The Rumours Thread

[JubileeJeffro]

I'm happy to look at the areas we have improved so by all means enlighten me?

I'll start

Result wise we are winning more games than last years anus horribilis (but the jury is still out on the overall 2022 result).

Result wise we are winning some tight contests that we might have lost last year (probably due to better goal kicking and a couple of 2 point field goals well done Zac).

We / Zac I should say has had some truly spectacular individual moments the type that brings a crowd to their feet and they will be a very sad loss for Big Red V supporters going into 2025.

Over to you now

I don’t wish to spend too much time trying to escape your spiderweb of negativity; however it’s a nice fire tickling my legs with a nice Pinot while the roast lamb toils away in the oven.
Here is where I have seen improvement;
We are winning more of those closer games we would have lost last year.
We have a pretty solid left side attack of KF, Suli, Leilua and CT. Suli and CT particularly looking fitter and better. Leilua still looks a bit underdone fitness wise but getting there.
SuA is back playing well and RFM has been a good pickup back on the edge, running good lines.
Both Feagai’s are playing better than ever. Still not the answer, but they have improved.
Lomax playing the best season he has ever played, great winger. Not a centre.
Sloan looking comfortable under the high ball, needs at least 5kgs on his frame to be higher quality and better at 1:1 defending.
Liddle fitter and picking his time for great darts from dummy half. Combined with Cook next year will be even better.
Molo looking fitter and making more pcm and good hits from time to time.
Couchman being eased into first grade and looking quality, more minutes for him then his brother will form part of very good pack next year.
We are by no means the finished product, hence why we are 8th.
Need a Saifiti and possibly another prop for next year.
Need a better halves solution, I would love Metcalfe to come back from Warriors to partner again with Kyle or even AJ Brimson. (He’s too good for bench)
Need some speed out wide, not sure where that comes from yet as don’t know if we can get Talagi from eels.
That will do, time to turn the spuds.

 

[Old Timer]

No one is gonna sit there and answer your clearly loaded questions lol. You'll forgive me for not wanting to spend multiple hours sourcing the data for you but considering the burden of proof is on you to prove we are going to poorly (the ladder you keep choosing to ignore says otherwise) you'll forgive me for not participating in your quiz, feel free to bring back said data though to prove your case and id be happy to talk to your points.

Many of them are valid and I agree with but I don't argue feelings I argue facts.

I also think our defence sucks, we should never of hired Dean young etc etc but I'm not gonna blame a bloke wanting a job and a career for saying yes to a opportunity. Im also not gonna act like I was in the room and understood the negotiations that went on.

It's not like I agree with a lot of what's happening at the club I just choose to not let my overarching feeling about the club or team ruin the short term joy of winning and I dont have a unrealistic timeframe of the turn around which you seem too.

Wins have been hens teeth for years, given your name I'd remember and cherish that and stop hate watching every week.

We have a bottom four roster and improvement isnt linear but if I told you at this stage of the year we would be over .500 win rate and ahead of the Rabbitohs, Broncos, eels and warriors you'd take it no matter how we got there.


Where you will have be agreeing is recruitment but I have no idea how the club is perceived behind the scenes and o have no idea what Flano walked into. Right now the club are a big F in this space and not even having someone in the role for this long is a joke.

How the f**k are such basic questions loaded?

If improvement has been achieved it should be really easy for you to enunciate it.

Saying their loaded simply means other than the win / loss column and the position on the ladder people are struggling to say / demonstrate what has improved and more importantly maintained.

The last 2 games Sloan has caught bombs very well and shows a sign of improvement but his defence and attack have been shithouse so he hasn't maintained what people were eulogizing and being wax lyrical about not so long ago.

So the notion he has improved is rather subjective if you look at it in an overall manner.

The same applies to the team as a whole.

Posters still say we're dumb, we're leaderless, our kicking game is shit, our 5th tackle options horrendous, our discipline poor, our mental fragility highly evident, our defence at times extremely poor, our selections poor, our forwards barely make an impact so many sides, our lack of speed palpable, we can't play for 80 minutes etc etc and all this is during the game FFS let alone post game so how do these comments keep coming about if we have "truly improved"?

