Rumours and Stuff

[emjaycee]

Who cares? He's shit and won't make it.

He may very well turn out shit and not make it mate but in 2024 he was selected to represent NSW U19 in Origin, so despite what we all think of him, someone who has the job of selecting representative players chose him.

 

[Zoso]

Dumb idea

I’d like to see what Drown can do under the new coaching set up but it’s a fair point.
Has he (i) given us value for money to date and/or (ii) could some of that money be better spent elsewhere?
I’m on the fence for both parts of the question atm…
He didn’t exactly handle the primary playmaker role when Mitch was injured last year. Asi pretty much took that role, and he’s not that special.
Drown rarely if ever lets us down in defense but his attack is up and down. Maybe, that has a lot to do with who is outside him but plenty has to do with involvement. And involvement could be due to how the team has been coached and structured to play.
Whatever the reasons, it feels like we’re paying good money for a great defender, good ball runner but otherwise patchy attacker, and ineffective kicker, who drifts in and out of games.
Too harsh, about right??

 

[AnonymousLurker]

I’d like to see what Drown can do under the new coaching set up but it’s a fair point.
Has he (i) given us value for money to date and/or (ii) could some of that money be better spent elsewhere?
I’m on the fence for both parts of the question atm…
He didn’t exactly handle the primary playmaker role when Mitch was injured last year. Asi pretty much took that role, and he’s not that special.
Drown rarely if ever lets us down in defense but his attack is up and down. Maybe, that has a lot to do with who is outside him but plenty has to do with involvement. And involvement could be due to how the team has been coached and structured to play.
Whatever the reasons, it feels like we’re paying good money for a great defender, good ball runner but otherwise patchy attacker, and ineffective kicker, who drifts in and out of games.
Too harsh, about right??

Agree a big year from drown, should actually show if he is elite or not.

I think with our squad and type of style of attack previously it hasn’t allowed him to shine

I suspect our attack under Ryles will be all about speed , doing everything at pace, being on the front foot with a lot of hole runners and support players and I think this will make drown dangerous.

our attack on the red zone has always been clunky and slow and typically take more tackles than other sides to score. It’s why we typically could not go on the job in many games 2nd half and put on a big score because with possession evening out we wouldn’t have that extra ball in the red zone to be able

 

[Avenger]

Agree a big year from drown, should actually show if he is elite or not.

I think with our squad and type of style of attack previously it hasn’t allowed him to shine

I suspect our attack under Ryles will be all about speed , doing everything at pace, being on the front foot with a lot of hole runners and support players and I think this will make drown dangerous.

our attack on the red zone has always been clunky and slow and typically take more tackles than other sides to score. It’s why we typically could not go on the job in many games 2nd half and put on a big score because with possession evening out we wouldn’t have that extra ball in the red zone to be able

I’ll be surprised if his knee holds out. My son has the identical partial tear to his ACL and he is taking the whole year off soccer as a precaution.

I reckon it’s the main reason we bought Volkman.

 

[hineyrulz]

He did get a top thirty contract while Volkman didn’t. But on the other hand it is in Canberra.

Surely only his injury history is what has held him back from a top 30 spot?? Smart cheap back up our behalf.

 

[Incorrect]

I’ll be surprised if his knee holds out. My son has the identical partial tear to his ACL and he is taking the whole year off soccer as a precaution.

I reckon it’s the main reason we bought Volkman.

Does the partial tear have the ability to fix itself naturally? As in, the longer you sit out, the result will be that it self heals back to as close as 100% as possible??

 

[Lemon Squash]

I reckon our back ups in Volkman and Hawkins are nearly the equal to St George’s starting halves.

I wish there was futures markets for NSW Cup.

Best depth we have had for many years. Be very surprised if they don’t have a good season.

 

[gaffer]

My mate who’s kid is now with another club reckons Lynn is better than Sanders.

can he kick goals

 

[Delboy]

I hope so. I would’ve preferred we kept Sanders and let Drown go and used the extra money to buy an edge forward.

Posts like this really underline you haven’t been around rugby league for a while, this comment makes no sense .

also Lynn is an above average half, but no surprise You don’t see that.

 

[Avenger]

Does the partial tear have the ability to fix itself naturally? As in, the longer you sit out, the result will be that it self heals back to as close as 100% as possible??

No.

 

[Incorrect]

No.

In that case, what's the benefit to sitting out longer?

 

[Noise]

In that case, what's the benefit to sitting out longer?

I am under the impression that a partial tear does self heal over time as there is some blood supply to the area. Will never get to 100% though.

 

[Avenger]

In that case, what's the benefit to sitting out longer?

Strengthening the PCL and MCL which he also damaged. And what @Noise said.

