Rumours and Stuff

[Pazza]

Me too. It was boring for years and we kept making the same mistakes defensively year after year.
We never really showed any consistent improvement.
That's why my belief is that BA should have been moved on after his wooden spoon season. That was 6 years ago, and 6 years later under the same tutor, we almost won another.
How have we progressed given all the extra chances he was given?
The simple answer is that we haven't and didn't.

Totally agree, I was hard on the craig fitzgibbon band wagon.

Can't wait for rnd 1

 

[Soto]

Apparently we've signed Jack Williams from the Sharks for 3 years.

Who the f**k is Jack Williams?????

Mate he's a good player...like his workrate and no nonsense approach...

 

[Pazza]

Apparently we've signed Jack Williams from the Sharks for 3 years.

Who the f**k is Jack Williams?????

Middle forward from the sharks, was meant to be the successor to Paul gallen. Not bad, not bad at all. We got a lot of lock but

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Because our club was in a better bargain position, when we did the PO contracts our club was struggling with players walking out the door, poor optics, media pressure, play managers pounced.

That's my theory anyways, I won't pretend to know whats going on inside the organisation

These merkins with POs all re-signed after the 2022 grand final, except for Matterson who extended in June 2022. We were doing well. If some players had left it was due to cap pressure, not because we didn't want them. That same cap pressure meant we had to find ways to keep merkins other than just giving them more money. That's where the player options came in.

 

[senior]

Apparently we've signed Jack Williams from the Sharks for 3 years.

Who the f**k is Jack Williams?????

whos the source? I rate that signing if true

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Lol I hope that's double sarcasm

With the option they are still off contract before the option year is activated. It's an option to stay, not an option to leave.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Apparently we've signed Jack Williams from the Sharks for 3 years.

Who the f**k is Jack Williams?????

Fairly average middle forward who just turned 28. He's a first grader though, with 124 NRL games, including 25 this year. It's a decent signing, but nothing to get excited about.

 

[Suitman]

Can't wait for rnd 1

Me too.
After 11 years of nothing, I'm throwing my hope towards a massive change of determination amongst our squad, some better game day tactics and some more discipline in our on-field attitude.
Ryles might end up being another Kearney, but at this stage, I'm not getting that feeling.

Attending our 4 GF wins in the 80's was unreal.
Attending our 3 losses in the 70's was devastating.

Never did I think back in '86 that almost 40 years later I'd still be waiting for another Premiership.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. It just is NOT good enough for a club as big as ours.

 

[hineyrulz]

Fairly average middle forward who just turned 28. He's a first grader though, with 124 NRL games, including 25 this year. It's a decent signing, but nothing to get excited about.

f**k of merkin!! It's very exciting!!

 

[JokerEel]

whos the source? I rate that signing if true

Good backup

 

[Poupou Escobar]

And looked like an incompetent bunch of morons in the process.

But hey, I'm sure Penrith and Blaize will be very happy together

We would've looked even more incompetent if we'd let Dylan Brown go to fit him in.

 

[Pazza]

These merkins with POs all re-signed after the 2022 grand final, except for Matterson who extended in June 2022. We were doing well. If some players had left it was due to cap pressure, not because we didn't want them. That same cap pressure meant we had to find ways to keep merkins other than just giving them more money. That's where the player options came in.

We had lost reed, papalii, niukore, kaufusi all in late 2021. The narrative at the time was the club was in crisis and the premiership window was shutting. Getting matto over the line at the time was a huge relief and Dylan for Christmas was massive for the club. Imagine if we had another offseason of losing guys like brown, Moses etc.

If you don't think player managers leveraged that situation for the best outcomes for them and their clients...

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I already answered, scroll up

You didn't answer it at all. Why didn't all these managers want player options for the other 20+ players?

 

[Pazza]

We would've looked even more incompetent if we'd let Dylan Brown go to fit him in.

He might go anyways....

 

[Pazza]

You didn't answer it at all. Why didn't all these managers want player options for the other 20+ players?

Because we were in a better bargain position..... like I said

 

[T.S Quint]

Tago was available
Should of pushed for more backs prior to season starting..Everyone on here was saying we are thin there.

Blaize is better than Tago.
You are advocating picking a worse player in the team in order to keep the better player in lower grades so that other teams won’t see how good he is and they won’t sign him, despite them probably already knowing how good he is and there’s no guarantee he stays anyway.

Do you see how stupid that sounds?

Come on its not BA's fault as a first grade head coach he didn't know what Blaize's best position was.

I’m sure he did know where his best position is. It’s where he played most of his junior footy. However we have better players in that position (yes, even Asi) and they were trying to find a spot for him.

You think Craig Bellamy didn’t know where Billy Slater’s best position was just because he played him in the centres when he first came into FG?

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Middle forward from the sharks, was meant to be the successor to Paul gallen. Not bad, not bad at all. We got a lot of lock but

So do the Panthers. Look how lightweight their pack is.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Because we were in a better bargain position..... like I said

When were we in a better bargaining position?

 

[hindy111]

I am too.

Not because he was a bad coach per-se, (although I don't think he was anything special), it was because he had served his time, was given 11 chances to bring us success, had time to mold the squad into his own, and implement his philosophies and build the club to continue success into the future.
Unfortunately for him and us fans and the club, he (and the club) just couldn't take us to that next level on a consistent basis and to be honest if ever at all.
There's not many coaches that get 11 years of this opportunity to do this at the one club with the lack of success that was produced.
100% I would give up BA'S supposed great year in 2022 and a GF for a change of coach in 2018 or 19.
Loyalty (and hindsight) is easy. I understand that.
Honestly, the writing was on the wall way back then. IMO.
Yet, we've all just endured another 5 more years of an unacceptable premiership drought.
What a waste of time those years were.

With the best forward pack and spine we've had in 20yrs

 

[Pazza]

So do the Panthers. Look how lightweight their pack is.

Yeah but guys like Martin and sorreson are out and out edge players.

Hopgood, Williams, matto (I'd rather him in the middle) aren't suited to the edges.