The Rumours Thread

[BLM01]

The good ones have it at an early age. Josh Dugan debuted at 19, Tedesco debuted at 19, Darren Lockyer 20, Papenhuyzen for Melbourne at 20, Turbo Tom 20, Dylan Edwards 20, Reece Walsh only turned 21 this year. The difference is that all of them showed a lot more capability and determination at an early age than what Sloane has. I no longer see an upside in Sloane at fullback, he simply hasn't improved one bit, and I really don't know why we're perservering with him.

I agree with Walsh, Turbo and maybe Lockyer as out of the box but rare. Teddy struggled with injury for a few years. Edwards took a while to excel to where he is now. I am not saying is or will get to those levels you mentioned. I agree another year or so if he does not improve under Flanno then it is time

 

[blacksafake]

I know you didn't ask me but I know Walsh and Kennedy are 2. Can't recall the third

Drinkwater?

 

[redVinme]

Drinkwater?

According to the stats Mojo posted looked like Tommy turbo funnily enough and Lachie Miller too.Its all contextual of course.

 

[charlesv]

I believe that most of the problems associated with the performance of our players will be solved in this next off-season. Flanno will have them all fit or on their way out the door. My tip is the following players will be super fit and placed in our top 13:

1. Lomax
2. Sloan
3. Matt Feagai
4. Suli
5. Ravalawa
6. Amone
7. Sullivan
8. Tino
9. K Flannagan
10. De Belin
11. T Couchman
12. New edge forward
13. New lock

Gone
Hunt 1m
Bird 550k
Su'A 600k
Burns 350k
Musgrove 350k
BMM 350k
Fuimaono 400k
Ramsey 250k

Why would you want to loose Sua?

 

[Mojo]

Why would you want to loose Sua?

Liddle’s disappeared too.

 

[denis preston]

Rumour has it that there are big changes a foot

Under Hook according to this place.

Sullivan under-utilised and not given a go.
Amone over utilised and should have been dropped for Sullivan.
Sloan not given 100% backing and not trusted to improve.
Kerr not given a fair go.
Hunt pandered to and listened to far too much.
Too many average & depth signings.

Since Flim Flam Flanno was in the frame

Sullivan told he is free to look elsewhere.
Amone still being picked and is a higher priority than Sullivan
Lomax told that he will do pre-season training in the full back role and is in consideration for the position.
Kerr let go.
Hunt was gone and bagging the club now is part of the forward planning with the coach and remains captain.
Hame Sele our 1st signing and for 3 years.

The difference is staggering.

EDIT:
Oops almost forgot the biggest difference

Under Hook
Dean Young gone

Under Flim Flam Flanno
Dean Young Back

That indeed is the change that everyone was hoping for.

You really need to hire a positivity coach. As Jack Gibson would say “ you would boo Santa Claus “

 

[denis preston]

As long as Sloan is defending poorly and making poor decisions regarding catching kicks on the full he’s going to cop some justified criticism. Where this criticism is a bit misguided is when many people on this forum forget the poor kid almost literally went straight from SG ball to first grade due to COVID sandwiched by a confidence shattering stint in reserve grade courtesy of the worst coach in the club’s history.
Sloan is one of those rare players that supposedly has those rare and magical attacking gifts that “can’t be coached”. And yes massive deficiencies in defence currently. To me it stands to reason however that his flaws CAN be coached and improved upon. Anyone here reckon Wayne Bennett wouldn’t be able to turn Sloan around?
Anyone who has watched this team play for the last X amount of years can see that this is a group of players who lack any competent level of basic coaching in the fundamentals of the game. It’s across the board, not just Sloan. No player’s weaknesses or overall games have improved, with maybe the extremely recent exception of Lomax since Griffin was booted out.
Maybe in ‘24 when we finally have an NRL quality coach those (very) rough edges of Sloan can be improved upon. And if there’s no improvement in the early parts of ‘24 then yes of course his spot in the team would need to be re-examined. I think some of the fan’s favourite whipping boys deserve at least a small chance with proper coaching before we draw a line through them.

Bingo ! Finally some sanity on this issue. Can we now get back to rumors ?

 

[Dorothy the Winowhore]

I heard a rumour that Amone is a better player than Sullivan. Probably explains why Hook, Carr, and Flanno all selected him over Bud.

 

[JubileeJeffro]

Taukeiaho to join the rapidly evolving bulldogs squad apparently. $500k per season for 2 years

 

[redVinme]

Taukeiaho to join the rapidly evolving bulldogs squad apparently. $500k per season for 2 years

He's cooked. It's overs.

 

[Dragon David]

Taukeiaho to join the rapidly evolving bulldogs squad apparently. $500k per season for 2 years

Gee, a majority of the Bulldogs' salary cap would all be taken up by their top 17 and there would be a paltry amount left for the remaining players of their squad. If it does the job then why not?

