Trial and error for Raiders

[raidersforme]

Trial and error for Raiders


By Brent Read
February 28, 2007 CANBERRA patriarch John McIntyre has reacted to his club's embarrassing trial loss in Brisbane by savaging critics and endorsing its long-term future in the nation's capital.
McIntyre, the Raiders chairman, was bitterly disappointed by the 18-12 loss to a hybrid Queensland Cup team on Saturday night.
However, he refused to concede they should be favourite for the wooden spoon, and claimed critics of the club and its officials were being disingenuous.
McIntyre, whose association with the Raiders goes back to the halcyon days of the 1980s and '90s, said the club's opening premiership game against Manly will be its most important fixture.
And he bristled at suggestions Canberra could no longer compete with clubs in recruiting talent.
"There is no problem with the long-term viability of this place," McIntyre said.
"We have such a good junior base and our financial business is probably more sound than quite a number of clubs.
"I come from the school where a good trial is one where you didn't have any injuries."
As sound as their finances are, in recent years the Raiders have battled the perception they have neither the finances nor the lifestyle to recruit top players.
At one time Canberra was home to the game's elite - Mal Meninga, Bradley Clyde and Ricky Stuart among them.
Big-name recruits have been few and far between in recent years, but McIntyre believes a new generation is emerging, chiefly in the forward pack where Michael Weyman, Neville Costigan and Dane Tilse have promise.
"For class players, it's about having a player in your team they want to play with," McIntyre said.
"That was the attraction in the late '80s and early '90s - Mal Meninga. Weyman could be the bloke they want to play with, Costigan could be the player, Dane Tilse could be."
As for the wooden spoon, only NRL rules forbidding officials betting on the game have stopped him having a dabble on Canberra to make the top eight.
Following their defeat on Saturday night, some bookmakers cut the Raiders' odds of finishing last from $4 to $2.75


http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,21298709-23214,00.html

It's about time they came out and squashed this sh!t

Canberra is one of the wealthiest club's in Junior's and Money

 

[Chachi]

Thank goodness for John McIntyre is all I can say. It's about time someone from the club came out and stated the bleeding obvious.

As far as recruiting goes, when was the last time a club bought a premiership (or their way into a grand final)? Probably only Sydney City's win in the last 20 years and even then they did it with a reasonable sprinkling of juniors.

All the successfull teams in recent memory have done well on the back of Juniors: Canterbury, Melbourne, Brisbane, St George/Illawarra, Nth Queensland, Newcastle, Parramatta and even Penrith, N.Z. and Wests have won/made grand finals or played their best with a solid foundation of juniors and rejects from other clubs.

Maybe I'm being a bit simplistic but it seems that clubs that try to buy success like Souths, Manly and even Cronulla have failed abysmally. Can we add the Gold Coast to that list? I think so, but time will tell.

You can't tell me that Manly have paid a fair price for Lyon or that Bailey went to the Gold Coast for a pat on the back and a case of VB. If the Bulldogs are stupid enough to pay $500K for SBW then good luck to them and their supporters. Asotasi is also one that cashed in big time for one great season.

We are not the only club that are forced to pay 'overs' for big names. Since the Tyran Smith fiasco I just think our management now refuses to pay ridiculous amounts for any individual. They proved that with Mogg and Choc and for once good on 'em I say.

I'm just putting that opinion out there. If anyone can refute it I'm more than happy to hear it.

 

[Chachi]

Furthermore, I was listening to John Gibbs crap on last night about how much extra we paid for Learoyd-Lahrs. Has that goose ever seen him play? I'd bet my bottom dollar that the Broncs would have loved to have kept him. Does he have any idea of the incentive based nature of his contract (as far as I understand it)?

IMO Thommy has been one of our best buys in the last decade. If injury is kind to him over the next couple of seasons I think he'll become one of the premier back rowers in the comp (which he nearly is already). I'm positive he'll more than justify being on a similar contract to the likes of Creagh and O'Donnell.

 

[Raider Azz]

gibbs is a moron. thommy is definately on an incentive-based contract, and have they forgotten how talked up he was for origin last year? NSW and QLD were fighting over him for f**k's sake! add to that the fact he was apparantely a big reason for costigan signing with us too, and learoyd-lahrs was worth every penny we paid for him.

 

[woodgers]

I've had plenty of people laugh at me when I say that TLL is a top notch player. Most non Raiders supporters have no idea who he is. I don't mind that, means he isn't targeted. And I agree with Azz as well, he's been worth every penny thus far and I don't even know what we are paying him.

We are not the only club that are forced to pay 'overs' for big names. Since the Tyran Smith fiasco I just think our management now refuses to pay ridiculous amounts for any individual. They proved that with Mogg and Choc and for once good on 'em I say.