 

[Noise]

Strengthening the PCL and MCL which he also damaged. And what @Noise said.

Yep and surrounding muscles too.
Peter Wallace actually played his final season with a torn ACL. Rest of his leg must have been very strong.

 

[emjaycee]

I’d like to see what Drown can do under the new coaching set up but it’s a fair point.
Has he (i) given us value for money to date and/or (ii) could some of that money be better spent elsewhere?
I’m on the fence for both parts of the question atm…
He didn’t exactly handle the primary playmaker role when Mitch was injured last year. Asi pretty much took that role, and he’s not that special.
Drown rarely if ever lets us down in defense but his attack is up and down. Maybe, that has a lot to do with who is outside him but plenty has to do with involvement. And involvement could be due to how the team has been coached and structured to play.
Whatever the reasons, it feels like we’re paying good money for a great defender, good ball runner but otherwise patchy attacker, and ineffective kicker, who drifts in and out of games.
Too harsh, about right??

Is he still the incumbent NZ five-eighth?

 

[Incorrect]

Yep and surrounding muscles too.
Peter Wallace actually played his final season with a torn ACL. Rest of his leg must have been very strong.

 

[Incorrect]

Strengthening the PCL and MCL which he also damaged. And what @Noise said.

 

[84 Baby]

Agreed, Is Sander's even any better than Volkman???

Completely different situations. Volkman will be more plug and play, hope he can do enough to fill in short term injury. He might become a Drown, but more likely an Asi, or less.
Sanders on the other hand is high risk, high reward. His raw game is very high level, if he can transition that to playing against NRL teams, I can see him vs Make A Wish kid in Origin. But he’s more likely to fail against NRL defences, Stuart will tear him apart and he’ll be the next Lachlan Ilias.
If Moses/Drown stick around for entire contract, it was good decision to let Sanders go try and develop elsewhere (if we even had chance to decide).

 

[Zoso]

Is he still the incumbent NZ five-eighth?

I guess he would have been a certain starter at 6 if he wasn’t injured.
The 2023 Pacific Championships were a good showcase of Drown.
Lead up game he went missing (even BA said so, from memory) when NZ lost to Australia, then killed it to get Kiwis home in the final to beat Australia 30-0.
Exceptional at his best.
Great catch and pass at 1:08 here …

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Who cares? He's shit and won't make it.

Then no doubt neither would anyone else we could've picked in SG Ball that year.

Consider all the merkins who started at hooker in the NRL last year. There were 38 of them, including all the backups who started a handful of games (or even just one). The mean (rounded) and median age of these merkins was 27 while the mode was 26. Interestingly, but not statistically relevant, was the fact that 6 of these hookers were born in '95, 6 in '96, 7 in '98, but only 2 in '97. Only 4 of the 38 were born before 1994, and only 1 was born after 2001, which was Da Silva, born in 2005. So to write off Matt Arthur (also born in '05) is insane. But that's not the point of this post.

The point of this post is to illustrate that at most, only seven of the hookers in the best represented age group (last year that was the ones born in 1998) went on to "make it" in the NRL, and I use the term loosely, since this cohort includes Paul Roache, who only started a single game at hooker last year, which was the only start of his 4 game NRL 'career'. This bloke is now 26 years old. Of these seven, only four played SG Ball in 2016 (it was an under 18s comp back then): Kenny, Mahoney, Starling and Blayke Brailey. Grant and Robson both didn't play SG Ball in 2016, instead playing NYC that year, proving that early milestones is a good indicator of quality. Roache was playing park footy in Auckland in 2016.

Of the blokes who turned 17 in 2016 (and therefore were also eligible for SG Ball) only three of them started at hooker in the NRL last year (Verrills, Hands and Smoothy). Verrills and Hands both played SG Ball in 2016 while Smoothy played Mal Meninga Cup.

What this means is that, of the 16 SG Ball teams in 2016, only six of them had players who went on to start at hooker in the NRL in 2024 (Penrith, Canterbury, Newcastle, Cronulla, Manly and Western Sydney Academy). The other ten teams had zero players who would go on to start a single game of NRL at hooker while in their prime. Parra's SG Ball hookers that year were Vea Tapa'atoutai and Adam Campbell. I'm sure the club knew neither of these guys were going to become NRL players, but as always, they have to name a team every week. It's not like they were preventing a higher potential youth from getting a run. There were only six future NRL hookers running around in SG Ball in 2016 and they were all at other clubs. They didn't have their pathway blocked by nuffies like Campbell and Tapa'atoutai. So it is with Matt Arthur. If he really is a nobody, then we had nobody better missing out because of him getting a run. Don't sweat it. SG Ball is full of nuffies, and the cream rises to the top. Future NRL players don't let nuffies hold them back. If they're good enough some other club will gladly take them.