Rumours and Stuff

[Poupou Escobar]

Offer the 3rd as a club option hopefully solves his concerns.

Yeah offer the third year club option at $1M. How could he turn that down ffs

 

[Poupou Escobar]

How come I suggested same several days ago but now suddenly everyone likes the idea?

Were you talking about Haze Dunster or Hayze Perham?

 

[IFR33K]

It's coincidence. We are consistently holding the ruck in defence this year (except against the Dragons) and Dylan Brown is now defending on the right. You can't compare the performance of Blake/Niukore without taking those factors into consideration.

You keep harping on about the fact moses and brown have swapped edges, and that the reason waqa was a poor defender is because of Moses. My question to you is, has our left side defense gotten worse with Moses defending there?

 

[Poupou Escobar]

1 decent game for us out of 20+ and against his old team is not a stat you pin your hopes on!

No it's the 66 wins from 120 games. If he was an actual liability not only would he not have been involved in so many wins, he wouldn't have been picked in so many games.

 

[IFR33K]

Olam "isn't mnobile or agile" yet he put this move on Niukore in a one-on-one situation:

No centre is ever going to go thru a season without being beaten. Overall Marata has been great.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Penrith's centres are quicker, and more mobile.

Morris/Manu would cause headaches.

I don't really watch non-Eels games, to be fair, because I am not interested.

My point was that Niukore is doing an excellent job, but being a forward, his agility, and speed, are - rightfully so - behind most other centres'.

I think Blake has more upside than Niukore, but he also has plenty to work on.

I'm very happy with Niukore's performances in the centres, but I also reckon it's only a matter of time until a smart coach exposes Niukore's limitations.

Niukore has already been exposed this year, but like any strong team, we have mostly been able to cover our weaknesses. We are controlling field position and possession much better over 80 minutes this year, and putting our edges under less pressure. Giving Niukore the credit for everything shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how rugby league works.

 

[I'm a loser baby...]

Niukore eh?

 

[Poupou Escobar]

You keep harping on about the fact moses and brown have swapped edges, and that the reason waqa was a poor defender is because of Moses. My question to you is, has our left side defense gotten worse with Moses defending there?

Yes it has, with 9 of the 16 tries we've conceded this year coming against our left edge. After seven rounds last year we had conceded 14 tries and only 2 of them were against our left edge.

But we've also lost Michael Jennings, so like I said, you can't pin all the blame on one player. But Moses is clearly an inferior defender to Dylan Brown, so it's not unexpected.

 

[TheRam]

Marata needs to stay at right centre. In red zone attack Blake might offer marginally more, but it would be debatable. Nuikore is all over him for early set meterage, defence and not making dumb plays.
I don't see the need to move Marata back into the middle with Kaufusi going so well. Go with him and the Emu off the bench for the middle guys

Waqa can play reserves and wait for an opportunity

What I would do is bring Waqa back into the centres for a month(4 or 5 games) or so to prove himself and see what he can offer compared to what Marata does. If he is actually a better option in both defence and attack, then fantastic, but if his presence their starts to dissolve the confidence of the players around him and our defense starts to look fragile again, then I would make the not to hard decision of dropping him with the long term view of trading him out of the roster.

In the mean time I would put all my training focus on Niukore's lateral agility. He would basically be doing more stepping, swerving, jumping and diving and/or whatever else is needed to get him centre ready, then he has ever done before. Our total focus on Nuikore from this point on should be to make him as adapt as possible in agility and footwork. The guy could be anything if we can get him laterally capable and dexterous enough to be a fully fledged centre in the NRL.

Also he needs to work on his passing game, which at this stage of his evolution is ordinary even for a forward. But if he works hard at both these skills, he could turn out to be one hell of a lethal centre weapon out there that we never thought we had.

 

[TheRam]

He created the opportunities - but is it a coincidence that the opportunities were created, once the energy, and momentum shifted, when Brown came back on for his second stint?

In my eyes, Nathan Brown's runs created the space for those tries - he's the real hero.

