The Rumours Thread

[Old Timer]

Liddle will not be here next season, just a one year contract till Haele Finau develops his game more… will be the long term 9 of the club.

I'm always amazed at these types of predictions.

What exactly has Haele Finau done to be considered the next 9 for the club?

At this point in time he has potential and nothing else and it is to be hoped that if his perceived potential proves to be ill considered his contract is quickly terminated and we move on.

If Lidddle has an injury free season and performs well he may very well be given an extension.

In conclusion obviously you hold out no hope for C M and I wonder on what basis you have dismissed his potential rise to the NRL?

 

[qld redvee]

I personally believe the club has done a lot of work over the off season to improve the mood/culture & we will see this transpire into the season ahead. Hook has been working more with the players to see what they want as a playing group/individually which has lifted the mood amongst the boys. Things certainly heading in the right direction.

thanks for your post loulash, fifita and or nas would be a good get I personally would pass on brooks and brown and favour our juniours. keep the insights rolling gives us a glimmer of hope

 

[justadragon]

If Hook can take dragons to top 8 this year. He has succeeded in his job and club has recovered. Then the club can look into a top coach and/or couple of marquee players. No marquee player will come to our team if we don't make top 8 and top line coaches like Hasler won't look at us. Every commentator in the game has marked Dragons for wooden spoon in 2023. So as supporters lets be positive. Go Dragons... Make it to top 8 boys.... prove naysayers wrong.

I wouldnt say if the club has scraped into the top 8 , just to be blown off the park the next week success !! we need to be consistently around the top 4 and competing well every week before i would consider any sort of success. But I love your exuberance !!!

 

[DfL]

Some of your points are valid, but he came here with the promise of having discipline and defence back in order, I think they were his major KPI's, we have failed dismally in both, as a matter of fact we were the worst in the League for defence.
Completely agree with the defence but last season we did not have a problem scoring. We did have a match discipline problem but that should be better because Maguire, sims and Burgess won’t be here(High tackles)etc. We had the most missed tackles of any club which Peter gentle was also responsible for. All I’m trying to say is that’s it’s not always just the coach that need to be held accountable. The deficiencies were our assistant coaches especially Peter gentle. They rectified that issue by bringing in an experienced attacking coach and a better defensive coach in woolfe. If this year we cannot make the finals then we can talk about the coach not being the right one.

 

[loulash]

I'm always amazed at these types of predictions.

What exactly has Haele Finau done to be considered the next 9 for the club?

At this point in time he has potential and nothing else and it is to be hoped that if his perceived potential proves to be ill considered his contract is quickly terminated and we move on.

If Lidddle has an injury free season and performs well he may very well be given an extension.

In conclusion obviously you hold out no hope for C M and I wonder on what basis you have dismissed his potential rise to the NRL?

Finau is rated one of the best up & coming hookers of the game & had many top clubs chasing his signature. He has all the skills of a great modern day 9 & the club thinks very highly of him.

 

[justadragon]

Some of your points are valid, but he came here with the promise of having discipline and defence back in order, I think they were his major KPI's, we have failed dismally in both, as a matter of fact we were the worst in the League for defence.
Completely agree with the defence but last season we did not have a problem scoring. We did have a match discipline problem but that should be better because Maguire, sims and Burgess won’t be here(High tackles)etc. We had the most missed tackles of any club which Peter gentle was also responsible for. All I’m trying to say is that’s it’s not always just the coach that need to be held accountable. The deficiencies were our assistant coaches especially Peter gentle. They rectified that issue by bringing in an experienced attacking coach and a better defensive coach in woolfe. If this year we cannot make the finals then we can talk about the coach not being the right one.

Ok, I'll agree to disagree, but you need to remember who was removed from the Bronco's and Penrith, it wasnt the AC's and those teams flourished,

 

[loulash]

Ok, I'll agree to disagree, but you need to remember who was removed from the Bronco's and Penrith, it wasnt the AC's and those teams flourished,

Hook was sitting in the top 4 when he was sacked from Penrith. Had a falling out with Gus & with Gus’s arrogance this spelled the end for Griffin.

 

[DfL]

Ok, I'll agree to disagree, but you need to remember who was removed from the Bronco's and Penrith, it wasnt the AC's and those teams flourished,

Sure but both times the teams were sitting in the top 8 and top 4 so we know he has the ability to get us to the finals. Prior to dragons he hadn’t missed a final, and if he can get us there this year we have a better chance attracting better players, coaches etc

 

[Mojo]

Hook was sitting in the top 4 when he was sacked from Penrith. Had a falling out with Gus & with Gus’s arrogance this spelled the end for Griffin.

"I am ignorant of absolute truth. But I am humble before my ignorance and therein lies my honor and my reward." Kahlil Gibran
PS: has anybody watched "The Loudest Voice"?

 

[mattchuot]

As a Dragons supporter all we have is hope & rumours to look forward to.

@loulash has given me hope in the club again. Hope is a dangerous thing

 

[justadragon]

Hook was sitting in the top 4 when he was sacked from Penrith. Had a falling out with Gus & with Gus’s arrogance this spelled the end for Griffin.