Gus's appeal and his persuasion must be working to get these signings. I hope that it all goes belly up for them though.

 

[twinkletoes]

And still we wait and wait and wait.....our best signing over a 12 month period is Hame Sele.

Seems like our football department is waiting for Flanno, who is not even on the books and working maybe 1 day a week on Dragons business behind the scenes, to do all the hard lifting on recruitment

 

[since77]

He's cooked. It's overs.

Last night NRL360 played an interview done with him when he decided to leave Roosters for England. Basically said his body was done and he couldn’t play to a high enough standard anymore. Hardly encouraging if you’re a Bulldogs fan. But then again if you’re a Bulldogs fan you’ve already got your fair share of problems lol.

 

[redVinme]

Last night NRL360 played an interview done with him when he decided to leave Roosters for England. Basically said his body was done and he couldn’t play to a high enough standard anymore. Hardly encouraging if you’re a Bulldogs fan. But then again if you’re a Bulldogs fan you’ve already got your fair share of problems lol.

I think a lot of people get caught up in "came from a good system" when buying a player.

If a top 4 team wanted to keep them they'd still be playing here. Simple as that. If they are cast aside that should be enough hesitantance imo if you want to get better. Why shit teams are so adverse to emulating the bigger teams I'll never know.

All of these good "systems" and coaches have one thing in common. Opportunity to create a team that the bottom 8 teams can't. Robbo is showing right now what we all know.

It's allllll about the cattle.

Sure SST might have had access to better training etc but if anything in my experience going to work somewhere you are "over qualified" leads to laziness not the opposite and that's why these signings often dont work out.

Tldr: hope the Bulldogs sign him and fail

 

[jak]

i still have an old pair of footy boots, now im just waiting on gus gould to offer me a contract

 

[twinkletoes]

Just on rumours...does anyone have any information on the progression of the Centre of Excellence...last info released by the club was early in the year when it was being submitted to Council for DA....no other updates seem to have been forthcoming.

 

[Slippery Morris]

Is there any update on Luke Thompson and Nathan Brown as Head of Recruitment rumours? Are they still a possibility? Of all the rumours I have heard since Hook left it is the Nathan Brown as Head of Recruitment that I really would love to see come out. What the Warriors are doing has been credited to Browny building that squad as Webster only signed 2 players. I am hoping he can come and give us some hope for 2024.

 

[twinkletoes]

So I can answer my own question....the DA is still being processed by Council even though it was submitted last October and has not been determined. Seems to have been referred to every government department under the sun...from Council website we still seem to be waiting fro comment from Local Aboriginal Community and Council's internal regulation & Enforcement Dept and Council's Strategic internal Dept (whatever that means) even though the application was referred to them in December last year. No record of even a site inspection having taken place....This Facility was meantto start construction in the second half of this year with completion at the end of 2024...seems like those dates have been blown out of the water now..

 

[Dragon David]

So I can answer my own question....the DA is still being processed by Council even though it was submitted last October and has not been determined. Seems to have been referred to every government department under the sun...from Council website we still seem to be waiting fro comment from Local Aboriginal Community and Council's internal regulation & Enforcement Dept and Council's Strategic internal Dept (whatever that means) even though the application was referred to them in December last year. No record of even a site inspection having taken place....This Facility was meantto start construction in the second half of this year with completion at the end of 2024...seems like those dates have been blown out of the water now..

Like with everything else, the Dragons' ability to create something special always lags. DA's seem to take forever to get passed with most Councils especially if there is no "benefit" going to them. Our luck will be that the State Government's grant of whatever amount they said that they would pay towards its development might go elsewhere if the DA takes too long to get approved seeing that the Premier is looking at cutting back on expenditure and he is not a Dragons fan but a Bulldogs one.

I think that the CHPC would be great for the community and of course both the male and female footy players and youth pathways both boys and girls.

Community and High Performance Centre

The St George Illawarra Dragons' Community and High Performance Centre (CHPC) will be an industry-leading, high-performance training and administration facility that will help create a significant legacy for the community.

www.dragons.com.au

 

[shazam]

So I can answer my own question....the DA is still being processed by Council even though it was submitted last October and has not been determined. Seems to have been referred to every government department under the sun...from Council website we still seem to be waiting fro comment from Local Aboriginal Community and Council's internal regulation & Enforcement Dept and Council's Strategic internal Dept (whatever that means) even though the application was referred to them in December last year. No record of even a site inspection having taken place....This Facility was meantto start construction in the second half of this year with completion at the end of 2024...seems like those dates have been blown out of the water now..

Seems everything at the Dragons moves slowly including the players & new recruitments