ben Cross and Brett White in 2007
Manly won 40-0 with Brent Kite and Josh Perry in 2008
Melbourne won with Aiden Tolman and Brett White in 2009
St George won with Nevill Costigan and Michael Weyman in 2010
Manly won with Joe Galuvao and Brent Kite in 2011

Further, in 2012 Jesse Bromwich was a rookie, not the elite player he is now, and his starting partner was Bryan Norrie.

If we get 2 of the best ever players and the Australian halfback in our team then i agree. But whats the chances?

 

[Bazal]

IMO we are very lucky to have him. Like guthbus, gives 110 week in week out.

I find when mannah leaves the field we leak points or lose direction a little. Wish BA would play him more minutes.

He's an incredibly underrated player IMO. He's played Origin. And tbh if he was called on to do so again (which is incredibly unlikely with the props NSW have) he'd not let anyone down.

 

[Bazal]

If we get 2 of the best ever players and the Australian halfback in our team then i agree. But whats the chances?

How many of those sides I listed had two of the best ever players and the Australian halfback...? They had very good halves, but Norman matches up to most of them and our pack beats a lot of theirs....

 

[hindy111]

Mr 57% has an irrational dislike of Alvaro. He's a very high quality young player, but because he doesn't run like Taumololo Mr 57% doesn't rate him.

I dont mind Alvaro. Prefer Terepo.

When Mannah goes and Scott then happy to have him in our team. I liked his game against sharks.

I just look at it like this.You have 9 forwards in your 17 not including hooker. You need a few elite ones. We dont have any. You need guys who bend line constantly. We lack that. What we have is 9 guys who are good players.Manu is the slight excpetion i feel.

Once KE is back and Vavae find form then perhaps Alvaro should be part of the 17.
Id prefer this-
Brown
Ke
Vavae
Terepo/Frank

 

[Djay]

I reckon our pack is mediocre. Besides Mau they are all average first graders. And yep, I agree with the hooker part. I've been banging on about our 9 crisis for 12 months.

My wishlist for 2018 (actually right now) would be a good hooker and a damaging front rower

I sadly agree, Mau'u is the one bit of class in our pack and Edwards is a huge miss for me off the bench his a bloody handful to tackle.

Brown, Matagi, Moeroa are solid, how good are they really. They were bench players for there previous clubs (Moeroa excluded).

100%, Hooker and devastating middle forward are needed, I have faith in Gutho, honestly if Morgan can win a comp, why can't Gutherson after he settles into being a regular 6.

That all depends on what BA wants to do.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

My source advised me that we have an immediate plan B for an external recruit if we miss out on Bird. He wasn't told who it is. He wasn't told. Pretty obvious I suppose but it does show that we will not be banking on Gutherson as our long term 6.

I am heartened that we even entertain the possibility of not getting Bird. It means we aren't committed to getting at any cost. We aren't interested in a bidding war.

 

[Bazal]

My source advised me that we have an immediate plan B for an external recruit if we miss out on Bird. He wasn't told who it is. He wasn't told. Pretty obvious I suppose but it does show that we will not be banking on Gutherson as our long term 6.

Immediate implies someone who is unhappy or maybe feels they aren't getting fairly treated by their club...? Or maybe a youngster

Jackson Hastings springs to mind....Brodie Croft? I'd be shitty if I was as good as he is and stuck behind Ryley Jacks and a fullback/centre.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I dont mind Alvaro. Prefer Terepo.

When Mannah goes and Scott then happy to have him in our team. I liked his game against sharks.

I just look at it like this.You have 9 forwards in your 17 not including hooker. You need a few elite ones. We dont have any. You need guys who bend line constantly. We lack that. What we have is 9 guys who are good players.Manu is the slight excpetion i feel.

Once KE is back and Vavae find form then perhaps Alvaro should be part of the 17.
Id prefer this-
Brown
Ke
Vavae
Terepo/Frank

But actually Edwards and Vave are as good as the elite attacking forwards (after Taumalolo and Fifita). The main thing that makes those guys elite is their workrate and minutes. We can cover for that with the guys we have just by sharing the load between them rather than relying on one player to do it.

 

[Gronk]

 

[Bazal]

I dont mind Alvaro. Prefer Terepo.

When Mannah goes and Scott then happy to have him in our team. I liked his game against sharks.

I just look at it like this.You have 9 forwards in your 17 not including hooker. You need a few elite ones. We dont have any. You need guys who bend line constantly. We lack that. What we have is 9 guys who are good players.Manu is the slight excpetion i feel.

Once KE is back and Vavae find form then perhaps Alvaro should be part of the 17.
Id prefer this-
Brown
Ke
Vavae
Terepo/Frank

Line bending-Matagi, Ma'u, Edwards
Hard working-Mannah, Alvaro, Scott
Mad Merkin-Brown

Then you have Tepai who potentially fits into the line bending category if he learns to stop running straight at blokes, and a spot for whatever else you want. A bit of ball playing with Gower, or maybe another mad merkin in Terepo, or a solid defender in O'Brien, or another line bender in Vave.....etc etc

 

[hindy111]

Mannah is going well this year.
Matagi started year well but dropped off last week.

Browns been our best forward. Vavae i hope gets form. He can be the Jnr paulo.

Tepai goes ok and if cant bust line he should take Scotts spot long term.

KE however when fit and Terepo will help our pack a lot.

 

[hindy111]

I sadly agree, Mau'u is the one bit of class in our pack and Edwards is a huge miss for me off the bench his a bloody handful to tackle.

Brown, Matagi, Moeroa are solid, how good are they really. They were bench players for there previous clubs (Moeroa excluded).

100%, Hooker and devastating middle forward are needed, I have faith in Gutho, honestly if Morgan can win a comp, why can't Gutherson after he settles into being a regular 6.

That all depends on what BA wants to do.

All our forwards are NRL players. Most are almost as good as the next. Very balanced but none who are your wow factor. Or are going to be in top 10 props in game

 

[Bazal]

But actually Edwards and Vave are as good as the elite attacking forwards (after Taumalolo). The main thing that makes those guys elite is their workrate and minutes. We can cover for that with the guys we have just by sharing the load between them rather than relying on one player to do it.

This is kind of what people are missing about our pack. We don't need an elite prop because we can create the same thing with two players. Yeah, the Sharks last year had Fifita make over 200m....but how many did their interchange prop Tagataese make? According to NRL.com it was 53....

You can cover that 200m, and have the same impact if not more (given a fresher player off the bench) with two players. Tagataese may as well not have played.

 

[Djay]

All our forwards are NRL players. Most are almost as good as the next. Very balanced but none who are your wow factor. Or are going to be in top 10 props in game

They have a huge task ahead of them this week.

I'll be interested to see how they fair against one of the better packs going around.

Happy to be proven wrong but I feel we are lacking.