As he has been for so many years now.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

What I would do is bring Waqa back into the centres for a month(4 or 5 games) or so to prove himself and see what he can offer compared to what Marata does. If he is actually a better option in both defence and attack, then fantastic, but if his presence their starts to dissolve the confidence of the players around him and our defense starts to look fragile again, then I would make the not to hard decision of dropping him with the long term view of trading him out of the roster.

In the mean time I would put all my training focus on Niukore's lateral agility. He would basically be doing more stepping, swerving, jumping and diving and/or whatever else is needed to get him centre ready, then he has ever done before. Our total focus on Nuikore from this point on should be to make him as adapt as possible in agility and footwork. The guy could be anything if we can get him laterally capable and dexterous enough to be a fully fledged centre in the NRL.

Also he needs to work on his passing game, which at this stage of his evolution is ordinary even for a forward. But if he works hard at both these skills, he could turn out to be one hell of a lethal centre weapon out there that we never thought we had.

Don't forget he came to us as a centre, but we converted him into a forward because he lacked the natural physical ability for centre. He has decent speed, but he is just too big for the lateral movement required.

I reckon Hayze Perham would be a better defender than Niukore. He may even be better than Blake, who I reckon might be better suited to the wing.

 

[TheRam]

Don't try and squirm your way out of this one merkin. You implied Bellamy only lets players go because he doesn't rate them, yet he let Cronk go (and replaced him with Brodie Croft). Later he let Croft go and replaced him with Papenhuyzen (moving Hughes from fullback to right half). All these moves were made to manage the cap, not because he didn't rate the blokes he let go. If he didn't rate Croft he would never have given him so many games. The issue was he needed to create cap space to keep Papenhuyzen. Out of Croft and Hughes, Croft was the one in demand, so he was the one let go.

What the hell are you talking about? He let Cronk go? Like he had a say in it? I give up. You are just playing with yourself now.

As for the rest of that nonsense, it is just that nonsense. But I couldn't be bothered anymore after that Cronk clanger. You are just wasting my time suckerrrr!!

 

[IFR33K]

What the hell are you talking about? He let Cronk go? Like he had a say in it? I give up. You are just playing with yourself now.

As for the rest of that nonsense, it is just that nonsense. But I couldn't be bothered anymore after that Cronk clanger. You are just wasting my time suckerrrr!!

Haha. Did u read the part where the roosters actually saved money by signing Cronk and letting Pearce go. Twas hilarious

 

[Poupou Escobar]

What the hell are you talking about? He let Cronk go? Like he had a say in it?

Of course he had a say in it. He made Cronk's decision for him by signing all of these other spine options. The year after Cronk left they were still strong enough to make the grand final. They missed out on the minor premiership by a for/against shortfall of eight points. They were obviously getting a lot out of their salary cap. The next year they were again minor premiers, replacing Slater with Hughes. Meanwhile Papenhuyzen emerged as a star off the bench. Fitting all these guys in means letting some go, and sometimes that's a contracted player in demand elsewhere. The Storm even announced they let Croft (and premiership winner Curtis Scott) go to remain cap compliant: An update on Brodie Croft and Curtis Scott - Storm (melbournestorm.com.au)

Trying to make it a narrative about some merkin FAILING and being AXED is the kind of bogan drama-junkie bullshit that allows sports media to sell so much click bait.

 

[Eelementary]

As he has been for so many years now.

Absolutely - I hope we keep him.

Very under-rated, imo.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Haha. Did u read the part where the roosters actually saved money by signing Cronk and letting Pearce go. Twas hilarious

Why else would they let Pearce go other than to save money? He was a better player than Cronk in 2018, taking on the line more and setting up more tries and linebreaks. Tedesco and Keary were far more important to the Roosters than Cronk, and the money saved by releasing Pearce helped keep that team together.

 

[TheRam]

A decent half doesn't get them tackling or keep them concentrating for 80 mins. Sure they might start scoring more tries and winning more games, mainly against the weaker teams, but they're disorganised and have no structure. In short they're poorly coached but equally have a poor roster. Too many poor performers with deficiencies that haven't been fixed so they'll forever struggle in games where they're under the pump. Just look at tonight's game and the deficiencies they've shown.
Half hearted efforts mixed with high effort that lasts in minutes rather then 80 mins, a mistake and they get down hearted and have a try scored against them. Remind you of the Parra teams circa 2012/13?
And look how long it took us to become competitive so its not an overnight or one person fix.