 

[Crush]

I don’t wish to spend too much time trying to escape your spiderweb of negativity; however it’s a nice fire tickling my legs with a nice Pinot while the roast lamb toils away in the oven.
Here is where I have seen improvement;
We are winning more of those closer games we would have lost last year.
We have a pretty solid left side attack of KF, Suli, Leilua and CT. Suli and CT particularly looking fitter and better. Leilua still looks a bit underdone fitness wise but getting there.
SuA is back playing well and RFM has been a good pickup back on the edge, running good lines.
Both Feagai’s are playing better than ever. Still the answer, but they have improved.
Lomax playing the best season he has ever played, great winger. Not a centre.
Sloan looking comfortable under the high ball, needs at least 5kgs on his frame to be higher quality and better at 1:1 defending.
Liddle fitter and picking his time for great darts from dummy half. Combined with Cook next year will be even better.
Molo looking fitter and making more pcm and good hits from time to time.
Couchman being eased into first grade and looking quality, more minutes for him then his brother will form part of very good pack next year.
We are by no means the finished product, hence why we are 8th.
Need a Saifiti and possibly another prop for next year.
Need a better halves solution, I would love Metcalfe to come back from Warriors to partner again with Kyle or even AJ Brimson. (He’s too good for bench)
Need some speed out wide, not sure where that comes from yet as don’t know if we can get Talagi from eels.
That will do, time to turn the spuds.

Lamb roast, potatoes and Pinot Noir.
Now we’re talking!
Good points on where the team is truly at also, a balanced outlook.

 

[TheDon216]

According to a close friend of Blaze Talagi, both Blaze and Ryda are scheduled to meet with the Dragons next week.

Ryda, a forward for the Eels Harold Matts, was selected for the Australian Schoolboys team this year. I believe Frank Pritchard, the Coaching Director for the Cabramatta Two Blues, where both Ryda and Blaze played for , may have influenced this decision to set up the meeting.

 

[St Tangles]

According to a close friend of Blaze Talagi, both Blaze and Ryda are scheduled to meet with the Dragons next week.

Ryda, a forward for the Eels Harold Matts, was selected for the Australian Schoolboys team this year. I believe Frank Pritchard, the Coaching Director for the Cabramatta Two Blues, where both Ryda and Blaze played for , may have influenced this decision to set up the meeting.

They have the meeting this week as both clubs have the bye

In the article below

The no-poach clause that will keep Ryles’ claws out of Melbourne

The Storm have allowed Jason Ryles to begin work at Parramatta immediately, but he won’t be bringing any Melbourne players with him.

www.smh.com.au

 

[Old Timer]

My uncle is a Sharks supporter. In the 2016 season before every game he told me sharks would lose. Before the grand final he said they were no chance, they’d lose.
After the win I said how does that feel mate?
He said, they won’t be able to back it up, next year they’d lose.
I get the feeling that you and my uncle would be great mates.

In fairness I never put the kiss of death on the team nor do I think we will lose every week and at times I do predict or give a view as to how we might get or go about a win.

No doubt I am a hard task master in what I expect from our coach and team and mediocre success doesn't cut it for me.

So hopefully at the end of the season we see real achievement and I simply say I was wrong but if we don't get there my criticism's are not because I want to be the "I told you so" type more they are constructive in an effort for us not to keep repeating them.

 

[TheDon216]

I saw this online
They have the meeting this week as both clubs have the bye

The no-poach clause that will keep Ryles’ claws out of Melbourne

The Storm have allowed Jason Ryles to begin work at Parramatta immediately, but he won’t be bringing any Melbourne players with him.

www.smh.com.au

No Ryda Talagi, little brother of Blaze, not the coach Jason Ryles.

 

[St Tangles]

No Ryda Talagi, little brother of Blaze, not the coach Jason Ryles.

Read the article it's in there about the Talagi boys meeting Saints this week.

 

[TheDon216]

sorry... I didn't read the article properly, my bad.

