Rumours and Stuff

[Gazzamatta]

The jury is still out on the Bunnys Rake for mine. Wouldnt be a priority signing for me. I wonder if Will Smith could do a similar job if given time to develop in the position?

 

[Obscene Assassin]

You'd rather keep Pritchard because he's cheap?

Just because someone wouldn't spend 800k on Cook doesn't mean they'd want to keep Kaysa as our #1 dummy half.

If it were my decision I'd sign Matt Parcell on $300k and run with him, Pritchard and Mahoney as the 3 dummy halves in the top 30 squad next year.

 

[Gronk]

FFS now I'm even doing Pou length article posts. Next I'll start breaking up quotes to individual sentences. Thanks a lot you whiney jerks.
Where the f**k is that merkin?

He is back merkin. He liked one of my posts today.

 

[Eelementary]

I think an even more pertinent question is, don't you think we need at least two or three forwards who are at least in the top 50% of fowards in the game (and probably at least one who is at current rep-level forward) if we are to be consistently competitive in the NRL?
How many of the above can you count in our pack?

Alvaro, Brown, Ma'u, Evans, and Terepo all played in the World Cup.

We do need more high quality forwards - but I fail to see the correlation that a need for better forwards means that Mannah is no good, or that he needs to be better.

Mannah has two jobs:

(1) run for plenty of metres; and

(2) be strong in defense.

I'd say he does both things quite well.

I fail to see why the arbitrary measure of "he's not rep quality" means he is suddenly over the hill.

Mannah's metres-per-run is up there with the best of them; the only difference is that he doesn't look flash when he plays, like Fifita.

Through all our poor form, and over the poor years we have had, nobody could - or should, even - ever say that Mannah was the issue, or that he didn't give 100%.

The reality is that every club needs players like Mannah.

Our problem isn't Mannah - it's that the players we have to complement him are similar in style.

But that's why we signed Evans and Paulo.

 

[Eelementary]

When have I ever been negative except when it was deserved. The team picked for the first game of the season I said was very poor. How did that work out? Evans has been ordinary for over 2 years now, same with Williams, and I didn't like their recruitment. So far 1 right and 1 wrong and if Evans comes good then I'm pleased. I'm not always right but my judgement of players is usually pretty good. I saw Cook play for Dogs and was impressed, I've seen Fainga'a play in the WC and was similarly impressed. Will he kick on, who knows, but hopefully BA will give him a chance.

Now if Pou was here he'd give us a list but I couldn't be bothered but I'll mention 2 names of players I hoped BA would go for, Vaughan and Packer. Would think both are better than what we currently have.

Evans is in poor form, but he will come good - I'm sure of it.

And he will bring to the table exactly what you like.

 

[84 Baby]

The jury is still out on the Bunnys Rake for mine. Wouldnt be a priority signing for me. I wonder if Will Smith could do a similar job if given time to develop in the position?

Cook is super quick. I don't think there's really anyone who could really match how he plays because of that. Korisau possibly

 

[84 Baby]

He is back merkin. He liked one of my posts today.

That's all he's f**king doing, the mopey, lazy assface

 

[Obscene Assassin]

Cook is super quick. I don't think there's really anyone who could really match how he plays because of that. Korisau possibly

Matt Parcell was reportedly amongst the quickest players whilst he was at Brisbane and at manly. I think he also broke a couple of fitness records at Brisbane too.

*edit* Kaysa is also one of the quickest at our club. He caught up to Crichton on a breakaway try last year after Gus had a massive head start.

 

[84 Baby]

Matt Parcell was reportedly amongst the quickest players whilst he was at Brisbane and at manly. I think he also broke a couple of fitness records at Brisbane too.

*edit* Kaysa is also one of the quickest at our club. He caught up to Crichton on a breakaway try last year after Gus had a massive head start.

Didn't know about Parcell but Cook has good acceleration. Kaysa is fast but doesn't have that acceleration nor ATM the service

 

[84 Baby]

That said one of my plays of the game was Norman's try because watch what Kaysa did in the lead. Getting out of dummy half like that, plus a couple of good dummy runs especially Edwards' gave Norman the flimsy defence to push through

 

[TheRam]

Ouch a negative nellie coming from King Panties-in-a-Twist. I've said this before the hooking stocks competition wide are pretty low. The only ones that have changed clubs that would have been a genuine improvement OVER the 4 years would have been McInnes & Cook. I didn't even rate McInnes and he'll be NSW hooker this year. I rated Cook but at the time we had Peats, Kaysa & IDG and at the time he wasn't obviously better than any of them (except in the injury proneness category). I didn't have a big sook over BA's inability to see the future greatness of Damian f**king Cook & not immediately ceremoniously ripping up Kaysa's & IDG's contracts while offering Cook a contract "too good to refuse".

I'll put the same question to you as Ram. How many 8s, 9s & 10s have changed clubs in the time BA has been here that we haven't signed, that have further improved or at least not got worse at their new clubs and who could have fit within our squad comfortably cap & numbers wise?
Further to that if you want to whinge that BA should have planned for squad room season to season, then you will have to have identified those talented front rowers from a period of X years between BA's failure to maintain cap space and said player becoming good/changing clubs

I look forward to your non-response

Well seeing that you have dragged me into your dumbarse argument. And I say dumbarse, because there are always opportunities to strengthen rosters if you know what you're doing and willing to make the tough calls and spend the money.

Just look at a so called average coach, that so many fans have maligned and yet he has over, I think 3 or 4 seasons, assembled probably the best forward roster, bar the Storm and will probably play in the GF against the Storm this year or go very close, baring injuries, the Dragons.

Then you have my favourite coach and what he has done in one off season with the Tigers.

