Rumours and Stuff

[TheRam]

Yeah, I'm the one obfuscating by replying to the desire to get rid of the forwards people have named as forwards to get rid of....haha.

You're a mental case, Rammy.

Again obfuscating by conflating posters suggestions to move one, two or even three forwards that are of the same mold and we have more then enough workers bee forward and replace them with a genuine metre eater.

Hmmm...wonder who is playing games here.

Love how your mate El Dickface pops in for some fun too. Hysterical....HAHAHAHAH!

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Just remember our pack from last year which is similar to this years pack (less wicks , peats and IDG) was good enough to get us enough points for the top 8. Additionally before the cap blowup and Foran disaster, the pack was leading us to a top 4 spot!!

We do need some adjustments to the pack, but not a overhaul !!

 

[oldmancraigy]

I gotta hunch the bloke we are apparently trying to sign for the rest of the year is Matt Lodge. We were speaking to him before he agreed to head to QLD and try to get a return with the Broncs.

I REALLY hope your hunch is on the money (I kind of think it is the Meehan thing).
Lodge is exactly the type of wild physical prospect we miss in our prop rotation. Would give Brown a partner in madness out there.
Assuming he is still fit enough for the speed of first grade of course...

 

[oldmancraigy]

Was an unwanted fat troublemaker playing in NSW cup when Cronulla signed him.

He might be talking about when he 'changed clubs' and signed for the Dogs?
Weren't they wise to rip up that contract... lolz.

On a serious note though: Fifita was definitely a first 17 guy at the Tigers when the Sharks signed him.

 

[Bazal]

Again obfuscating by conflating posters suggestions to move one, two or even three forwards that are of the same mold and we have more then enough workers bee forward and replace them with a genuine metre eater.

Hmmm...wonder who is playing games here.

Love how your mate El Dickface pops in for some fun too. Hysterical....HAHAHAHAH!

I'm not sure that this is actually English, but I'll do my best to reply regardless.

You seem to have missed that you are replying, originally, to my discussion with another poster. One who has said exactly what I claimed he has said. You seem to believe that because you didn't say that, the fact the person with whom I was discussing the issue did is not only irrelevant, but a fabrication or an obfuscation. Guess what Rammy? I wasn't talking about your shitty opinions. I was talking about someone else's, with that poster. So, again, who is obfuscating? The person who is having a discussion with someone who is of the opinion I have stated they are, or the person who wades in to another discussion screaming about smart arses and obfuscation?

You and El D have a lot in common. You're both absolute deadshits.

 

[Bazal]

On a serious note though: Fifita was definitely a first 17 guy at the Tigers when the Sharks signed him.

"Fifita started the season at prop, but was dropped from first grade by Tim Sheens after round 19 and never returned. "I was always saying, 'Let me play, let me play,'" Fifita said. "But he just said go to NSW Cup. I was pulling 80 minutes each game there, what can you do? You're up against the coach. You can't say anything. At the end I had kind of given up. I thought there was no more first grade for me."[13] On 15 July, Fifita signed with the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks on a 3-year deal"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Fifita

Yeah it's only Wikipedia, but he was definitely on the outer with Sheens and had been dumped when he signed for the Sharks and tbh it's not all that important. He still wasn't anywhere near elite when the Sharks signed him, specifics aside.

 

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

Yeah he was.

I said it at the time when some were bagging him as a low minute impact player. He was 60ish minutes quite often.

I wouldn't have paid 750k tho. Not convinced the elite teams do that with props. Dunno how they have the elite props for less than that, but it appears to be the way it goes

Well, these are the season stats for 2016.

He averaged 48 minutes ((394 tackles / .39 tackles per game) X 21 games) 112 metres, and 18 tackles per game across 2016.

For Parra he averaged 108metres per game and 21 tackles (can't get the no of minutes). 11 games
For Canberra he average 114 metres and 16 tackles. 10 games.

https://www.totalfootystats.com.au/...ders/junior-paulo&disp_year=2016#.WSJsSeuGNhE

I can't see any evidence that he played 60 minutes on a regular basis in 2016.

He's averaging 58 minutes per game this season.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

we had more possession so we should make more metres, simples

We didn't have more possession though.

As for Junior Paulo's 200 metres, it took him 23 carries to get there. That's 8.7 metres per run. The only Eels forwards who made less metres per carry were Brown, Moeroa and Vave. All the rest made more metres per run than Paulo.

 

[TheRam]

Was an unwanted fat troublemaker playing in NSW cup when Cronulla signed him.

Yeah the sort of fat troublemaker I was preying we could sign at the time and El Dicknut would have creamed himself no doubt, if we had signed him at the time.