 

[Saints Forever]

Please understand I'm not unhappy that we are winning.

Also please understand that if we play finals footy that would be good for the club, the players, the fan base.

But please understand I like to also understand if we are improving in the real sense or more as a result of other's decline and I like to be a realist about where we are actually at in respect of being a contender.

I firmly believe we will learn more from the 7 games that we have left to play than anything we have learned to date.

4 top 5 sides, 1 improving middle of the road side, 1 hard side middle of the road side and 1 spoon contender.

We will be coming off a bye and have everything to play for so would you agree that will tell us a lot about how far we have "improved"?

OT, part of being realistic is accepting we have a bog average roster, that in all probability should on paper finish between 12-16 and may still do so.

I would love to see us finish in the 8.

As long as we play strongly for 80 minutes I will accept how we go in these last few games. We seem to generally play well for 50 minutes. Thereafter the wheels fall off after we win a game.

When we improve the roster and the self belief grows, we will be in the finals mix.

 

[JubileeJeffro]

They have the meeting this week as both clubs have the bye

In the article below

The no-poach clause that will keep Ryles’ claws out of Melbourne

The Storm have allowed Jason Ryles to begin work at Parramatta immediately, but he won’t be bringing any Melbourne players with him.

www.smh.com.au

Encouraging we are having a serious crack. Fingers crossed, although he was pretty quiet last night outside some poor halves. Wouldn’t surprise me if eels make the play for talagi or Lomax as number 1 next year. Gutho looks like to be ageing rapidly back there…

 

[BLM01]

According to a close friend of Blaze Talagi, both Blaze and Ryda are scheduled to meet with the Dragons next week.

Ryda, a forward for the Eels Harold Matts, was selected for the Australian Schoolboys team this year. I believe Frank Pritchard, the Coaching Director for the Cabramatta Two Blues, where both Ryda and Blaze played for , may have influenced this decision to set up the meeting.

I still have not seen how Talagi is a boom youngster / player.
He has gone OK for Parra but he is nowhere near boom youngsters IMO like a Ponga, Mam, Cleary or a Walsh were or even a Faalago. He is probably better than what we got?,.maybe...but a boom proposition. Na
I mean Amone, Sullivan, Lomax and even Galvin were also boom youngsters and the future
The media are so fickle with their 1 game or lower grade analagies these days they play right into player managers hands and a lot fall for it
How about they wait until played a few 1st grade games to judge
What I have seen from Talagi, he has a good step but boom?..

 

[JubileeJeffro]

I still have not seen how Talagi is a boom youngster / player.
He has gone OK for Parra but he is nowhere near boom youngsters IMO like a Ponga, Mam or a Walsh were or even a Faalago. Her is probably better than what we got?,.maybe but a boom proposition. Na

He is only 19 though..

 

[BIG RIG]

Talagi would be a fantastic signing along with Cook and Saifiti ( if done ) that’s a successful start to 2025 transfers

 

[BLM01]

He is only 19 though..

Agree, but what has he done to be put so high on a pedastal
Sloan was a couple of years ago too and showed more high;lights back then
I will take him based on many supporters and media rating him over what we have but I am not sold..yet

 

[justadragon]

I think we are no chance of getting them, Ryles will do everything to keep them, and even the Eels players will shift positions to keep Bliaze there. Just waiting for the media to sink the boot in for another one that the Dragons couldnt get.

 

[hewi]

The Eels problem I think is their salary cap, something has to give. Hopefully the two brothers to us.

 

[Lennyb]

No contest between Blazzer and sloan.

Whoever he signs with will be more than sloans deal.

Im happy we are in the mix and atleast raising his stocks.

Wish that happend with sloan when he was on the open market.

 

[JubileeJeffro]

I read somewhere, RCG is on the outer, on big $$.
Played big minutes last night (62 I think) and over 200 metres. Another possible front row option.
Matterson tapped also (no thanks)
There would be others I expect on the merry go round with new coach.

 

[Gold_Coast Dragon]

Haven't seen enough from Blaize to elevate him above Matt Fegai. Was at the Parra game Sat night, he looked meh.