will we make the 8?

[Karmawave]

I tend to agree. I think we have been punching above our weight for most of the season.

We are a team made up of a bunch of individuals who are overachieving. Defying the talent they actually have. We can pretty it up all we like, but first grade discards from other teams can only play at that overachieving level for so long before the reasons they were discards come to the fore and there is a correction.

Like a stock market bubble hitting its peak, there's always the crash and market correction.

Spirit, and playing for the coach on commitment alone can only take you so far ( Just ask Brad Fittler and his Roosters )

Commitment and spirit has been high all year, and as a ' team ' of 17, we are one of the best in the competition.

There's only so far the spirit from a team of 17 can go when you have to carry the Wes Naiqama's , Keith Lulias, Marvin Karawanas of the rugby league world.

I hope its not the case, but I get the feeling that if the crash doesn't happen this year, competing with the same playing roster in 2010, a Cronulla like crash is entirely possible. Probably a more apt comparison is Canberra 2008 to 2009.

Not saying it will happen, but not confident it won't either.

 

[Jobdog]

Jesus Christ Karma ...

 

[Karmawave]

Jesus Christ Karma ...

Yes my son?

 

[Newie is God's Country]

Hadley is a fool.

He shoots his mouth off all the time and is wrong more often than not.

I am not saying he is wrong about this situation, but to throw weight behind a statement because Hadley said is like saying you know something for certain because 'you saw it on the net'.

Not disagreeing with you Pik. I was merely stateing what I have observed with Hadley over the years in general. Yes he does shoot off at the mouth at times. No arguments there. However he is no idiot either. His dislike of Brian is a bit silly really. Hence I will adopt the wait and see approach. I personally hope Hadley is wrong. Maybe I should have been more detailed in my statement. I also understand working with Brian is part of your career and I do apologise if it offended you mate.

 

[Jobdog]

Yes my son?

I think many people seem to be forgetting we're missing the likes of Tolar, Cross, Houston, Gidley, Mullen, Ciraldo and McManus to name but a few. And we have one ordinary performance like Friday night and everyone thinks the world's going to end ...

 

[Karmawave]

And we have one ordinary performance like Friday night and everyone thinks the world's going to end ...

Nah its not that at all. I've been saying the same thing for months. Nothing to do with one performance. That performance may have been a glimpse though...

 

[Jobdog]

I know I keep coming back to it, but by the sounds of it, what you're saying is that those Bulldogs and Dragons games earlier in the year were flukes were they? Yes, we did lead the Dogs 20-0 at one stage, but it's a Newcastle tradition to race out to a big lead and then hang on, or get run down. Nothing to get concerned about ;-)

And then there was that Melbourne game where we pretty much did everything right that night and deserved the two points, but a simple dropped ball from Houso (which this year have been fewer and far between than last year) gives the Storm a chance to steal victory - they didn't need to be asked twice.

 

[Karmawave]

I know I keep coming back to it, but by the sounds of it, what you're saying is that those Bulldogs and Dragons games earlier in the year were flukes were they? Yes, we did lead the Dogs 20-0 at one stage, but it's a Newcastle tradition to race out to a big lead and then hang on, or get run down. Nothing to get concerned about ;-)

And then there was that Melbourne game where we pretty much did everything right that night and deserved the two points, but a simple dropped ball from Houso (which this year have been fewer and far between than last year) gives the Storm a chance to steal victory - they didn't need to be asked twice.

Maybe we were overachieving.

We'll soon find out in a few weeks.

 

[bluesbreaker]

Most important thing is staying the f**k away from Melbourne down there, we can beat any other team, but have no chance down Melbourne in a finals game.

 

[Serc]

I think many people seem to be forgetting we're missing the likes of Tolar, Cross, Houston, Gidley, Mullen, Ciraldo and McManus to name but a few. And we have one ordinary performance like Friday night and everyone thinks the world's going to end ...

Nah its not that at all. I've been saying the same thing for months. Nothing to do with one performance. That performance may have been a glimpse though...

That longer post at the top of this page (as well as the bit quoted here) are very similar to some posts made by Karmadamus at the start of the year...but they are just leaving out some numbers from sentences that were along the lines of "I think we are a couple of injuries away from finishing below 12th" or "15th or 16th place is not out of the question" etc etc

Which is funny because if we named our top 10 players at the start of the year who are a) key players or b) first choice in such and such position we have missed many of them for large parts of the season.

Its just convenient to change the argument a little when we are carrying some more mediocre players (like every team does), a number of which had shockers on Fri night ;-) I'm not even going to touch the 'overachieving first grade rejects' argument

 

[Bring it home Knights]

Nah its not that at all. I've been saying the same thing for months. Nothing to do with one performance. That performance may have been a glimpse though...

