Todd Lowrie

[Hurriflatch]

I think you'll find the problem is eela that because the club haven't been transparent with any signing news, outside of the fact they are apparently well cashed up, the signing of Todd Lowrie is a bitter disappointment. Any name we have even been remotely linked with has either re-signed or gone to another club. The juniors we would have expected to be re-signed are quite likely moving on due to many different factors. At the end of the day 2007 is looking pretty grim even for my eyes.

A bloke that has played 40 first grade games since 2003 is hardly going to be a good signing for a fan base expecting something decent from all the losses the club is enduring. Sure we have a very good core to work with. But what we have come to know from the past, just pairing these good players with what is left on the market isn't necessarily a good base from which to work from.

I know there may well be more signings coming but we have gone from a squad that won the minor premiership in 2005 to second last in 2006. The fan base expect something good to come of this season and signings of some nature would be well on the way to making it a little bit happier.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Had Parra kept the likes of Morro and Morris then the signing of Lowrie would've been very good.

but with Morris and Morro etc gone the signing of Lowrie is nothing but disapointing.

Even if Parra were going to go with an attitude of signing players who are unproven but have lots of potential and hoping they reach that then why not put more effort into re-signing Blake Green, John Williams and the like.

In saying that you can't go into a season with 17 kids as you're best sqaud you need some expeirence to balance things out.

Even if Parra lose Williams and Delaney the backline (fullback, centre, winger) is still solid and a couple of minor signings for depth (eg Seage) will be enough

the back row is Hindy and a bunch of kids or fringe 1st graders which means even more work for Hindy to do in 2007, with the loss of Morr then signing either Simpson or Stagg is a MUST.

Props like 2nd row have 1 name player in Cayless although Fui is getting their this is really the 1st year he has been fit enough and avoided suspension long enough to be considered a regular 1st grader after that there is Mick Vella who like Cayless has struggled to find his best form and then a bunch of kids and fringe 1st graders.

Halves are a big issue. Timmy is struggling for form and Parra have no 5/8.

The bench will also suffer as the domino effect takes hold from the starters leaving meaning the bench will not be as strong as many of the current bench players and the better kids coming though and now bening used as staerters meaning the 2nd tier will be used as the benchies.

 

[parra pete]

My experience of writing to the club and receiving no response is running at a 100% success rate (at least 4 occasions 2004-2006)

Parra Pete mentioned something similar recently.

It is extremely trying being an Eels fan. There are some people in charge who are pretty hard to cop IMO

My memo was to Rocket Reddy about Tana Puki..the All Blicks Under 19 fullback, who in my opinion, would be a sensational recruit..Perhaps Tana is under contract to a Super 14 Club..and would be very surprised if he wasn't. He is sensational..another Matt Bowen.

After watching Cappy McFadden in action down here last week, now he is over his injury problems, I reckon he could still play in the NRL..He is still just 28.....could be another Jasen Taylor.....

 

[wittyz chick]

Oh I agree!

I just hate when some people write off a player when they really know nothing about him.
We surely need some big name forwards to be signed, but this kid could be a big name int he making.... we just don't know!

It's so if they play sh*t they can go "I told you so" and bring this thread back to prove it and if the play well they can say "I knew he'd play well" and then hope to god this thread won't come back and bite them in the arse!!! :roll: :roll:

*walks away ... calms down ... leaves*

 

[Stagger eel]

My memo was to Rocket Reddy about Tana Puki..the All Blicks Under 19 fullback, who in my opinion, would be a sensational recruit..Perhaps Tana is under contract to a Super 14 Club..and would be very surprised if he wasn't. He is sensational..another Matt Bowen.

After watching Cappy McFadden in action down here last week, now he is over his injury problems, I reckon he could still play in the NRL..He is still just 28.....could be another Jasen Taylor.....

right there is your problem my dear friend.

 

[strider]

So why couldn't we??

Suity

most the guys we are losing are backs - we already have talent in the outside backs .... its understandable the club doesn't want to commit 3yrs to wade when we have some other good options .... and its understandable someone like williams and delaney might leave when we have others infront of them.

morris - half the arguements on here are about whether he sucks or not - I personally would have preferred he stay - but maybe if we could get a more experienced guy to go with timmy (ie scott hill) it'd work better

morrison - big big loss imo .... but he wanted to go and get the UK dollars while he could - understandable

widders - good guy, but seems teams have figured him out a bit ... dunno bit of a loss i guess

blake green - who knows? ... people seem to consider him a 1/2 more than a 5/8 .... so I guess he might want a chance elsewhere if he seems himself as a half

all in all .... i see morrison as our biggest loss .... i'd like to see 1 good quality forward signed to replace him - i think that'd give us a solid pack if players turn up to play like they did in 2005.

alot of people wanted a cleanout - well its here ... just a shame it was at a bad time to be signing new guys from elsewhere

and yeah sh*t does happen .... who would have known Russell Crowe would have taken over Souths and thrown his $$$ and stardome up for grabs on the player market 8 months ago? ... or that barrett would leave st george and give them lots of extra cash to spend? .... i think sh*t does happen - just gotta react and try and work around it

 

[eloquentEEL]

If he's been signed to "replace" any of our losses, I'd assume it is for Widders (although I was kind of hoping that Mateo might be able to step up to cover that one).