I will also say good on them for once.

 

[dubby]

Kudos to Mcintyre to defend the club. I wish Furner and Hawkins would do the same.

 

[Boing Boing]

I'm glad they've finally come out and said something and that it was in a Sydney paper.

 

[thickos]

Well played John McIntyre. He's shown us all the way - we have to inform the uninformed in 2007. If that means via email, letters to the editor in league magazines, ringing radio shows etc then so be it.

As for TLL, definitely a great buy. The Broncos let him go I'm sure because of his continual injury cloud. Yes he is on an incentive based contract (must play 20 games a year or crack Origin to see the maximum amount per year or something like that), and I agree that when he returns (and if he lets his knee heal properly), he'll be a monster for us. Great player.

 

[Mullins_y2k]

IMO TLL has the most potential out of all our forwars miler can't be excluded either imagine if Thommo, TLL, miller and waymen were all inform at the same time OMG!!

 

[dubby]

Well played John McIntyre. He's shown us all the way - we have to inform the uninformed in 2007. If that means via email, letters to the editor in league magazines, ringing radio shows etc then so be it.

As for TLL, definitely a great buy. The Broncos let him go I'm sure because of his continual injury cloud. Yes he is on an incentive based contract (must play 20 games a year or crack Origin to see the maximum amount per year or something like that), and I agree that when he returns (and if he lets his knee heal properly), he'll be a monster for us. Great player.

Spot on mate.

He needs to play about 80% of regular season games, make SOO and some other detail to earn his full contract. It gives him plenty of reason to lift however I think it was a factor why he tried to play with a busted knee..:x

TLL will be the next Raider to play either SOO or a test IMHO.

 

[Chachi]

For what it's worth, here's an email I sent to Sportstoday:

Brandy and Gibbsy,

Thanks for putting on a great show each night, but I just want to take you to task on the hammering you've given the Raiders over the past few seasons - and particularly this year. I know neither of you invented the art of Canberra bashing, but you've certainly jumped on the bandwagon with great gusto.

Fair dinkum, the way you talk about us having to constantly pay 'overs' is just ridiculous. You carry on like we have to pay players three times what they get elsewhere to even consider coming here. Using Thom Learoyd-Lahrs as an example is simply bizarre. Thom is quickly becoming one of the premier back rowers in the comp and is currently on a heavily incentive based contract which pays according to the number of games he plays and whether he makes rep teams etc. I don't know what you think he gets paid but it's certainly nowhere near twice what a player of equal quality would get elsewhere. Our management also refused to pay 'overs' to keep the likes of Adam Mogg who tried to bump up his price from half a season of good football (after a very very ordinary 2005 IMO). We also RELEASED players like Woolford, Smith, Hodgson and Kahler because we're looking to the FUTURE. This 'exodus' is not something that our club is surprised by or unprepared for. The only two notable departures over recent years were Wiki and Schifcofski which were both underhanded hijack jobs.

Why don't you focus on those clubs that have paid 'overs' to attract the likes of Lyon, Bailey, Anasta, Kimmorley and Asotasi. Based on the results of the past few seasons these players obviously didn't move to these clubs for their premiership success or credentials. What did St George/Illawarra pay to keep Gasnier? What will the dogs fork out for Mason, O'Meley and Williams? Maybe those blokes are just playing for free so they can relax on the lovely Canterbury beaches.

Yes it might be hard to get the party boys to come to Canberra, but have either of you wandered the streets of Penrith, Newcastle, Townsville, Campelltown or South Sydney recently? Honestly, not much to write home about there. Just look at the great success of Cronulla over the last 40 years - probably the best location of any club in the comp and they're the ones with massive financial troubles and bugger all to show for it. What's going on there??

Have a look at the list of longest-serving players for a single club on page 23 of the NRL handbook. 8 of the top 84 are Canberra players - more than any other club apart from Manly. Doesn't sound like a place the boys can't wait to get out of to me.

For the record I can't wait for the season to start. There are many Canberra fans just waiting to rub many a Sydney "expert's" nose in the crap they've sprouted about us over the past few seasons.

Other than that, stick to the facts and keep up the good work.

P.S. Thanks for taking Elliott Brandy.

 

[Raider_69]

Well in McIntyre!

As thommy, let them death ride him, he knows we love him and will only make his rise all the more satasfying

 

[intheknow]

For what it's worth, here's an email I sent to Sportstoday:

I like the PS...

 

[aussies1st]

Excellent stuff from McIntyre about time someone said something positive about our club.

 

[woodgers]

Great letter Chachi.

Thats what we want. Well written, gets the point across backed up with facts and pretty much says they are talking crap without saying it.

Good work I say.