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Rumours and Stuff

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
91,178
I’m not really one to go off half cocked and bag the club but it’s hard to imagine what the brains trust were thinking when we did the Haze Dunster deal
He proved he was a first grader in 2021 (including making 200+ metres against Penrith in a finals match) so in December, with a year to run on his contract, he extended for three years:

 

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
91,178
Its a MON/BA special. Add it to the list of dumb of recruitment decisions made by this club over a long period of time.

4 year contract for a bloke who played 10 games and did nothing spectacular.

If it was a Jarryd Hayne who was destroying teams by game 10 yeah i would understand.

But Dunster was nothing more then a solid replacement winger at the time who played in a semi final because Sivo did his knee.

There was nothing special about him.
He was a solid first grader and only 22 years old. He was only going to get better. Who knew he'd be a jelly sandwich three months later?
 

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
91,178
I know i said I've said my bit and happy to leave it at that but I feel like I'd be doing my fellow Australians an injustice by not adding the following.

Many people I talk to who had that jab feel the same way you do. My oldest sister who is jabbed to the eyeballs has had "long covid" for over 2 years requiring periodic hospitalization.

I know or know of (friends and relatives of other friends and relatives) 5 people who are no longer with us who "died suddenly" most of whom were young and fit. 3 of them have an "open" with the Coroner.

All these people have 1 thing in common. l-----l=====>---- ~~~

These are facts.

I'm very sorry to hear that you're not feeling the same after your jab and I sincerely hope that improves for you in the very near future. cheers merkin.
Well I had the jab and I've been fine ever since and so have millions of other people and it's meant we haven't had to have any more lockdowns that robbed millions of merkins of their livelihood so get absolutely f**ked you f**king dumb cooker merkin. Take it to the useless whiny deadshits thread.
 

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
91,178
I remember you were a moron for thinking Moretti was better then Momoisea.
Moretti wasn't better than Momoisea until 2023:


 

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
91,178
Agree. Tbh it wasn’t shocking though. This person thinks BA is a genuinely good person. But it’s now being spoken about how emotionally limited he potentially is/was.

You guys know I’m passionate about mental health. There are a few younger players apparently that had commented BA was amazing if you are physically tough, but really distanced about suspected “mental” barriers.

The feedback from new coaching staff was that Lane is highly rated and has plenty to offer. But, he (like most young guys) probably needs to be dealt with differently to an old school warrior.
There's a good chance this is why Lane was moved on from previous clubs. I think in the 21st century everyone understands and accepts mental health as an important consideration, but plenty of organisations that want to perform highly still see mental health as a problem to be avoided, or for other employers to deal with. In the ADF I worked in places where psychologists screened applicants to identify potential/future mental health concerns before they became a problem for the organisation. I would be unsurprised if this wasn't something professional sporting organisations also tried to 'weed out' (for want of a better term) during the recruitment process.
 

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
91,178
Greatly appreciate your post - incredible insight and kind of you to share!

you are also either very brave or don’t plan on being on the forum for a week - because when the Western Red sees your posts there are at least 1000 posts coming your way….
WTF are you on about you troll merkin. I loved @Stevie's posts. I have no doubt he has repeated what he was told. It's very exciting.
 

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
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91,178
That's awesome to hear!

Our kick-chase has been abysmal for a while, now (which is weird, coming from a team coached by a guy who is all about chasing collisions).
I suspect improving our kick chase will require a change in playing staff, not just 'better coaching'. We already know the old coach was constantly on at them about their effort areas. The kick chase is a big part of that. Literally chasing the collision.
 

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
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91,178
Wonder if ryles will constantly pick a bench player with no intention to play them except for 3 mins at the end of the game - meanwhile absolutely gassing the rest of the forward pack??
If you only have 16 first graders available you still need to name 17. Bellamy had two players in the recent grand final play only 17 and 9 minutes: https://www.nrl.com/draw/nrl-premiership/2024/grand-final/game-1/

In 2020 Nico Hynes spent the whole match on the bench. Why don't you tell him his forwards were too tired.

The fact is three bench players is more than enough to share the 80 minutes with the starters. There usually aren't enough minutes for everyone on the bench to get a decent run. If one of those bench players is only good enough to be a backup, why would you bench some better player to give him a long stint?
 

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
91,178
Well I had the jab and I've been fine ever since and so have millions of other people and it's meant we haven't had to have any more lockdowns that robbed millions of merkins of their livelihood so get absolutely f**ked you f**king dumb cooker merkin. Take it to the useless whiny deadshits thread.
Now I’ve gone and aggressively vilified some poor merkin, proving I’m no better than the rest of you ffs
 

Rocket man

Juniors
Messages
627
I thought we started to use him more effectively under TBaz in the games he was still out on the edge. His hands let him down far too often, but we seemed to be getting him 1 on 1 or into space a lot more
A lot of those passes weren't the best.
They need to be perfect if your receiving them as you hit the line.
I think he'll get back to his 22 form.
23 season he had 3 major injuries.
 

Gronk

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
77,502
Funny you say this. I mentioned Penisini and said he’s been a huge disappointment despite his clear skill. No promises of course but the comments were “mate watch this space”.
BTW, the ^^^ Jam podcast reminded us that Penisini has a PO and they didn’t think that any club would match the price that we were currently paying him. So they were predicting that he would stay. They said that his contract creeps towards $700k next if the following year.
 

Wally21

Bench
Messages
4,427
BTW, the ^^^ Jam podcast reminded us that Penisini has a PO and they didn’t think that any club would match the price that we were currently paying him. So they were predicting that he would stay. They said that his contract creeps towards $700k next if the following year.
That’s a hell of a lot of money. I understand he signed when his form was good, we were losing players etc etc, but that’s getting up to elite centre money. Lomax (on current form) is an absolute bargain.
 

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