Rumours and Stuff

[emjaycee]

I was f**ken here!

But you count for nuffin merkin

 

[84 Baby]

I will be the odd one out and say I thought the club statement about how contract stuff is going a bit odd .... I don't think its terrible or anything, just odd

it basically details how we don't want things to play out in the media etc ..... so what do we do, make a media statement - lol

if you are content with how you are going and not worried about the perception of outsiders with no clue about what is going on, then just keep going about what you are doing

as I said, I think its ok they did it, just a bit weird and unexpected

You see those types of statements all the time from larger organisations in larger overseas comps. I thought parts of it were a bit much but the general retort without directly saying who you’re retorting is a good move. But also I seem to remember a similar release last time a certain player was off contract and I don’t want to see the same statement every time. At some point one party needs to recognise that it’s all leading nowhere and one of them needs to change

 

[84 Baby]

But you count for nuffin merkin

Tell that to News Corp

 

[strider]

I reckon it was less in regard to individual players contracts and was more in response to the constant Eels mismanagement comments that have been appearing. Even the follow up article this morning talks about our mismanagement of our cap... doesn't mention Melbourne has 7 first graders off contract at the end of '23 and how they have mismanaged their cap.

#eelsincrisis #clickbaithere

exactly .... the mainstream media write clickbait - I don't know if there's a need to respond to it

 

[TheRam]

Mary is a good addition in my eyes. He has a lot of experience. His time at Saints was very up and down but I think Saints as a club was just up and down also. He will only add ideas along with Ennis. I'm happy about both.

Spot on Hindy. They are both great additions. I wish they were actually appointed as part of the permanent coaching staff, not just as consultants. I also love that now Ennis will be a huge supporter of our team and always defend and talk them up during game analysis and commentary in games when decisions go against us on the field.

 

[84 Baby]

Depending on what role, I agree although I can't personally see a place for him in our club (and personally, I have no desire to have him back).

Interesting though that even though we announced McGregor as a consultant, it seems the RedV faithful and even some on this forum are thinking he is going to be acting as some type of assistant coach. I reckon he will probably work on with a specific part of the team only. Ennis will with work with the dummy halves, and McGregor will probably work with our young outside backs. He was a damn fine centre in his day and Penisini, Dunster, Russell, Loizou, Naiduki and co. could all do with learning some tricks off him. A bit like A Johns helping the halves for the last 2 years.

I reckon Ennis is a sweetener ploy in the Rheed negotiations, and that both are for specific high performance (don’t laugh) training. It could be outside back training but likely it’s even more specific like training for running different lines or slide defence

 

[TheRam]

Why is that likely? More likely is that we will lose one or two because we can't keep them all. That doesn't mean we can't keep any of them. We already have a lot of money tied up in forwards, possibly too much, which could be the change our team needs to go to the next level.

I didn't put a percentage on it merkin. It is very likely that we could lose all three, but it is even more very likely that we lose two and even more very, very likely we lose one only.

Or none of the above.

Got it merkin!

 

[84 Baby]

exactly .... the mainstream media write clickbait - I don't know if there's a need to respond to it

Did you miss pages 5541 to 5632 of this thread? The statement was for the benefit of club supporters who click the bait.
That said it’s be somewhat hypocritical to say don’t believe the clickbait but absolutely have faith in the club statement. But still have absolute faith in the club statement - it’s time to turn this club into a laser focused cult

 

[TheRam]

I suspect Mary has probably worked out that being an assistant is probably the better option for him going forward. The more he gets to provide the more valuable he will be.

Ennis I suspect, like Sterlo 30 years before him, knows that it's a safer option to stick with his gig at Fox Sports...except Ennis has a greater work ethic than Sterlo and knows he can supplement that gig by helping out the highest bidder on the side - plus commuting to the middle of Sydney is easier than getting to Canberra!

Mate I suspect he chose the Raiders over us at that time because he saw them as the better roster. Now he sees us as the better roster. Go figure, coaches also look to go to the stronger club that can help their careers too.

 

[Glenneel]

I don’t see how it follows that we can do it again. We got lucky. We might get lucky again but we’re far more likely not to.
What’s a key player in your eyes?

It’s a 17 man game. How is having good players you wouldn’t otherwise have not a competitive advantage?

I’d be fine with having to shed players because we were premiers. I’m not fine with the roster regressing when we’re only a week 2 finals side.

So which above average players are we going to have subsidised by other clubs moving forward?

I agree. That’s why I said our only hope is that our young players come in and start performing at high levels. If they don’t and we lose certain players then we will regress as a side.

Dogs must be over the cap and would be the most obvious club to shed players. Their money seems to be tied up in non spine players (except Burton) which is a new approach (Gus ball?). Let Gus put his fingers all over the place, cause chaos for a few years, get sacked and for him to say he thought it was time to go, before the club will do any good.

 

[Glenneel]

Sorry if I don't take you and your predictions to seriously. Your love of the average and mediocrity is legendary.

High end frontrower(top 5 in the NRL) are not very easily replaceable and in my view RCG was only behind Haas this last season. Sure there are a heap of good ones but the top 5 or 6 are very hard to replace and it is more luck then anything else if a club can swap one in for another back to back. We are probably the most fortunate club in the NRL right now that we have 2 of the best playing for us at the same time, while also having a great bunch of forwards supporting behind them. That is why our team has been the power team of the NRL for the last couple of seasons.