Look personally I dont mind the bloke, but I dont think his style of coaching suites the modern game, another poster further up the chain mentioned "we had no trouble scoring", I dont know what games he watched last year but we were abysmal in attack, we didnt have anything apart from 5 hitups and a kick, so I dont know what games he was watching. To top it off we couldnt sustain any sort of defence, that was a shocker to. We had people around the club like Flannagan and Soward to assist in both area's but nothing happened, was that Hooks arrogance or the AC's arrogance that no advice would be taken, anyway time will tell if things have changed for the better, and I hope they do.

 

[DfL]

Look personally I dont mind the bloke, but I dont think his style of coaching suites the modern game, another poster further up the chain mentioned "we had no trouble scoring", I dont know what games he watched last year but we were abysmal in attack, we didnt have anything apart from 5 hitups and a kick, so I dont know what games he was watching. To top it off we couldnt sustain any sort of defence, that was a shocker to. We had people around the club like Flannagan and Soward to assist in both area's but nothing happened, was that Hooks arrogance or the AC's arrogance that no advice would be taken, anyway time will tell if things have changed for the better, and I hope they do.

At this point there’s only hope

 

[loulash]

Look personally I dont mind the bloke, but I dont think his style of coaching suites the modern game, another poster further up the chain mentioned "we had no trouble scoring", I dont know what games he watched last year but we were abysmal in attack, we didnt have anything apart from 5 hitups and a kick, so I dont know what games he was watching. To top it off we couldnt sustain any sort of defence, that was a shocker to. We had people around the club like Flannagan and Soward to assist in both area's but nothing happened, was that Hooks arrogance or the AC's arrogance that no advice would be taken, anyway time will tell if things have changed for the better, and I hope they do.

One thing I will say about Hook is we are a very passive/conservative team under him, no one really takes any risks or plays what they see.

 

[justadragon]

One thing I will say about Hook is we are a very passive/conservative team under him, no one really takes any risks or plays what they see.

Thats why I worry about players like Sullivan and Sloan, will the attacking flair be coached out of them, lets hope not, will they want to take risks, look at Penrith across all the grades, wonderful attacking entertaining footy with no consequences if you make a mistake.

 

[loulash]

Thats why I worry about players like Sullivan and Sloan, will the attacking flair be coached out of them, lets hope not, will they want to take risks, look at Penrith across all the grades, wonderful attacking entertaining footy with no consequences if you make a mistake.

What you’re seeing from Penrith is years & years of building from the ground up. Gus laid the foundation for them all it needed was patience & development for it all to come to fruition.

 

[saintly1996]

In retrospect I don’t think Hook is doing as bad a job as many make it out. We were flying high in 21 till the BBQ saga happened & completely derailed our season which the coach had no part in. And in regard to last year, take Ben Hunt out of our side and we are fighting for the spoon but yet still pushed for the top 8 majority of the season.

He also copped a lot of flack for not playing juniors but gave Sloan plenty of opportunity to prove his worth which he failed to do. Ramsey took the opportunity with both hands & performed excellently.

Hook is a decent coach, he unearthed half of Penrith’s current team which he doesn’t get credit for.

Welcome to the forum loulash. I hope your sources at the dragons are correct.
In regard to Griffin's time at Penrith, I have 2 sources there, one is still a player in the NRL team and the other has left he was part of the football dept.
It is completely incorrect that Griffin developed the younger players while there, he was sacked because many of the younger players would have left if he stayed, you can add Ciraldo to that list too.

Then dragons did not do enough due diligence on his time at Penrith, they were sold an incorrect story by his management.

 

[Old Timer]

Finau is rated one of the best up & coming hookers of the game & had many top clubs chasing his signature. He has all the skills of a great modern day 9 & the club thinks very highly of him.

Our club like many other clubs has a plethora of "the club thinks very highly of him" players whose careers never took off at NRL level.

Many young players signatures are sought and that does not by its own account mean that he will be a star.

It has been proved time and time again form at KOE Cup level does not always translate into the top grade so the jury is well and truly out re Finau but I wish him well and truly hope that he does transition.

 

[denis preston]

There have been lots of issues with his attitude in pre season plus discontent amongst the playing group for how he handled the Bulldogs saga. Would not be surprised if he was allowed to leave.

With due respect LL , there is no way they let Sullivan go, they have invested too much and he is the pin up boy for Pathways. They have yet to see what he can do .I also doubt they would be inclined to pay a mill a year for anyone.

 

[qld redvee]

Our club like many other clubs has a plethora of "the club thinks very highly of him" players whose careers never took off at NRL level.

Many young players signatures are sought and that does not by its own account mean that he will be a star.

It has been proved time and time again form at KOE Cup level does not always translate into the top grade so the jury is well and truly out re Finau but I wish him well and truly hope that he does transition.

one thing Finau has going for him is that he has had coaching by cameron smith, harry grant brendan smith and bellamy, so if we can continue in the right way then he could be a very handy assett. young conner should also come through as bench hooker utility as end 23 we should have a nice clean out of players

 

[Old Timer]

one thing Finau has going for him is that he has had coaching by cameron smith, harry grant brendan smith and bellamy, so if we can continue in the right way then he could be a very handy assett. young conner should also come through as bench hooker utility as end 23 we should have a nice clean out of players

So with all that investment by the Storm why wasn't he retained and working in rotation with Harry Grant especially now that Cheese is at the Roosters?

Storm had plenty of opportunity to advance his cause and they chose not to any idea why?

Having been at the Storm seems to make some people think that such players will be instant success stories.