The other possibility is that one of our backrowers (eg. Robinson) will be moved to prop for 2007 (replacing Stringer) and Lowrie will be in competition with Wagon for a starting spot in the back row.

 

[The Colonel]

and yeah sh*t does happen .... who would have known Russell Crowe would have taken over Souths and thrown his $$$ and stardome up for grabs on the player market 8 months ago? ... or that barrett would leave st george and give them lots of extra cash to spend? .... i think sh*t does happen - just gotta react and try and work around it

Again it shouldn't just happen. RAHC and Crowe happened early enough for us to work around that as did Barrett signing for Wigan. The signs were always there mate. They shouldn't be reacting to what has happened, it should have been planned well in advance.

We knew who we had coming off contract. We knew how much we had to spend. We knew who the new coach was and we knew who clubs had coming off contract. We knew too much for sh*t just to happen.....

 

[yy_cheng]

most the guys we are losing are backs - we already have talent in the outside backs .... its understandable the club doesn't want to commit 3yrs to wade when we have some other good options .... and its understandable someone like williams and delaney might leave when we have others infront of them.

Agreed

morris - half the arguements on here are about whether he sucks or not - I personally would have preferred he stay - but maybe if we could get a more experienced guy to go with timmy (ie scott hill) it'd work better

blake green - who knows? ... people seem to consider him a 1/2 more than a 5/8 .... so I guess he might want a chance elsewhere if he seems himself as a half

We should've tried harder to keep 1 or the other. So hopefully Green stays.

morrison - big big loss imo .... but he wanted to go and get the UK dollars while he could - understandable

Big Loss BUT that's why I think we kept CHAD.

Now, I am not a fan of having a backrow of all workaholics. I rather one running type backrow and really hoped that Zeb could've been the man.

13. Chad/Wagon
12. Morro
11. Hindy.

It is a great Backrow but I would prefer a hard hitting runner there.

A fit Wagon should make up for the loss of Morro.

widders - good guy, but seems teams have figured him out a bit ... dunno bit of a loss i guess

I know he hasn't been setting the world on fire but in the last few games, he's changing. He passing alot more. In the Souths game, he did a step in, step out then passed to the outside. Against the Raiders, the pass to O'Dwyer which was ruled forward was good.

I think he relises that he can't dummy step dummy. The thing is, when everyone thinks he's gonna pass, he's gonna dummy step dummy and get through.

I am sad he is leaving. If he was able to slim down 10kg, he could've been our 5/8th. However, he's a bit overweight this year.

I'm glad it's souths he's going to.

 

[strider]

what forwards did people want to sign: Poore, Sims, Creagh (all stayed cos ultimately they could get their money at stg); Asotasi (good luck to him - i wouldn't want him for the amount souths paid); Myles (here's hoping we are still some vague chance); Simpson (is he really any chance of leaving newy - i doubt it)

My only beefs with how things have panned out:
- parra management wasting ANY time with JL .... altho most bitching here now were actually all for going after him again
- morrison leaving ... altho I think it was more him wanting to leave - don't want guys here who want to be elsewhere
- morris leaving without any obvious replacement ... maybe there's still hope here

Other than that, I don't think much more/different could have been done so far.

 

[parra pete]

Both McFadden (Raiders Prem Legaue coach) and Wayne Collins (assistant to Matt Elliott) have BIG wrap on Feliti Mateo. Wayne told me that Mateo is good enough for first grade, but needs to work on hit fitness...

 

[forward pass]

Why can't this club keep any of its decent players? We get rid of all the good ones or they leave.

Shifcofske, Hodgson, Tonga, Lyon, Morrison, Widders blah blah blah...

Not to mention we actually let PJ and Grothe go too. I just can't explain it when I think about the talent we have had at this club now playing elsewhere it really sh*ts me off.

Any who do we sign to replace our departing players?? Todd Lowrie ffs!!

Creagh..no, Asotasi...no, Poore...no, Pritchard...no,Hill...doubtful, Simpson....unlikely, Morley...no, Burns...no, Lyon...no, Mullen...no, Gidley...no!!