Now if we lose RCG, Niukore and Papalii all in 2023, which is very likely, that will be a massive hole to fill. But in my opinion RCG would be the hardest to replace because we haven't produced anyone like him in probably 20 years or so. Someone that can hit the line with that much ferocity and power, then also be flexible enough and fit enough to be a high energy defender in the middle and can play the full 80 mins if need be. Not that you would play him that way. Who also does a lot of work off the ball and in support as a dummy runner.

Of course we can get other front rowers to make yardage, but will they be as intimidating and energy draining to the opposition? No one I have seen in our lower grades comes even close to the way RCG was playing when he first hit the scene as far as power, aggression and hate of getting tackled by the opposition goes. If we were to try and buy that type of player, well you know how much that would cost and so it won't be happening.

So unless we can find a decent priced type of aggressor that will be the focal point for the opposition and take it to them and work them over like RCG does NOW, it would be a drop in our forward performance. So someone else or others will need to bring something more then what we currently have to maintain the status that our roster now has. By simply adding a couple of average to good forwards to the starting 17 will mean we will have regressed.

Also any given player isn't so replaceable as you so keep telling us. Have we replaced Hayne or Semi? If we had we would have won this years premiership mate. Players that are the best in their respective position are not so easy to replace unless you have a track record of doing so like the Roosters and players then make the decision to part ways at the prime of their careers to join you at decent prices or you are recruiting the best young talent in the country because you pay well and have the run on the board of being a winner.

We are still just starting to assert ourselves as a professional and strong club that is a leader and builder of players careers, like the Storm and the Roosters. If we make a misstep and regress to a fringe semi team now who just make or miss out altogether, then that will set us back at least 2-5 years again, depending how bad the damage is.

I am not saying that we need to pay players like RCG what he is asking, but what I am saying is that your constant downplaying of our likely losses and blasé attitude to losing quality that is very difficult to fill again is nonsensical and if it were that easy all clubs would then be doing it. It is periods like this and how our club comes out of this that will indicate to me how much we have either improved as a well run and managed club or not.

I have no doubt we will lose some significant quality during these negotiations, so I will be very interested to see what and how we respond to it.

Relax 'The Ram' RCG has re-signed for 3 years and Michael Ennis and Mary McGregor signed to join the support staff.

 

[TheRam]

Marata was long odds on staying, and I love what he brings but unlike RCG I think he is very replaceable. I’d rather it was Lane leaving instead of him but he seems to be a favourite of the coach.

Marata's ability to slot into the backs or anywhere in the forwards is his greatest asset and I suspect that we will need that versatility again next season. I wish we weren't probably going to lose him, but yeah he is very replaceable.

 

[Glenneel]

Mary is a good addition in my eyes. He has a lot of experience. His time at Saints was very up and down but I think Saints as a club was just up and down also. He will only add ideas along with Ennis. I'm happy about both.

Saints has some very good juniors coming thru, not sure what input Mary had with them, but must have had some influence. Also as assistant coach to Freddy in SOO may help attract good players to our club.

 

[Glenneel]

If true why does Bea continually surround himself with absolute duds?? Would Murphy or Kidwell get a gig at any of the top clubs??? I seriously doubt it.

Kidwell was assistant coach at the Storm who I think is a top club.

 

[Glenneel]

I’m not saying there’s any guarantee of a premiership. I’m saying that until we achieve some degree of success (i.e making or winning a grand final) we should be continually building not getting worse. Is the salary designed to make week 2 finals teams that aren’t getting any further each year to regress?

Every team that finished above us have lost good players, while we have lost none for '22, so our window is well and truly open. Finally we're getting decent output from Waqa, Peninisi has slotted in nicely at other centre and given us some speed while we're to settle on a new winger to replace Ferguson. Our edge defence increased markedly during the Penrith final and hopefully will carry over next year so imo we're in prime position to be at the top.

 

[Glenneel]

At least penrith will still be chipping in 250k at least for 3 of those years. We may front end his contract with that being the case

Think Penrith's subsidy finished this year.

 

[Glenneel]

Why would we sign a bloke for 4 more years thats very replaceable??? FFS!!

Need to change your avatar to Whineyrulz.

 

[Eelementary]

Some very commendable announcements by the club today.
Ennis is a footy brain. Very astute.
RCG extension i like. He can teach the young bucks coming through. This will only help the development of Kaufusi, Greig, Rodwell and Makatoa.
The statement put out by the club re: player movements was very professional.
ALAND extension another sign of stability.
Great work by the club and by the sounds of it more roster news next week or soon.

I like all of that - except that at 28, Makatoa isn't exactly a young buck!

 

[TheRam]

Did you miss pages 5541 to 5632 of this thread? The statement was for the benefit of club supporters who click the bait.
That said it’s be somewhat hypocritical to say don’t believe the clickbait but absolutely have faith in the club statement. But still have absolute faith in the club statement - it’s time to turn this club into a laser focused cult

This. The best run clubs are this.

 

[TheRam]

Dogs must be over the cap and would be the most obvious club to shed players. Their money seems to be tied up in non spine players (except Burton) which is a new approach (Gus ball?). Let Gus put his fingers all over the place, cause chaos for a few years, get sacked and for him to say he thought it was time to go, before the club will do any good.

If reports can be believed he is on $450K. Hardly on massive coin for a spine player if he pans out and goes well. Remember they signed him before he had proven anything in the NRL. At least he has now proven that he is in the top 3 centres in the game, in fact I had him as my number one centre on performances by the end of the season, so no matter how he goes as a half, he is hardly being paid elite money if he were to be moved back to the centres.

I am not suggesting that he will be moved to the centres by the way, just that he is on the lower end of money for a half or a quality centre. That is very much on the lower side of the spectrum for either position, especially a half, but I get he is still to prove himself there.