Oh please, do we need to reinvent the wheel whenever we have these types of discussions?

Look for the 10th quadrillionth time, when a team has a real quality and consistent half/play maker the whole squad lift their game consciously and subconsciously. It is human nature and all the good little things that a team like the Broncos are now not doing all of a sudden they start to do.

How many times do you need to hear players say that when they look around the dressing room and see the likes of "so and so" that it raises their belief and confidence of having success? When you have a quality playmaker players respond because they know that if they do their job, get into the right position, dive on that lose ball, chase harder in defense, put their head in that dangerous place and so forth, it probably will not be for nought and a positive outcome is more likely and a winning culture ensues.

A perfect example was Kikau a few weeks ago when he took a dive in defense to milk a penalty and saw that it wasn't coming, but also saw that the Storm were going to score, so got off his arse and made a mammoth effort, running across field to stop that try. Now if he were playing for the Dogs or Broncos, do you honestly believe he would have done that or would he just have lay there still sooking to get the penalty while his team mates couldn't stopped the try without his help and in the end lose the game?

When you are putting in a hard effort week in and week out to only see that hard effort mean jack as far as winning is concerned, then it is so very hard for most of us to keep playing, especially in 32 degrees heat like last night, at your very best. Eventually players just give up and teams like that become very inconsistent. Look at the Dogs, last year, they were terrible, but for most of their games they at least put in. This year they realise that all that effort delivered f**k all as far as wins was concerned, so they are playing accordingly now even though their roster is a little better then last years. What you will find is that most of their players are just treading water and biding their time for next year, when they will hopefully have, for them, a playmaker of class in Matt Burton to steer them around and improve their fortunes.

I hope he reneges. It will send them into a spiralling loop to oblivion for at least another 3 to 5 years.

 

[T-Boon]

I would drop Tom Osisis and have Waqa and Niukore in the centres.

 

[TheRam]

Of course he had a say in it. He made Cronk's decision for him by signing all of these other spine options. The year after Cronk left they were still strong enough to make the grand final. They missed out on the minor premiership by a for/against shortfall of eight points. They were obviously getting a lot out of their salary cap. The next year they were again minor premiers, replacing Slater with Hughes. Meanwhile Papenhuyzen emerged as a star off the bench. Fitting all these guys in means letting some go, and sometimes that's a contracted player in demand elsewhere. The Storm even announced they let Croft (and premiership winner Curtis Scott) go to remain cap compliant: An update on Brodie Croft and Curtis Scott - Storm (melbournestorm.com.au)

Trying to make it a narrative about some merkin FAILING and being AXED is the kind of bogan drama-junkie bullshit that allows sports media to sell so much click bait.

Or in an alternate real world universe, Cronk had been making overtures for nearly 2 years that he was either retiring to move up to Sydney to be with his girl or signing with another club up here if he continued on playing so as to be with her.

All the rest of your nonsense was if true, not much of what you say is, a consequence of Cronks decision. As is what has been also written about the reason behind him and Smiths falling out. Smith was and is not happy that CRONK made the decision to turn his back on the Storm. Apparently Smith hasn't taken to kindly to it at all.

Look I couldn't give a crap about this discussion other then to say you are full of it as usual and I am done with this matter.

Imagine that, two Parra supporter arguing about Storm crap. What next, we'll suggest to tell BA to give one of our excess gun forwards to the Sea Eagles to give them a hand?

Outrages. Leave me alone you tosser!

 

[IFR33K]

Why else would they let Pearce go other than to save money? He was a better player than Cronk in 2018, taking on the line more and setting up more tries and linebreaks. Tedesco and Keary were far more important to the Roosters than Cronk, and the money saved by releasing Pearce helped keep that team together.

Pearce better than Cronk? Now you’re being outright stupid.

on a side note. I spoke to someone in the know. And Cronk actually paid the roosters for allowing him to play there.