Rumours and Stuff

[Poupou Escobar]

His point is that it didn’t impact us too negatively last year when he reverted to the wing. In fact our win percentage increased. Let’s hope the same occurs this year.

He only played four games on the wing. It's a pretty small sample. And those four games were against three teams that missed the finals plus Melbourne without their spine. None of those teams had the kicking game to target French on the wing.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

All this talk about big forwards, have we forgotten about Magnus Stromquist @ Wenty ?

A big human and the right Aryan complexion for Ram.

Reserve grader

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Atleast I know both our wingers can take a bomb and have decent hands, as opposed to Auva’a who makes me have a coronary everytime he gets bombed. Yea it maybe worse without Semi but we have to work with what we have unfortunately and the switch of Jennings back to his preferred side and Auva’a back to his preferred position is enough upside for me.

Jennings prefers the left as well, but he is good enough on either side to play well there.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

You can't fill the squad with NRL talent FFS....

I think there's a fair difference between an NRL backup like Niukore and a state cup player like Stromquist.

 

[emjaycee]

You can't fill the squad with NRL talent FFS....

Agree, but what i think Hindy is saying is you SHOULD fill Wenty with NRL 'potential' talent where possible.
Not with players who will never play NRL, not that they all WILL play NRL.

 

[Bazal]

I think there's a fair difference between an NRL backup like Niukore and a state cup player like Stromquist.

Yes. I didn't say there wasn't so I'm not sure of the point you're trying to make?

But Stromquist is a pretty good state cup player, and you can't fill the Wenty squad (what, 20+ players?) with NRL backups. You've gotta have some state cup players.

 

[Bazal]

Agree, but what i think Hindy is saying is you SHOULD fill Wenty with NRL 'potential' talent where possible.
Not with players who will never play NRL, not that they all WILL play NRL.

I haven't disagreed with that. If Stromquist was keeping a potential NRL player out of the side he might have a point, but he isn't. At some point the state cup side needs to pick players who are quality at that level even if they are extremely unlikely to kick on.

You need state cup players in your state cup side no matter what Hindy reckons because there's no way you can fill the Wenty squad with potential NRL players.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Yes. I didn't say there wasn't so I'm not sure of the point you're trying to make?

But Stromquist is a pretty good state cup player, and you can't fill the Wenty squad (what, 20+ players?) with NRL backups. You've gotta have some state cup players.

Well I think the entire Wenty squad only consists of ISP (or lower) calibre players. I guess with the 30 man cap on full time squads now there are only 480 spots (plus up to 96 development spots) available for NRL players plus NRL level backups. If there are more than that some of them might be in ISP squads, but I dare say the number of Aussies/Kiwis in the ESL filters that number down. More likely is that there are some ISP level players in some/all of the NRL squads.

 

[hindy111]

Even the Roosters have blokes in their feeder squad that wouldn't be as good as Saunders, let alone play first grade.

Exactly....They are not the guys people should be keeping eye out for. The ones I mentioned are

 

[El Diablo]

Whatever you like. It's a magical number. Not ducks though, it's not my yearly batting chart

Seven.

 

[Djay]

Jennings prefers the left as well, but he is good enough on either side to play well there.

He was a massive help to Moses last year, he needs to be next to him for mine.

 

[TheRam]

The main reason he improved because he was away from the wing.

It’s the position that uses the least of his strengths. Bev is Quick and can finish but that’s about all he offers on the wing. Which he can do from fullback.

Two or three years ago when many here were waxing lyrical about the second coming in French, I had the temerity to suggest that I can't see what all the hype about him was other then that he is a great finisher like Reece Robinson that was at our club at the time and ppl jumped down my throat suggesting I was clueless.

Not that he isn't a better player then Reece, but is in that style due to his speed, elusiveness and in particular size that he will never be able to really change.

Well he is a better player then Reece, of that I am sure of, but his size will always restrict his ultimate value to any team. For mine he is a winger first, that will flourish in any STRONG team and a fullback second, but again will only ever be of value in a STRONG team.

Even the great Billy Slater would never have been the player he has been if he played for lets say Parra in the last 10 years. Only sizable, powerful backs can consistently do well in shit teams and only if they have the character and drive to do so when most of their fellow mates are crap or not putting in.

In saying all that. French is not our problem, and I love what he brings to the team. He is also a better defender then Reece. However we need better go forward and commitment in defense by the players up front to lay the platform and tone for the rest of the team to follow.

If they don't do it, the rest of them have jack shit chance of doing anything positive and the whole team goes to crap from there.

It's not so complicated. Big powerful pig/gorillas plow forward, space created, ballerinas dance and curtsy for the fans.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

He was a massive help to Moses last year, he needs to be next to him for mine.

He was a 'massive help' because the alternative was Takairangi FFS. Moses has been defending just fine this year, with Hayne outside him. He's not Chris Sandow.

 

[hindy111]

Id suggest people look at our last 11 games of last year and bar the 2 wins against Brisbane none impressed me.Of one pf those wins it was only some freak Semi magic that got us on front foot.
Our finals game against Storm perhaps was best performance of season.

But we had a tough time against dogs & tigers and Souths. Scored a few late ones against the Titans that flattered an average performance, Steam rolled by Knights.
All those teams have improved while we have not. Our two losses this year are not a huge suprise to me. There was not a lot of games last year we won with ease. Nor did we once put in an 80min performance. We didnt get better or if so only marginally. BA i have questuons about due to a few reasons.
2014- Needed to win 1 of 2 games against inferior teams and we blew it.
A top 4 spot on the line and knights at home and we played like busted. Sure we got top 4 but had we won it may of been 2nd or 3rd spot and avoided the Storm.

 

[hindy111]

Man we had a soft draw last year....Storm without origin players. Cowboys withput Thurston. Few field goal wins against bottom 4 sides. A couple of 6 point wins against a battered injury torn apart souths.

Like I said previous bar our 2 wins against Brisbane not many where thst impressive. Maybe the Saints wins but what did they finish 10th?

 

[Djay]

He was a 'massive help' because the alternative was Takairangi FFS. Moses has been defending just fine this year, with Hayne outside him. He's not Chris Sandow.

Jennings is one of the best defensive centres in the game. Moses has been fine, but if it were never broke why was it fixed?

Again we looked better in that structure last year, it should stay the same.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Jennings is one of the best defensive centres in the game. Moses has been fine, but if it were never broke why was it fixed?

You're missing the point. The fix was moving Takairangi away from the weaker side. Now he's been fixed altogether with a move into the pack.

Again we looked better in that structure last year, it should stay the same.

But it's not the same - Takairangi and Radradra are both missing from our left side (which has become a weakness despite Jennings on that side). Moses has been defending just fine with Hayne outside him. Hayne was worn down against Manly and missed a few tackles but against Penrith he was ok.

The main point is that it's too soon to be making any calls on what has or hasn't worked, tactically, because our attitude hasn't been right. So using a couple of losses to push an agenda is just amateur hour. Arthur rebutted your bullshit in his presser today: https://www.parraeels.com.au/news/2018/03/23/brad-arthur-talks-ahead-of-sharks-clash/

 

[Gronk]

Reece Robinson

I heard on the telly he will pop up in Rooster colours to replace Tupou ?

I like Reece.

 

[hindy111]

Amazing how the Dogs have money to go for Seizer for this year. He would be demanding 500k+

 

[Gazzamatta]

Amazing how the Dogs have money to go for Seizer for this year. He would be demanding 500k+

Third party deal buddy. Sponsored by T. Greenburg and the NRL