Season 2022

[Tigerm]

You have not factored in the:

* sound new players recruited and opportunities so arising.
* another year of experience bringing us up to average. That additional season next year is about half of the total number of average games an nrl player plays. That’s a stat that can’t possibly be dispensed without considerable caution.
* the upwards diagonal of the core group
* sheens in command
* a massive attack on brooksy’s entitled position

All of which combine as a determined assault on our lucklustre “Jolly Rodger” games of 2021 and shameful influence of the players liberation army ( “pla”) phoning it in.

Lee was asked three times about Tim v Madge and on each occasion he refused to answer the question and deflected.

He knows if he did, he will be caught out next year.

Make no mistake, Madge will be marching to Tim’s drum and if Tim needs to be in the locker room scaring the daylights out of the pla commissars he will.

He’s was a brutal coach. He is a force to be reckoned with. Another reason why the spoon is not an option.

In my respectful submission my friend, at the minimum, there are just too many changes to base an assessment of 2022 on last season. That’s before even addressing the five key support areas.

Don’t agree with your thinking on Madge and Sheens? Madge isn’t a newby coach and Sheens hasn’t been here for 10 years.

Madge will be in charge of the NRL side (unless the club sack him), otherwise why would Madge be staying?

Sheens can’t or won’t be interfering with Madge (he may offer advice) because if it all goes to shit, Madge can rightly say, that this is what Sheens wanted (against his own judgment).

Madge will run the team and may ask or accept opinion, as will any other coach, but NO coach would work under those draconian rules, it would be embarrassing and completely unacceptable to do so, imo.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

Don’t agree with your thinking on Madge and Sheens? Madge isn’t a newby coach and Sheens hasn’t been here for 10 years.

Madge will be in charge of the NRL side (unless the club sack him), otherwise why would Madge be staying?

Sheens can’t or won’t be interfering with Madge (he may offer advice) because if it all goes to shit, Madge can rightly say, that this is what Sheens wanted (against his own judgment).

Madge will run the team and may ask or accept opinion, as will any other coach, but NO coach would work under those draconian rules, it would be embarrassing and completely unacceptable to do so, imo.

I’m not really commenting upon the entire appropriateness of the measure, I’m assessing Lee’s statement in the cold light of day.

Lee was given a large number of opportunities to put this theory to bed, but did not take them. He slithered away from the issue with every trick he had. So I’m afraid we can only assume it’s correct.

To be honest, if it’s a constructive arrangement and produces the positive outcomes I am ok with it.

The club may keep Tim’s influence quiet, but I can’t see him willing to contribute without a major say in all proceedings.

He doesn’t need the money, he wants the power and influence to effect meaningful change.

And so too, it will be given to him.

Madge already reports to Pascoe, Adam and the board.

It might be the change that turns things around for Madge and he may relish it.

A bit of pressure off him too, which is right. He’s been to hell and back, this should be of great comfort to him.

We can’t say he’s got every call right, even he would admit that, so someone in his ear might correct these errant decisions.

Having said that, hopefully Tim doesn’t dismiss his wiser and more prescient calls.

I mean we almost beat Souths this year and we ran over a reasonable smug side. Two examples of competent and astute coaching against the grand finalists.

 

[Old Time Tiger]

Someone told be Matthew Head is a bit of a coaching whiz.

Did well with the Tigers SG Ball a while back

 

[Shredder]

I dont remember Sheens being accused of being too hard on the team. I remember him being accused of being too soft.

 

[stryker]

Heart isn't the issue. We don't have the spoon yet and there is a long way to go.

I am being nice by saying our players lack heart.
The majority of them this year played like f**king cowards.
Penrith have just proven that even when your attack falls away you can still triumph if you go all in on defence.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

I dont remember Sheens being accused of being too hard on the team. I remember him being accused of being too soft.

I’ve spoken to a few of his ex players, that’s what they say anyways.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

I am being nice by saying our players lack heart.
The majority of them this year played like f**king cowards.
Penrith have just proven that even when your attack falls away you can still triumph if you go all in on defence.

Ciraldo and massive mobile defensive units. Powerful edge attack and Cleary allowed to kick at will.

But Bennett’s attack was fairly mundane and conservative tonight. I didn’t see much ad hoc.

Latrell would have made a much bigger impact. Breaking a guys jaw was more important than his club!

 

[Nealo 12]

I’ve spoken to a few of his ex players, that’s what they say anyways.
You are a fraud

 

[stryker]

Doogie has been one of best players, certainly consistent and has delivered. That’s especially in comparison to our other high income earners.

Lucy has made significant strides this year and on the balance, is travelling up the diagonal. The Saints guys are furious for letting him go.

