Rumours and Stuff

[oldmancraigy]

I’m sorry but I just can’t get excited about any of these signings.


Papali’i is a pretty solid player and will probably make our top 17 but the other two are Meh city. You want to wave some Pom Poms and have a bukkake party good for you. Not every one is on the BA cool aid.

So you prefer Taka as our first choice backup centre?

Opacic has FG experience, decent backup option with size and speed.
Papali'i is a very useful middle forward. Hard runner and decent workrate off the bench. We had no thrust in the middle apart from our 'big 3'. Nice addition.
Lussick. Better than Davies or Stone at hooker? Surely.


Who else would you have signed as depth players? This is exactly what a team wants, guys who are experienced and can step in if required.

You'd moan if we won the comp about how we didn't win by a big enough margin. Give yourself an uppercut!!

 

[hineyrulz]

So you prefer Taka as our first choice backup centre?

Opacic has FG experience, decent backup option with size and speed.
Papali'i is a very useful middle forward. Hard runner and decent workrate off the bench. We had no thrust in the middle apart from our 'big 3'. Nice addition.
Lussick. Better than Davies or Stone at hooker? Surely.


Who else would you have signed as depth players? This is exactly what a team wants, guys who are experienced and can step in if required.

You'd moan if we won the comp about how we didn't win by a big enough margin. Give yourself an uppercut!!

LOL!! Like i'll ever have to worry about that with Bea Arthur in charge. Thank goodness we got to play the disgraceful Donkey's in week 1 last year otherwise he'd be 0 and 7.

And as i said to Delboy you want to get excited about these signings good for you, doesn't mean every has to. We were all told by the footy doyens that it wasn't the coaches fault our squad was nowhere near good enough and we massively overachieved earlier in the year. Can't see any of these blokes making us a contender.

 

[hineyrulz]

Aaaand Mr Grump chimes in.

And here comes Mr Happy.

 

[emjaycee]

Haven’t you been telling us our team wasn’t good enough to win a comp??? We massively over achieved due to the coaching Brilliance of Bea Arthur??? How do these 3 signings get us closer to those top few teams??

Given i predicted a finish between 3rd and 6th, i don't think i have ever said we over achieved in 2020 and I have definitely never suggested BA is brilliant. Our top 13 is good enough to win a comp however it does take 17 players each week and to have 17 players capable means a decent squad of 30 is needed. These 3 signings bring us closer because Iceman is likely going to offer more than Kevans and the depth signings Opacic and Lussick definitely strengthen positions 18-30. Not sure about you but I would rather have Joey Lussick step in for Rheed than Stone, Smith or Davis.

 

[Noise]

Happy with the signings. A backup hooker has been needed for 2 years and Papali'i will be good off the bench. Still feel like we need a good centre to replace Mennings - Opacic better be the backup. I'm hoping Lane moves to the bench and plays more middle and less minutes next year, which means we need an edge forward - I don't think Papali'i is good enough to be our main left edge back rower.

 

[emjaycee]

But, we're looking for our squad to be strengthened. Well, I thought that's the way we need to go if we want to win the unachievable title.

You reckon these 3 are weaker than Evans, Davis and Gennings?

 

[Stevie]

It must be that time of year where we start turning on each other after another non premiership year.

Oh yah!

 

[hineyrulz]

It must be that time of year where we start turning on each other after another non premiership year.

Oh yah!

We've been turning on each other in here the last 34 years, it's the only good this club is really good at. Besides spoons and disappointment.

 

[hybrideel]

Rheed started to run in the last 4 or 5 games. I expect that more next season.
Rheeds kicking game is far better then Grants. A player can only work on so many things at once. Most important for Rheed was his biggest weakness. And that was defense. He would miss 5-7 tackles a game. As a coach I would go ok whats stopping him from playing NRL. Forget how good everything else is the most important thing to repair was his defense. Is that fixed? YES.