Look someone brought up Fui earlier. He was hardly a model player when Smith brought him across at the time, but he saw the potential an took the punt. Fifita showed more then potential at the time of his dropping and to many it didn't make much sense. Needless to say, the Sharks, with astute buying of other badly run clubs unwanted talent, and some obvious good recruiting and juniors, have won a premiership and will probably win it again this year and have pulled off a great signing in Dugan for a very good price, while we and the other hopeless Westies sit here and make a million excuses as to why we can't this and can't that.

I've said it before, excuses are for losers. We have been making them now for more then 30 years. When another club f**ks up, we should be good enough and ready to seize the moment and capitalize on the f**kup. We used to when Terry Fearnley was around, that is how long ago it has been. Since then only Smith has done it with any real to moderate success. Period.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Well what we have now is certainly not working, so what do you suggest then? Please enlighten me.

What's been hurting us all year is where we start our sets and more importantly where the opposition start theirs. The single biggest cause of that is our kicking game. This was slightly improved on the weekend but Gutherson still needed to take a couple of kicks. Those were far less effective set finishes than what we'll get when Norman comes back.

 

[Bazal]

Yeah the sort of fat troublemaker I was preying we could sign at the time and El Dicknut would have creamed himself no doubt, if we had signed him at the time.

Look someone brought up Fui earlier. He was hardly a model player when Smith brought him across at the time, but he saw the potential an took the punt. Fifita showed more then potential at the time of his dropping and to many it didn't make much sense. Needless to say, the Sharks, with astute buying of other badly run clubs unwanted talent, and some obvious good recruiting and juniors, have won a premiership and will probably win it again this year and have pulled off a great signing in Dugan for a very good price, while we and the other hopeless Westies sit here and make a million excuses as to why we can't this and can't that.

I've said it before, excuses are for losers. We have been making them now for more then 30 years. When another club f**ks up, we should be good enough and ready to seize the moment and capitalize on the f**kup. We used to when Terry Fearnley was around, that is how long ago it has been. Since then only Smith has done it with any real to moderate success. Period.

Once again, you have completely missed the point.

All I've been saying is that elite forwards are not bought, they are made. You need to get lucky, poach or develop the right player, and put in a shitload of hard work. Your entire rant here is irrelevant, as usual. No one is making excuses.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I reckon from what I saw on Saturday night, we may see that having a "smaller" pack will now be a positive with Moses here.

Norman's long kicking game isn't the greatest and it appears most of his kicks only get to 20 line or so.

Moses seems to have a pretty good long kicking game with a lot of his kicks making it to between oppositions try line / 10 m line. This allowed us to be pretty aggressive in defence when the raiders were rucking it out. At times our line speed really increased!! With our "smaller" pack, we may just be able really get some really good field position with Moses kicking game

I like what I saw!!

Spot on

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Because the elite props are usually brought through juniors (Klemmer, Bormwich, Scott) or poached as juniors (Fifita, JWH). It's much easier to keep a player for unders than to sign one for unders.

Incidentally, who was the last truly elite prop to change clubs at their peak?

Tamou

 

[Poupou Escobar]

But when it counted and why they won, is they went right up the middle. Didn't say they were a smart team, they only started to lose the advantage when they decided to go around us and play fancy. But it was still good enough to be us. When their big boys took control we had nothing to counter them with.

Game set and match...they won.

They didn't win because of their middle forwards, they won because Jennings got injured and they exploited our left edge defence.

 

[Bazal]

Tamou

Arguably not truly elite, especially on the last two seasons form. More like Woods class than Klemmer or Bromwich or Scott. Which is, of course, not to say that he's not a very good player.

Even then, it's a very lean run up to his defection

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I gotta hunch the bloke we are apparently trying to sign for the rest of the year is Matt Lodge. We were speaking to him before he agreed to head to QLD and try to get a return with the Broncs.

Better player than Willis Meehan, and probably less of a f**kwit too.

 

[parra-matters]

the one biggest problem we have is we are giving away the first 2-3 penalties of the game and and early in the game so we are on the back foot from the word go and have to make more tackles early which saps the starting props energy before they even get to make a few hitups.

 

[Bazal]

Better player than Willis Meehan, and probably less of a f**kwit too.

Of course he's less of a f**kwit....the other blokes name is Willis.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

Arguably not truly elite, especially on the last two seasons form. More like Woods class than Klemmer or Bromwich or Scott. Which is, of course, not to say that he's not a very good player.

Even then, it's a very lean run up to his defection

You don't get much more elite then being a current origin / Australia rep and premiership winner when signing for Penrith.

 

[TheRam]

BTW I think our best option is to buy a young and up and coming Gorilla or two and hope for the best. Kind of like Sticky did with Junior.