The Rumours Thread

[Mojo]

And people honestly believe that Gould was the man that built Penrith...lol. Clearly or should I say Cleary he isn't based on what he has done prior to the Panthers job and now Bulldogs. Ivan Cleary (the tired one) did it all. Gould wanted him gone, brought in Hook, board goes behind Gould's back to bring back Ivan and Gould is turfed. Penrith win 3 comps. Yet Gould is the brains apparently. He is the best salesman is all I can say. He is on big dollars at the Dogs and so far the team has spent a lot of cash and gone backwards. Gould did not even bring in the correct Assistant coach. Webster is clearly far better than Cirraldo. Then again what would Gould know about coaches, sacked a current 3 peat Grand Final coach for Hook.

When the Centre of Excellence is done, is Flanno going to get all the credit because apparently Gould set that up which I am sure the club would have planned for before his time.

Anyway, Saints have a similar set up in terms of juniors to the Panthers and the Dogs clearly don't with all these players coming in like a transit lounge. Gould wants a 5-7 year plan which by then there would have been 100 NRL players come and gone whilst Flanno will hopefully have Saints up to a good standard in 2 years. All he needs to to make better use of the juniors like Cleary has done at Penrith and not worry about looking over the fence and pinching other teams juniors like the Dogs.

I was uncertain whether I liked Gould or not. Now I am. I don’t.

 

[getsmarty]

Now 31 and has had 59 1st grade appearances over 11 seasons which one of the following must be correct.
1. Injury prone and missed a lot of games but is now fully fit and carrying no injuries.
2. Played behind better players his entire career and had to wait for several others to be injured or on SOO / Test duties.
3. Has not realised his full potential and needs Flanno to do what Bellamy couldn't do.
4. He is here merely for his work ethic and strong culture will turn around our fortunes in 1 year aka know as The Jammer Effect.
5. He's Flanno's Moose.

Eisenhuth > Burns

 

[Slippery Morris]

Sharks clearly did not want to release Treacy to Saints. That is all I can think of as he was keen to join and had connections with Flanno. Gould got a sniff and jumped at it.

 

[St Tangles]

Tom Eisenhuth just made official

Miss one we wanted announce one no one else wanted

 

[getsmarty]

Sharks clearly did not want to release Treacy to Saints. That is all I can think of as he was keen to join and had connections with Flanno. Gould got a sniff and jumped at it.

Player swap....

 

[Dragon David]

I agree, my concern is not 2024 but 2025. And that concern is centred around: what if we don't land our targets for 2025? What then? Dearden, AFB, Luki, etc. I fully support bringing all of these players to the club because I think they are the right personnel. But we know Gus and Laundy cheat the cap and are a huge chance of beating us to AFB who should be priority number one. Dearden is pretty likely to stay at the Cowboys, Flanno quoted saying "if he decides he wants to test the market" then we'll want to chat to him.

In regard to Tracey, Flanagan is quoted saying if he can't get Manu, then he's looking at Tracey. I think Tracey would have been a good squad member to have not only for 2024, but 2025 too. Some have been saying they think the club has gone cold on Tracey from comments being made in various media outlets by Flanagan. Of course there won't be an official statement from the club stating they never wanted Tracey or anything like that. But that narrative is being subtly pushed from what I can tell. Anyway, would have been happy to put him on a multi-year deal. He can play everywhere, and he can play it well. He is no more guaranteed a spot at the dogs than he is at the Dragons going forward, so this signing could have been done in my view.

I've been saying it for a while now, my concern is not 2024 at all because I'm in complete agreement that we shouldn't tie up players on multi-year deals for the sake of it. But all of this stuff is being pushed out about who we're after for 2025. A lot of supporters aren't stopping to think what's next if we don't get these guys because there aren't that many players available who fit into what we need as well as say Tom Dearden, AFB and Luki for example. There are certainly better targets, but there's no guarantee those targets will be Dragons come 2025.

I agree Parko. Unless the Dragons can get the guys they want now for 2025 or soonish, we will have a battle with other clubs wanting those same blokes down the track or even now for 2025. The Dogs have got several men already for 2024 and they will target many for 2025. They will get the cream and we will end up with the dregs as usual if we don't act now. Patience is way out of the equation now. Act or speak now or forever hold your peace.

 

[Dragon David]

Sharks clearly did not want to release Treacy to Saints. That is all I can think of as he was keen to join and had connections with Flanno. Gould got a sniff and jumped at it.

