84 Baby
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What do you mean finally?! They've been an item for ages now....
You have a lot to learn about the workings and politics of NRL clubs. They are run by accountants and sundry bean counters these days, and are far removed from the petty 'workings and politics' of the junior clubs you're familiar with.
No he thinks I'm a f**kwit. He just thinks The Predictor is a f**kwit too.
Newcastle is stuck in the 90s so maybe their coach still makes every decision at the club, just like when Brian Smith did it here?
Thats a consonant FFS, Ill never work this out
I’m sure it does, but in this case O’Brien isn’t the player manager. He’s an NRL head coach with a CEO and board to answer to.
I have no doubt he gave a personal recommendation to his club’s list management committee, ‘I know him personally, he’s a great kid, blah blah blah’ but clubs do their due diligence when signing and retaining players, and Arthur’s performance in reserve grade would’ve been the main driver in signing him. For a teenager his NSW Cup performances have been excellent, especially at such a difficult position. It’s not just about speed from dummy half (which is what fans notice) or even mostly about that, which is why there’s so few running dummy halves these days. The ones who do it well, like Grant, have the rest of their game squared away first. Multiple premiership winner Mitch Kenny barely has a running game. The most important traits for a hooker are decision making and work rate.
He’s doing pretty well at a club that previously won three straight wooden spoons. They haven’t been a powerhouse since Tinkler went broke.
This is no doubt true, and every kid who succeeds has advantages over the kids who don’t. But having advantages shouldn’t disqualify a player from being picked in rep teams if he’s better than the alternatives.
The Arthur boys both performed highly in every grade right up to reserves, so they repaid the faith shown in them. Where are these more talented kids who were let go, and how do you know they didn’t chase the money on offer elsewhere? Volkman was in Jake Arthur’s age group and somehow ended up going to school in the Eastern suburbs when he joined the Roosters’ pathways. Hardly the sign of a player who just couldn’t get a run at Parra, the poor thing. If the Chooks paid his accomodation and schooling it means he was in demand and got the deluxe treatment. A decade earlier Moses chased a better deal at the Tigers when they were spending big on poaching junior talent. These little f**ks are all mercenaries, and the Arthur boys might’ve been the only ones willing to stay for peanuts due to their family connection to the club.
It’s a reasonable point and I guess we’ll find out. But the most talented kids aren’t always the ones that make it. Maybe Matt Arthur also has a great work ethic. In that case I hope he does make it over more talented but lazier players.
It’s natural to want a scapegoat. Go and look at the bullshit in the politics thread.
This might be the case if Brad Arthur’s sons disappeared as soon as he left the club but they both got contracts elsewhere, in Jake’s case while Brad was still head coach. In Matt’s case he didn’t get his NRL debut until after his dad was gone.
