Rumours and Stuff

[Poupou Escobar]

is it just me or is hopgood a bum?

swear we havent done anything since he arrived, matto in his prime was better

Hopgood is one of the best middle defenders in the NRL and we have missed him.

But yeah Matterson was elite in his prime. A much better overall player than Hopgood. He was probably as good as him in defence.

 

[hindy111]

Hopgood is one of the best middle defenders in the NRL and we have missed him.

Great defender with a below average run game. Thats why he is a 6/10 and wont ever be more.
Guys like Carrigan for example are as good defenders with great running games. Thats why they are 8/9s ....Thats what we need. Not flawed players who are only good at half the game. We can carry 5 or 6 of them. But we have about 12 in our side

 

[T-Boon]

Hopgood is an 8/10 defender and a 5/10 attacker.
Dylan Walker is an 8/10 attacker and a 4/10 defender.
Mitch Moses is an 8.5/10 attacker and a 6.5/10 defender.

These are just numbers I made up.

 

[Wizardssleeve]

Something i've been fully committed too for over two decades. If only this team showed some of that sort of dedication.

Maybe we could bring BA back as a “ Baldness ambassador “ to help provide a bit of starch to these follicle challenged pussies .

 

[hineyrulz]

Don’t be a bully.

 

[Pazza]

Hopgood is one of the best middle defenders in the NRL and we have missed him.

But yeah Matterson was elite in his prime. A much better overall player than Hopgood. He was probably as good as him in defence.

hoppy has a very good tackle efficiency but boy hes been there on the field defending while we get cut to ribbons through the middle.

i really liked that dynamic of Marata and Matto sharing the lock role, worked well for us.

 

[emjaycee]

Possibly a one off occasion?

Was 9 years ago too.

 

[Pazza]

Great defender with a below average run game. Thats why he is a 6/10 and wont ever be more.
Guys like Carrigan for example are as good defenders with great running games. Thats why they are 8/9s ....Thats what we need. Not flawed players who are only good at half the game. We can carry 5 or 6 of them. But we have about 12 in our side

his passing game to use a gouldism is like pure cream

 

[JokerEel]

 

[JokerEel]

Get on updating your thread Pou!

 

[The Predictor]

Is Jnr friends with "clubs"?

If so wtf - get him out of here.

I've got zero tolerance for that.

That’s why he’s signed with Raiders back then, get out of Sydney

 

[The Predictor]

He played origin

Lots of gronks have played origin who shouldn’t have

 

[Stevie]

I reckon we are in for that young prop from Saints who wants out. (Tonga).

They’ve said no to an early release. Flanno will be gone, he’ll get a bump in pay and not go anywhere.

 

[Jez]

Hopgood was excellent in 2023 under BA when he was offloading after the collision but then he got injured and BA was on the way out in 2024. Ryles ball seems more about passing well before the line and shifting and it does not seem to suit as much. Moving him to prop late last year simplified his game and he seemed to be going well again.
Not sure we will find enough good middles to say that he is not in our top 4-5

 

[gaffer]

another dragon we'll be known as dragons2.0 soon

 

[Eelogical]

another dragon we'll be known as dragons2.0 soon

Drageels has a certain ring about it.

 

[Wizardssleeve]

Drageels has a certain ring about it.

Very Woke , might qualify for some government grants too .

 

[Zoso]

I appreciate what Junior has done for the club, and im sure hes a great guy, but it was probably time to move on from him in 2023/24. Its 2026 now.

Yep, game has sped up with more repeat sets, so even at last years level he’s struggling to be consistent. His good is still good, if only he could do that for 60 minutes every week.

 

[eels_fan]

I reckon we are in for that young prop from Saints who wants out. (Tonga).

Don’t think they’ll release him tbh. He’s been bumped up into the 17 for this week now..

 

[Zoso]

So has Matterson.

Hopgood is a great defender and an NRL player. Our probl3m is a squad stacked with 6/10 players. Thats why I am saying signing a guy like Timoko isnt going to make us much better. Replacing a 5 with a 6 is not game changing unless do it across the whole squad.
We need to swap out a few of our 5s/6s with 8/10 players.

Sua is a great signing. We need 2 more at his level or higher. And replace the 5s/6s with juniors with high ceilings.


Lorenzo can take Pezet who is a 5/6 for example. Even if he only performs at a 4 or 5 it wont kill us till he develops. There is also the decent possibility he plays at a 6/7 level and improves is slightly. And the odd chance he kills it and is an 7-8.

Bamblet, Koina,Bloomfield,Petrus are a few others who may need to be considered for 2027

Outside of Moses, who would you say is our highest value player/s, out of 10?