The fraud thread

[SpaceMonkey]

I was going to be try and be jovial about this, but this is just an incredibly shit call.

Mannering from 2005-2011 was a beast - pace, ball skills, solid as a rock on defense, he was incredibly underrated because he did everything well but didn't necessarily have a crazy highlight reel. Worth remembering he was also our captain in our 2011 GF campaign when Price got injured/retired. Then we turned to absolute shit, our attitude stunk and he had to make 50+ tackles a week - therefore his attacking prowess was stunted.

But make no mistake, Simon Mannering is the furtherest thing from a fraud the game has ever seen. He had a massive skillset, a massive ticker and without him, the Warriors would've won multiple spoons but somehow never won one.

Yep he literally burned himself out keeping the team from being spoon contenders. Probably would’ve played 350 games instead of 302 otherwise.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

Yep he literally burned himself out keeping the team from being spoon contenders. Probably would’ve played 350 games instead of 302 otherwise.

Yep, 100%. He'd have played 350, easily, if he'd played like Adam Blair and not given a f**k for long stretches of his career. The fact he did get to 300 was incredible, he was a broken man.

Which reminds me that Adam Blair is a fraud. Stole a living at the Tigers, Warriors and at times for the Broncs, and the Kiwis when he chewed gum and professed to being happy we'd lost to Fiji in a quarter final.

 

[Cheese sandwich]

Don't agree with mannering but the rest are cracking shouts. Blair and jackson in particular, finucane has been a spectacular waste of money for the sharks.

 

[Marshall_magic]

Yep, 100%. He'd have played 350, easily, if he'd played like Adam Blair and not given a f**k for long stretches of his career. The fact he did get to 300 was incredible, he was a broken man.

Which reminds me that Adam Blair is a fraud. Stole a living at the Tigers, Warriors and at times for the Broncs, and the Kiwis when he chewed gum and professed to being happy we'd lost to Fiji in a quarter final.

Blair was one of those players who left the Storm and all of a sudden was called for every grubby tackle he did. Sika Manu was also in this category. The fact the Tigers moved heaven and earth to bring him in ended up wrecking a top 4 side, although he was not the sole reason it fell off a cliff that season

 

[Big Pete]

Slater was an excellent player, but I'm calling fraud on the claim that he revolutionised the fullback position. Billy wasn't even the best ball-playing fullback of his era - Hayne, Stewart, Hunt, Bowen, Boyd etc. all had a better grasp of it and were more likely to hit their winger than the bloke in row three.

Another good player, but who was the dingbat who came up with King Gutho?

 

[Reflector]

Remember NSW regularly picking Cordner and Jackson over Luke Lewis? Dumbmerkins

I remember someone joking that they picked Josh Jackson because his name sounded like the bully from a teen movie and they figured it'd replicate on-field...

 

[TheDMC]

Dane Nielsen.

I was intending to add him to the thread. Was awful. No speed, no swerve, no pass, no nothing. I think he even played an origin match.

 

[TheDMC]

At the risk of further diversifying precisely what we are talking about, there’s also ‘fool’s gold’. Guys that looked like they were certainties to be something special and turned out to be pretty shit.

The Warriors have had plenty of them. Fisiiahi. Seluini.

Bevan French also springs to mind.

Tui Lolohea another.

 

[TheDMC]

Couple more just sprung to mind. Jono Wright and Jon Green.

Jono Wright hah! Yeah he was a definitely a battler, though he had a couple of good games/moments for the Warriors.

 

[Penrose Warrior]

I was intending to add him to the thread. Was awful. No speed, no swerve, no pass, no nothing. I think he even played an origin match.

He was spectacularly awful. If he hadn't played for the Storm, he might've played 10-15 games tops, done something incredibly stupid on the piss and never be heard of again. But he played 3 Origins and 100 NRL matches.

And yeah, the definition of fraud is criminal deception for financial gain...we've had more than a few of those types.

The two most shining examples being in our first year - Denis Betts and Andy Platt. Both on massive money for the era, both rubbish. Betts even got us to stump up to fly his bulldogs over at huge expense, and didn't even give half his arse for us.

 

[Nutz]

Who are the players that you see (or have seen) as first-grade frauds?

All Warriors fans on here will know I have issues with Jackson Ford.

Bloody hell, Jackson Ford is one of the Warriors best forwards. Huge engine.

 

[Leber]

Tui Lolohea another.

Tbf, we f**ked lolohea around terribly. He was an out and out half and we played him on the wing, centre etc.

 

[MugaB]

Tbf, we f**ked lolohea around terribly. He was an out and out half and we played him on the wing, centre etc.

He played out of his skin in every tonga test, too bad it never translated into clubland

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Another good player, but who was the dingbat who came up with King Gutho?

In a kingdom where everyone is bald, the man with the comb-over is king

 

[Thatwasnthighref]

At the risk of further diversifying precisely what we are talking about, there’s also ‘fool’s gold’. Guys that looked like they were certainties to be something special and turned out to be pretty shit.

The Warriors have had plenty of them. Fisiiahi. Seluini.

Bevan French also springs to mind.

Kevin Locke, Kris Inu

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Tbf, we f**ked lolohea around terribly. He was an out and out half and we played him on the wing, centre etc.

That was the other guy I was trying to think of in the Warriors forum when we were talking about the current side being old and Webby not being in a hurry to blood teenagers. He got thrown in the deep end around the same time as Kata, but t f**ked around with positionally as well.

A guy who was a bit of a fraud at NRL club level was Thomas Leuluai - made up for t at test level and in the ESL though.

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Kevin Locke, Kris Inu

Locke WAS good. Just lost the plot after he copped that back injury. Inu was too talented for his own good and got bored after a season at every club he went to.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Kurt Capewell, Boyd Cordner, Josh Jackson, Simon Mannering, Dale Finucane.

Basically any backrower or lock that played a heap of Rep Footy despite lacking a skill set.

I actually broadly agree with what you're saying. As a sport I reckon we're infatuated with low-talent hard workers when in reality those skills aren't that hard to come by. We're also obsessed with calling those sorts of players "underrated" when it's the furthest thing from the truth.

Putting Simon Mannering in that list was just a terrible idea though as he had much better athletic attributes but got pigeonholed into the workhorse role because he also had a huge motor.

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Slater was an excellent player, but I'm calling fraud on the claim that he revolutionised the fullback position. Billy wasn't even the best ball-playing fullback of his era - Hayne, Stewart, Hunt, Bowen, Boyd etc. all had a better grasp of it and were more likely to hit their winger than the bloke in row three.

Yeah this never made sense to me either, Slater wasn't even particularly a ball-playing fullback, and his career was immediately preceded by none other than DARREN LOCKYER being the best fullback in the world so it's hard to say that ball-playing fullbacks weren't already a thing

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

Locke WAS good. Just lost the plot after he copped that back injury.

I know I pull you up on this every time but I am telling you, this genuinely never happened. The injury you refer to was a bruised hip and he missed 2 weeks, and it was right at the start of his career and well before his peak.