So you move on to the next part of his game. And that's kicking. And what did we see? We saw Rheed starting to kick more. His placement more often then not was excellent.

Now this off season the coach will move onto the next two areas he needs to improve. Running and support play.
The is just how it works in NRL for players who debut very young. They simplify their game and let them focus on one area at a time. And by the time they have 4yrs under belt they generaly begin to put it all together. By year 5 they start to master it.

My thoughts on Reed not running much is that it's due to our game plan of the halves standing wide. It is much easier to throw a 15-20 metre pass off the ground with your feet and body set in position than it is when you are running forward engaging the defence.
If our halves stood a fair bit closer to the play the ball or we ran the forwards off Reed directly more often, I think he would engage the markers a lot more

 

[IFR33K]

Excuse my ignorance, but is that the Lussick that suffered a major injury to his neck some years ago?

 

[hineyrulz]

Given i predicted a finish between 3rd and 6th, i don't think i have ever said we over achieved in 2020 and I have definitely never suggested BA is brilliant. Our top 13 is good enough to win a comp however it does take 17 players each week and to have 17 players capable means a decent squad of 30 is needed. These 3 signings bring us closer because Iceman is likely going to offer more than Kevans and the depth signings Opacic and Lussick definitely strengthen positions 18-30. Not sure about you but I would rather have Joey Lussick step in for Rheed than Stone, Smith or Davis.

Our top 13 is good enough to win a comp???

Both our wingers, Blake and our down hill skiing halfback have questions all over them IMO, let alone the coach and his staff. I'd argue i think we are further away from winning a comp than we were last year.

 

[Barry O'Speedwagon]

Excuse my ignorance, but is that the Lussick that suffered a major injury to his neck some years ago?

Not sure, but he has played solid week in week out footy for 3 seasons. Something rang a bell after reading your post, but maybe it was more of scare on the field, rather than a serious injury (or maybe it's Stefano's brother that we're both thinking about).

 

[Gronk]

Excuse my ignorance, but is that the Lussick that suffered a major injury to his neck some years ago?

Nope.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Lussick

Australian Schoolboys
Eels NYC
Roosters reggies
Manly Reggies
Manly NRL debut
Salford for past 3 seasons. Played 60 games.

He’s 25 in December.

 

[T-Boon]

He was a highly regarded junior. Back when we signed Darcy a lot of people (well one person I heard) suggested we signed Darcy so that we could get Joey. It wasn't worth it.

 

[Chipmunk]

So you think that those 3 signings should all be in the bottom 23-30 positions in the squad ?

Well 27-30 are less than minimum, some sort of rookie wage I think it's referred to.

Who says only player 23-26 can be minimum wage?

The Kiwi bloke is probably worth more than minimum. They other two aren't.

 

[Gazzamatta]

Wasnt it Harrisons(edge forward who didnt work out ?) younger brother that wrecked himself?

 

[hybrideel]

Excuse my ignorance, but is that the Lussick that suffered a major injury to his neck some years ago?

Are you thinking of Blake Harrison, who had the water skiing accident?
I get confused between them as they both seem to be cases where we signed the older brother to get the more highly rated younger brother, and in both cases they were shit signings

 

[Noise]

Are you thinking of Blake Harrison, who had the water skiing accident?
I get confused between them as they both seem to be cases where we signed the older brother to get the more highly rated younger brother, and in both cases they were shit signings

And then there was the time we got the younger but shit Folau.

 

[strider]

I remember Papali steam rollimg 3 or 4 players to score a match sealing try this year against the broncos maybe? ... Thought it was impressive ... But surprised he didnt seem to be a regular in the team

 

[Joely01]

There’s some whispers getting louder on social media in regards to us signing the Fox... interesting if this is to happen cause I know he was keen on the fullback role, don’t think he would get that here.
Interesting how our backline would look next year if MJ does miss the year and if we sign Ado Carr and now the signing of Opacic (who I believe will put some serious pressure on a starting position)