Rumours and Stuff

[Legal Eel]

So another deck chair basically

So do we just leave the squad as is?

To be honest, it doesn't have to be Blacker, we just need a prop capable of offering a little bit more than Makatoa et al.

Greig has shown something but we are still a touch short in this area.

Or do you think we are fine with what we have?

I am merely trying to think of someone who can fill the Oregon role...we don't have that?

Heaven forbid anyone suggests that what we have isn't working, because clearly it is spot on.

 

[hindy111]

So, I think in our NRL squad we need to break our squad down into 5 groups.

Key Players we want to keep
Gutherson
Brown
Penisini
Moses
Lane
Campbell-Gillard
Paulo
Matterson
Hopgood

Current Top 17 players probably worth keeping at there current value.
Sivo
Cartwright
Hands
Doorey

Too young to tell, so probably worth keeping at their current value
Russell
Mataele
Arthur
Asi

That's 16 players probably worth keeping.

Then there is the rest...

Expendable players who can be offloaded if a better option comes along for 2024
Dunster
Simonsson
Hodgson
Ogden
Makatoa
Davey
Murchie
Greig

Players in the squad who are now excess to requirements and there is no need for them to be here.
Loizou
Blake
Rein
Rodwell
Momoisea

Some of these last two groups of 13 players are off contract and some aren't. Some are worth keeping I suppose, but they're all players that we need a better option in our Top 17 if we're going to be a contender.

Grieg id put in the keep list.

 

[hindy111]

If you think Eddie Blacker will improve our NRL side we are in dire enough straits that we can't accurately judge our coach based on this year's results.

Eddie Blacker. Sounds like some sort of power tool

 

[Legal Eel]

So another deck chair basically

serious question for yourself, Pou, Gronk, Emjaycee...do you ever want to see more from Parra? Or are you just happy with what we have?

Why is it that you take any criticism of the coach, management or underperforming players like a personal affront?

I infer that Emjaycee is apparently close to those within the inner circle and probably takes it personally for that reason, but what is the story with the rest of you?

 

[hindy111]

So do we just leave the squad as is?

To be honest, it doesn't have to be Blacker, we just need a prop capable of offering a little bit more than Makatoa et al.

Greig has shown something but we are still a touch short in this area.

Or do you think we are fine with what we have?

I am merely trying to think of someone who can fill the Oregon role...we don't have that?

Heaven forbid anyone suggests that what we have isn't working, because clearly it is spot on.

Yes we extend everyone till 2025

 

[84 Baby]

He’d likely wouldn’t come cheap but we owe Dogs for Mortimer, I’d target Alamoti.
Or Brad Parker

 

[hindy111]

We have 2 options. From load as many as we can this year and come back stronger for 2024 or sniff around weaker clubs who might want to move guys. St George,Knights are two clubs who would be open to reshaping their squads.

 

[Avenger]

I’ve been a fan for 50 years, and have seen all 4 GF wins and 4 GF losses and I’m still an optimist, let alone u younger ones, they last time they won when I was 18, I’m now 55

Remind me to nominate you if I’m ever stuck in the Sahara.

 

[Chipmunk]

Grieg id put in the keep list.

Yeah, as I I said, some of those on that list you would keep at their current price, but you need better options in your Top 17. I suspect neither Greig, Makatoa or Ogden are on Top 17 money.

 

[Avenger]

serious question for yourself, Pou, Gronk, Emjaycee...do you ever want to see more from Parra? Or are you just happy with what we have?

Why is it that you take any criticism of the coach, management or underperforming players like a personal affront?

I infer that Emjaycee is apparently close to those within the inner circle and probably takes it personally for that reason, but what is the story with the rest of you?

I’ve been around for as long as the people you have mentioned and I can tell you this. Every club knows us for having a soft underbelly. I was once at a conference and Wayne Bennett was a key speaker. He spoke to a few of us after the conference and we talked footy, even he suggested that was the case.

BA talks tough but he is as stubborn as my mother in law who holds the world record. He has now become part of the problem.

BA, thanks for your service but please leave. It’s time for someone else and when we inevitably miss the 8, everyone else will join people like @hineyrulz who has been staunch for his removal like when the Serbs marched through Parliament with Patriarch Pavle to oust Slobodan Milošević.

Dosta!!! (Enough).

 

[84 Baby]

serious question for yourself, Pou, Gronk, Emjaycee...do you ever want to see more from Parra? Or are you just happy with what we have?

Why is it that you take any criticism of the coach, management or underperforming players like a personal affront?

I infer that Emjaycee is apparently close to those within the inner circle and probably takes it personally for that reason, but what is the story with the rest of you?