But lets see, both Api and Cook were available since 2016, and both re-signed since then again with their respective clubs. Now if BA could not see that the 9's he has at our club are gash, then I'm afraid he he isn't much of a coach. But I think he is a good coach, but has a blind side with loyalty and the players. I for one have been going on about Api since he was 17-18 yrs old when he was in the Souths juniors. But hey what do I know?

Also this years SOO 9 that the Dragons have was available too. So again he missed the boat. Need I go on? As for 8 and 10, I couldn't be bothered going through the list of player movement there.

Like I said, there are always players available from season to season. The coach though needs to be ruthless. It is not as if we have won anything and these players have delivered the ultimate prize and he feels indebted to these players. The roster has fallen short in every year that he has been here, he needed to address those short comings that were bleeding obvious.

He hasn't and only now with a 0-6 record has he moved off his arse to do the obvious and we will see if he does more of what is still needed.

P.S. We will lose against the Tigers this weekend.

 

[I'm a loser baby...]

I'm hoping we win against the Tigers.

 

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

I don't know and don't really care. I would have thought that his stats reflect a very solid contribution to his team or to any team for that matter. Certainly if based on the drought of possession we have endured so far in 2018 .

I don't need to pigeon hole him and am happy for him to be in the 17. I am also not interested in what he is getting paid in his twilight years because he brings intangible qualities to his cohort.

I reckon he's solid, but probably only in the top 65%. And the prick has missed 10 tackles this year.

Anyway the debate seems to have moved on somewhat since I've been out of the office. I'm not actually sure what the topic is.

 

[hineyrulz]

He's averaging 102m per game and has a tackle efficiency of 89% in a team who are 1-7.

You tell me.

You have us losing to the Tigers already you death riding merkin!!

 

[84 Baby]

Well seeing that you have dragged me into your dumbarse argument. And I say dumbarse, because there are always opportunities to strengthen rosters if you know what you're doing and willing to make the tough calls and spend the money.

Just look at a so called average coach, that so many fans have maligned and yet he has over, I think 3 or 4 seasons, assembled probably the best forward roster, bar the Storm and will probably play in the GF against the Storm this year or go very close, baring injuries, the Dragons.

Then you have my favourite coach and what he has done in one off season with the Tigers.

But lets see, both Api and Cook were available since 2016, and both re-signed since then again with their respective clubs. Now if BA could not see that the 9's he has at our club are gash, then I'm afraid he he isn't much of a coach. But I think he is a good coach, but has a blind side with loyalty and the players. I for one have been going on about Api since he was 17-18 yrs old when he was in the Souths juniors. But hey what do I know?

Also this years SOO 9 that the Dragons have was available too. So again he missed the boat. Need I go on? As for 8 and 10, I couldn't be bothered going through the list of player movement there.

Like I said, there are always players available from season to season. The coach though needs to be ruthless. It is not as if we have won anything and these players have delivered the ultimate prize and he feels indebted to these players. The roster has fallen short in every year that he has been here, he needed to address those short comings that were bleeding obvious.

He hasn't and only now with a 0-6 record has he moved off his arse to do the obvious and we will see if he does more of what is still needed.

P.S. We will lose against the Tigers this weekend.

f**k me the Dragons fans love winning pre June premierships all by themselves, don't do it for them.
McGregor & Arthur have been in their respective positions about the same length of time and we've played twice as many finals games as them. If it wasn't for a f**ked salary cap then we would have at least played 3 times as many. Granted we're at polar opposites so far this season but do you think Drag fans were celebrating their team and coach's awesomeness the past 2 seasons?

Whether or not they've been off contract since both Korisau & Cook were signed by their respective teams whilst we still had Peats and at the time it was pretty reasonable to think he'd be a decent long-term hooker with a young project in Kaysa. If they have been off contract since then (did they sign 1 year contracts FFS?) then they haven't signed elsewhere either and as much as you want to bleat on about making irrefusable offers or any player can be signed by anyone if they do it right, that's simply a fairytale.

I'd have taken Cook over McInnes at the time and well Drags won that lottery. Still again I don't reckon Drags were lauding that signing over any one late last year. He was gash.

I agree he should be more ruthless but sometimes it also makes a better financial decision to stick with what you got. And again when signing players, it takes 2 to tango. There could any multitude of reasons one players signs with another club over ours.

P.S. I also don't think you read my other post about which front rowers we have lost and signed in BA's tenure. IMO it's not as horrible as you believe

 

[hineyrulz]

I would've nearly payed 800k for Jake Friend at the start of the year though, and would've ended up looking pretty silly.

Friend has been poo for about 18 months, people are only just realising he is suffering from Matt Keating disease. Radley looks like a goer at the Chooks and can get slot into the back row as well. Not the worst option.

 

[hineyrulz]

I think we have a better than average forward pack but they have been playing below average. Obviously that's a pretty big point of contention around here.

I reckon our pack is just about the worst in the comp, nothing i have seen this season sways me from this opinion. But too be fair the service from dummy half is easily the worst the comp which hasn't helped.

 

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

Friend has been poo for about 18 months, people are only just realising he is suffering from Matt Keating disease. Radley looks like a goer at the Chooks and can get slot into the back row as well. Not the worst option.

He's running sideways all the time.

 

[hineyrulz]

That's all he's f**king doing, the mopey, lazy assface

I like the look of Pou's like on this post.

 

[Obscene Assassin]

Didn't know about Parcell but Cook has good acceleration. Kaysa is fast but doesn't have that acceleration nor ATM the service

I think it was in 2016 that Kaysa was in the top 6 at the club for 40m. He's pretty quick off the mark.