Rumours and Stuff

[Glenneel]

In fairness I wouldn't touch McInnes or Farah with a barge pole, and BA was interested in Segs before his behavioural issues became more widely publicised so he may have put a line through him for that reason, which is his right as a coach. Cook would have been nice, but at the time he wasn't showing anything better than what we had already really....I can understand why we didn't sign anybody for this season, but it was always going to be a concern at the same time

I've never seen Cook play a bad game, would love him here. But what about Hastings, a good half (and goal kicker) and maybe a good dh as well. We'll never know, and I'm positive Roosters are paying some of his salary. Would have been a cheap pickup and even if did not work out what have we lost? Nothing.

 

[Glenneel]

Agreed. Let's see how many elite players now start looking at options outside the nrl.

This is NRLs opening offer. It will rise but not to the amount the clubs want, I reckon $9m or abouts will be offered with clubs accepting. Clubs think they won & NRL will breathe sigh of relief that they gave less away than they expected.

 

[hineyrulz]

The cap will be at least $9.5 to $10 million in 2018. The powerful clubs won't stand for anything less.

Wouldnt suprise me, if that's what they offer up Grant will be voted out quicker than you can say bearded Merkin.

 

[gaffer]

i'd have a look at Tyrone Roberts. peats ,hayne returning.He's a spine on his own halfback,hooker,fullback plus he can kick goals

 

[Glenneel]

No french is great how dare you.
Fmd french cost us the first try and his runs from fullback are garbage. 2 from 5 games made less then 100mtrs. And yesterday 50. Unless your fullback is giving lbas or ta. He cant get away with running for 50mtrs. Sure Bevan has skill but dont bag Kaysa and let Bevan off.

I think Bevan's lack of running is more to do with our attack which is spluttering at the moment. Our forwards are not creating enough space for the backs to operate effectively. Beven is best at running off sweeping plays where holes are appearing in the defence. Atm he is getting the ball with the defence in his face. Firstly the team has to HOLD onto the ball and then we can start to do something.

 

[Glenneel]

We don't need a replacement so much as another option to allow Kritchard to come off the bench where he is more effective. Peats would be perfect.

Pou, I like your comments for the most part, but do you have to have a comment on every little subject? Also how come your opinion is always correct and every other person wrong?
Well you are WRONG on this. You want Peats, another injury prone dh to replace our always injured dh's? WTF. Noooooooooo!!!

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Like I said, perhaps give a little bit more consideration to the possibility of being wrong and you might not come across as so arrogant.

I still do consider he might be wrong. Why would that have changed? You can't believe everything you hear.

You'd have to think if Roberts continues to develop as a hooker then the Tits may be open to releasing Peats before June 30 so they can frontload Roberts' extension and or extend Taylor to keep the Broncos away from him.

Roberts isn't developing as a hooker. He is a dangerous dummy half who is also a defensive weakness in the middle. Peats is their best hooker and they will be aiming for finals footy again. I can't see them letting any top 17 players go this year just to gain a future retention advantage.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

If true about the cap only being 8.3m Greenberg and Grant should go ASAP. The clubs had led to believe it was going to be much higher. Ridiculous situations to be putting clubs in. This should of been sorted out well before this season started.

Were the clubs 'led to believe' or were they just hopeful? And were they better off loading up on contracts to be cut later if necessary rather than waiting to see and potentially missing out on players?

 

[Glenneel]

That's essentially exactly what some of us are saying. Kaysa isn't good enough. We can't do anything about it right now, but we need to address it ASAP or we will not be successful



Again, you too are labouring under the misconception that saying hooker is our BIGGEST problem equates to saying that Kaysa Pritchard, individually, is our ONLY problem. No one has said anything of the sort. Our hooker options are woeful, none of them would displace hookers at any other club except one or two. You cannot succeed when such an important position is filled with such ordinary players. That doesn't mean in any way that Kaysa Pritchard is the reason we are losing. It means that the lack of quality in a crucial position is doing us a lot of harm.

Do to our lack of options surely Robbo could be put in as hooker, can tackle, kick and pass and probably play 80. Worth a try as cannot be worse than Kritchard. Tyrone Roberts has been a revelation at the Tits as a dh and much better than Peats imo as an example. What do you think Pou?

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Josh, the right player might be 2 years away, should we wait that long? Doubt it. Need to go out now and buy someone who is better than the 3 we have. IDG should retire, concussion is not something you fool around with, Kitchard and King are glass and not up to fg quality and we need someone to fill the void. What about Cherrington at Sharks, haven't seen him play but reports are he is good. Maybe he will do until someone better comes along, or we produce a good dh.

So let's pay overs for another scapegoat??

And the club is looking at other players ......

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Pou, I like your comments for the most part, but do you have to have a comment on every little subject?

Most of them.

Also how come your opinion is always correct and every other person wrong?

If we disagree with somebody then surely we think they're wrong. If you disagree with me then I'm wrong, in your opinion at least. There's nothing wrong with that. We are mostly adults here. So post a pic of your cock.

Well you are WRONG on this.

It's possible.

You want Peats, another injury prone dh to replace our always injured dh's? WTF. Noooooooooo!!!