I doubt that was a serious question.
Serious question to you, if Pou had suggested for example Emre Guler (or insert any player you don’t think is that good) as the best option, how would you have responded?
The criticism of coach, club, etc. isn’t what I take as a personal affront, it’s the assumed authority that people take in laying that criticism. I get everyone’s frustrated but some people have taken it beyond simple opinion and to belief they are the smartest people in the world and just try to bully their views across. And just because your opinion can never be proven wrong, doesn’t make you right. And if we did sign Blacker and he muddled around in NSW Cup, would your response be that you were wrong or that the club/BA f**ked up his development?

Then again I have been rethinking. This is rugba leeg so perhaps @TheRam is the best person to lead the club. He may not always be correct but a “f**k everyone else, I am correct” attitude is very prevalent among the upper echelons of league. A cultish mentality was levelled at Pou the other day, but Queensland Origin and Storms built dynasties off the back of cultish mentalities.

 

[84 Baby]

So do we just leave the squad as is?

To be honest, it doesn't have to be Blacker, we just need a prop capable of offering a little bit more than Makatoa et al.

Greig has shown something but we are still a touch short in this area.

Or do you think we are fine with what we have?

I am merely trying to think of someone who can fill the Oregon role...we don't have that?

Heaven forbid anyone suggests that what we have isn't working, because clearly it is spot on.

I agree we need another NRL prop. I just strongly doubt Blacker is it. I also think Matterson and other NRL sides have shown (definitely against us) that “smaller” middles especially off the bench can be effective.
Thinking on it though Blacker, similar to Hands, could be effective for us in a less is more way. Although with Blacker he provides more of the Hodgson/Hopgood style aggressive defence (with high missed tackles) and less bash and barge of RCG/Paulo. If it were balanced, it may work. Then again people are only going to notice how many metres or the big hits Blacker connects with, not how many metres he limits the opposition to

 

[84 Baby]

I’ve been around for as long as the people you have mentioned and I can tell you this. Every club knows us for having a soft underbelly. I was once at a conference and Wayne Bennett was a key speaker. He spoke to a few of us after the conference and we talked footy, even he suggested that was the case.

BA talks tough but he is as stubborn as my mother in law who holds the world record. He has now become part of the problem.

BA, for your service but please leave. It’s time for someone else and when we inevitably miss the 8, everyone else will join people like @hineyrulz who has been staunch for his removal like when the Serbs marched through Parliament with Patriarch Pavle to oust Slobodan Milošević.

Dosta!!! (Enough).

Say something long enough and loud enough.
We’re definitely a team that struggles to be mentally prepared or adaptable.

 

[TheRam]

I expect us to shut up shop for 2023 if we go down to the Raiders and Souths as expected.

That probably says no one will bother coming here this year.

It's time to plan for 2024. This is just one of those years.

We need a Right Wing, Left Centre, a 9, and at least one, preferably two, highly competent middle forwards for the bench.

The season was gone as soon as Potato Head and the recruitment committee didn't prioritize bringing in front rowers of NRL standard in the off season. Especially since they knew wank head tight arse Matto wasn't playing in the first 4 rounds. No feel for how the game really works and how to distribute the workload if you are focusing on playing a power game.

No one can predict the future with any real certainty, but I tell you this much for free. Whoever wins this years Premiership with have at least 3 if not 4 and in Souths case 5 NRL quality Props. We went into the season with 2 and a geriatric hooker coming back from a 3rd knee reco and two lightweights in the outside backs. What could go wrong?

Potato Head at his best. Even the dingbats on NRL360 this week finally realized and mentioned that the Eels got their recruitment all wrong this season.

Time to start planning for 2024. The season has been over for a few weeks now as I have already stated. I hope the recruitment committee have enough sense to know that they have monumentally ballsed up and have started to eye which dead wood needs to be tapped on the shoulder real soon and which types of players need to be brought in. Otherwise 2024 is already over as well.

Now is the time to start moving on the recruitment side of things, before we become a bottom four team, which is where I expect us to finish this year and next if we don't address our shortcomings.

Think I'm wrong or this is just some Ram hyperbole? I've been right about Potato Head and our recruitment all along so I don't see any reason to think things will change. Unfortunately just watch and see. I have a feeling that they are going to balls this right up again.

Lodge has been available for a while now and I know many here can't cop him, but if the Broncos and Roosters can see past his previous indiscretions, I think so can we. Why this Holier then thou stance? We have had some blokes here who also had committed some despicable acts and most had no issue with them and in fact many had a couple of them as favourite types of players. Is it because there was no video footage of their crimes but there was of Lodge's? Seeing it changes everything for many. It makes it real. But the reality is it was real for all the crimes and some actually were physically a lot worse.

Anyway, Sipley at Manly is another that I would try to persuade to come to Parra. He for mine, in the right hands has a lot of potential.