Need I go on!

 

[Suitman]

Again it shouldn't just happen. RAHC and Crowe happened early enough for us to work around that as did Barrett signing for Wigan. The signs were always there mate. They shouldn't be reacting to what has happened, it should have been planned well in advance.

We knew who we had coming off contract. We knew how much we had to spend. We knew who the new coach was and we knew who clubs had coming off contract. We knew too much for sh*t just to happen.....

Totally agree.

Are we a BIG NRL club or not???

At the moment, I'd say we are an also ran.

We are paying these people to get this sort of stuff right, not just to do their best and leave the rest of us to think sh*t happens.
With our resources, and the players we are letting go, we should be doing better than we are.

OK, so we have now put ouselves into the position that we are in.
What annoys me more than anything is that maybe a cleanout WAS warranted, but we are letting go players that have shown decent form in the past season or two, and keeping people that have consistantly shown they are not up to standard..
If a cleanout was needed, it was Vella, Wagon and Burt that should go, and McKinnon, Widders and Morris that should have been kept with the extra salary cap money we had at hand. I would feel far more enthusiastic about next year than I do now if that had happened.

Rebuilding year? - give me a f**king break.

Suity

 

[MarkInTheStands]

I am sorry but what gets me about all these comments is that everyone is so upset that Fitzy hasn't opened his gob in weeks. Yet if he did the same people would still be pissed because he would have said something that might be construed as the wrong decision.

The Question of are we acting like a big club or not is a very interesting one, and I think we might know the answer in August but for now the debate is clouded.

But, and I know we have lost 10 games this year and only won 5. There is still 9 more week minimum of Parramatta football to go on with, and it would seem that we have all be worrying about 2007 with out looking at 2006 first and I don't just mean those on this board.

Last weekends game was interesting those that knew their futures were secure had a good game , Tim, Pig, Caylo, Morro, Hayne, Wagon to a degree, O'Dwyer had a good game except for the mis-directed flick passes. Maybe we as a club and fans can look to finishing off this year first.

 

[James_Hardie]

We knew who we had coming off contract. We knew how much we had to spend. We knew who the new coach was and we knew who clubs had coming off contract. We knew too much for sh*t just to happen.....

To take that point one step further. We had like 20 odd players off contract this year. That is too many. The amount of time they would have to spend working out who they want to keep and let go, who to offer increases to and how much to increase those contracts by.... By the time they figure all that out and work out how much they have left to spend, it's to late and anyone you could spend it on is gone and you are in bidding wars paying overs for whoever is left.

 

[yy_cheng]

But they had 6 months to do all that work as they new who was worth what, etc.

 

[Suitman]

To take that point one step further. We had like 20 odd players off contract this year. That is too many. The amount of time they would have to spend working out who they want to keep and let go, who to offer increases to and how much to increase those contracts by.... By the time they figure all that out and work out how much they have left to spend, it's to late and anyone you could spend it on is gone and you are in bidding wars paying overs for whoever is left.

Ahh yes.......but sh*t happens. :roll:

Suity

 

[The Colonel]

I am sorry but what gets me about all these comments is that everyone is so upset that Fitzy hasn't opened his gob in weeks. Yet if he did the same people would still be pissed because he would have said something that might be construed as the wrong decision.

The Question of are we acting like a big club or not is a very interesting one, and I think we might know the answer in August but for now the debate is clouded.

But, and I know we have lost 10 games this year and only won 5. There is still 9 more week minimum of Parramatta football to go on with, and it would seem that we have all be worrying about 2007 with out looking at 2006 first and I don't just mean those on this board.

Last weekends game was interesting those that knew their futures were secure had a good game , Tim, Pig, Caylo, Morro, Hayne, Wagon to a degree, O'Dwyer had a good game except for the mis-directed flick passes. Maybe we as a club and fans can look to finishing off this year first.

Realistically though MITS our season is pretty much finished in 9 weeks unless by some minor miracle we make the eight. Sure the players who are here next year had good games. That is a positive. 2007, however, is looking a lot less rosier at this point in time and Fitxy and the rest of the management and coaching staff are responsible for that. Unless we have some good news in the very near future we'll be talking about 2008 at the start of next year.

By finding out in August it leaves the fans with the distinct possibility whoever we do sign is going to be what is left over from the clubs who had their act together in the first place.

Not much use having a great core group of players if the back up isn't worth a pinch of sh*t in the first place. We have been there and done that in the past......

 

[sooperdooper]

why ia everyone so cut angry etc?
its the first signing...

 

[strider]

why ia everyone so cut angry etc?
its the first signing...

 

[Suitman]

We have been there and done that in the past......

Mmmmmmm.....I think I have lost count how many times.

Suity