Rumours and Stuff

[Eelementary]

You're right. He was never ready for NRL. Yet we decided to blow smoke up his arse whilst not under contract and put him on show. Teams took notice. His form in NSW CUP was average. Nobody was offering him 400k+ Look at Guymer.Untill.his debut nobody took any notice and bang the phones rang.
Untill we let him realise he has a lot of work to do and extended him for 2 yrs on a fair deal he never should of been put on display.
Penrith made sure the Mclean boys where locked up prior. Our management is embarrassing.

Completely agree with you.

I am jealous of how professional Penrith are.

They deserve all the success they're having.

This club seems happy to be also-rans every year.

 

[RustedonEel]

Are we a chance of picking up Dean Hawkins from the Rabbitohs? Saw mention of it on Zero Tackle. He'd be a decent backup half option.

 

[hindy111]

Completely agree with you.

I am jealous of how professional Penrith are.

They deserve all the success they're having.

This club seems happy to be also-rans every year.

They are the only outside chance of stopping the Storm. It will be 5yrs that one of those 2 have won it.
NRL is getting boring. But like EPL

 

[Zoso]

Perhaps the simple answer is, interviewed by Ivan Cleary and Matt Cameron and provided with a clear plan for your future development, then interviewed by the Eels equivalent. End of.

Might be a fair take on BA and MON but I have yet to hear Ryles speak about his plans and direction, and he wanted Blaise to stay too.
He’s going to a winning side. That probably does enough to get him over the line.

 

[Gazzamatta]

Guys i think we can all agree on “ no matter what the *club did the right thing”

*BA

 

[Gazzamatta]

 

[gaffer]

View attachment 93780

does that mean lomax outside penisini and the slothivo outside guth ?

 

[Soren Lorenson]

View attachment 93780

I saw that too. I’m deeply suspicious of a random merkin being told that kind of information by a new recruit who’s not even finished with his current club.

 

[Obscene Assassin]

Why are people fixated on "hearing Ryles' plans"? Just like every other interview from anyone involved in the game nothing will be said of any substance.

Although I assume the same people wanting to "hear Ryles" also then complain when a player does an interview with the old line of "stop talking and get it done on the field".

 

[Matty Bhoy]

Blaize will probably turn into a very good player. But I’m glad we didn’t pay the rumoured $535k per season to find out.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Why would you let a 2RF go because of better halves? Makes no sense. Your argument is that Parra let Galvin go because they had Moses and Brown?

We also had Sanders and Talagi in front of him. He was way down the pecking order mate, whichever way you spin it.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Dylan Brown played Aus schoolboys in 2017

There you go. He achieved everything Galvin did and more.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

We were dumb enough to agree to 2 year deal with a player option.

It was a one year deal with player option.

He never wanted to stay here.... should have told him to sign a three year deal or move on back when he was in ball.

Then we would've missed out on his services this year. In the end we needed him with Simonsson and Sivo missing so many games.

His road to the number 6 might be blocked right now but that doesn't mean Dylan still going to be here In 2026. Blaize could have played cup all this year and centre in 25.

He wanted to get paid and who can blame him.

But whatever, you asked for essentially a one year deal it tells me you're not that keen on being an eel. We don't need guys like that here.

Agreed, we will be fine next year without him. We have better players than him at every backline position next year. Even Iongi is a better fullback, though Talagi might've been able to transition if he wanted to.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

That's bullshit. The club had already said they are not sure his best position. Don't pretend you know what it is.
Can't keep them all.

We said we don't know his best position because we were trying to get him to agree to switch to centre or fullback. But he was always a 6 in Harold Matts. When he came back from his injury in SG Ball late in the 2023 season, we put him at centre, probably with a view to fitting him into the same NRL side as Drown and Moses. In the end he wanted spine money so we tried to turn him into a fullback. At Penrith he doesn't need to.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

J.Mclean and C.Mclean is not a better centre than Alamoti or Tago yet was a must keep.
Due to their potential.

Alamoti isn't a first grader and they've let Turuva go for a reason. Tago still fits into the side.

1. Edwards
2. To'o
3. Tago
4. McLean
5. McLean
6. Talagi
7. Cleary

Penrith didn't keep Katoa despite his potential (he will be better than Luai if he isn't already) because they didn't need him. It's the same with us and Talagi.

We churn out the same bullshit as sTory every time a jnr who looks half decent comes along.

We got rid of Norman so we could keep Drown. Should we get rid of Drown to keep Talagi? Should we rissole Moses for Sanders? We are already bringing Lomax into a backline that scored more tries than Penrith this year. Where would Talagi even fit? He will be on a lot more than Iongi.

 

[Twizzle]

still trying to work out the quote function Pou ?

I guess only the smart ones can do that

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Trying to turn Blaize into a fullback and announcing it was the biggest brain fart that BA has had in recent years. Everyone knew that wasn’t his spot. The kid can’t catch a ball to save his life. Iongi can and has consistently and statistically been the best fullback in lower grades and killed it when he made his first grade appearance.

We needed a fullback not a hyped up junior that we could manufacture into one.

This is why we didn't match Penrith's offer. It would've been nice to keep Talagi but it wasn't essential.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Guys i think we can all agree on “ no matter what the club did the right thing”

*wrong

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Completely agree with you.

I am jealous of how professional Penrith are.

They deserve all the success they're having.

This club seems happy to be also-rans every year.

The good times are over at Penrith. Gould is long gone and the rats are heading for the lifeboats. They are now signing Eels rejects in Papali'i and Talagi.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Blaize will probably turn into a very good player. But I’m glad we didn’t pay the rumoured $535k per season to find out.

He would be less risk at 6 than 1. And we have enough outside backs already on the books, including at least two better defensive centres.