That's how I saw it Slippery. The bloody Sharks not being helpful and then the sneaky snake in the grass Gussy's bulging eyes popped out and in his usual tone said "huh huh, we will get this beauty from under the noses of those Dragons and snuff them out of getting a goody. I love doing this to other teams, hohoho!"

I detest the useless cretin who bullshitted about the review on Mary years ago. It's either Gus's way or no way.

 

[JohnnoMcJohnno]

Now 31 and has had 59 1st grade appearances over 11 seasons which one of the following must be correct.
1. Injury prone and missed a lot of games but is now fully fit and carrying no injuries.
2. Played behind better players his entire career and had to wait for several others to be injured or on SOO / Test duties.
3. Has not realised his full potential and needs Flanno to do what Bellamy couldn't do.
4. He is here merely for his work ethic and strong culture will turn around our fortunes in 1 year aka know as The Jammer Effect.
5. He's Flanno's Moose.

I'm hoping he's a Jeremy Latimore type signing. Big body, good trainer, works hard, and manages to occasionally whack an opposition player in the goolies.

 

[Lennyb]

Dont be too worried about gus, he is outdated and on a slippery slope.

If a fringe first grader doesnt want to come for less, well good.

Put work into our juniors and set aside the $ for the cream, where needed.

 

[JubileeJeffro]

Unfortunately all I am seeing with this market activity is we are not an attractive option for stars or journeymen alike.
Flanno has clearly found it way harder than anticipated to attract players to his rebuild vision.
Looks like it’s rely on the juniors… until the quality clubs poach them….

 

[SAP58]

Unfortunately all I am seeing with this market activity is we are not an attractive option for stars or journeymen alike.
Flanno has clearly found it way harder than anticipated to attract players to his rebuild vision.
Looks like it’s rely on the juniors… until the quality clubs poach them….

Don’t disagree but gee I am we happy have some really good juniors coming through & we finally have a coach who will put a structure in place to develop them sooner than later. It’s not just Flanno it’s the whole structure & the right people in place to help him along the way.

 

[Victoire]

Our depth is scarily bad in the halves for 2024. Just one single injury at Origin time and we're looking at a Jack Bird-Paul Turner halves combo... which harkens back to the dark days of Chase Stanley-Nathan Fien in the late Steve Price era.

 

[qld redvee]

Player swap....

And just maybe we weren't prepared to let who the sharks wanted go..
Where as gus has let a potential good outside back go..
Maybe just maybe flanno is smarter than we think

 

[Victoire]

Correct... and until then we Wait...

We're gonna sign Godot.

 

[redV06]

We’ll need to recruit a (1,6,7) from England.

 

[carltonsouth79]

Now 31 and has had 59 1st grade appearances over 11 seasons which one of the following must be correct.
1. Injury prone and missed a lot of games but is now fully fit and carrying no injuries.
2. Played behind better players his entire career and had to wait for several others to be injured or on SOO / Test duties.
3. Has not realised his full potential and needs Flanno to do what Bellamy couldn't do.
4. He is here merely for his work ethic and strong culture will turn around our fortunes in 1 year aka know as The Jammer Effect.
5. He's Flanno's Moose.

Mean Jon Green….

 

[Saints Forever]

Yeah maybe. Yes a coach can make a big difference but you still need the cattle. Wayne Bennett got a major improvement out of the Dragons in 2009, but he didn't do it by relying on the same team from 2008. He brought in Darius Boyd, Costigan, Jeremy Smith, Weyman, and Nathan Fien. Flanagan has bought in who? Hame Sele and his son. I'm interested as to who you think our fullback options are because all I see are Sloan (injured), Paul Turner and maybe Lomax. None of these would be a first choice fullback at any other club. Our 5/8 options are Flanagan, Paul Turner and maybe Lomax. None of these would be a first choice 5/8 at any other club.

I'm interested to see how much improvement Flanno gets out of the squad but I think he'd be doing well if he gets us up to 12th. It's just not that good.

Sloan
Lomax
Turner
Rumble

I don’t rate Tracey above Sloan and Lomax

 

[getsmarty]

And just maybe we weren't prepared to let who the sharks wanted go..
Where as gus has let a potential good outside back go..
Maybe just maybe flanno is smarter than we think

Flanno knows what he is doing.

 

[Hound of Dracula]

We're gonna sign Godot.

more like Gollum

 

[Rod Coil]

Mean Jon Green….

Very underrated