Rumours and Stuff

[Avenger]

Yeah but you have to replace them and have you seen the off contract list this season?

Not great. Gotta keep some of them.

Cleary will tap half his players on the shoulder as will the Gold Coast and Brisbane. There will be plenty to go around.

 

[Joshuatheeel]

I think he means player managers..

No he doesn’t !!

 

[hineyrulz]

Careful, I called him a downhill skier in the match thread and some panties got all twisted...

He's a fine player. We should re-sign him if we can. But he's the David Warner of halfbacks.

Good Comparison, he has great talent and on his day is top level talent but when there isn’t a flat track for him to front foot slog on he goes missing and offers nothing.
He wasn’t on his Pat Malone tonight.

 

[Bazal]

Cleary will tap half his players on the shoulder as will the Gold Coast and Brisbane. There will be plenty to go around.

Possibly.

But do you want their discards? Are they going to be, mentally and even in terms of ability, any better than the merkins we already have?

Gutho and Moses we should definitely re-sign. Right now the best options elsewhere in their positions are Michael fking Gordon at fullback (unless you count DWZ and I reckon he's worse than Gutho) and Sam Williams or Te Maire Martin in the halves (presuming Cronk retires given he's 342 years old).

I'd re-sign Alvaro. He's cheap and works his nuts off. Hang on to Mannah and Ma'u for cheap if we could, and obviously keep young Stefano and Niukore. Guys like Stone, Moeroa, and the two Jennings can earn something, but not immediate keepers.

That basically means we let go of 10-14 players.

Then have a look at gys like Tui Kamicamica, Christian Welch, Agnatius Paasi, Tevita Tatola, Blake Lawrie, Sitili Tupounia, Corey Oates. We'd still need to manufacture a deal or keep Mennings to get a centre though because the off contract list is dross

It's not great pickings. And I don't think you can hope for blokes to be tapped on the shoulder. You need to have a side, and keep some wiggle room if blokes do get tapped.

The core of the squad is pretty good. It's just muppets like Takairangi and Terepo, and a few blokes who have dropped off a cliff. It doesn't happen overnight

 

[emjaycee]

What does he think BA's been leaking?

 

[I'm a loser baby...]

What does he think BA's been leaking?

Hydraulic fluid. He's a mach...oh, it's BA. Actually I'd like to know too.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Tonight just proved he is a down hill skier.

750k for him is more than fair.

Downhill skier? He had three LBAs behind a beaten pack. It was his best playmaking performance all year. Unfortunately he was constantly left isolated in defence.

 

[strider]

Cool - means we also have someone else to sign.

I thought the Lattrel Mitchell article went with that post

 

[strider]

With that Oregon kid looking the goods and that Stefano kid also looking promising do we even need another forward?

I’d only buy a prop now if either Mannah or Alvaro are not re-signed.

Then how are you gonna replace the other half dozen forwards you sacked

Haha ... Its awesome when i miss a days posts and then read em in hindsight .... we were all still so optimistic before 7:30 last night lol

 

[Noise]

Then how are you gonna replace the other half dozen forwards you sacked

Haha ... Its awesome when i miss a days posts and then read em in hindsight .... we were all still so optimistic before 7:30 last night lol

*6:30, when the team list came out

 

[strider]

*6:30, when the team list came out

I missed the team list .... had read a little of the, omfg will smith is gonna play , before that ... then driving home at about 7:15 heard on the radio mahoney on bench for Peni and thought, you dopey f**ks thats wrong .... turned out it was right and wrong

 

[Noise]

I missed the team list .... had read a little of the, omfg will smith is gonna play , before that ... then driving home at about 7:15 heard on the radio mahoney on bench for Peni and thought, you dopey f**ks thats wrong .... turned out it was right and wrong

The Will SMith thing came about because Andy Raymond at about 6pm during the Dragons game said the Eels have a 'surprise' in the starting lineup. We assumed it was Will Smith. Unfortunately (and unbelievably) it was much worse

 

[emjaycee]

I thought the Lattrel Mitchell article went with that post

Yep.

 

[T-Boon]

Mitch Moses is reasonably reliable and is in the second tier of half backs which is pretty good.
But Gutherson is like bi-polar and that stuffs his value I would maybe offer him 1 year at 700k and make it perfectly clear we are looking at what is available for 2021 (ie Ponga). I would also tell him he has 1 week to accept or it is off the table.