We had to wait ages for our byes and the team was clearly highly fatigued. Rather then constantly looking for the negative, maybe start looking at more viable reasons.

 

[Jobdog]

But BIHK, they're professional footballers! They should be able to play consistently 26 weeks a year (maybe even as much as 30 weeks a year) ;-)

/sarcasm.

The fact we're one of the younger teams in the competition has nothing to do with it ...

 

[reginald.p]

Maybe we lose half our games because Brian Smith has put together a so so middle of the road team that is only capable of winning half the games they play.

Maybe every person in the media doesn't have a personal grudge against Smith maybe they just criticize him because he is not a very successful coach.

Wait i think i'm doing this wrong.

 

[perverse]

i can't believe some of the crap i'm reading here?

how many of you morons can't see the potential in houston (which he is beginning to realise already)? how many can deny what a raging success zeb taia has been? what about the transformation of richie fa'aoso? i guess de gois was a bad signing too? junior sau has already paid back his $10k a year contract (what a bloody bargain!!) and very much earned a second term (hasn't been the same since his sternum unfortunately). hell, even shannon mcdonnell turned out to be a very astute short term purchase.

it's all well and good to get up on your little soapbox and bitch about the team and what smith has put in place now that he is leaving... but can you actually back up your whinging with fact? the only reason we have a bunch of reserve grade players out there at the moment is because - SHOCK, HORROR - we have injuries in those positions. who, historically, fills in first grade when injuries happen? RESERVE GRADERS! yes, there are he duds like wes... wicks (although that's still debatable... he's had some fantastic games this year... seems to be rocks or diamonds from him), but with the number of players we have signed over the past 2-3 years you are always going to get some duds. always. it's statistically impossible not to.

*shakes head*

my god! it's ok to acknowledge SOME things karma says... but he is absolutely LOVING the fact smith has left us, because half of this forum is dropping its bundle and suddenly worshipping his opinion... and over what? 1 REALLY bad performance (yes, we got totally spanked. but hell... at least we're a team that scores 20 points when we get spanked).

wake up to yourselves. you can blame our bad performance on any number of things, but the team we have now, at full - or near full - fitness is probably 1 quality halfback and some more big game experience away from a premiership... and i don't think that it's impossible to do it without the halfback too as long as we settle on a combination that is already available to us rather than chopping and changing.

 

[Jobdog]

I don't believe the crap Karma is going on with perverse ;-)

I still maintain he has a pessimistic approach, because, well, he likes to be different.

 

[Baron Vo Mandor]

wake up to yourselves. you can blame our bad performance on any number of things, but the team we have now, at full - or near full - fitness is probably 1 quality halfback and some more big game experience away from a premiership... and i don't think that it's impossible to do it without the halfback too as long as we settle on a combination that is already available to us rather than chopping and changing.

We are missing two key players Kidley and Mullen. You could argue Houston.

Over the last 4-5 weeks we have been dreadful.

Out of our stocks, this IMO is who would make other teams 17 every week.

1. Gidley.
2. McManus.
3. McDougall.
4.
5.
6. Mullen.
7.
8. Cross.
9. Degois.
10.
11. Simpson.
12. Taia
13. Hilder.

14. Patterson.
15. Faaoso.
17. Houston.
18.

Besides that we have a bunch of fringe first graders. And like fringe first graders they can either be good or terrible.

Out of them the bolded are the only real standouts.

I am actually fearing we are in a bit of strife next year.

 

[reginald.p]

Wes Naiqama Ben Cross and Danny Wicks were meant to be our Marquee signings how can you say we recruited well? lol

Taia and Houston. yeah thats nice, thats two players out of what 15? When you have 3 million to spend on new players and Chris Houston is your best signing i would say thats pretty dissapointing. Junior Sau is ordinary and the minimum wage under the salary cap is like 60k.

Compare our signings to the bulldogs and it is embarassing.

Wayne Bennet really taught Smith a lesson about coaching this year they were a new team from round one and all his signings were a success. He didn't need 3 years to "rebuild" or say he still had a "young team blahblahblah" he just came in and got immediate and obvious results.

 

[CJG 182]

Lol Bennett pretty much had a champion team already. No point comparing the two. What a joke.

 

[Baron Vo Mandor]

Lol Bennett pretty much had a champion team already. No point comparing the two. What a joke.

Explain who was there originally to form that champion team.

 

[Serc]

Hey Baron, don't forget Taia personally I'd include House and Hilder and almost Faas as much a standouts as the two Mac's in the backline.

Also my thoughts pretty much exactly perverse, though I don't bother putting such efforts into posts like that often these days