When i was coaching, the lower grades were there for one reason - to feed the top side and to put pressure on the top side.
But you had to dangle the carrot for those guys. They had to believe they could earn a shot at the top grade.
At Cronulla that ain't the case and it does not surprise me one bit that blokes are pizzed off. It happens in the work place and at sport clubs. a whiff of poor management and people start bitching.
If i ever lost 2 games in a row i would automatically change something. Shake something up.
I just do not get our club. It breaks my heart to have to support a side that has accepted defeat so readily.
'We have no money.'
We have no players.'
'We're the perennial bridesmaids.'
'The ref's are against us.'
We hang these tags on ourselves and accept the same mob running out each week and getting beat.
How Sticky could accept losing week after week after week and just go about trotting the same old style each week. How he could go to training after 4 consecutive losses and not shake the life out of the place.
I would have turned it upside down to ensure I got a win that next week.
I'm pushing Albert kelly, yet have hardly seen the guy play.
But I know this...
We have players in our top side who will NEVER be good enough to get a side to the semis, yet they keep getting picked.
i don't get it. Fugged if I do.
if I know something won't work - I HAVE to try something else.
Maybe it will who knows?
Scott porter? lovely bloke, but honestly..will never play semi final football as long as his arse points to the ground.
Albert Kelly won the Toyota Cup player of the year award.
Now you don't win an award like that an the back of 2 or 3 good games.
You win it because you are THE BEST player in the competition from the first round to the last.
This kid can play rugby league.
He worries defences and guides a team.
The fact we were coming 2nd to last for 2 years and ricky Stuart never even TRIED this kid at 7 blows my mind.
we didn't have to chase him or sign, steal or borrow him - he was in our club.
We just had to handle him a jersey.
If he played against the Warriors I know he would miss tackles.
I know he would be targeted.
I know he make a mistake thru overplaying his hand.
But i also know this - he would try - and DO - things that Porter can't.
And several times during the match something would click.
Why wouldn't it?
He went thru a whole yaer as the best player in the comp against his peers.
He made some howlers at fullback earlier this year under the highball, but his confidence was never dented.
When a lot of guys would have dug a hole he had the audacity to tear into chasers twice his size or try and burn chasers on the outside.
Sticky couldn't handle the fact he didn't follow the 'safety first' call and punted him.
i subscribe to the John Lang playbook.
Under Ricky stuart Chris Sandow would never see the top grade and Beau champion would never cross a tryline excpet his own to stand under the posts.
We are lucky in that we have 5 rounds to blood these guys - in games that don't matter.
They can go their hardest against seasoned first graders and win, lose or draw it's an invaluable learning curve.
Much better than waiting til trial games against half-assed competition or in games that matter in early 2011.
And, a bloke like kelly would have the opportunity to learn a few things from Barrett.
A slightly better option than say, reserve grader Wade Graham next year.
But you've been following sticky's rule for a decade now Flanno - so don't go changing the mantra....
'Don't chase the win - just pick the guys who ensure you won't get towelled up.'
You're a dickhead and you're at a club where dickheads have ruled for nearly 10 years.
And we're dickheads because we turn out each week to watch the same 17 blokes achieve the same result each week.
The Idiots Guide to Groundhog Day.
Anyway - that's my point and I've hammered it to death in this thread.
For the life of me i can't accept defeat until I've left absolutely no stone unturned, and that's what frustrates the crap out me about our coaches.
Scott Porter - I bet Ivan Cleary hasn't slept all week.