In a perfect world we would have an 80 minute hooker who never gets injured and kicks goals and captains Australia.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Do to our lack of options surely Robbo could be put in as hooker, can tackle, kick and pass and probably play 80. Worth a try as cannot be worse than Kritchard. Tyrone Roberts has been a revelation at the Tits as a dh and much better than Peats imo as an example. What do you think Pou?

Robson couldn't handle 80 minutes in the middle. Not at his age.

 

[Glenneel]

So let's pay overs for another scapegoat??

And the club is looking at other players ......

Never mentioned or thought Kritchard a scapegoat, just below average player in his position. We need a creative dh to take the pressure off our halves. Gutho would then have time to develop his game.

Look at Hodgson at Raiders, plays as a second half which allows Austin to play his running game as he isn't a great organiser. Same with Cam Smith also a good organiser. Allows Storm to have a running 5/8 who doesn't necessarily need to be an organiser. Yes I know dh's like those are as scarce as hens teeth but look at Tyrone Roberts at Tits. Defence maybe not the best but he is getting their attack going. If wasn't for him they wouldn't have scored as many trys as they have.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

since BA has been coach, has an eels hooker ever ran for more the 100m ?

With out going back and double checking my memory, I would say it would be pretty rare and probably hasnt even occurred (happy to corrected).

After almost 3 seasons, and plenty of time to buy someone (and additionally Peats stating on record), I think this may just indicate BA has no desire for an "attacking" hooker. And is happy for a hooker with reasonable service but a leader of our defence.

And in my opinion Pritchard is doing this role fine.

 

[Glenneel]

Most of them.

If we disagree with somebody then surely we think they're wrong. If you disagree with me then I'm wrong, in your opinion at least. There's nothing wrong with that. We are mostly adults here. So post a pic of your c**k.

It's possible.

In a perfect world we would have an 80 minute hooker who never gets injured and kicks goals and captains Australia.

Didn't you mean a perfect Storm?

 

[hineyrulz]

Were the clubs 'led to believe' or were they just hopeful? And were they better off loading up on contracts to be cut later if necessary rather than waiting to see and potentially missing out on players?

Well at the reports have been 9m minimum up to 10m, if the clubs were just being hopeful they deserve to be in the shit. Not sure how it plays out but if we are one of the few clubs in a strong posistion cap wise you would hope we could take advantage of that.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

On the cotric try, he ran past Gutherson, Gower and Brown who all didnt move up. On the other side Manu / Norman didn't push in,
Pritchard went up for the tackle and was brushed off. If Manu had moved across, he would have made the tackle after Pritchard slowed him down. The Brown missed a tackle on him.

That try really came about because of line speed slowing down and players holding back.

 

[Bazal]

since BA has been coach, has an eels hooker ever ran for more the 100m ?

With out going back and double checking my memory, I would say it would be pretty rare and probably hasnt even occurred (happy to corrected).

After almost 3 seasons, and plenty of time to buy someone (and additionally Peats stating on record), I think this may just indicate BA has no desire for an "attacking" hooker. And is happy for a hooker with reasonable service but a leader of our defence.

And in my opinion Pritchard is doing this role fine.

How many top flight hookers regularly run for 100m? Why does 100m matter? These aren't props. Two clever 10m scoots from your hooker can be infinitely more valuable than 100m from a prop.

It's not about making big metres. It's about having the string to your bow. Peats wasn't a big runner, but he was very good at picking his moment and taking a good run, which helped get forward momentum. He was also very good at capitalising on forward momentum with his service from the base of the ruck. The issue at the moment is that our hooker can't do that. It's nothing to do with making 100m.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

On the cotric try, he ran past Gutherson, Gower and Brown who all didnt move up. On the other side Manu / Norman didn't push in,
Pritchard went up for the tackle and was brushed off. If Manu had moved across, he would have made the tackle after Pritchard slowed him down. The Brown missed a tackle on him.

That try really came about because of line speed slowing down and players holding back.

We were also short a player, with Scott apparently down in back play.

 

[Forty20]

On the cotric try, he ran past Gutherson, Gower and Brown who all didnt move up. On the other side Manu / Norman didn't push in,
Pritchard went up for the tackle and was brushed off. If Manu had moved across, he would have made the tackle after Pritchard slowed him down. The Brown missed a tackle on him.

That try really came about because of line speed slowing down and players holding back.

It was still a bad miss from Kaysa and he is really struggling in general beyond the 50min mark. On top of the building missed tackle count his service starts to deteriorate with a lot of short forward passes creeping in and sloppy long balls. I have been one of his biggest fans through the grades but he definitely needs bench support - which to be fair has not really been available due to circumstance.

In the bigger picture of the Cotric try it also featured a 12-man defensive line and an extra-fatigued defensive unit on the whole due to a phantom 6-again call. It sucked to have out backs broken that way but luck certainly shined on the Raiders that set. In fact, luck in general was with the Raiders with a couple of fortunate calls in two of their first half tries and a massive 50/50 penalty to Rapana on his goal line that changed momentum in the second half. But hey that is footy, sometimes you get the calls and sometimes you don't.

I was far more distressed after our losses to the Titans and Sharks where we actually looked genuinely terrible. Our first half was lacklustre against the Raiders but once we focused on actually playing to our strengths through the second half we rattled them badly. We have a lot of work to do as a team but it feels like people want to hold the Raiders up as premiership heavyweights while also decrying us as spoon favourites after the result when the game on Saturday was actually a very close affair. *shrug*