Superthread 38

[adamkungl]

Tom Waterhouse looks like a total douchewagon.

 

[adamkungl]

f**k Union is shit.

 

[BunniesMan]

I started following the Swans after they'd been without a premiership for 60 years. I started following Souths when they were broke running on an oily rag and without a premiership in 30 years.

Fell in love with the Swans because of Tony Lockett kicking a behind. Fell in love with Souths because the romanticism of a fallen and fading giant having that Phoenix emerging from the ashes moment is almost addictive. And because in a way Souths are the sporting version of 'City upon a Hill'.

I love my sport, I love many different sports, but my two greatest loves are 1 game away from playing in the big one. This will be the longest week of my life.

It makes me sad that bunniesman will be happy

But good win Souths...should be 2 great games next week

:lol: You basing your emotions on how I feel should be the thing that makes you sad.

But I'll agree with the second part of that. Manly v Melbourne is a great modern rivalry and selling out ANZ in a non grand final non double header for the first time ever should set up a great encounter.

Souffs or Dogs in the GF. How f**king depressing. Melbourne and Manly are the only hopes for Rugby League.

Yeh na. Even if Dogs beat us I'll be cheering for them.

Cheats v reigning premiers whose fans cant be bothered turning up. Neither deserves to win.

If the dogs v souths prelim was easts v dragons I'd still be going for the winner of that to win the gf.

You've got that arse about.

JM knows.

I'll be cheering on whoever wins between Dogs and Souffs, f**k the purple stain and the less said about Manly the better.

This x 100.

Tom Waterhouse looks like a total douchewagon.

That's because he is a total douchewagon.

 

[Didgi]

Only hate Manly of the final 4, so if Melbourne win will be happy with whoever are premiers. Though Souffs coming in and cleaning it up would suck, have to serve an apprenticeship first.

 

[Jason Maher]

Melbourne, Brisbane, and Newcastle never had to serve an apprenticeship.

 

[BDR]

To be fair to Souths their consistency all year means they're worthy to be in the final 4 and if they make it, the GF. I'm over letting the minority of f**kwit fans influence which teams I cheer on.

At the end of the day Melbourne disgraced the league with their deliberate rorting (which IMO they were never properly punished for) and Manly play ugly, unsporting rugby league and get the rub of the green more consistently than any other team in the NRL. What's worse is that they always have a whinge about how hard done by the are by the refs. Toovey is a merkin.

On the other hand, Souths might be flat track bullies but they still play sparkling footy when everything clicks. And the Dogs have really recruited well and put it all together this season. No brainer for mine, winner next Saturday will be my pick to get the chocolates.

 

[Big Pete]

melbourne, brisbane, and newcastle never had to serve an apprenticeship.

1998, 1990 & 1995.

 

[Bazal]

On a different note, I feel sorry for Argentina....they deserved a win tonight, they played much better than the Wallabies. Why Quade Cooper is still in the squad I will never know, he is just awful

 

[Big Pete]

Pumas will take us down in their neck of the woods.

Australians were well below themselves but fired when they had to. Pumas simply couldn't.

Plenty of players need to go. Kane Douglas is just about the only player who impressed me out there for the Green and Gold.

 

[Bazal]

Berrick Barnes is easily our best player. Sadly he hasn't been 100% all season and still struggles to go 80 as a result. Cooper and Beale are shocking, tbh...Barnes to flyhalf, any knucklehead who isn't Beale to fullback...Higginbotham has to start over Samo as well. Old prick is fair useless

 

[Big Pete]

Forward pack needs a serious overhaul too.

Front row has no ticker and aside from Sharpe who's on his last legs & Douglas who was impressive on debut the rest are practically passengers.

Captains curse has hurt us big time.

 

[Bazal]

The problem is we have no attacking forwards at the moment, or they are starting on the bench in the case of Higginbotham. Even Pocock is not a great ball runner. We need a hole running forward or two from somewhere, Higginbotham does his best but he often winds up trying to drag everyone else forward.

In fairness, injury hasn't helped. We're missing Pocock, Genia, Kepu, Timani, and others....but we need to find someone who can go forward

 

[Jason Maher]

We have been getting progressively more shit for the last decade.

 

[Big Pete]

For sure, I was at the game and I was amazed at how laterally we were playing, especially when Sharpe nearly scored by running a direct line.

It seems like the only players who the side is comfortable with using as battering rams is Samo & McCabe. Samo has been exposed after his stellar '11 form & McCabe is merely average in my books.

I don't expect us to be as good as the All Blacks or even the Boks really. I just want to see more positive changes. I liked seeing the likes of Douglas, Gill, Hooper etc. receive chances but I don't believe our current formation is our most ideal to play Robbie-ball.

Even then, I'm sceptical of that style.

 

[Bazal]

McCabe is a good outside centre or winger, can hit a hole and score a try. No idea why he gets picked at inside, his playmaking ability is nil. If we must pick Cooper (and I don'tt see why we must, but anyway), then McCabe is your outside centre and Barnes is inside, with Ashley-Cooper or Drew Mitchell at fullback.

 

[Big Pete]

Ah, I see. I've only seen McCabe play inside and I just never understood the appeal.

That's a solid line-up and better than what we've currently got. Isn't Mitchell injured though? He always seems to be incapacitated somehow. At this point, I'd dead-set be fine with wrapping the likes of O'Connor, Mitchell and co. in cotton wool, blood some of the young up & comers and prepare for 2014.

I feel guilty about infesting the ST with so much Union discussion but I just wanted to get Baz's thoughts on why the Wallabies went backwards after the 03 world cup. Surely after all that exposure, we should have done better than what we did? From the outside in, it appeared as if the Aussies focussed too heavily on pilfering League talent and stuck to their old guns for way too long instead of moving forward.

 

[Apey]

Going to take an interest in AFL for the first time in my life and hope Swans get knocked out, then will resume normal transmission.

 

[Bazal]

IMO we had a lot of old talent and had suffered the same malaise as the cricket side in that nit a lot of young blood was brought through. If anything the likes of Tuqiri and Rogers delayed what we're seeing now I reckon. Deans is stuck between a rock and a hard place. He has very little left to call on, especially with our injury list. There are no Larkhams around, no Burkes, no George Smith's or Lathams or any of those guys. We're simply coming off the back of a super crop of rugby players. As it stands I think we need to build around the likes of Barnes and Ioane and Horwill and Pocock and Higginbotham etc. There are some very good young guys coming through but we need a core ans at the moment that keeps changing

 

[BunniesMan]

Just remembered something. Lol@afl haters. Craig Bellamy was spotted at the AFL today, shown on screen and the commentators went on about how great he is and how he's the best coach in Australian sport.

But according to some on here there's a holy war being waged between the codes.

Only deluded little fools think that.

 

[Didgi]

As someone who really started following after his initial good year or two, Tim Smith playing well really takes a bit to get used to.