 

[Happy MEel]

Downhill skier? He had three LBAs behind a beaten pack. It was his best playmaking performance all year. Unfortunately he was constantly left isolated in defence.

Spot on. He was one of our best last night in a badly beaten side.

 

[emjaycee]

Its a simple game and we continue to be lacking or extremely inconsistent in doing the simple things.

1. None of our middle forwards actually try to run through the line - what is it with Jnr the last few games where he is basically stopping at the defensive line and looking to offload 100% of the time. He needs to earn that right in each and every game by running hard and straight for the first 20 mins.

2. Apart from Lane, our forwards don't very often run good lines giving our playmakers and Reed no option for anything resembling and outside/inside pass. We would never score the kind of try that Bromwich scored of the Smith pass close to the line, simply because our forwards don't run like that.

3. I have no idea why we cannot compete in the ruck/wrestle. This has been a Parra thing for at least 10 years and something we do not seem to able to fix regardless of who is coach or players.

4. f**ken kick chase needs to be perfect all the time.

/RANT OVER

 

[lucablight]

Its a simple game and we continue to be lacking or extremely inconsistent in doing the simple things.

1. None of our middle forwards actually try to run through the line - what is it with Jnr the last few games where he is basically stopping at the defensive line and looking to offload 100% of the time. He needs to earn that right in each and every game by running hard and straight for the first 20 mins.

2. Apart from Lane, our forwards don't very often run good lines giving our playmakers and Reed no option for anything resembling and outside/inside pass. We would never score the kind of try that Bromwich scored of the Smith pass close to the line, simply because our forwards don't run like that.

3. I have no idea why we cannot compete in the ruck/wrestle. This has been a Parra thing for at least 10 years and something we do not seem to able to fix regardless of who is coach or players.

4. f**ken kick chase needs to be perfect all the time.

/RANT OVER

It was very frustrating to see Melbourne make 70-80m per set and then subsequently see us struggling to get out of our own end the entire night.

 

[Glenneel]

Love it. Looks like we are smarter than the average bear Boo Boo.

Spot on Gazza. After last nite you can see that BA is just smarter than a bear and thats about it.

 

[Glenneel]

Possibly.

But do you want their discards? Are they going to be, mentally and even in terms of ability, any better than the merkins we already have?

Gutho and Moses we should definitely re-sign. Right now the best options elsewhere in their positions are Michael fking Gordon at fullback (unless you count DWZ and I reckon he's worse than Gutho) and Sam Williams or Te Maire Martin in the halves (presuming Cronk retires given he's 342 years old).

I'd re-sign Alvaro. He's cheap and works his nuts off. Hang on to Mannah and Ma'u for cheap if we could, and obviously keep young Stefano and Niukore. Guys like Stone, Moeroa, and the two Jennings can earn something, but not immediate keepers.

That basically means we let go of 10-14 players.

Then have a look at gys like Tui Kamicamica, Christian Welch, Agnatius Paasi, Tevita Tatola, Blake Lawrie, Sitili Tupounia, Corey Oates. We'd still need to manufacture a deal or keep Mennings to get a centre though because the off contract list is dross

It's not great pickings. And I don't think you can hope for blokes to be tapped on the shoulder. You need to have a side, and keep some wiggle room if blokes do get tapped.

The core of the squad is pretty good. It's just muppets like Takairangi and Terepo, and a few blokes who have dropped off a cliff. It doesn't happen overnight

Trouble is our team is full of discards or players who other teams do not want. Even Titans (perennial under-performers) rejected Taka before he came to us. That aside our main problem is BA. In 6 years our team still lacks leadership, mongrel, smarts, consistency, commitment and pride in the jersey. And we still have 50-60 point blowouts which is not acceptable on any level. I was hoping Shane Flanagan would be our new coach, at least he'd put some steel into the team, but his gone o/s so not available. So who's available to get this team into some reasonable shape?

 

[Avenger]

Then how are you gonna replace the other half dozen forwards you sacked

Haha ... Its awesome when i miss a days posts and then read em in hindsight .... we were all still so optimistic before 7:30 last night lol

Why is it awesome? Maybe a new coach that knows how to consistently motivate will do the trick no matter who is there.
BA obviously can’t do that.