Renno wasn’t yet on the market when we started and claimed Hastings. 5 months to get him. But Hastings is on the up while Renno can’t can only be in decline. Hed be an entirely unknown quantity in a team of jolly Rogers like ours. I mean he’s great with the best 5/8 on earth and the likes of Cameron Murray. I don’t mean to rude, but we all know he’s off to Brisbane to retire. We’ve had enough retirees ( although turning 26 seems to be our retirement age these days).

Gilbert seems to be a good player, but it’s esl and the competency rate is only 3/4 of nrl. Although to be fair, I quite like watching esl. Something earthy about it.

I made the point earlier in the year, the market is fluid. We don’t want to be offering Sharon marquee.

Doueihi only looked good as opposed to non performers within our club. His good performances were only against shit opposition. He never got the job done against contenders.
Luciano is not on an upward trajectory, he regressed in 2021 to the point of defensive liability.
There were whispers Reynolds was being squeezed out long before we engaged with Hastings. His game control would have certainly helped our mob.
Gildart looks ordinary to me. Maybe he’ll surprise but my money says he’ll flop.

 

[Mario chalmers]

If Madge is sacked, it will be because of lack of growth and success and I doubt he will get a gig anywhere else in a hurry. No players to follow him except naturalised kiwis though!

The interesting thing about the review was that I thought he managed to keep his integrity and influence thanks to some very shoddy club work and the perception by management to be seen to be doing something. I thought some good may come from it and then I read Lee’s nonsense waffle interview with Chammas and realised just how bad things were.

As @stryker suggested, the review aimed at Madge had as much pr and politics about it than addressing the deeper underlying issues that is preventing player optimisation.

All of the non-Madge changes could have been effected without casting doubt on his coaching ability and undeserved public humiliation.

Now Lee and co deny he is the problem by cementing his tenure. Go figure?!

I will write more about that. Remember the buck stops with them. Not pascoe, not Harto or Madge.

I think that’s quite important in the eyes of the playing group that Madge still maintains his authority. He’s done that easily.

I would be making Douhie captain too.

We have players on their way. We have at least 3 that will go straight into the side in key positions, not including Gildart who I see as a possible utility off the bench as he adjusts to nrl conditions of footy terror!

Then at least two positions to fill with better than factory coin.

Factory Coin

According to the nrl, the average pay day for an NRL player in any club is $320k and so in my mix, and it’s an guesstimate, after my insider, we would have at least a $1m to spend on 2 players meaning we should be able to land sub marquees and well above factory.

As you know, a problem with the nrl is the skewed cashola pays for Uber elites v factory.

I want to see a high quality industrious forward and a proper utility.

So I think we can approach an unhappy contracted 2022 player and say we can offer 75% more than average.

Also, the game churns through a lot of elite players and then some of them like cheese and Munster self destruct on their own.

But no overs for a 2020 hero of verdun.

We have some great juniors coming through too which warms the heart in terms of future options.

But I made the point last night, we are about a full season of experience behind the average
nrl club.

We will catch up next year.

So I’m not buying spoon for 2022. I just can’t see it.

Its $1.5 mill on 4 players and if you believe the media we're about to give $400k of that to Tyrone Peachey.

That leaves $1.1mill between 3 players.

The outside backs are a glaring issue as far as I am concerned. You could argue that 3 of our contracted Top 30 outside backs are not NRL standard
AJ Kepaoa - absolutely clueless on the wing. Could not catch a cold. He played half a game at left centre which left many to think he'd found his calling. I am still not convinced.
Reece Hoffman - development severely hampered by COVID but has not done anywhere near enough in reggies to warrant NRL consideration.
William Kei - looks far too small from a limited sample size.
Oliver Gildart - unproven at NRL level. Injury prone and short. Size is subjective but I want my centres at least as big as the 4 who played in the GF.

Canterbury are going to have to part with an outside back. They have just signed Braiden Burns today whose career has been wrecked by injuries. Dogs would have 8/9 outside backs now who all might expect NRL minutes.
Cotric has been rumoured to be on the way out. I think the fact he covers all backline positions gives him big appeal for WT.

The other player who we hear might be unsettled is Zac Lomax. There was his refusal to sign a stat dec in relation to the Vaughan party (which was never properly investigated by the media). Why did this occur? Saints have also just signed Moses Suli on big $$$ which surprised me.

Lomax is on something like a 6 year $500k per year contract which he signed under Mary just before he was sacked.