 

[Eelementary]

who said build your pack around? we have two origin props!

I meant Blacker as a back up and/or interchange prop!

Yeah, he may be OK for that.

He's certainly big, and aggressive.

 

[Legal Eel]

I doubt that was a serious question.
Serious question to you, if Pou had suggested for example Emre Guler (or insert any player you don’t think is that good) as the best option, how would you have responded?
The criticism of coach, club, etc. isn’t what I take as a personal affront, it’s the assumed authority that people take in laying that criticism. I get everyone’s frustrated but some people have taken it beyond simple opinion and to belief they are the smartest people in the world and just try to bully their views across. And just because your opinion can never be proven wrong, doesn’t make you right. And if we did sign Blacker and he muddled around in NSW Cup, would your response be that you were wrong or that the club/BA f**ked up his development?

Then again I have been rethinking. This is rugba leeg so perhaps @TheRam is the best person to lead the club. He may not always be correct but a “f**k everyone else, I am correct” attitude is very prevalent among the upper echelons of league. A cultish mentality was levelled at Pou the other day, but Queensland Origin and Storms built dynasties off the back of cultish mentalities.

I think would accept Emre Guler in this context - he would be better as a bench prop than what we have and would add a more attacking presence than Makatoa whilst probably being more mobile than Greig in defence. This is about improving what is a more than decent squad that has been horribly mismanaged through poor recruitment in one very key position.

I accept that you are one of the less unreasonable defenders, so you must admit that the management and coach completely stuffed up the recruitment of a replacement for Reed. The defence of the coach and management as authorities beyond the question or judgment of "mere" fans is an impossible model to sustain and one that guarantees failure.

I am seriously curious as to the motives of people like Gronk and Pou who tow the line that the coach is beyond question or criticism by mere fans. I suspect in Pou's case that it is because he just likes to argue up hill and down dale and make himself feel superior to "plebs" on the internet. I suspect with Gronk it is because he has a contrarian persona and loves to be "other" or alternative to the mainstream. With yourself I have no clue.

But these are mere suspicions, so yes it was a serious question. Kudos to you for answering the Blacker proposition with a reasoned argument.

 

[TheRam]

Defence is poor?

He is safe under the high ball.
He is the leading tryscorer in the NRL.
He has improved his defensive reads x 10 in the last 12 months.

Sure he could return the ball harder, but he brings 3 players in to tackle him every time.
Least of our issues at the moment.

Agree with all these things. He has improved heaps on many little things and if we were a better coached team defensively his shortcomings and lack of speed and or turn and awareness would be minimised even further.

But what I find very surprising and perplexing really is that when he first came into grade he had a hell of a great fend, maybe even currently the best in the NRL, so where has it gone? It has all but disappeared in the last couple of seasons. He only brings it out once or twice a year if we are lucky. But there have been a least 2 or 3 times this season already that I have notice that when he received the ball if he ran the right way at the smaller defender that was coming, the chances are that he would have swatted him away and gone well on the way of scoring more tries. I'm Not talking about when he is rucking it up and taking hit ups. It is when he is presented with a single defender. Sivo's fend can be devastating as we have all seen.

I find this very strange. It was one of his best weapons and he has just more or less put it away. Not saying to use it all the time. It would become ineffective if he did, but when running freely down the sideline and a defender is coming for you, He should time it just right and wham, bring out that big right hand mitt.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

who said build your pack around? we have two origin props!

I meant Blacker as a back up and/or interchange prop!

You don't like the backups we have?

 

[TheRam]

If he's not making the 8 - or even getting us into the 8 during the course of season - then hopefully there is a KPI there that can be triggered before season end.

If only our management team were this bright.

 

[emjaycee]

serious question for yourself, Pou, Gronk, Emjaycee...do you ever want to see more from Parra? Or are you just happy with what we have?

Why is it that you take any criticism of the coach, management or underperforming players like a personal affront?

I infer that Emjaycee is apparently close to those within the inner circle and probably takes it personally for that reason, but what is the story with the rest of you?

Some clubs and players have an ethos that goes "team 1st, club 2nd, player 3rd".

Mine is and has been for 50 years "Club 1st, Club 2nd, Club 3rd" so whilst I currently do know some people in the club, it doesn't seriously impact my views or my approach to the things we do right or the things we do wrong.

I don't care about individual players, coaches or staff and administrators, I care about the club and therefore whoever is in a role that relates to the Blue and Gold, they have my support.

It doesn't mean I am always happy with them, it means I support them... until they are no longer involved in my club. Then I hate them with a passion.

And although I dont see the internet and LU as a way to vent my disappointments, I often use the channels I do have into the club to do so.