In summary for me the last 4 spots might end up going to:
Peachey
Edge forward
2 o/s backs of a standard comparable to Cotric/Lomax (noting we already have plenty of backups among those named above)

 

[BrotherJim05]

I would take Lomax and Cotric in a heartbeat. They are both miles ahead of all the centres we have on our books, plus Lomax can kick goals which is something we will be missing for half the season with Doueihi's injury.
1. Laurie
2. Nofa
3. Lomax
4. Cotric
5. Maumalo

Not a bad backline at all

 

[stryker]

I would take Lomax and Cotric in a heartbeat. They are both miles ahead of all the centres we have on our books, plus Lomax can kick goals which is something we will be missing for half the season with Doueihi's injury.
1. Laurie
2. Nofa
3. Lomax
4. Cotric
5. Maumalo

Not a bad backline at all

It is solid.
The halves would be the question mark.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

With my insiders, plus Peachey I can’t see that we have much left.

Maybe 600k?

Anyway, I will go with Mario’s vision for now.

The dogs paid too much for Cotric and are reportedly under cap pressure. I read up on the reasons and at the time, Ricky was offering a humongous deal to keep him at act and the dogs really had to up the ante, so they came up with 3 years at 600. He was on fire at the time.

I think we would need to come up with at least 700 to get him with a dog discount of 200 maybe if things are that tight.

Lomax would be great too but he’s even more expensive …and I’m not sure he’s happy. Sgi hq pretty much threw them all under a bus instead of fighting hard that might have got them into the 8. He stopped following them on Instagram. That’s a symbolic f-u gesture. I agree with Mario.

But either one would be fine and affordable.

We are getting a pretty decent forward, so with Peachey, two game ready forwards which is greatly needed at the moment. And the other, who is a great player.

With all the troubles, I’m pleased we are procuring some players who are ready for action.

No full-time committed benchies thus far.

Still need something from the regulars. Not so much the core group but our own hangers on.

Still want ciraldo, that will cure many an evil.

Car park handshake for the post Madge era. Whatever it takes.

Halves are more than resolved with Hastings.

Brooks should respond to conpetition.

 

[BrotherJim05]

It is solid.
The halves would be the question mark.

6. Hastings
7. Brooks

If we are winning games when Doeuihi gets back then he can go to 14. If not, then he replaces whoever isn't implementing Madge's game plan.

If the Peachy rumours are true then I imagine he will be playing centre. Like Cotric/Lomax, he is miles better than what we have.

 

[Shredder]

I think (might be wrong) that I saw something in the press about Peachy that he is signed to be a ball playing lock. Im also pretty sure they said the same thing when they signed Hastings.

Must be the new catch all for f**k off, we dont know yet......

 

[stryker]

If not, then he replaces whoever isn't implementing Madge's game plan.

Madges famous game plan…5 one out hit ups followed by a useless kick into someone’s legs or over the dead ball line.
I was hoping that Hastings arrival would spell the end for Brooks. I suspect you are correct. He’ll play 5/8 until Doueihi comes back and then take the fall for the sides aweful performances and move to lock where he will be dominated.

The common denominator in most of our years of failure remains protected.

 

[The Silverdale Phantom]

Madges famous game plan…5 one out hit ups followed by a useless kick into someone’s legs or over the dead ball line.
I was hoping that Hastings arrival would spell the end for Brooks. I suspect you are correct. He’ll play 5/8 until Doueihi comes back and then take the fall for the sides aweful performances and move to lock where he will be dominated.

The common denominator in most of our years of failure remains protected.

You conveniently forgot our renowned variation in the attack, dropped ball and ankle passes.

Now Cotric v Lomax el Stryker-puss?

We can buy only one, which one and provide a short justification in your answer.

All other forumers invited to help Stryker with his answer if you want.

 

[Tiger05]

I would take Lomax and Cotric in a heartbeat. They are both miles ahead of all the centres we have on our books, plus Lomax can kick goals which is something we will be missing for half the season with Doueihi's injury.
1. Laurie
2. Nofa
3. Lomax
4. Cotric
5. Maumalo

Not a bad backline at all

If we are doing fantasy footy I'd prefer a prime Renouf and Meninga in the centres. I reckon my combination has as much chance as yours of happening as well.

 

[Tiger05]

I think (might be wrong) that I saw something in the press about Peachy that he is signed to be a ball playing lock. Im also pretty sure they said the same thing when they signed Hastings.

Must be the new catch all for f**k off, we dont know yet......

Yep. It's just media dribble. I like it in a lot of ways. It means that our halves which were shit are under pressure. I'd slot Hastings straight into the halves and see how he goes. You could even play Peachy at 6 assuming we sign him. We need options other than Brooks.

 

[Tiger05]

I was hoping that Hastings arrival would spell the end for Brooks. I suspect you are correct. He’ll play 5/8 until Doueihi comes back and then take the fall for the sides aweful performances and move to lock where he will be dominated.

I don't like the idea of playing Hastings at lock. To be fair Benji did this in the grand final and I think it worked out okay. I just think that over 80 minutes and over the course of the season you need to play a lock who can dominate. I mean big Nelson plays that role for Melbourne.